Keeping His Feet on the Ground...

Since returning in June, we've had lots and lots of emails and notes asking about Bud's recovery and progress. So many of you have been faithfully praying and we thank you all for that immensely! When we first returned in June, the pain continued to keep him awake most nights and the meds we had weren't making much of a difference, however, that has greatly subsided and we give God the glory for that. Although he has faithfully been doing his physical therapy exercises, he was seeing "piti-piti" (little) progress. Then, two weeks ago, a small four-person team came from Northern Ireland, one of whom was Julie Edler, who served here for a year as a physical therapist! About three days into her 10-day trip, we made the connections (thank you Kate Z.) and Julie began working Bud over. His comments afterward, "How can such a wee little lass make me hurt so much?!" Alas, Julie left Bud with some new exercises which he's been doing now and praise God, he is seeing definite progress AND is once again able to raise both his arms fully to the ceiling! Although his strength is not 100%, it's gaining! Praise God!

So, in a few short months when we return to Oregon for a visit, don't be surprised to see Bud standing in church services with BOTH of his hands raised praising God once again for His faithfulness in our lives.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

And just to be clear, Bud is doing great at staying off ladders. We've had a limb hanging over our tool depot for several weeks. Last Saturday we heard a guy hacking away with his machete out back in the garden area, so Bud played charades with him until they struck a bargain for the guy to trim the limb. It was well worth parking myself out on the back steps with a cool beverage just to watch this guy work. (And yes, I shared a cool beverage with the "hacker" too!) It was amazing! The whole time Bud and I were saying over and over, "Wow, how does he do that?" He even swept off the roof of the depot and was thrilled to get his $5 (yep, just a five-spot) and the biggest bonus to him, he got to chop and haul off the wood, too.

He cut notches out of the trunk as "steps" to climb up. 

Assessing the best place to start...

The leftovers afterward!

He's really up there!

That limb had been there a while and every time I opened the back door I'd think, "Ugh, how are we going to take care of this?" Not that it weighed me down all the time, but why do I always jump to the "negative" side of things instead of "taking captive every thought (or annoyance)" and give it to God first! Instead of even taking the time or energy to question God for the need, I need to trust Him immediately! I pray one day my automatic thought process will be, "Thanks God for another opportunity to see you work in my life."

2 Corinthians 10:5

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.