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.