Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

I came across this incredible story this morning on Fox News where a Planned Parenthood director quit her job after viewing an abortion via ultrasound. She described the baby as "crumpling" when removed violently from its mother's womb. Crisis Pregnancy Centers have been saying that having ultrasound equipment helps them to help young women make the choice to keep their babies after seeing the baby on ultrasound. We are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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Sunday, October 18, 2009

We  are already Tour 6 in The Truth Project. This coming Sunday, October 25, we will be exploring History: Whose Story? The word "remember" is central to the message of episode 6. On this tour we will set up the fourth and final pillar in the Temple of Truth – History – and take a close look at the importance of maintaining a firm grip on the past. In the process, we will see that a proper appreciation of historical context – in other words, our place in God's "larger story" – is fundamental to an accurate understanding of almost every aspect of our lives. History provides us with indispensable insights into the meaning of existence, God's plan and purpose for the ages, man's responsibility toward the Creator, and his duty toward his fellow creatures.

The two weeks on Science has really been awesome. We have learned that neither the fossil record or molecular biology support the truth claims of evolution. We discovered that the issue is not a scientific question but a philosophical question about the origin of life. Hope you will join this Sunday evening at 5:30 pm.

Pastor Walter

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Truth Project

Sunday night our church is beginning The Truth Project, a 13-week Christian worldview study from Focus on the Family. This has generated a lot of interest and excitement in our church. We are praying that it gets a lot of traction with our students, college-age students, and young adults.

In a post-modern world and culture there is a huge need for believers to understand and know what they believe and why they believe it. I have been reading Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, & Spin by Os Guinness. In this little book Guinness makes the case that objective truth can be known. I love his quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, former Soviet dissident, who said, "One word of truth outweighs the entire world." Truth is important, not just to believers, but to all of us.

I was shocked by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina who shouted out, "You lie," during the President's speech before a joint gathering of Congress last night. It was a disrespectful outburst and I am glad that he made a formal apology to the President. However, the outburst perhaps reflects an underlying sense that all of us have, not just with the President, but with the whole political process and that is that the truth is hard to come by.

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." That is what I am praying The Truth Project will do for our students, college students, and young adults. The Truth Project has a wonderful website with lots of info for you. Sign up as a participant and you will have access to lesson guides for each week and much more http://www.thetruthproject.org/.

I
am anxious for us to generate some discussion and dialogue about The Truth Project and what we are learning from week-to-week.

Blessings,


Walter

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Thoughts about Mildred Evelyn Mullican

It has been a while since I have written on my blog. So much has happened since the last post in March. It was on March 2 that my mom, Mildred, had a stroke while out shopping with Kathy. She then suffered another stroke in the hospital and spend about three weeks in the hospital followed by about four weeks in skilled nursing and then about two weeks in Heritage Assisted Living. We moved her back to the house we had rented for her in Bethany on May 19. The people at Baptist Village Skilled Nursing and Heritage Assisted Living did everything they could to make my mom feel at home and took such good care of her, but she just wanted to "go home" as she said.

You have to know something about my mom's younger years to understand why the hospital, skilled nursing, and assisted living were so hard for her and why she just hated it. From age 5 until she was 14 my mom lived at the St. Patrick's Indian School in Anadarko, OK. It was a hard time in her life. Her mom died in Phoenix, AZ when she was five and grandpa could not care for all the kids so mom and her brother, Jimmy, came back to Oklahoma to live with their grandmother, but when she died they went to live at the boarding school. All the girls had to dress in drab black dresses and all wore their hair in a short pageboy style which went again Indian custom of the girls having long hair. They were not allowed to speak their native tongue and life was very hard for a little five year old girl. The skilled nursing and the assisted living center seemed like boarding school to her again. Like so many in her generation she was independent, and didn't want help, she wanted to do it herself. She just kept pressuring my brother, Steve, and I to take her "home" so we finally relented and agreed to do so although we knew that it would be hard for all us. She was home for one week when she went "home" very suddently to be with the Lord on Tuesday, May 26 at the age of 86. On Thursday, May 28, I conducted her funeral service at the Dale Cemetery where she is buried next to my daddy who passed away in 1992. She just wanted a simple graveside service, but I think she would have been surprised by the number of people who attended her funeral. She touched a lot of lives. Her funeral service was held on my daddy's birthday, May 28. Someone said my dad got a great birthday present this year when momma joined him in heaven. I have to agree. They were married in Chickasha, OK in 1938 when momma was 15 and daddy was 20 although their marriage license says that she was 18 and he was 21!

Mom had told me numerous times what she wanted for her funeral. She had picked out the clothes she wanted to be buried in and she said she wanted a single red rose on top of a beautiful piece of crochet work she had done just for her casket. The folks at Mercer-Adams Funeral Home in Bethany are some of the most wonderful folks in the world! My friend, Tim Adams, helped my brother and I to select a perfect casket for mom. She looked beautiful and at peace! No more pain! No more bad hip. No more strokes. No more heart disease. No more diabetes.

I preached mom's funeral because I felt that I needed to even though, I must admit, it was difficult at times. God has given me the grace to preach both my mom and dad's funerals. You may wondering about the picture at the top of the blog. It was taken in November of 2002 at the Painted Desert in Arizona. I took mom on a big road trip that year to Phoenix so she could see her mother's grave in Mesa. Her mom's grave had been unmarked since her death in 1928 and mom wanted to place a marker in her memory so we bought a stone marker here and took it to Mesa seeing the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon along the way. The Route 66 car jacket she is wearing in picture is something she made. She was a professional seamstress and dry cleaner. She talked the whole way to Phoenix! The trip to Mesa to see her mom's grave was a part of her life journey that mom had to do! I am so glad I took the time to make that trip because it helped me to understand my mom in a way that I never had before. That's why I needed to share at her service because I felt I needed to share some of this with my family.

I miss her especially at certain times like last week when my second grandson, Grayson Takoda, was born to Tony, my oldest son, and his wife Kim. In the midst of the excitement of the morning when Grayson was born I caught myself thinking, "I need to call mom and tell her about Grayson's birth." She would have loved his Indian middle name, Takoda, which means "friend to all."

One final thing about the picture. It was taken with a small Canon digital camera. There was not special setup. I just saw saw the pose and clicked the picture and it is priceless. I have gotten more compliments from that photograph, but one comment was quite humorous and mom loved it. One person looking at the photo said, "How did you get the old Indian woman to stand there." Well, the answer is pretty obvious isn't it?

Thursday, March 19, 2009


Andrew's 16th Birthday...

My youngest son just turned 16. Andrew reached this major milestone on March 2! He wanted a fishing trip for his 16th birthday so March 15-18 Andrew, his uncle Harold, and I went to Lake Tenkiller. We fly fished for trout in the Lower Illinois River, but didn't do very well, so on Wednesday we went over to Lake Eufaula where my good friend Mike Scifres lives. We fished from his boat dock and caught 31 crappie and some quite large as you can see from the picture. It was a great few days to get away from all we have been facing the past few weeks and Andrew had a great time and it was great having his uncle Harold along with us.

This morning my mom was moved from Mercy Hospital to Lackey Manor at Baptist Village where she will be in skilled nursing for a while. It was hard telling her we wouldn't be bringing her home, and she was upset with me, but I believe it is the right decision for now. She seems to be adjusting pretty good today. There she can wear regular clothing and not those awful hospital gowns. She liked the lunch they served! Please pray for her appetite to increase as we need to get some more calories in her. We do appreciate your thoughts and prayers during the time. God is good and each day He shows His favor and grace.

Can't wait to fry some of that crappie!

Bro. Walter

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Cold and Snowy Thursday...

Just when we thought spring was here, we are greeted by ice, snow, and cold today. But it won't last long giving way to temps in the 70s next week.

Kathy and I went by the hospital this morning to check on mom. It is still hard to understand much of what she is saying. It takes great concentration to make out what she wants. It's almost like playing charades! We are still concerned with her eating. She is just not taking in a lot of food. She wasn't eating much at home, but I believe hospital food would take away anyone's appetite! We keep bringing in different things we think she might like to eat. Pray we can get her to eat more. Kathy and I weren't at the hospital as much today as we both had some things we had to get done today and I needed to spend some time in the office. I went back this evening and visited with her for a little while. Her friend, Susie, had been by to see her. Wednesday night, my brother Steve, and Kathy were there with her. She seems to be resting okay and seemed to be quite interested in tv this evening.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Walter

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A little more progress...

My secretary, Teddy Graham, emailed me this thought this morning from The Daily Bread...

God’s whisper of comfort quiets the noise of our trials.


It's Wednesday and day ten of mom's stay in ICU. Tuesday she tried to talk more, but it was still hard to understand everything she said. We tried writing, and although her penmanship is quite nice, the messages and words just weren't coming through. Speech therapy is working with her each day and I see a little progress each day, but we are a long way from being back to normal.

This morning the doctor said that he consulted with the docs who do the arteriograms and advice is not to proceed with any other procedures at this point as it would just be too risky. The anuerysm appears to be small and might not respond well to the type of treatment they were proposing. We need her to eat more, but the food choices here are not always very appetizing, so I have been bringing her other food in an attempt to eat more. Sometimes it is more successful than at other times.

They are going to move her sometime today to what is called intermediate care. It is the step between ICU and being on main floor. There they will try to do more in terms of therapy, etc.

Mom is still sharp. She wants to know what is going on and I am being very honest with her although that upsets her at times. I want her to be a part of decisions that are being made. She keeps asking about going home and I am honest with her about it in that I don't know or if she will be able to go home. Right now that would be most impossible.

Pray for her not to get too frustrated as we work through her speech problem and pray for my patience as well. I was quite exhausted after being here a whole day yesterday. It was very hard trying to decode her messages without causing her too much frustration.

Thank you for praying.

Walter

Monday, March 9, 2009

One Week in the Hospital...

It was last Monday afternoon that my mom was brought into Mercy Hospital with a stroke. She remains in ICU. They did another MRI on her today and gave her some light sedative so it wouldn't hurt so much when they moved her to the MRI table, but the sedative seems to have really caused her to be sleepy this evening.

Earlier the day she did eat! And she ate some this evening! Her speech is still slurred and she gets frustrated trying to tell us things. She wrote on some things yesterday and her handwriting was remarkably good, but we could not make out what she was saying in her writing as some of thet words didn't make sense.

We are praying that her speech returns in time. It is Monday evening and I have left for the day, and still don't have a lot of answers, but her regular nurses are back on duty and we feel good about that. Don, a male nurse, has been particularly caring and helpful.

It looks like it will be a day-by-day affair. We are praying that tomorrow might yield more improvement in speech and perhaps more direction from the doctor. Dr. Mikawa is a good doctor, but not a talker, so we have received limited info from him.

Thank you again for prayer support. We would all be undone without it. I am also grateful to my family who have been stepping in and helping. You know who you are and you are greatly appreciated not only by Kathy and I but by mom.

More tomorrow perhaps,

Walter

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Saturday morning update...

It has been a tough couple of days. Mom had a cerebral arteriogram on Thursday morning and since then she has not been able to talk clearly and has not been eating. I had hoped that by this morning, Saturday, that if the medicines they gave her for pain prior to the procedure were cauisng this problem that they would have had time to clear her system. I am beginning to wonder if the arteriorgram did not cause this. They said there was a 6-7% chance this could happen. Last night she had lots of family to see her which made her happy. My niece came and spent the afternoon with her and took good care of her while I was at the Beast Feast. Again, I am grateful for your prayers and all your concern. It has been a tough week, but God is good, and God is in control. We continue to trust in Him each day.

Walter

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Good morning...

Let me begin by thanking everyone for their continued prayers and support of our family during this difficult week. As you know by now, Maddox did not have his surgery on Wednesday as scheduled. Dr. Honeycutt, his surgeon, saw some things in the physical exam of Maddox on Tuesday that prompted him to postpone the surgery until further testing could be done. We were all ready for the surgery, but so grateful to God for providing such a skilled doctor who detected that more testing needed be to done. We do not know when the surgery will take place as of right now.

Kathy took my mom to Shawnee for her regular lab work and doctor's visit on Monday, March 2. They returned to Bethany and were going through the Rink Gallery when my mother became unresponsive. 911 was called and mom was brought to Mercy Hospital where she was met by the Stroke Evaluation Team from Mercy. They are very thorough and it was determined by MRI that mom had suffered a stroke on the left side of her brain. It has affected her speech some, but not her motor skills thus far. PTL!

She is resting pretty well in the ICU unit at Mercy. She will probably be in the unit for a couple more days and maybe into a room this weekend. This morning, Thursday, they are doing a Cerebral Arteriogram to look at couple of small anuerisms the doctor spotted on the MRI. It is possible that something called a "coil" can be placed in these areas to prevent future strokes at least in those areas.

She had a CT scan with dye contrast yesterday afternoon to determine if she might have the beginning of pnuemonia in the left lung. Since she has a history of lung cancer, they wanted to look to make sure there was nothing going on in that way also.

I know most of the chaplains here at Mercy as I went to OBU with several of them, and they have been a great comfort to me and to mom. My family has been coming in the evening to visit with mom and stay with her. I have been staying during the day, and Kathy has been relieving me in the evening so I can get some rest. I am reminded of how exhausting being the care giver of someone in the hospital can be!

Yesterday, Kathy was reading the Daily Bread at the breakfast table with the kids. I have included the devotion below. This devotion spoke of knowing the depth of God's love for us. Kathy was telling the kids how true that was with Maddox and the doctor wanting to do more tests and with mom and her care. God had been revealing His love to all of us. She said something to the effect of that they should "march forth" with that true. Kristy said, "Mom, today is March 4th."

We pray that you could "March 4th" in this truth today. Read the devotion below and be blessed!

We love and apprecite all of you!

Bro. Walter and Kathy

The following is from The Daily Bread for Tuesday, March 4, 2009

To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. —Ephesians 3:19

The words of the hymn “The Love of God” capture in word pictures the breathtaking magnitude of divine love:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skiesof parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scrollcontain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.


These marvelous lyrics echo Paul’s response to the love of God. The apostle prayed that believers might “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph. 3:18-19). In reflecting on these verses about God’s love, some Bible scholars believe “width” refers to its worldwide embrace (John 3:16); “length,” its existence through all ages (Eph. 3:21); “depth,” its profound wisdom (Rom. 11:33); and “height,” its victory over sin opening the way to heaven (Eph. 4:8).
We are admonished to appreciate this amazing love. Yet as we expand our awareness of God’s love, we soon realize that its full measure is beyond our understanding. Even if the ocean were filled with ink, using it to write about the love of God would drain it dry. — Dennis Fisher

God’s love cannot be explained—it can only be experienced.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

I always look forward to a New Year. There is a chance to begin again in certain areas of our lives and there are new opportunities ahead. Of course, none of us, know the future, but we do know the Oone who holds the future. One goal I accomplished in 2008 was reading through the Bible in my quiet time. I did it! I read through in the New Living Translation and it was great. I also kept a journal throughout 2008 and that was a real blessing.

This year I plan to read through the Bible in the Holman Christian Standard translation. I have also started another journal. I gave a journal to each member of my family and have encouraged each of them to read through the Bible in 2009.

In my new devotional journal there are thoughts from various writers on each page. On the first page the journal were these great thoughts from Gary Smalley and John Trent.

Loving God, loving others and finding value in ourselves--without a doubt, these three aspects of love are the most effective weapons against the destructive power of low self-worth. Genuine love is a gift we give others. It isn't purchased by their actions or contingent upon our emotions at the moment. It may carry with it strong emotional feelings, but it isn't supported by them. Rather, it is a decision we make on a daily basis that someone is special and valuable to us.

It is my prayer that you have a blessed New Year. Get in the Word and get the Word in you!

New Year's Day 2009, Bethany, Oklahoma