Pressing onward

After 12 days straight of working at 7:00 every morning, Bob is getting his needed rest! In ICU. They have given him several units of blood for a small duodenal ulcer which happens to have a blood vessel right next to it.

The folks at River Oaks are great. We get to go in often to be with him, though the visiting hours are supposed to be 5 minutes every 2 daytime hours. Other than a tad tired, we are fine.

And, oh, joy! Maggie got home safe and sound from South Africa last evening!!! After 30 hours of travel, she was awake and excited enough to tell how she got baptized and to open her suitcase to share her gifts: a little wooden drum, a long black cord of African licorice, South African boxing gloves for James, a safari hat, marimba music, and tons of pictures!

Rather than staying on as she had wished at first, she listened to God, who knows all things, and came on home. Now that she is here, she sees why for the present He had her leave her beloved boys in the squatter camps.

Once she gets over jet lag, she'll be just in time to get in on the action and be a great help at home. Soon she will start her job at Beth Israel daycare. Thank you very, very much to those of you who supported her with you prayers and money.

We pray our Heavenly Father will direct you all and us with our activities this school year - studies, sports, some little after school jobs for the boys, Bob's health and work (or retirement!) schedule, etc, etc.

Our God is a Wonderful Counsellor and Good Shepherd, and we trust Him!

Hospital again

Today the boys and I wheeled Bob to the car on his desk chair and drove to the Emergency Room. It turns out he has a duodenal ulcer, probably casued by the heart medicine he takes. He received 2 units of blood red cells and looks much ruddier! At present he is in ICU while they observe him lest the cauterized ulcer erupt again. He should be fine in a day or two, we expect.

Thanks for the prayers. It is good to not be alone.

We have cancelled all the flights for our excursion north. Rob got as far as Detroit and then stayed on with his sister there. We are so very disappointed things did not turn out for the cousins' reunion, but are trusting God. Rob is glad for a day or two with Emily and Chad. Soon he will return home.

Speaking of returning, this means that we shall be in town to pick up Maggie from the airport Saturday afternoon! Happy Day!

Peter's comments about things in general: "Mom, we don't know everything, but God does." And James', "Mom, remember that all things work togedder for good for God's people."

Halpert Hodgepodge

A quickie hodgepodge of stuff that is happening at our house.

Rob is out at a Grade 10 class get together this evening, so the younger boys are getting Dad to themselves. For the past hour Bob has been sitting answering their questions. They have run the gammit from Civil War slavery, to the government use of toll roads amd if private citizens could put up toll roads through their property; how there is no such thing as and Afghanistan army; why the Japanese fighter planes were not as good as American planes; how large the Biblical Holy Land really is; the terrorists and their money; how Russia has suffered from terrorists and how in the long run maybe Russia will begin to trust the US. And on and on.

The converstion just concluded with Bob explaining that, despite all the things happening in our world, the boys are not to fear. That God is in control of the affairs of men and He will care for His people and work out His will and purposes. James is good with that.

I am here at the computer because I just have to report this delightful bonding of two intelligent minds. I am sure Peter's intellect would be in there too, but his head slowly sank back to the couch and he began softly snoring some time ago.

Peter has good questions too. Before he fell asleep, it was he who asked the one about the toll roads, but his strong point is inventing things. This evening he called me into the darkened stairwell to see how he had put together a projector. A light shone through a toy telescope onto the wall from a battery powered source through a plastic sheet with a picture of stick figures, while a tiny toy cell phone played a short message recorded from a cassette tape story of a Hardy Boys mystery!

Our precious Maggie called a couple days ago. She has given much consideration and prayer to her desire to stay on in Africa. She has decided to come back to work at her childcare job at the local synagogue. She will continue seeking for God's will regarding if/when/where she will go next. Thank you all for your prayers for this dear young woman.

She will return this Saturday as the boys and I fly north to the Salvation Army Camp on Ontario's Lake Simcoe for a cousins' reunion. There should be about 20 kids there for our three to swim and play with all week. These will include three Romanian adopted siblings who will hook up with our Ukrainians. It promises to be very relaxing few days as the kids will be free and the adults can sleep, read, knit, play cards, or talk. I hear the kids do show up for meals and at night!

Yesterday afternoon we had a call from Chris, the son of our dear friends from the Chicago area. Our families have spent Bible conference week together each summer for many years. Chris arrived with all his earthly belongings in his car, for a wonderful evening and slept over. This morning we sent him off with a blow up matteress and best wishes as he movies into his new apartment in Jackson. He will be teaching French in the public schools - felt the call to dive into an area which recently has been declared a state of emergency. Poor Jackson! God help us and send healing and salvation, the only hope for our citizens.

Peter's Scary Thing

Peter writes;

Yesterday I had surgery on my baby and ring fingers on my right hand. The man who was helping out the doctor was from next door! He put me to sleep. When the doctor stitched me he went zig zag down my finger and cut in three different places, above the knuckle, below the knuckle almost all the way down to the last knuckle my finger. He also cut across, looking for the tendons and nerves. He found them and put them together using a microscope. It is all thanks to my mom bcause she was praying for me and lots of people prayed for me and God helped me.
THE END

Eyes, ears and hands for Jesus

Today is Bob's 10th straight day on the work schedule. I am amazed he is singing as he makes his coffee.

While Rob and James prepare for a garage sale to raise money for Maggie, who wants to stay on in Africa, Peter and I head for surgery to repair some tendons in his right hand, which he cut. He switched a kitchen knife to the straight up and down position, stuck the meat hard with it, and his hand slid down.

He has been busy. Yesterday he had a CT scan to see what is behind his left ear atresia. The doctor says it is good when one can hear from both sides. It help us process sounds and their origins and could help Peter with friendships. So we have three options for hearing in that ear.

One is a contraption that straps around his head, catching sound on the bad side and transmitting it to his good ear. The next, better for an active boy, is a "Baha" device, where a screw is placed into the bone behind his ear, and a little box attaches to it, which does the transmitting. Interesting, a little box attached to your head! James offered to help the doctor place the screw.

The third option is surgery to form an ear canal. First he needs (and had yesterday) the CT scan to discover what is in there to work with. Apparently the nerve is intact, so he is not a candidate for cochlear implant, but the doctor will let us know what IS in there.

He says that if he ever wants to have a new ear made, it must be done first. The construction of a left ear exactly to match his right ear,(well, not exactly, as James points out, or the new one would face backwards!!) would require plenty of good, untouched, not scarred, stretchy, skin tissue. That surgery would likely be done at the Plastics Clinic in Atlanta.

The doctor, a kind man, comes highly recommended to me by numerous people. He's happy and breezy about all of these options, but as they say, "all of this costs money."

As I was pausing at the computer and praying about directing some money towards our own particular ministry, ie, Peter, up popped the screen saver James and Rob had set up for me.

A pretty pink background lit up, and the words in dark blue scrolled across the screen in front of me, "INASMUCH AS YOU HAVE DONE IT TO THE LEAST OF THESE, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME."

So... I guess it's like Jesus is having surgery on His right hand all afternoon today, so everything should be just fine.

Read this aloud and smile

Psalm 62
To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
2 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.

5 My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
7 In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah


11 God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God.
12 Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You render to each one according to his work.

The Great Flood of Noah!

The drive southward down Ontario's Highway 400 through the rocky Canadian Shield offered us a beautiful opportunity of seeing for ourselves, some magnificent evidence for Noah's flood.

As the road construction crews carried out their blasting through the hillsides, opening up the roads, they left huge boulders and bared enormous walls of rock, which now rise high on both sides of the highway, revealing world history in their stratus.

Grabbing for the camera, Rob and I took turns snapping photos. A few days before, our small shovels had sliced through wet sand at the beachside, revealing on a tiny scale, the dark and light layers which the waves of Georgian Bay had brought in for our enjoyment. So this day we observed how, many years ago, giant waves of muddy water had washed across Canada and laid down huge layers of sediment.

Great, dark, terrible surges must have convulsed this planet, rolling back and forth, throwing down minerals of all types, clay and sand in alternating layers. As 'the windows of heaven were opened, so also 'the fountains of the deep burst forth.'

In places there were ripples in the deliberate order. Clearly there had been a great upheaval of the layers, a shoving from beneath by some enormous force, making the stripes lurch and roll. Occasionally the great ripples were even scrambled and messed. Perhaps just as they were getting settled, one last great hiccough jerked the layers and jumbled the design.

I wondered how many travelers with us along the same highway stopped in awe to think they were witnessing the after effects of the most cataclysmic and chaotic event on planet earth since Creation.

Praise God for His huge power and greatness. "The firmament showeth His handiwork."

Small Blessing

Before I forget the sweetness of God in yet another way, while we were at the cottage, Magdalene's son, a master carpenter, visited and built a stairway and series of decks, so she could traverse the rocks down to the water's edge more easily.

One morning our Peter went over and stood watching him. Before I knew it, Magdalene's Peter had our boy fetching tools, and by the time we left, he was drilling into rock, and cutting with a jigsaw. We have a picture of the set of stairs they two had completed, artistically tucked into the rocky side of the cottage.

"True North Strong and Free"

Thank you kindly, if it was you who was praying for us en route up north and back! It was so obvious. The entire trip was lovely.

We first headed east and then north, straight into New York State, to Erie and east to Buffalo before entering the Niagara Falls area and taking a motel in the little town of Chippawa.

In that motel parking lot we met a couple, Jay and Phyllis Fry. Jay was an NFL football coach for over 30 years. The boys were impressed by this big loving, football guy. He gave them tee shirts that say, "Thank you, Jesus," and we all prayed and blessed each other there outside our motel rooms. From there we visited the American side of the Falls.

Wow, if the crystal, green water cascading over that enormous cliff could be compared to the love of God, as Jay suggested, it is no wonder God has enough to go around for all of us who want it. Peter asked the question, "Where is it all coming from, and won't that place get empty?" Amazingly, as with God's love, the answer is no, it won't ever run dry!

After a day there visiting the tower and the "Journey Under the Falls," we drove north into Ontario and up to Georgian Bay district to our dear friends in Woodland Beach.

Everything looked as we remembered it - their cozy woodlands house a block from the beach, the sand and the horizon and the stony outcropping, the blue skies over the Bay, the wind in the beach grass, all there waiting for us.

What a treat being with Carolyn and Laurie again, just lazing there on the beach talking, the kids digging endless pits in the sand to bury one another, and tunnels into the sides of the dunes.

I am convinced one should always try to live near water. In fact, country skies are very healing, and can blow fresh air through the city thoughts that can confuse and overwhelm a person, keeping us from being whole and hearing from Jesus.

We stayed two days, and after church Sunday, drove up to the cottage we had rented next door to my dad and Magdalene near Perry Sound, right up in the Cambrian Shield or Great Canadian Shield, the enormous shelf of rock 90 miles deep, which circles Hudson Bay.

Across from our cottage on Lake Shebeshekong, the crown land with its rocky, wooded shoreline rises from the glassy water's edge up to touch the blue clear skies of northern Ontario. Sigh, it was a dream come true from my days as a child in Muskoka Lakes cottage country.

The boys each had a kayak, and Carolyn and Laurie came up to join us for a night, bringing their canoe. On top of all this, right next door was Dad/Grandpa and dear Magdalene/Oma, like a mother with her advice, warmth, and library of Andrew Murray books.

That week we celebrated Peter's 13th birthday, cooked clam chowder from clams James and Rob collected, leapt into the lake from high off Elephant Rock, were amazed by one breathtaking sunset after another, and stared into the heavens to see a satellite cross the moon, and heard the loon call its lonely cry across the evening waters.

After several days, sad, but excited to see our new baby in Rochester, we packed the car and headed southward to Michigan.

You and Your Children

"He will bless them that fear the Lord, both great and small. The Lord will increase you more and more, you and your children." Psalm 115:13,14

This morning we are leaving Marnie and Ed's place in Canada, and after an absolutely wonderful vacation, we are heading back home. We stopped at four different places, spent time with our grown children, old friends and met a ton of second cousins our kids' age. God has really blessed us.

More later after our two day drive home.

God is so good!