Last of Ate

Two day was the last of ate once a weak four ate weaks treatment. Aft her the treatment a CT Scan was take in. That is a diff a cult day, butt God is there four us. He in courages us and strength ins us. Watt wood we do with out Hymn? Then on Thursday we go two Cancer Care inn Winnipeg two get the test results. Know, I am knot anxious. I have piece. I have come plete piece. I no my future- heaven! I no God has my life inn His hands.
Two day went very well. Considering that I had treatment and a CT Scan, I wood say things went well. I could eat a big lunch a round to o'clock, witch did knot make me hung gary at supp her. Over all eating is still knot much of ann in joy meant.  They did ann x ray on my abdominal area, butt there was know constriction two bee scene. Wee still do know no what makes four such a chore two eat. I am thinking it is just cancer taking its toll on me.
Thursday the verdict will bee quite simple- two con tin you with treatment, oar two abort further treatment. If the latter is the case, then I have more options. Thanks two our friends in Rosenort, they have found a drug that must bee obtained by prescription sow it is a drug, knot just sum inter net stuff that has knot real lee been medically tested and tried.
Thank ewe all very much four your prayers.

One More to Go

Yesterday was by far the toughest day of treatment yet.Physically I was extremely tired. My gut ached incredibly and my back was not without pain. But as treatment went along I felt better. Dexamethasone, the wonder drug! I lost more weight, and I am losing energy. I still have a real issue with eating as my gut is so bloated that it feels like I overate on the last meal. But the doc gave me some advice, and that is helping. Praise God. Yes, it's another pill to take, but at least it helps. The last thing I expected of myself was to be a pill taker like I am now. But at least it helps.
They took some X-rays to see if there is a blockage of some type in the abdominal area that gives me that overeating feeling when I have not eaten anything.
There is one more treatment under this once a week regime. Next Tuesday I have a CT Scan and that will show what the cancer is doing. If it is stabilizing, then I think treatments will be less frequent. If the cancer is still growing, there is no more treatments the medical field has for me.
All the way my savior leads me, what have I to ask besides? Can I doubt His tender mercy He through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well, for I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.
Thanks for your ongoing prayers.

Tough Passages

There are some extremely tough passages in the Bible. Tough enough to understand that people have abandoned their faith on account of them- supposedly!

Consider Matthew 11:2-6.

John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus is out there within earshot of John. We are never told Jesus came to visit John in prison. But John is hearing of the works of Christ, and this gets his curiosity. He sends his disciples to find the answer to this question: Jesus, are You the Expected One or do we look for someone else?

What prompted this question by the greatest man born of a woman (that is how Jesus describes John)?

It may well be that John is baffled by Jesus not acting on his behalf. John stood boldly before Herod and accused him of wrong doing. It got John imprisoned. But certainly Jesus would get him a free get out of jail card, right?

Doesn’t happen!!

And John is perplexed! And John begins to doubt! And John asks, is this the One we were expecting?

His disciples go to Jesus, and the answer stings like a jagged blade of a rusty saber. Jesus rattles off a list of miracles He is doing among the people and says go and say that to John. It is almost a slap in the face to John.

Everyone is getting a miracle except me in this prison. All those wretched sinners are getting healed and cured, and here I am, a righteous man of God, in this prison. Are You really the Christ?

Can you feel it?

And then for good measure, Jesus says, “And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.”

In other words, “John, grow up. I am doing what I am doing and you may not understand why or what or whatever, but don’t let your lack of comprehension cause you to jettison your faith.”

It’s a stunning passage.

And Jesus never rescues John.
John gets his head lopped off.

That’s faith- to hold on when nothing makes any sense. That’s faith- to persevere when it makes no sense to do so. That’s faith- when all around people are prospering and here John sits in prison! That’s faith- when faith is all there is left.

Thanks for your prayers!

We continue to walk in faith!

Jesus doeth all things well!

Two More to Go!

Yesterday's treatment went quite well. It was not busy at BTHC/CC and so the process did not take long. Praise the Lord for it all being so smooth. Once we got home I even enjoyed a large, healthy supper. Eating pleasures come and go for me, so when it is a pleasure to eat then I usually try to eat well. I was quite concerned about the itch, however, as the itchy skin seemed to be coming back in the evening. I pleaded with God for a night of no itch, and eventually after watching Vancouver beat the Hawks in overtime, I finally feel asleep, AND NO ITCH! Praise Jesus!
The concern still remains with my butt/back muscle spasms. I would ask for prayer that that situation would be healed. It flares up when I sit for too long, and too long has a relative time period. I can sit best in church. Our church pews sit very comfortably- maybe I will have to get a pew into our house. Anways...
Yesterday we had a real answer to prayer. My mother-in-law (MIL) was going to join Julia and her sister from Landmark and together we would all go to Winkler. The ladies were going to visit some relatives, shop and coffee around town while I had the treatment. Well, Monday evening MIL calls and says she is not feeling good at all. We prayed God would take away her pain, and praise the Lord, Tuesday (yesterday) she felt good and had a great time in Winkler with her daughters.
Thanks to all of you for praying for us.
Thanks so very much.

The Towel

I have a wonderful friend with whom I have gone of several trucking-type bike trips. By this I mean that miles is what it was all about. Stopping at tourist attractions was not our style of touring. It was gettting here to there STP (Sooner Than Possible). And we drove, and drove and saw much ditch pass by. And trees. All a blur really. But we had fun and saw lots of country side, and the odometer turning over at a fast rpm.
The mother of all bike trips happened in January of 2005. We toured through Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay. How it began will have to be saved for another time, but let me tell you about Brian.
Brian is maeyklich (Low German for "fussy"). He would tend to favor cooked meals coming out of his house. It had to be done his way, or he would sniff at it in curious criticism. I tried to serve him tapioca pudding one time, but it was not made the way he made it so it was not applauded with unreserved delight. Brian was a tad maeyklich. Fussy. Peculiar to detail.
Which brings me to the towel incident.
This is a true story, by the way, with no exagerrations.
Where in South America we were at this time I am not sure. I think it was in Brazil, but not sure. What I am sure of is that it was around lunch time and we needed two things: a shipping department and recieving station. We found a road side diner (that's the recieving station) where we would eat, but first Brian and I had to do some shipping, or unloading (ok, have a bowel movement, for those who can't read between the lines). Brian went first. Then I went. Or at least that was my intention. What greeted me at the toilet was not making me comfortable. There was the toilet, a be-day (rear end washer unit in plain words) and a towel (it think it was blue- at least I knew I was in the boy's washroom!). No toilet paper to be seen. Just a towel hanging over the cement dividing wall of the two privacy stalls. I assessed the situation and wondered how Brian had done it. Two things I had clearly etched in my mind: the towel was not for drying hands, and that towel was not coming in contact with my anal orfice. And besides I was not  touching that towel with my hands. If there is one thing I can't stand in Canada or US is when a public facility has a towel to dry one's hands on, and here in this public toilet I was to wipe the valley between my two butt cheeks with this public towel? Not in a million years! Not for the love of a woman! Not for anything was I to risk contracting feces-activated-rare-terminal-sicknesses- FARTS for short! I could imagine all the rectums this towel had met on a personal basis and mine was not signing that service record. I went back to the diner still needing very much to accomplish this shipping order. I asked Brian what he had done. Well, remember, this is fussy Brian! There is no way I thought he would have employed that towel to clean his rectal area. Yet I had not seen him retreat to get some tissue, and I for sure did not think he would not wipe, and I did not see a pair of Fruit of the Looms anywhere which meant he had decided to drive commando style, and there was not old Sears catalog in sight either. So I went to him to retrieve his method of finishing the job. Well, he had used the car wash to clean off his rear, and then yes he had taken the towel and dried off. Unbelievable! He said he had looked for a clean spot of the towel and used that area. Brian, it may have looked clean, but did it ever occur to you that it has just dried? How many paramecium, and other microscopic parasites were not just waiting for another victim to invade his privates? I could not believe Brian had done that. His butt was now listed as one of the who-knows-how-many-other-butts that had used that towel- which was, might I remind you- still prodominately blue. Folks, I was not going to do that. I find it traumatic to have to wipe my hands with a public towel, how was I going to use public toilet towels for wiping my precious dear rear. I grabbed a big hand full of those light weight table napkins from the diner and proceeded to the toilet, dropped what needed to be, and then using virgin paper I cleaned up the way it was meant to be. To theis day I still cannot believe dear buddy Brian used that towel for wiping his colon exit portal. More power to you, Brian.
Remember, Brian, there is a comment section on this blog that enables you to reply and get me back. Go for it. I look forward to it.
Thanks for not throwing in the towel, Brian.

Scripture and the Resurrection of Jesus

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!!

If you were Jesus, how would you go about proving your resurrection? Today is Easter Sunday. Would you simply come into the presence of the people and declare, “Here I am! I have risen from the dead!” This would be the more empirical approach: the appeal to the five senses! Well, He tried that, but they would not believe the report others were bringing to them (Mark 16:14).

Luke 24 is an interesting chapter on Jesus’ way of proving, or substantiating, or showing Himself to be the risen Lord Who was crucified a few days ago. When Jesus travels down the Emmaus road with those two people, He is asked if He is not the only One Who has not heard what has lately happened in Jerusalem- namely, the crucifixion of Jesus! What bothers these two persons is that the body of Jesus is missing, and they cannot explain it. Jesus could have made short work of it all by simply saying, “Look, here I am. See my hands, see my side. It is I.” But He does not do that!! Jesus uses Scripture to prove His resurrection!
Let that sink in for a while, dear reader. He uses Scripture which for these folks is the Old Testament. Imagine that! Rather than showing Himself, which He does later, He resorts to the ultimate authority- the word of God, the Scriptures. This for me shows that Scripture carries greater weight for the proof of Jesus’ resurrection than His own body which appeals to the empirical proof so many of us would choose over the metaphysical proof of Scripture. We would tend to say, “Who can argue against His resurrection when we have seen His resurrected body?” Jesus seems to be saying, “Who cannot help but believe I have risen because of what the Scriptures say?!”

Later on in Luke 24:36-46 Jesus, when with His disciples, uses both the empirical approach and the more metaphysical, or faith based approach as per the appeal to Scriptures. Jesus has a very, very elevated view of Scripture. For Him I believe Scripture has even more authority than what is gained through empirical means. What we attain through the senses needs interpretation. And we can interpret experiences in very erroneous ways. Scriptures clarify our experiences, and Scriptures for Jesus clarified His resurrection.

John 20:29 is the real thrust of this writing. It’s all about the Scriptures. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe. The only way you and I can believe today is through our faith in the written word- Scripture! It trumps experience.

Today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection not because we have seen Him with our eyes, but because of what the Scriptures say. And that is exactly where Jesus, I believe, wants us to be at- believe because of the word of God.

He is risen!
He is risen indeed!

A Miracle at Gravel Road Church

Yesterday was Good Friday. Those who attended the Pleasant Valley Good Friday service yesterday, April 22, witnessed a miracle. And the recipient was me. Sermon prep involves, for my style of prep anyhow, working on the computer writing down the sermon notes. It involves sitting. I cannot specifically recall when the pain started, but it was somewhat present on Monday of this week, cause I recall wondering how I was going to make it through chemo sitting for that length of time. By Wednesday I knew I needed help. So I called Kim Siemens for a massage appointment. She did stretch out my back nicely, but it was not the ticket yet. On Wednesday I planted myself in front of the computer and sat for a long time working on the prep. I said people are praying, and so I am going to sit and work. God will take care of the pain. By 5:00 pm Wednesday I was in mortal pain, incredible pain. I could not stand, sit, kneel or walk. I managed to get up the stairs and I lay on the hard floor. That was the only way to get relief. I thought there is no way I can stand up in front of the church like this on Friday and preach. Then I called Kaylee, my niece-in-law if she could work on my butt. That is where the pain was and I needed someone who was not ashamed to work on my butt. She said she had seen a lot of butts, and she did not mind coming to help me. She also did a wonderful job, but the pain did not leave- it certainly was less. Still, I could not sit. Thursday came around and with lots of prep left, I sat, knelt, stood, squatted, bent, leaned, and crouched in front of the computer to change my position often and regularly. It did not work. My butt muscle tightened up, and pain sheared through my butt and lower back like a bolt of electricity. And Friday morning was approaching. Friday morning I got up early and worked on the final prep. Again my back and butt just would not cooperate. With mere hours before I was to preach, I wondered how this was all going to pan out. Julia started texting people asking for prayer. We prayed. I called my sister-in-law to bring pills for me to church. (Too bad Melvin does not attend our church, since then I would have called him for more pills.) We got to church, and I had visions of how this was going to look. With laying on a hard floor as my only relief from the pain, Julia wondered if I should preach laying on my back in front of the congregation. I found I could sit in church. That was OK. When it came to preaching (and I went overtime by 10 minutes of so) I found that my back was tightening up a bit as I preached, but I could walk, stand and move about without pain. THAT WAS A MIRACLE SINCE THERE IS NO WAY I COULD HAVE DONE THAT ON THURSDAY OR WEDNESDAY. After Church, we had a Friesen Family gathering, and again I could sit, stand and walk without any pain.I found it very strange that as soon as I was done preaching, the pain issue was also done. That is really interesting.
Thanks for all who prayed for me and Julia. Good Friday was truly a miracle day for me and Julia. Thank God for His answered prayer. Thank God also that the itch is not nearly as bad as it was some days ago. I would say now that itch is not really an issue any more. And with that comes the ability to sleep. I am very grateful for that. Thanks be to God.
And thanks  for your prayers.
Thank-you all very much!
If you are interested in the sermon, I have it posted under "Deeper Readings" section on the blog home page. It's called "the Shame of the Cross."