Month: February 2013

  • Honduras

    This past week, I returned from a 10 day trip to Honduras, with Global Health Outreach (GHO).  What a trip, with so many good memories. We were a group of unrelated people, and by the end of 10 days, it seemed like everyone was one big family.  It is not often that sort of thing happens on a short mission trip.  What a beautiful country, and although the work was difficult, we stayed at almost luxurious settings at El Sembrador, in Catacamas, Honduras.  That is a boys home and school that was established in Honduras way back in the 50s by the work of a farm family from Ohio.  Quite a story.  Here are some of the pictures from that time

    Here I am with several of the children at La Libertad, a village out in the middle of the mountains.  The journey there was quite winding, and up and down.  Not a journey for the fainthearted

    Scenery that seemed to be in every direction.  This photo was taken by Kristen Fischetti,

     

    Another of Kristen’s gorgeous photos.  How can 2 people take pictures of the same thing, and yet have such different results?

    The chapel at El Sembrador.  

    Here is David Sim, after a long day of dentistry, and his beautiful daughter, Andrea.  She was able to relate very well to our translators, all of them about 14 years old.

     

    Here is Jamie Duck, a physician’s assistant from Ohio.                                              Jeanette Cooper, an RN who works in Dr. David Byler’s office

     

    This happens to be the (no) tread of the tire on the bus that we rode.  I think if 

    you have to choose between brakes or tires on those roads, i would choose brakes

     

    How can one family have so many good looking people?  One of the families I treated in El Sembrador.

    Another photo of Andrea                                                                                          And here is David again, with Dr. David Byler, the leader of our group.

    Joe and Kristen Fischetti–studying their Spanish New Testament.  She is the photographer

    Fernando Ascencio, a dentist as well, who was a great addition to our team, since he had such a heart for the people, and spoke impeccable Spanish

    Luigi, our inimitable pharmacist.  What a heart for the Lord!

    A house call to see this disabled 21 year old.                  Another interaction with a patient, although I can’t see what I have in my hand

    Here is not the best picture of Jewel, David’s very capable wife, and David again                                 Jim Weber, a great friend who was translating and logistics

    Our home away from home, the conference center at El Sembrador

    Many stories that came out of that time.  I need to catalog all of that.  I hope and pray that the work we did will continue to bear fruit.  Although the medical work was important, the most important is that at least 11 people came to know the Lord during the week, and many rededications as well to the Lord

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Renewing HOPE

    This past week, I participated in a seminar in Alabama prisons sponsored by the WE CARE prison organization.  It was called Renew Hope, and it truly was a great week.  I got to meet a lot of very dedicated Christians from all denominations and backgrounds, both in and out of prison.  Sunday, we spent a day in Montgomery, AL. in orientation for the week ahead.  Since the theme was Renew Hope, they asked people to speak who had found a reason to hope in the midst of some defining moment of choosing hope.  They asked me to speak of the experience our family had in losing Dawn.  So before I give a report on the week, I will give here a copy of my talk that day…

    Here it is in its unedited form..

    Woodpeckers don’t care. Woodpeckers don’t care that the dead limb in which they built their nest in was caused by a lightning strike at our home almost 4 years ago. They don’t care that in one instant, that same lightning strike killed my wife, Dawn, and turned my world upside down. They don’t care that our family has had to struggle on without the one who held us together as a family, the one whose love was freely given to all that knew her. They only know that this limb is dead, and that it is a nice safe place for them to raise a family of nestlings.   Many times, over the past 3 ½ years, I too have wished for that same kind of security, a safe haven to return to, a place of rest.


    The morning of Monday, July 6th, 2009 was similar to most mornings. My wife Dawn had gotten up at 5:30 to go walking in the park with a friend, something she did Monday through Friday on a regular basis. We had just been reunited 3 days before, after she had spent a delightful week with her parents in Mississippi. As I recall, that was the very first time that she had done that in our married life, visiting her parents for a week without me, and enjoying time back in her parents home. I had carelessly made the remark to her when she came back that I don’t do very well as a bachelor, as I had spent the time that week alone. The children had all gone to various activities as well that week before. Our 2nd daughter Amber was in Thailand, with a Campus Outreach mission for the summer, Son Stephen and other daughter Kristin were at a camp in Mississippi helping out on staff, and oldest son Robert was in Montgomery with a summer mission project as well. After getting back to the house, we drank our coffee together, as we did most mornings, and talked, and had our devotions together. Nothing much different than usual. Before leaving for work, I had checked the radar, and noticed to my relief that there was a line of thunderstorms heading our direction, which would be welcome, as we had not had rain in 6 weeks or so.


    After making my rounds at the hospital, I thought about driving my vehicle to the office across the street, but the weather was not at that point threatening, and so I walked across the parking lot and began my morning work. About 15 minutes after getting in the office, there was a loud crack of thunder, and the electricity in the office flickered, but did not go out.  My feeling was of annoyance, then, because I thought we would lose the internet, but it kept functioning. About 20 minutes later, one of my office personnel came to me, and said that Stephen had called and told me to go to the ER, that it was an emergency. There was an urgency to the office worker’s voice that made me immediately sprint across the short distance to the ER, not noticing the light rain drops that were now falling. 30 seconds later, a blaring car horn at the ER entrance shattered the peace and tranquility that had characterized my life until then. Our son, Stephen, who had returned from camp that weekend, was driving a strange car and a friend from church was in the back seat and a lady I did not recognize was slumped in the front seat. I did not recognize her because her long hair was covering her face, and she was blue.   “Who is it?” I said, thinking they had found someone along the road in distress. When Stephen said, “It’s Mom”, it seemed as if my world immediately exploded around me. The next 2 days were a blur;  2 days of praying, 2 days of hoping, but the resuscitation efforts of the doctors allowed for no meaningful response, and she was pronounced dead 2 days later.  My beautiful wife became a organ donor for kidneys and liver, but she was with us no more.  in some ways, I remember a lot, but I also don’t remember a lot of the details of that difficult time.


    Friends from church and the community rallied around us as a family, and I will be forever grateful for that. Without God, and without the support and caring of so many people, the hopelessness would have been overwhelming. No matter what your story is, and i’m convinced we all have a story, the grief process is so full of ups and downs. There are many things stick out in my memory as the healing process began. I do know that for many days in a row, I had tears, often and without warning. In fact, for a while, I despaired that I would ever be able to speak in public again, as no matter what I was trying to say, tears would come…but God was healing me little by little, nevertheless.


    My journal writing that year reflected much of the inner turmoil that was in my heart, more than I ever remembered. , When I re-read my journal last year, I noticed that I had a lot of times of grief that I often questioned God. God, why couldn’t you move the lightning 30 feet one way or another? (He could have). Could she not have gone out to take the trash 1 minute later?  (Sure) Why not ? Why me?
    But after a while, my questions changed..becoming, what now?  Where to from here?

    I started reading my Bible with renewed vigor and intensity..   A Jewish rabbi once said to his disciples, “If you study the Torah, it will put the scripture on your hearts.” When one of his students asked, “Why on our hearts, and not in them?” he replied, “Only God can put them inside. Reading the sacred texts will put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.” I did find that to be true. The scripture came alive to me in a way that it never had before. The stories of the patriarchs, and Psalms particularly, but really all Scriptures became especially meaningful. I remember many times that God spoke to me, not in an audible voice, but through his word in a new and fresh way. One Psalm that stands out is Psalm 62 to me. v. 1 “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”  And lamentation 3:33  ”For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”    One of things I sensed almost from the beginning is that God has a purpose, and he is carrying that out.  And his plan is so much bigger than our finite minds can see.  When we can see the end as well as the beginning, it becomes much easier to say, aha, now I see what was happening.  There are many examples in the bible, except that now we have the advantage of looking both ways.  For example, see Ruth, whose world was rocked by famine, the death of her husband, her mother-in-law moving away.  But now we say, I can see what God was doing.


    While restoring my soul during those troubled times, a very important part of the process was a two week mission trip to Nicaragua in 2010, about 6 months after the tragedy.  There, I found that the story that I had to tell made me much more sensitive to the people that I was ministering to, and I also found that it was fulfilling to serve God as a single person as well.  So out of that whole process has come something very beautiful. I have developed a desire, not to see that my story is told, but that God’s story  be told.  It would to take too long to tell of the miraculous ways God has worked since that time, to allow me to continue serving, to serve more in missions in the past 3 years then ever. I praise God for the opportunity to serve on the mission field in Africa for the last 3 ½ months of 2012.  There, in a land where death is a frequent visitor, I was able in telling my story to spread the hope that I have in a God;  how has seen me through the difficulties, and is a God who cares, who grieves, who is PRESENT.

     
    The words of this song were sung at Dawn’s funeral, and I leave you with them:

    Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
    Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
    Leave to thy God to order and provide;
    In every change, He faithful will remain.

    Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
    Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

    Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
    To guide the future, as He has the past.
    Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
    All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
    Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
    His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.