hula hoop anyone?

how many can you get on your bike?

non-hodgkins follicular lymphoma

several people have asked what the results were of all the tests that i've had so here it is in a nutshell.

I have been diagnosed with low grade Non-Hodgkins Follicular Lymphoma. It's similar to diabetes in that there is treatment but there is no cure. It's cancer of the blood.

Right now I don't have too many other symptoms so they don't recommend treatment. I will be tested & checked every 3 months & when I start getting other symptoms they'll start chemo.

life expectancy is 7 – 10 years but I could get hit by a truck tomorrow or the Lord could come back and we’d all be home in 10 years. we exist by the will of a perfect God so who are we to question His perfect will. we live according to His will, His timetable not man's so who is man to say we will go here or there, do this or that, or live or die at a given time.

life is a test - God is testing each one of us all the time. i think how we respond to each test is how we grow, or not, into the godly person He wants us to be.

i was having such a pity party the day i finally believed in Christ. my life is so totally different now. rom 8:28 we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. so if His perfect plan, His purpose, is for me to have lymphoma, who am i to say otherwise.

life is uncertain - eat dessert first

lying

have you ever thought about it? how often you do it? how 'natural' it is. you don't mean to but you do it without even thinking about it. someone asks you what you're doing on a certain day and you say you're busy when you're not. the words are out of your mouth before your brain's engaged.

the bible tells us that liars will not enter heaven.

last week when i went for surgery i was asked where i would be staying or if someone would be staying with me. i said i would be at home by myself. i was told i had to have someone with me or they wouldn't do the surgery. i had planned to have this surgery 3 years ago and have been waiting for it for the past year since coming back from costa rica. there was no way i was going to wait any longer. i phoned the lady that had driven me to the hospital (who had on the way there asked me if i needed someone to stay with me & i said no) and told her i needed a babysitter and asked if she wanted to spend the night at my house or me at her house. she said we'd work something out so i told the nurse that i had a babysitter & she said they'd proceed. i lied. i out and out lied. i had no intention of not sleeping in my own bed. for as much as i intentinally lied at the time i wasn't even thinking about it that it was a sin. i was only thinking i had to have the surgery, i didn't want to wait more months.

well i didn't, sleep that is. besides feeling so sick from the medication i was convicted (heartsick) about lying. i thought about how God says that liars won't enter heaven. oh man was i convicted. all i had thought about (me) was wanting the surgery instead of thinking about what God feels and thinks about liars. i had not considered that i was putting my soul in jeopardy. but i tell ya. i've thought a lot about it since.

someone asked me what i was doing on friday night. i'm busy was out of my mouth so fast i would've been caught in a lie if asked what i was doing, or had to lie again (then it would've been intentional) to cover up the first one. i don't know why i said it. it literally was out of my mouth before i had time to think about it. when i realized that i wondered how many (not if but how many) other times i've lied like that. it was so automatic i could hardly believe it, how easy it was and how 'natural' it was. it is the sinful nature in me that causes me to do things that i don't want to do.

a few months ago my secret sister gave me a card saying she thinks i'm a woman in whom God is well pleased. i kept that card & it sits right beside my monitor. i want to be that woman in whom God is well pleased. i have a long way to go.

what a whiner!!!

ever since complaining about my hospital stay i've been thinking - what a whiner! that we have free medical care is more than most of the world's population.

i read the drug information on the pain rx they gave me and it says take with food. in the hospital they gave me the drug but didn't give me any food to take with it. and i thought how millions go without food daily. and i thought of millions of victims of war and disease who are suffering without any pain medication. i thought of kids stepping on land mines and getting their legs blown off, or worse, and having no medical attention at all.

i thought of others and i felt petty. we are a society of self-absorbed whiners.

we eat too much, we over-indulge ourselves, we buy the latest fashions, we buy all the latest toys, we are so not living the way Jesus wants us to. we are a spoiled, self-indulgent society expecting that the world owes us everything.

the rich ruler wanted eternal life, Jesus told him to sell everything & give to the poor and follow Him. he couldn't follow Jesus because he wanted everything he had, he wasn't willing to give it up. are you truly following Jesus or are you hoarding your money?

are you so concerned about your own needs, totally forgetting about the greater needs of others?

when Jesus returns will He say to you come in with Him or depart from Him? will He spit you out because your love for Him is only lukewarm?

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

are you living for Him? or are you living for yourself? do you live to please Him? or are you living to please yourself?

lymphoma

months ago it was suggested i might have anything from mono to lymphoma. i thought ok whatever. lymphoma was confirmed and i thought ok whatever.

before i knew anything about it i just thought lymphoma was cancer and people get sick from cancer. some people die from it. some people are afraid of dying. when i expressed to a friend that if i had lymphoma i wasn't afraid of dying (thinking cancer, which is sometimes fatal) she told me i was being selfish. she needed me how could i think of leaving (dying) her.

we are not in control. do we fear dying because we fear losing control? if we fear anything at all it is because we have not surrendered to God. God is in control and He is going to do what He has already determined to do. He knows the plans He has for you. trust in Him and He will be with you whatever you go through.

as for me i feel great and wonder if there's been a mistake.

msa hospital

if you have to go to a hospital i hope you can go to another one. i went for pre-op blood work & an eeg on thursday. i enquired about getting crutches thinking i would go next door & rent them but admitting told me they would give them to me upstairs after the surgery. when i saw the nurse she put the bp cuff on then she sat down. when it was finished she told me to take it off. when i had the eeg the tech apologized for swearing and then continued swearing a couple more times. the gown she gave me was so wrinkled it looked like it had been balled up soaking wet. she had to do the eeg a second time cuz she was in a hurry to get off work & she pulled the cords off before it was finished. there was a dirty dish beside the machine and no place to put my clothes except on top of a pile of towels.

yesterday when i had the surgery i was given a gown that i had to pull apart as it was stuck together with a melted heart monitor thing. when i pulled it around me i saw that it was stuck together with a gross blob of something that looked like melted rubber cement. they couldn't get the needle in properly and had to do it again. and i'm not sure what they gave me for pain but i'm pretty sure it was the one thing i told them i can't take cuz i've been sick ever since. when i was ready to go i asked for the crutches & they said they don't have them there. i told them i had enquired about them the day before & was told they would be giving me a pair. no they couldn't have told me that because they don't have them there. why would i think it would be so much easier to get a pair while i was still able to walk properly. they told me i couldn't get my foot wet for 2 weeks. like how am i going to do that in bc in the winter hobbling on some little flat thing. i left the hospital feeling a heck of a lot worse than when i went in & none of it had to do with the surgery on my foot. on a scale of 1 to 10 msa scores zero.

My Utmost for His Highest.

". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . ." We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, "My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory." To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.

My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. "Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!" (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.

my earnest expectation...

that... Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20

christmas

a time of joy, a time of giving. there is more joy in the giving than in the receiving but for me this christmas i was brought to tears by receiving a gift of a sheep from the world vision christmas catalogue that was given in my name.

one is blessed to give such a gift, another is blessed to receive the gift in their name, and the receiver is blessed with a gift that continues to multiply with meat, milk, wool and income.

thank you my friend. i love you too.

bone marrow transplants

have you ever considered being a donor? i had thought about this years ago but when i heard about how painful it was i changed my mind. i am afraid of needles & pain so it was out of the question.

recently i was told i was going to have a bone marrow biopsy. i read about it on-line, saw the horse needle they use & thought it was going to be really painful. i wasn't concerned about the reason to have the biopsy but i'm thinking about this huge freaking needle & my low pain tolerance. i asked friends for prayer. as usual God was amazing.

yesterday i'm lying there waiting for the pain to come when the doc says she's done. she said it would hurt when the freezing came out. i went shopping for 3 1/2 hours right after. i vegged in front of the tube last night waiting for the pain to come. it never did.

checked out the national marrow donor program - bone marrow transplants have helped save over 25,000 lives. you can help. all it takes initially is a blood test to see if you are a match. maybe most people aren't but one person may be able to save someone's life by donating their marrow. maybe that one person is you.

what is christmas?

it's a celebration of the greatest joy, the deepest peace and the richest love the heart can ever know - Jesus.

May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. and as Jesus has poured Himself out as an offering and a blessing to us, may He pour us out as a blessing to others.

life is not fair

how many times have you said that's not fair. i can think of many times in my life when i thought things weren't fair. i could make a list of things that i thought were not fair. i'm sure most of you could too.

odb dec 2 - We are not the arbiters of fairness. God is, and He knows far more than we do about His plans and purposes. The question isn’t about fairness. In the end, it’s about trust in a faithful God who knows what He is doing. “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice” (Deut. 32:4). Life will never look fair. But when we trust God, we always know that He is faithful.

we question why God would allow something terrible to happen. we rail at God for what we deem are injustices. this isn't a perfect world and He tells us that over and over in the bible. but He is a perfect God and He is always faithful and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.

life and death

i know of a lady that passed away recently from a long battle with cancer. she spoke of her illness as a win / win situation. win - she is restored to good health and to her family. win - she enters paradise. wow! i think that is so cool.

i know of another person dying of cancer and he has a completely different outlook. he hasn't accepted that he won't be going home and that he only has weeks to live.

both christians yet with very different outlooks on life.

odb - dec 4 The specter of death is faced by every human being. Yet, whether we face that reality with fear or with confidence is not dependent on having a good outlook or a positive attitude. The way we face death depends completely on whether or not we have a personal relationship with Jesus, who gave Himself to die so that death itself could be abolished. Paul wrote to Timothy that our Savior was the One who “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). The result is that even in the most disturbing times of life, we never need to be scared to death. We can live confidently and filled with hope, because Jesus conquered death.

if that's how we face death should we not face life the same way. if we have a deeply, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ we do not fear, we have hope. if we don't we need to spend more time with Him.

"the battle is far from won."

how dare they! how dare they compare the famines and diseases that are ravaging most of the world with some overly priced clothing line that is being copied and marketed at a more affordable price.

taken from the globe & mail dec 7. my comments in caps.

When you start messing with my brand, it's time to mobilize... THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY
Do they know it's counterfeit? DO WE CARE? Just as famine and disease ravage the Third World, a devastating clothing condition plagues Canada. According to the folks at urban-wear brand Sean John, knock-off goods are flooding the market, AFFORDABLE PRICES FOR THE AVERAGE CONSUMER harming legitimate manufacturers and retailers. In a passionately worded release, the apparel company created by hip-hop icon Sean Combs stressed that the biggest victims in the garb scam are the consumers -- salt-of-the-earth Canadians who deserve to "spend their hard-earned money on brands they like and trust." Brands such as Sean John, for instance.

In a cause that bizarrely recalls pop musician Bob Geldof's effort to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief in 1984 GREAT CAUSE, Canadian hip-hop artists are involving themselves in a campaign to halt the trade of bogus tracksuits WANT TO STAND BEHIND A CAUSE - TRY WORLD HUNGER. The catch phrase of the effort is "Don't Buy a Lie," and the whole idea is to raise awareness of the senseless travesty of fake threads. HOW ABOUT THE SENSELESS TRAVESTY THAT WE ALLOW MILLIONS TO GO TO BED AT NIGHT SICK AND HUNGRY.

So, as in 1984, where the likes of Bono, Boy George and David Bowie huddled around studio microphones to sing Do They Know It's Christmas, at http://www.dontbuyalie.com there's a shot of Juno-winning rapper Kardinal Offishall in a recording studio, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the battle cry. Millionaire basketball player Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors is also involved.

Canadian authorities are taking steps to halt the counterfeiting, yet, according to the release, "the battle is far from won."

overheard 35 years ago in sears ladies fitting room. mom is buying teenage daughter a new pair of jeans. while daughter is in change room mom is bringing in various pairs for daughter to try on. daughter is bemoaning the jeans mom is bringing - "i can't wear these - they're not brand names" i felt sorry for the mom who was voicing her concern over the high cost of the more expensive brand names.

THEY ARE RIGHT - the battle is far from won when we who have much are so concerned about 'getting ours' and ignore those who have nothing.

God uses angels

or miracles to help us find our way, provide for our needs, or to encourage us.

what an encouragement to hear these stories. things are rough and you're struggling with whatever and maybe you wonder - is God really listening? will He really be there when i need him?

He is listening and He will be there when you need Him.

wow! what an awesoome God we serve.

footprints

another co-worker told us this story today. there is a drop-in centre for homeless youth in abbotsford where they can get something to eat, shower, do laundry, etc.

2 weeks ago when it had snowed a man found a youth standing out on the street in the cold @ 2:30 am. he told him he had to come in out of the cold and took him to cyrus centre. at 2:30 this youth is banging on the door and when the door was opened he told them he had to find God. the youth talked to the person at the door for a moment, explained that the man had brought him there and when they turned to talk to the older man he was nowhere to be found and there were only 1 set of footprints in the snow.

God is there when you need Him

the same friend told me that her dad (or uncle?) was travelling through the desert and was almost out of gas. there was nothing in sight for miles but when they crested a hill they saw a gas station. they filled up, talked to the owner for a bit and headed down the road. they returned the exact same way however the gas station they had stopped at previously was no where to be found.

He will provide what you need when you need it. no more, no less.

is God listening?

a friend wrote this today.

This is just a little encouragement on the Lords Goodness.

For those of you who do not know, without a healing from the Lord, my brother Mick is dying in the surrey cancer ward.

He is a Christian as is my whole family. There has been so much prayer on his behalf and for this we are so thankful.

As he has progressively gotten worse and the pain is uncontrollable even with the morphine, you begin to wonder in our human minds, if the Lord is hearing.

Yesterday we had an uplifting refreshing encouragement from the Lord.

We have a friend who is a trucker. He is a wonderful man but what you would call a typical trucker. He does dearly love the Lord, but does not get to church very often because of the long haul and varied schedule.

He was driving last week thru Oregon, which he has done often over the last many years. This time he noticed a restaurant on the side of the road that was called “Heaven on Earth”. He was curious so went in and ordered lunch. Just as he got his lunch, a woman came along with a bowl of soup and asked if she could sit with him. They discussed the hymns that were playing on the radio, and then she said to him “you need to go to the hospital and pray for your friend Mick”.

He was blown away and asked excuse me? She said you have a friend in the hospital named Mick right? You need to go pray for him.

He stated the obvious, I am just a trucker. She said you need to be obedient and not a Moses who told the Lord he was not worthy.

It took him 10 days round trip but yesterday he went to the hospital and with the nurses still working on Mick, and Mom and Dad and my sister in the room he told them the story and then just said a simple prayer for Mick.

Mom and Dad were so encouraged as well as his wife.

Dad said that no matter what happens, the Lord let us know that he hears and knows Mick’s name. What an incredible encouragement.

God is so good!

Isn’t it great to serve such an all loving God!

my friend also mentioned that this trucker who has been on this same route for many years had never noticed this restaurant before.