WHAT A WEEK!! Some of you saw on Facebook that TJ had a little accident, but we also didn’t totally broadcast it to the whole world.
TJ was working in his dad’s shop with a friend, helping him with his boat. Well, he crouched down really fast and basically sat down really hard on a steel saw horse in a bad spot. if you can’t remember what a saw horse is, there is one pictured below.
Sawhorse, The one TJ sat on was different than this one but you get the picture
He was in a lot of pain, and went inside his parent’s house to make sure nothing was bleeding… well when he got into a room and closed the door, he went to check for blood and passed out, and his poor mother found him passed out!! There were no puncture wounds on his body, so he went back outside and started working again… what a man right? I got the story later of course he would not tell me this over the phone, don’t want to worry the wife! He went back out to work for about 20 min and noticed there was some blood, so he came right home and walked in the door a little pale, of course I’m wondering what’s going on. I quickly realize this is not good as he is bleeding out his urethra, (we’re just gonna use that term for all of our sakes) He tries to pee and found that caused him excruciating pain… AND… this is the point where I freak out. I’m looking for my friend’s name in my phone to call her and I CANT FIND IT!! I start shaking and trying to figure out what to do, I can’t think straight, thankfully our friend Katie was right around the corner and she came literally within 5 minutes to watch the girls while I took TJ to the emergency room.
It took about 20 minutes to get to the hospital and when we got there we realized that neither one of us brought our wallets… oh my goodness!! We worked it out.
When we got into a triage room they made him pee again… poor guy 🙁
As it turns out they had to call a Urology Dr. in and a surgical team to do a procedure on TJ to figure out what was wrong, and I’m so glad that they did and that this Dr. came in because if they hadn’t come in he would have had a much larger and more complex surgery. He went into surgery at about 1:00 am and I sat by myself in the surgery waiting room for about 45 minutes, trying to not let my mind race… it did cross my mind, what if my husband dies tonight?!! The whole thing was a little unsettling, but I definitely could see God’s hand in it and that God was protecting TJ. The whole night TJ kept saying, “I’m excited to see how God is going to use this!” Right when the procedure was done the Dr. came to let me know, the bad news was that he has a big hole in his urethra, and the good news was that they got a catheter in, and because they were able to do that the hole would be able to heal with the catheter in, which would take about 3 weeks or less, and wouldn’t have to do any other major surgeries.
getting ready for his procedure
I was so thankful for our friend Katy who watched our girls through the night and the following day…. what a blessing she was to us!!
They had fun while we were gone! They even got to go to a strawberry festival!
This all happened on Friday the 6th and we came home Saturday the 7th in the evening. I got a good night of sleep Saturday night and really wanted to go to Church on Sunday, because I am encouraged every week that I go!
So even though I had a headache I got the girls ready and went to church.
Soooo… I’m switching gears here… we have been going through Esther at Church, and it has been correlating with what’s going on with us, how convenient is that? Well God is totally like that right?!
Last week we were in Esther 3, and I will just share a couple things that really impacted me. Tim started the service sharing an update on TJ and I, which was very encouraging, He was reminding the church just how big it is that they get to send us out this August! He talked about all that God has done in bringing us here, in correlation with their desire to proclaim God’s name, so he encouraged everyone to continue getting to know us so that we may be tightly knit together with them…. aaaaaah God is so good!!
I don’t want to go into the whole story right now of Esther, but I do want to share some of the convictions I had walking away. Ever since the meetings we were a part of, I have been praying and thinking a lot about what it will look like for us to move in with these people. I also realized that God has done so much to get us where we are now, he has given us specific convictions, he has lead us every step of the way and met us in low and high places… all leading up to planting a church in West Africa, and all that that entails. I am realizing that our entrance strategies and things we’re deciding as a team have everything to do with what God has already done and with what he will do. It is not disconnected in the least! Actually moving into this people group has felt so far off and yet now it is feeling personal and important. Through Esther I have felt like God does not want us to suppress our Identity the way Esther and Mordecai did, and that he asks us to be bold and honest about who we belong to… I believe he will protect us. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careless or loud, but confident in the Lord to lead us and to guide our steps and our words. I don’t believe if we are listening that he will ask us to lie about who we are, but to claim him as our God and our Jesus. What does all of this look like practically? I don’t know right now, but I do know that God is working on my heart and getting me personally involved in this step now, and I love that God doesn’t want to leave me out! He cares enough to move my heart in a certain direction towards him, towards what he wants.
This week we have been reading in Daniel and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. There was no way they were going to deny God and they were completely confident that if they went into the furnace God could save them AND they were okay if he didn’t, because he was their mighty God either way… I LOVE THAT!! And Who but JESUS protected them while in the furnace! When King Nebuchadnezzar saw what their God did, he couldn’t do anything but worship the same God!
This is what he said:
“How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.”
I can learn a couple lessons from this story. #1 God is all powerful and if he wishes, can protect us from anything. #2 Because these three men obeyed God and stood by him, King Nebuchadnezzar instantly had a change of heart. I pray that in the future, If God asks us to do something that may be bold and look stupid will in the end glorify him and cause people to bow before our God, and worship Him alone!
K. One last story. For about a month now we have sort of been in the process of being interviewed by a church in Titusville, and I guess you could say we made it to the next level and were invited to come meet with the missions committee of about 15 people, to answer some questions and present our ministry to them. TJ has been at home resting doing pretty much nothing because he’s not allowed to! But he had decided to attend this thing and try to take it easy. Well after getting the girls and myself and TJ ready, we are trying to get in the car, and TJ realizes he’s not doing well. And after racing around the house looking for my sunglasses, I realize he shouldn’t come, so I say “TJ I think the girls and I just need to go!” So we go, TJ tells me how to get there because I don’t even know where we are going, let alone what I’m going to say to these people… and how am I going to take care of the girls at the same time?! So the whole way there I’m pumping the girls up, reminding them that they have to sit still and listen really good to mommy. I told them they were going to be my partners in telling these people what we are going to be doing, and why. They were on board, but I was still praying asking God to help me!
Well… God did, he was there and he gave me the words, and the girls did great! We sat at a long white table at the front of the room with a girl on either side of me, and the 15 people in front of me sat at white tables facing me. I asked Ava in front of everyone “what are we called?” she said “we’re missionaries”. I said “what’s a missionary?” She said “Someone who tells people about God!” and I said “well that’s it folks, have a nice day!” They laughed. They also asked lots of good questions and I was so thankful to be able to answer most of them even without TJ there. It’s not like I’m incompetent with answering all these questions but usually if we have meetings like this TJ is the main presenter, but God was good and it couldn’t have gone better! I’m so thankful for the opportunities God gives us, and for his abundant grace in our lives!
And I’m on day 17 of changing my blood
We planted our first sprouts… so fun to watch!
TJ and I teaching sunday school at church a few weeks back
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