GroshLink

The other day, I came across this quote from In Sickness  and it reminded me of Scott Fleming's reflections regarding his daughter's health, see http://foranna.wordpress.com/, and I posted them as an encouragement:

All of which is to say that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is mysterious. Jesus can heal every disease. Jesus often does heal our diseases. And even when he doesn’t heal them in ways that we envision, as was the case with the death of Lazarus, even when our loved one dies in spite of our prayers, Jesus can heal even through death. Martin Luther said a challenging and helpful thing about the mystery of prayers for healing. ‘When we try to dictate to God the time, place, and manner for him to act, we are testing him…. It’s nothing less than trying to deprive God of his divinity. But we must realize that God is free — not subject to any limitations. He must dictate to us the place, manner and time.

Please take some time today to join me in lifting up Anna Fleming and others whom you know which are facing difficult health issues.  Pray for the tangibleness of Father's healing presence through Word, Spirit, the People of God, and His work through the common grace of the medical profession. Pray that our wills might be submitted to his way and our eyes opened to His works of grace which surround us as we walk through this broken world.

Yes, there is a lot of work and play at our new house.  Last Friday was filled with emailing (I'm not even close to the death stage as described by Nora Ephron in The Six Stages of E-Mail) and phoning for IVCF . . . and Monday was more of the same with Tuesday looking like still more before I hit the road for Engaging the University: Student Mission and the Christian Mind at Tyndale Seminary, Toronto.  Meanwhile 3 boys and 3 girls spin around and there's plenty of wiffleball, hoops, and biking to go around.

On Saturday, some other entertainment things crept into my life along with the responsibility of watching Eden when Theresa took Hayley and Ellen to Governor Dick (and saw the trees flutter w/gypsy moths), Dinosaur Rock, and the Jigger Shop with Karen and her boys. But a batting cage in the house for Angel outfielder Reggie Willits, with wife and young child, seems a little over the top. But maybe that's not much different than a home business where you go out on consignment.  And I guess a that could be quite fun as a kid, and soon it will be in the backyard to the new house.  It will take quite awhile for my operation to take over the house, although the library keeps expanding and searching for new places to rest its growing volumes.

We realize it's been way too long since we posted any updates on Eden, so here's our attempt to capsulize the last 6 weeks.  I'll make separate posts to make it more manageable to read.  This post explains where she's at with her various therapies. 

In June Eden went through her annual evaluations from all of her therapists (physical, occupational, and speech).  Some things pleasantly surprised us (or gave confirmation to our suspicions) and some things were not surprising . . .

While chatting about Western trips and the Mets visit to Philadelphia, Fans For Change and family friendly baseball outings became the subject of conversation at Tom's family's Fourth of July celebration. One has to say, it took awhile to be convinced of the Pirates' heritage and the value of cheering for them, but our 15 years in Western PA did not witness a positive organizational direction. Yes, social games and give-aways did get us out to both Three Rivers and then PNC Park, but it was hard to be a fan, unless one was rooting for the other team (apologizes to the few friends who might be die-hard fans).

Will we see more intentional walk-outs? Hard to do when the Pirates are actually winning a game, something one would want to stay and see, unless one is so upset with management and/or convinced that the Pirates won't close the game. So a bold move by the estimated 1,000 fans, but we voted by not buying the tickets. And it would be quite a road trip for us at this time (and we're not big on the Phillies or Orioles).  Maybe I've lost my interest in MLB, but we could try some minor league ball with the Lancaster Barnstormers or Harrisburg Senators (in whose stadium some of our relatives have camped out in the out-field in tents without stakes -- hard to imagine over 1000 in the outfield for such an event). I'll try to teach the girls to love playing wiffleball with their cousins and watching baseball with an eye for the game. Let's play ball, later in the day. Take me out to the ballgame, maybe later in the season or even next year.

Check out this post-Urbana interview with Ovey Okara, a Nigerian who began work in January 2006 on a PhD degree in molecular cell biology at the University of Texas at Dallas.  Here's a sample q&a to get your interest: You are trying to put together the medical side of your studies in biology with the spiritual side of your faith. This is beautiful. Do you want to say more about how these two fit together?

Because of my interest in evangelism, I may go to take a two-year course in nursing. So after my PhD in molecular cell biology and after studies in nursing, I may be able to reach out to people with health needs. I would like to help to open a small hospital for people who cannot afford medical care. And I want to minister Christ to them.