A word from Pastor Tim 05/18

We are home. It is good… and also hard to come back to familiar surroundings but to find that, though things remain the same, much of our life hasn’t. We are still dealing with several realities on a daily basis, specifically concerning the absence of feeling in Pam’s right side including her arm and leg, hand and foot. Her speech continues to return rapidly and we are grateful. And we continue on in outpatient therapy to learn to accommodate these problems created by swelling in the area where surgery took place. It is uncertain how long the swelling will create pressure on the nerve center in her brain that controls her right side.

And so we wait. We pray. We press on through exhaustion, medication and sometimes discouragement. “But we do not lose heart.” We believe and trust still that God is going to do an amazing thing in our lives through this. Please pray that God will soon allow feeling to return to her right arm, hand, fingers, foot and leg.

Each week we have been in this trial God has given us a word. Not a verse. Not a passage. A literal word to hang onto. The first week, the word was “persevere.” The second week, it was “restore.” This week, the word has been “mercies.” Don’t ask me how I know. He doesn’t text it. He doesn’t always even “light up” a Bible verse. But He confirms it. Sometimes in a conversation or a card that someone has sent, sometimes in a song we are listening to or an email or even from a book we are reading, He gives us the word. That’s often all we can handle… a word. But it’s an important word. A hopeful word. A word of life.

Let me say again what I have often said before. You, our church family, have been nothing short of incredible to us. Your contacts and touches, lovingly prepared meals and gifts sent to our home, your cards (Pam has now gone through over 60 and we still have a huge stack), your gift cards, your concern expressed in ways large and small have been a literal… LITERAL… oasis in this wilderness experience. We have always sought, when someone gives us a gift small or large, to try and write a note of thanks somehow. We are far beyond an ability to ever do that… to ever adequately say thanks. We are actually overwhelmed by the avalanche of blessings. But please know we are so very, very grateful for each one! God is showing, through your love, that He is a good, good Father.

And so we look for mercies. We ask for the mercy of quick and miraculous recovery from this trial and for Pam’s restoration. We see the “new mercies” of God at every turn. Even yesterday when I accidentally did a “California roll” through a stop sign in one of our communities, a young deputy stopped me in his patrol car to remind me that we are not in California and that in Florida, stop means stop. He took my license, brought it back to me after a few minutes and said, “I’m letting you off with a warning.” Mercy.

We serve a God who has promised us that, each morning, we will see new mercies. I hope and pray for all of us that our eyes can be opened to appreciate each one that comes! “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentation 3:22-23)

Grace, mercy, and peace…

Pastor Tim and Pam