Archive
for Bill & Sue's Journal
Saturday afternoon, August 14, 2010
It
seems that during these past month, when we haven’t been in seeing
doctors the time is spent recuperating at home. Sue’s surgery went well
and we’re thankful for that. The doctors have been pleased with her
progress and that no complications occurred (outside of a bladder
infection). Their major concern was that she doesn’t have a spleen,
thus she has no immune system.
Life
has gone on though. We really haven’t missed too much. Along with
nursing duties and doctor appointments, there’s cooking, doing laundry,
buying groceries and other outside work when someone was able to come
in to keep track of Sue.
I’ve kept up with
most church responsibilities. Even on the
weekend of the surgery and the day of her release from the hospital, I
preached. We did miss a church soup supper
(which we have each winter, hot or cold weather!) and a prayer vigil,
but that was about it. Discipleships,
ministry team, youth group (and training a couple couples to lead in
the near future), and preaching for Father’s Day last Sunday as part of
Family month has kept me involved. Sue’s
first outing was to church service last Sunday for Father’s Day.
My
discipleship with Filipe - a young man literally saved out of a life of
drugs, drinking and women, who came to me saying that he was trying to
fill an emptiness in his life that only Jesus could fill - has been one
of the high points of this year. Each week
he
comes with something new – one week, while reading a book we give new
believers, he understood that he had to tell others about Jesus, and he
started by telling his parents about his decision and the change Jesus
made in his life; then he came having read
through the book of Matthew as well as the letters of John (he’s now
reading through the book of John); still another week he wanted to pray
“out loud” with me because he had so much to thank God for; and then
this past week he invited one of his friends to come to the
discipleship to hear what we were studying in the Bible. Many believers
here won’t pray out loud or try to read even a short book of the Bible,
let alone talk with others about salvation.
On our wedding
anniversary, the 11th,
I took Sue out to get her hair cut, followed by lunch out at a
restaurant, and ending the day out at the doctors for another post-op
examination. She was exhausted by the time
we got home, but liked getting out after a month.
Last night, we went
out to the fifteenth birthday party of one of the kids from our youth
group (see photos on our blog - http://spoelhof-brazilnuts.blogspot.com/
). In Brazil, the fifteenth birthday party
is a big event for girls, on the scale of a wedding.
It
was an invitation only party and the invitation had to be presented at
the door to get in. We arrived a little before eleven at night, and
things were just getting going. There were about three hundred people
celebrating inside the club with other wannabes waiting outside. The
theme was Phantom of the Opera, and the place was decorated like an
opera house with a large chandelier above the center of the room with
fog machines. The guys at the bar, mixing different kinds of great
tasting non-alcoholic tropical fruit drinks, wore phantom masks. The
food kept coming nonstop all night. Around
mid-night, Ingrid came down a staircase in her fancy gown, making her
entrance to dance a waltz with her dad. From
there the DJ took over. Sue was tired, and we felt it best to head
home, but it was a fun night out.
Today,
not much is going on beyond my finishing up the study for tonight’s
youth group, and this time to touch base and let folks know that we’re
still hanging in here.
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