Along The Way (18/Nov/2005)

Friday... It's been a few weeks now of hospital waiting rooms. First my brother's surgery, then Shari's, and yesterday Emily's. In order: Dave continues to do very well. He ran a little bit of a fever early in the week which his doctors went after with antibiotics. Those kinds of things are cause for alarm with a transplant patient, but the medicines seemed to do the trick. His test results continue to be very good. Scott, his donor and son-in-law, is just about back to normal. Shari's sinus surgery last Friday went well, but the recovery period isn't very pleasant. Discomfort and the continual feeling of being stuffy have her pretty miserable, though the doctors do say it will begin to improve. Emily had surgery to remove a little cyst next to her ear. She was the bravest of all patients (and braver than her dad!). She never shed so much as one tear. Her surgery was yesterday morning and by evening you'd have never known she had it. Lord willing, we're done with surgical procedures for a bit. Thank you for all of your prayers on my family's behalf.

I learned at the beginning of the week that I will be speaking to the men gathered for the men's breakfast tomorrow morning. Our speaker Jerry Kirk will not be making the trip from CA. I'm wrestling with whether to pick up the topic he was planning to share or to go a different direction all together. The jury is still out on that one.

We're also planning the informational meeting concerning next summer's Namibia trip for this Sunday after the second worship service. Some people have asked why we're starting earlier this time than we did in 2002 or 2004. The simple answer is that we hope, by starting earlier, we may be able to seize a sizable savings on our airfare, which is the lion's share of the trip cost. So, if you have any interest in even thinking about going to Namibia next summer, I hope you will plan to stay after that second service for a brief information sharing meeting.