Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I Believe He's My Healer

Do you need a hero today? Watch this video and be reminded of who God is. This story is not over, but it reminds us of what God wants us to be in the midst of the storms.



Watch the song here in it's entirity:

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Dax Ottinger

Last year I posted a prayer request about a little boy named Dax. He is adopted by a precious family who I think has a three other adopted children. When this family adopted him they knew he had had some special health issues, but they adopted him anyway knowing he was a gift from God. Last year he was having serious health issues, and his doctors put him on a liver transplant list. Well, he waited a year, stayed fairly healthy, and a few days ago got his liver. The transplant went amazingly well, but yesterday and today he got a fever, and the doctors think his body may be rejecting his liver. Please pray for this little boy and his family.

Go to their blog and pray for them. Get to know them and let them know that someone that doesn't even know them are sharing their burden.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

My all time favorite post!

I could watch this every day and it still bring tears to my eyes. It just reminds me that all of us have something special inside of us that God wants to use to inspire the world when they see it. It could be something like Hugh Hollowell, who is amazing to watch minister to the homeless; the character of an athlete who falls down but gets back up determined to finish even though they know they will no longer have a chance of winning; or a talent that inspires those who watch. What is it about you that makes you special... and how does God want to use it?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Lordy Lordy My Husband Turns 40 today!

Please feel free to email him and give him a hard time: ken@catalystfrance.org or find him on Face Book under "Ken Witcher"

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Emergency Room and a Deer

Last Thursday night was a normal Thursday night. The kids were in bed, Ken and I were wading through a messy house without the energy to clean it, wanting to sit down at our computers and check our emails and read a few blogs. Ken decided to take a shower and I decided to take the top layer off the kitchen. After a little cleaning I went back to ask him a question and he mentioned that he felt really dizzy in the shower. Neither one of us thought anything about it until he continued to be dizzy after about 30 minutes, especially when he layed his head back; he said the room spun in circles. I looked up "vertigo" on the computer and it basically said Vertigo was a symptom of something else sometimes serious and you should see a physician as soon as possible. We thought we would wait a little bit and let him rest, but when this continued for about 45 minutes and being accompanied by nausea and shortness of breath probably from anxiety, we called the nurse line. After a lengthy conversation about symptoms and family history (father had a quadruple bypass at 55) the nurse said she thought he might be having a heart attack and should call an ambulance.

Well, my husband along with the majority of our family would need to be passed out and in serious distress to call an ambulance. So we called a neighbor, to watch the kids until my mother could get here, and gathered our things and got in the car to go to the hospital. I was a little nervous thinking I may have to call 911 from the road and was reviewing my CPR skills in my head and I began to think if I would have to break his ribs to do effective CPR... but we made it to the hospital... and let me just tell you a secret. If you have to go to the emergency room tell them you have chest pain, or that a nurse from a nurse line said she thought you were having a heart attack... you will get rushed in and immediately attended to...niiiiice.

Well, after about 45 minutes of initial monitoring, they put him took him to the "heart" wing of the hospital to monitor him for a few more hours. They had taken some blood to test his heart enzymes and they needed to wait 3 hours to check it again. At that point is was 12:45am, and I was thinking I should have called the ambulance. So I told my husband I loved him, and to tell the nurses I would be in the grey Honda Oddessy; just knock on the back window if they needed me. I will be sleeping in the back seat... you think I'm kidding...

I awoke around 3:45 and went back in to find they were releasing him. The doctor said he really thought Ken had a bad case of Vertigo which may have been caused by a strange virus he had had the week before and may come back off and on for a few weeks. He said his heart seemed fine from their monitors, but went ahead and scheduled him for a heart stress test next week. So we packed up our things, thanked the nice nurses, thanked the Lord that we had not called an ambulance, and loaded back in the car to let my mom go home and get some sleep and mourn the sleep that we will not get as we greet our children as they awoke... or at least the sleep I will not get.

As we were driving home at 4:30am chatting about the nights events, right before we went through the town that is closest to us, a deer came flying across the road from my left. Now in all these split seconds as I felt relief knowing I was barely going to miss this animal, a second deer came out of the woods right behind him leaving me no option but to hit him straight on never swerving never loosing control, but watching him spin about 3 times on his side into the ditch on the left hand side of the road and still moving his head when he stopped.

While I was yelling, "I can't believe I killed a deer," and was even more in shock of the nights events, Ken told me we needed to stop and look at the damage. "Damage?" I said. "You think the car is messed up?" Well, we stopped and sure enough the whole drivers side was crushed in. I couldn't believe the damage. Well, were able to drive it home, and then to the body shop the next day and they took it from us immediately saying it was undriveable. So now we have a cool Chevy Impala with a sunroof that does not fit our entire family.

God has such a sense of humor. Thank you Lord that my husband is alive; that you have forced him to get his heart checked, and that I have a cool car to drive if daddy's not with us (something I will not experience for many more years I'm sure).

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Love Wins Always

Go to Love Wins Always to see more about our experience at our 4th of July picnic. Hugh Hollowell is an amazing man who lives among the poor in the inner-city of Raleigh and truly loves them like Jesus. I have always thought our family would do our duty once a year to go and feed the homeless on Thanksgiving or Christmas when our kids got old enough, but after meeting Hugh through his blog and then in person at the 4th of July picnic, I have thought, no I would rather do what Hugh does. Anyone can slop food on a plate without ever making eye contact or saying anything more than a "hi", but if you read and see how Hugh enters into peoples lives... it is just amazing. It is truly what Jesus would look like if He were to live in downtown Raleigh. I saw what Hugh sees, hurting people in really tough places with not many who really care about the long run of their life.

Please also pray about supporting Hugh or get your church involved. He is doing a ministry that almost no one wants to do. I dirty, it's messy, it's hard, there are probably more disappointments than rejoicing sometimes, but isn't that what Jesus dealt with when He walked on the earth. Not many people followed him, even some of his closest friends betrayed him but he did it because He loved... and Love won in the end.

A small disclaimer

I feel like my last post needs a little clarity. It probably was not as harsh as it sounds, but we all know how we walk in a room and say things in a way we did not exactly mean to say them. That was sort of the situation last night. Months ago I still would have had an extreme response, but I was just so surprised by how I responded, and I wasn't mad or frustrated or piously spiritual, I was just calmly happy... and it really shocked me. During all this I was able to hear God speak to me while I was cleaning. It was such an awesome experience.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

A Miracle of a different kind

When we think of miracles, we typically think of someone being healed of something, a stray person coming to know the Lord, financial blessing at just the right time..., but I don't think we rejoice enough in this type of miracle or really even give it much voice...

Tonight my husband came down after spending time putting the kids to bed, while I sat resting for a few minutes at the computer, and he said, "Are you reading blogs? I hate coming downstairs after putting the kids to bed and having to spend time cleaning the kitchen when I just want to sit down and rest."

Now for all of you out there who don't know me well, I spend all day every day on my feet mostly cooking, cleaning, schooling, disciplining, breaking up fights, refereeing arguments, attempting to train good behavior, changing diapers, running up and down the stairs, more disciplining, and more similar activities... chasing after 4 kids 4 and 1/2 years apart (wishing I could fit a run in to keep me sane) ... While my husband, sweet man that he is, sits at a desk all day, except for the break he takes at lunch to run 3-4 miles while listening to his ipod, and drives in a quiet car to and from work listening to sermons or music, or just sits in silence sometimes praying...

Now I do not know why I responded this way, but in the past you probably would have seen fire come out of my eyes with that comment, and an argument or anger or coldness that would have lasted well into the night and possibly a few days with the expectation of sincere groveling and penance. But tonight, when he said that, I sat there for a second, then quietly got up and began cleaning the kitchen. Even while it was happening I felt like it was an out of body experience. I thought, "Why am I doing this? Why didn't I say anything. What is wrong with me?" And then it hit me, and I wanted to leap out of my skin and throw a party. Something in my "spirit" took over in that situation and I did the right thing!!!! I responded to my husband with respect and honor. I honestly cannot ever remember responding like that in any similar situation. And then I thought, "We can go to France!!!!"

One thing that has been on my heart for the past year is that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, basically meaning, what is inside comes out when we are put under pressure, and I can assure you that alot has come out of me these past 10 years of marriage that is not good. And I have been very broken and have spent much time in prayer and in scripture about it this this past year... and I just saw the first fruits of my labor... and wow it was beautiful.

So the reason I share this is not because I want you to think my husband is a jerk, because he is not (I will share what he did for our 10th anniversary). I think God just has to allow us to go through things sometimes to show us we need to grow more because there is something bad on the inside. Or he wants to show us that we have broken a bondage that we have been under, and now when put under pressure good comes out.

Tonight I saw a miracle of a different kind, and it was beautiful.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Happy 4th of July!!

I always seem to be a day late with most of my holiday greetings; birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc. ... so...

Happy Independence Day!!! Hope your holiday was as awesome as ours!! We celebrated our 10th anniversary on the 3rd, helped feed the homeless on the in downtown Raleigh on the 4th, went to a Mudcats game with family on the 4th, watched our first fireworks show in 7 years after the game , and then went to an all day track meet for our oldest son on the 5th squeezing in a Saturday night church service at a not yet launched church plant we feel God has led us to be a part of in downtown Raleigh.

It was an amazing holiday with "the cookout with the homeless" being the highlight of the weekend. They were so kind to us and our kids, and it made me realize they are real people with lives and families and pasts, and parents who rejoiced at their birth... I met two guys specifically named Thomas and James. I was blessed by my conversation with them, and you could see it made them feel special that someone would treat them like a person. I found out that James had a son that was hit by a car and killed when he was 9 and a few other things about his life. I found out that Thomas was about to turn 40 and we joked about mid-life crisis. One man gave Phelicia a little "4th of July" toy airplane still in the plastic bag that he had probably picked up off the ground at some celebration in downtown Raleigh. It was so precious though, because he actually came up to me and asked if he could give it to her, and then gave it to me to hand to her. The respect that these people gave to Ken and I and our kids was amazing. Ken met a guy who had been in the military the same time he was, and they probably served close to the same time in Panama in the 80's.

I left there feeling more fulfilled than just about anything else I have done in my life... and I have done alot, especially in the name of "ministry". I felt like I was Jesus to some people that have heard alot about Jesus, but have not seen the unconditional love of Jesus in their life. I am so excited to go back and continue in these relationships, and make more friends. I realized these are people with hopes and dreams and hurts and families... we call them "homeless", but they are people who were given names at birth with the hopes that they would succeed in this thing called life. I do not know why they are not able to sleep and cook and live with a roof over their heads right now in their lives, but all I know is Jesus loves them, and He does not call them, "homeless". He calls them by name, and He says "you are special", and "I have a purpose for creating you, "and "I love you and care about where you are at."

I may write more on some of this later... but for now enjoy your holiday!! and I pray God will get you out of your comfort zone and rock your world like He has done in mine.