The Circuit Ridin’ Preacher

Who would have ever thought it?   We have exchanged roles. 

The change of roles has had some interesting effects on us.  Harriet is not liking it a bit.  She feels frustrated and almost ashamed that she cannot be the caregiver, do the ‘wifely’ things that she has done so wonderfully and joyfully for the past 46+ years.  And I would never have dreamed that I would so thoroughly enjoy cleaning, cooking and doing the laundry.  And what a privilege it is to care for my beloved sweetheart. 

I can tell when Harriet is feeling better because it bothers her for me to care for her.  She has a difficult time understanding just how much I want to help and what a privilege I consider it. 

But I think the change has been a long time in coming… may be long overdue!  She has stayed home and been both Mother and father; bookkeeper, house cleaner, laundry lady, meal planner, cook, counselor, disciplinarian, nurse, chauffer and all the tremendous work that a good Mother does to raise 3 children.  And outside our home she has been involved in a ministry of hostess, teacher and counselor while we served in the New Tribes Mission training center.  She has been involved in the local church.  She has been active in all the sports, clubs and activities of our children.  And then went back to teaching school so that we could send our daughter Kristie to a Christian high school.

And all this time I was out traveling all over the world, sharing the Gospel with the lost, recruiting missionaries to go where I could not go, preaching in great churches, teaching in Bible Colleges and trying to be an encouragement to missionaries in many different foreign mission fields. 

And Harriet felt that I was "in the ministry" and she was just "Dun’s wife".  I’m not sure I ever convinced her that I, and everyone who knew us realized that it was a team work -and she had the heaviest end of the log.  Well, I may not have convinced her but our Lord must have because she has been a willing and joyful servant in that ministry.

And my preaching to her must have had some effect on me.  Because our roles have not exactly reversed but I’ve had the high and holy privilege of having our Lord trust me with the ministry of caring for Harriet!  And I am convinced that I am "in the ministry" here as if I were preaching to 3,000 students in a Bible College!

Harriet will be going into surgery on Tuesday morning at 10 AM to have a graft implanted into her left forearm.  This will be the new access for dialysis.  It should be “mature” within about 6 weeks and the permacath can be removed from her chest.  We are trusting our Great Physician to be in complete charge while Dr. Morris practices on Harriet.

Thank You for Praying Specifically.

We got a great Christmas letter from one of our missionaries talking about a mystery.  They mentioned several mysterious things about the Christian life and especially the miraculous ways our Lord works in pioneer evangelism.  And it got Harriet and I to thinking and discussing the great mystery in our lives.

Why do so many folks write to tell us that they are praying for us in the “difficulties” and the “hardships” that we face with health problems.  Now, I’m not about to tell you that these aren’t ‘challenging’ circumstances and situations that we find to be our lot in life.  And we are more than aware that it is only our Lord’s grace in answer to many folks praying that we press on.

But we cannot comprehend, much less explain the exceeding joy and abundance of thanksgiving that is our daily life in our circumstances!  We have never enjoyed life as much as we do these days.  Sunset on the beach has never been more beautiful and sunrise even more so.  We have never enjoyed being married to each other more.  We have never enjoyed ministering together more.  We enjoy praying and reading Scripture, both together and individually more than ever.  We have continue to have so many great opportunities to share Gospel with folks in the “medical world”.  We have are blessed above measure in our church fellowship. 

We love where we live and enjoy our home, our neighborhood and our beach.  We rejoice in our children and our GRANDchildren.  We are continually amazed in seeing the way our Lord meets our needs and especially cares for Harriet.  We actually have learned to see each new medical challenge as a way our Lord is going to show Himself strong in our lives!

Explain it?  I think I can: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

Guess you can tell that I’ve been using Facebook instead of keeping this one updated.  Would like to keep up with both but. . .

Do you check Facebook?

Do you read this blog?

Since our Lord “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”, according to Ephesians 2:6, then we must continually remind ourselves to look at our earthly condition from that perspective. 

Harriet and I had to remind ourselves of that truth yesterday when she had to endure the pain as Dr. Morris’ nurse removed the staples from her arm.  Then the surgeon himself checked it and declared “I’m sorry, it just didn’t work”.  He confirmed what we had already suspected that the new fistula had clotted and was unusable and not repairable.  “How would you like me to put a graft in your left forearm?” 

That replaced some of the disappointment with an encouraging possibility.  This will give Harriet back the use of her right arm.  And “Thank you, Lord, I can wear long sleeved blouses and sweaters again!”  she smiled.  What a way to testify again to Dr. Morris, nurse Debbie and to me, just Who she is trusting as her Great Physician.

Another encouragement is that she will NOT have a undergo another surgery so soon.  We’ll have about 2 weeks to get over this ordeal before enduring the next. 

So Praise God Specifically with us and Pray Still that the permacath in her chest will continue to function adequately.  They have increased her time on the dialysis machine to 3 hours, 45 minutes.  A long time to sit, but a blessing that it is available.       

Harriet goes to get the staples removed tuesday.  They still don’t hear any life in the site but I am praying that the surgeon will have some solution rather than another surgery for inserting a tube.   I do not believe that she could face another surgery right now.  She has been in constant pain, non-stop for 2 weeks, since the last surgery.  The only time she has any relief is when she takes pain medication and that just takes the edge off of it.  It has really been wearing on her and I just pray that our Lord will give her some relief from that when they remove the staples tomorrow.

We had another one of the nephrologists in the group (Dr. Dean) check her today.  It is like having a “2^nd opinion” to me and I’m glad he came.  He said the reports about her liver came back a bit more encouraging and so we’ll wait and see if there is any change in next months tests.  They won’t do anything else about that for now.

Dr. Dean also said that they will not be able to do surgery on her arm until they are able to figure out some way to get and keep her blood pressure up.  They are going to put her on for an additional 15 minutes of treatment (total of 3:45). 

I suspect that we’ll have to go to the cardiologist about that (BP), but he has already said that they are doing all they can and he has no more ideas to try… her heart is just not pumping as strong enough.  Not the most encouraging prospect.  I sure appreciated Isaiah 40:28-29 this morning.

But I want you to know that we are having a great Christmas!  We have enjoyed shopping and going to see the lights.  We’ve had fun fixing Christmas gifts for our neighbors together… going to give them some of Harriet’s ‘nuts n bolts’, some tomato relish and pear preserves that we made… having fun with our “orange parties” and watching Christmas specials on TV.  We have a little ‘magic box’ that Santa put under our little tree and every night he has added some new little treat to it.  We enjoy our beloved church family more every day! God is just so GOOD to us and we can’t thank Him enough!