An Unexpected Trip

Another catching up is our wonderful trip to Washington State. We had received a much bigger tax return than we expected and after much prayer we used part of it to buy tickets to fly home to Washington, mostly to see my dad who has been very ill but also to see friends and family.

Brenna says "Hi" to the sweetest cat in the world, my sister
Alea's cat Sammy. What a funny cat, loves his armpits
scractched.

After we got the tickets Joe’s health took a sharp downward turn. What with excessive bleeding from his bladder cancer, heart attacks, blood transfusions and a procedure to burn down the tumors a bit we did not think we would be able to go. However, Joe suddenly got a bit better so, Praise the Lord, at the last minute we were able to go after all!!!!!

For the bulk of our time in Washington we stayed at my parents house on the Olympic Peninsula. They live on the hill above Manchester looking out toward Seattle there in the distance. Beautiful

My brothers Jim and Jef came to see us while we were there. Jef came up from West Linn, just south of Portland for a weekend. What a great surprise. My brother Jim, his fiance and three kids came from South Dakota. Well, I don't think they came JUST to see us but it was great timing :-).

Jim and Melissa just had a little boy, Max two weeks before. . . . . . . . As the baby was getting gifts Jef thought the girls would like something also.

Joe is sitting next to my baby brother Jim who is sitting next
to my brother Jef who is holding Jims oldest Modesty.

[below] Arn't these just the greatest purses for little girls????!!!! Jef's wife Heather found these for them. They just loved them.

Kimber and Modesty model their doggy purses

Catching up with myself

It has been forever since I have updated this. My only excuse is being overwhelmed. This blog post is intended to be a summery to bring us up to date. Most of this has been sent out in our newsletters.

This has been a crazy year. On the missions front Molly, my partner in graphics got pregnant at the beginning of this year. She was put on bed rest in January and we haven’t seen her since. She successfully had an adorable son, Sammy. She will be back to work after he is in school. This is wonderful for her but leaves me doing the bulk of the design work at TECH. I am learning a lot about RESTING in God’s strength, flying in His strength. Pinions are my friend. (Isaiah 40.28-31, from the Message) 

Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?

God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.

He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

And he knows everything, inside and out.

He energizes those who get tired,

gives fresh strength to dropouts.

For even young people tire and drop out,

young folk in their prime stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.

They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired,

they walk and don’t lag behind.

God has been gracious and I have just been able to keep right behind the curve of the work to be done… even though the work has been gradually increasing. I know that this is God giving me the ability to be not only creative, but faster. Here are some of the jobs I have done this year…

On the health front Joe has had to date 5 heart attacks and two other stays in the hospital since the first of the year. One was to burn down or “resect” the tumors in his bladder. This was in June. The doctors all figured that he would be in step down or ICU if he survived it because his heart is so week. Much to everyone’s delight he came through great and went home the next day. They were able to stop the bleeding and burn the tumors (which have grown back very aggressively since his radiation in November of last year) down a bit and finally get a biopsy. The biopsy showed high grade aggressive cancer (which we knew) but not muscle invasive, and not metastasized. Praise the Lord!

The most recent was this past week. He has been bleeding from his bladder cancer again, forcing the huge blood clots out when he pees and being low on blood has been what has brought on a lot of the incidents. For Joe…and us, this has been an ongoing lesson in trust… daily. He is still hanging with Ps 46.10. Be still and know that I am God. One of the biggest things God has said to me is that I do not trust, I walk in fear, because I don’t truly KNOW Him…who He is…His attributes, His power, His tender love. If I did, I would not be afraid, I would not doubt. We have been learning this year about the tenderness of God towards us.  One of our biggest verses as a family has been Zephaniah 2:17 “For the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song.”

On the Brenna front, she has had an enormous amount of growth this year, which of course goes without saying, that it has been a difficult year for her. As she continues to heal from the hurts from her past a beautiful young woman is emerging. It has been confirmed to hear heart that her calling and her gifting is with children. She has been working a lot with the children at both of our churches, especially Northwood. This summer she spent a lot of time taking care of Joe and doing volunteer work at TECH in all the departments, Administration, graphics, facilities Planning and Mechanics. She hopes to continue with training with Dan Larson, our part time mechanic this fall. Mechanics is one of her interests and a skill set she needs for the mission field.

I am going to stop this catch up blog here and break our further news up into other blog sets.

Thank you again for love and prayers and love and prayers…..and all your support

Teri