February Menu

• February 27      Shrimp Pasta – Enola
  March 6th          Spaghetti – Kathy
  March 13            Baked Potato Ba. – Lisa
  March 20            Bean Soup – Kathy B.
  March 27            Berakfast Casserole – Harriette

Call 488-8958 for further information on this study.

Scott Hemp and Jimmy Barnes are hosting a Bible study at the Barnes home 211 East Dearborne Street.  The study starts February 5th and meets every other Saturday.  The study is ‘The Nature of God’ a series from Gayle Erwin.

For information call

941-270-7670 or 941-460-3010

Burt

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I am sitting in Rachael’s spacious hospital room surrounded by the sounds of monitor buzzers and beeps.   My mind jumps back and forth between fear and worry.  What is going to happen in the future?  But things are calm and peaceful and I have been given what I need to do the work God has given me with Rachael for the day.

ANGER

“Dear God, how did we get here?  The circumstances that lead up to this are so bad” Then I remember God’s sovereignty, all things are filtered through his loving hands and He knows what is best for all of us in my little family, especially Rachael.

CONFUSION

She had come so far, only one month of school to finish and she will have completed 2 years of Bible College.  How many of us have done that?  For a child that I never thought would read or live on her own, she has already done the impossible in my mind.  Rachael’s life has already been a huge miracle.  We had such great plans for the future.   What are you doing God?  I see no good in this!

But the scripture I copied today on a little 10X10 dry erase board kept staring me in the face all day –

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding”.    Proverbs 3:5

I desperately searched for some way to rest this in my mind.

Three hours had already passed with me sitting and holding Rachael’s hand gently talking to her about home and school coupled with periods of anxiously pacing back and forth at a feverish pace, just wanting to run away.  I finally walked down to the lunchroom to eat my lunch.   I sat alone, watching the different members of the staff come in and catch up on each others lives, carrying on with life as they consider usual.  I was irritated by the television in the background showing some old daytime soap opera that has been around since I was a child.  So there I sat, irritated, confused and angry.   Then God started to speak to me.

“Nancy, you do not have to understand this. (Prov 3:5)   Your lives are not your own, (1 Corin 6:19-20) they are Mine and I will do with them as I please. (Psalm 135:6)  This is for My purpose and glory. (Romans 11:36)  As far as you needing to understand what work I am doing through this, it is not My will that you need to know.  Continue to trust that My work is being done. You and Rachael, my precious daughters are only asked to get through today. (Matt 6:34)  Look what I have done for you.  I have provided a facility near your home and your work with very competent staff and equipment. (Matt 6:33)  The 12 hours of visiting time I’ve allowed gives you ample time to minister to her spiritual needs as well as giving you cart blanche in participating in her care.  Little by little just like her healing, (Psalm 102:3) I will teach you to care for her and show you her needs in a far more detailed way than anyone can show you. (Exodus 35:35)  Keep watching, hearing and working.

Remember, I’ve asked you to wait and

“… but those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

I am gaining strength!  Thank you my faithful Lord Jesus

Keep Praying.  The pulmonary specialist verified that Rachael is able to swallow.  Rachael has been setup in a chair at times during the day.  Nancy noticed that while she was brushing Rachael’s hair, Rachael was doing some of the work of holding her head up.  We still do not have any localized, voluntary response to commands yet.

We both now understand via the Scriptures we have been lead in the Spirit to read and words from members of the body that God is asking us to wait.  He is doing a great work in and through Rachael and basically does not want this healing to happen quickly.  We are learning a whole new level of trust in Him.

Nancy is back at school part-time in the morning.   Calvary Chapel School is a place where much work for the Lord is being done through the teachers, leadership, support staff and quite surprisingly (or not if you are use to this place) the children.   It is an uplifting place.

Psalm 25:3a

“Indeed none of those who wait for You will be ashamed”

Your prayers for Nancy and I are breaking down incredible strongholds and revealing blind spots.  God is doing a big heart work job on us.  We have been lifted up by your prayers.  People wonder how we hold up and we can answer “because of Christ and prayers from the body.”  Please continue to pray for Daniel and Hanna as well.

Last night Hanna said “I think God is talking to Rachael and he is telling her that ‘I am done talking to you, your family needs you and it is time to wake up’.”  We do need her.

Calvary Chapel in Sarasota has had a prayer fast for the church over the past few days and Rachael has been lifted up in prayer by those warriors.

More later, just wanted to send a quick update.  We have been pretty busy as of late and not able to update as quickly as we wish we could.

Please continue to pray.  I have started a dialog with an orphanage in India run by Pastor Peter Palani that is now praying for Rachael.  We have heard from folks that a prayer chain in Egypt is also praying.   This is simply overwhelming and we praise God for all that is being done via prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you visit Rachael, please keep in mind these things:

She is very susceptible to infection.  If someone in your family is sick with a virus but you are ok, you are still carrying the virus and we request you wait until the virus has passed through your family before visiting.

Please don’t dismiss symptoms you are having as “allergies acting up” .  Please be symptom free.

Bacteria are everywhere.  When you visit, if you plan to hold her hand, please wear a gown and put on gloves.  These items are at the door as you walk in to her room.

Please  understand, a cold could be fatal.  Please consider this when visiting.  Being that I am around so many kids, I gown up and glove up when I go in after being at school.
Most importantly, we ask that you are there to visit with Rachael.  Not console  us.  Rachael needs the stimulation of talking, singing and reading of scripture.

You don’t need to speak loud, as I was doing earlier at ICU, if she is hearing she is hearing normal volumes.
If there are several people in the room, Please do not make it a room of chatter.  This could be very confusing and frustrating to a person in a coma.  Talk normally, and take turns one at a time.
Again we ask for you to pray with her, read scripture and if so gifted, sing in worship to our Lord with her.

Our Prayer requests are for her to get off the trache tube and for her to be healed.  Pray also for our family.

Thank you and Keep the prayers coming!

Burt

Monday, 1/17 is our 2nd year anniversary.  Pray for us as it has been hard over the past few weeks but we are focused on our Lord and helping each other to take thoughts captive and be obedient.  Today after church, with Pastor Bob presiding, Nancy and I solidly, tearfully but joyfully renewed our vows to each other at the altar before the Lord.  It was a very intimate moment that God setup while Ray White was playing piano.  All pretty much unplanned but done with permission from our Lord.

Good news!  Today, Rachael lifted her left arm several times and turned her left wrist.  Two nurses have offered reports.  One stated that she thought Rachael was ‘tracking her’ or following her with her eyes the other night.  Another stated that when she called Rachael’s name, Rachael’s eyes opened wide in immediate response.  None of these things can be considered  official signs of waking but it gives us and the nurses here at Health South hope.  Her white blood count is normal  so it looks like the infection has been dealt with.  Thanks again to Dr. Clemmons.

Today, Eddie Aguiliera showed up with a friend of his, Javier to worship, it was a very uplifting time.  They played and sang to Rachael.  Yesterday a friend of ours, Faith Beauchamp sang so sweetly several old hymns, some new ones and just brought such a peace with the gifts God has given her.

Hanna’s birthday was Saturday.  She is 9!  On Thursday when Daniel got home there was a box left on our doorstep.  It was sweetly addressed to Miss Hannah.  It was signed by “someone in God’s family”  Upon opening it she had a brand new American Girl doll!  What a sweet blessing to a little girl.  Hanna shrieked when she opened it.  Thank you to the wonderful saint that thought so kindly of Hanna.

Nancy has placed a dry erase board up in the room.  Each day there is a new verse.

There is so much more to share.  In another update, possibly tonight, we will share more.

Rachael is now free of the nasogastric tube and has completed the Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) which permits her to be fed directly to her stomach.

Today she took several breaths of non-hospital oxygen.   Keep in mind she is completely off of the ventilator and breathing on her own.

Her eyes are open quite often but she is not seeing yet nor is she responding to any visual stimulus.

She will soon be moved out of ICU to a local Health Care facility that specializes in people in and coming out of a coma.

Nancy and I realize we need the rest to keep from falling in the flesh and sinning.  It is hard.  We had a quiet afternoon with Hanna for a few hours.  Daniel started his final semester at SCF.

Many of you have sent cards and we so appreciate them.  The notes to lovetorachael@gmail.com are inspiring and uplifting and I do hope she can hear them.  Keep them coming please.

With so many verses focusing on fighting battles and healing, we found one note from a friend of Rachael’s that says it so well:

Psalm 27:14

Rachael is resting comfortably this evening.  Tomorrow, Rachael will be moved to a health care facility.  If the Lord wants us to wait longer after the amount of time He wills for her to stay at the facility, we will.  We will wait for Him to move with Rachael in her own house with us.

Our lives are of course changing and we will have a new normal around here.  This will be the last update on Rachael.  The next one you get will be sharing the news of her voluntary repeatable response from command.  That is our immediate prayer.  There is so much to pray on though.  Not just with Rachael but for all the unsaved we have crossed paths with over the past days.   There is so much hopelessness out there.  If you are saved by the blood of Christ, be the light in the dark world.  There is hope in our Lord.  We need to tell people.

Thank you all.  God has richly blessed Rachael in her slumber.  He has blessed us.   We continue to pray for and anticipate her complete recovery

Burt

A second culture was taken just a few minutes ago (10:15am  EST).  They have to follow protocol to respond to the possibiltity that the infection exists due to the one culture returning positive.  This protocol involves changes to IV’s etc. and removal of the ‘pick’ line that can further complicate things.

Please pray that  Rachael is clear of the blood infection and that God provides discernment in pulling her ‘pick’  line vs. waiting 24 hours for the new culture to grow if there is an infection.

Burt

Today, Rachael was completely off the ventilator.  No more vent!! The prayers are working!!  Rachael offered expressions today as well as opening her eyes without ‘noxious’ stimulus.  She is not able to ‘track’ people with her eyes we are not sure if she is  seeing yet.  We are cautious now on what we consider major moves.  Now that she is breathing on her own (major move!), her fever appears to be trending lower, and she is opening her eyes, we are praying that she will recognize us or give us a verifiable voluntary move.  We thought earlier hand squeezes etc. were voluntary and verifiable.  This is not so.  Actually, we found out that a squeeze of the hand is not a good indicator of neurological healing.  Pointing on command, wiggling a toe on command, opening and closing eyes on command all are.  Via command, these are indications of higher brain functions than reflexes.  The reflexes are controlled by the brain stem and  Rachael’s appears to be working quite well.  An indication of a big move will be a repeatable movement by command.  Please focus prayer on that.

On Monday Rachael will get the feeding tube removed and replaced by a G Tube that will add to her comfort.

One of the pulmonary specialists stated that Rachael hit her hand in response to noxious stimuli.  We thought that great news.  Not that she should be hitting people but we will take whatever  we can get.

Words of encouragement for Rachael continue to pour into the email of lovetorachael@gmail.com.  Keep them coming.

We were sent a rough draft of a song from Big D (Denise) called ‘Why Should I Worry’.  It was an incredible and timely word that touched us deeply.  It is amazing how God works corporately.

Music ministers to us and Rachael and Phil Wickham’s song “In My Love” is another that has spoken to our hearts.

A dear brother in Christ, Milt Seiler taught at our Men’s Breakfast on the experiential knowledge of Christ and how we can take a helathy look back at our past and test our growth in Christ.   He discussed how the  knowledge Peter speaks of in these verses is not the knowledge of God one gets from studying the Word which is highly important, but knowledge by the experiences of a personal relationship with Christ.  It was from 2 Peter 1   1-9.   In Verse 4 Milt highlighted the wonderful promise that we can partake in the divine nature.  Also in Rachael’s daily devotional it spoke of Peter’s change from an objective relationship with a Prophet that could heal to a personal one with Jesus when Christ filled Peters net until it broke.  Peter had witnessed other healings, including his  own mother-in-law but this miracle struck Peter to the heart and as it says in Luke 5:9 ‘

9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;

• Tracheotomy – Much easier to maintain, more comfort, less chance of bacterial infection.
• Breathing independently – No more ventilator
• Several instances of eye lids opening, blinking and closing.
• Good eye reaction to light.
• Lower Temp
• G Tube on Monday

We are encouraged, especially with Rachael now free of the vent, breathing on her own.

Please keep your prayers moving along.  As we all get busy and back to life, we tend to forget that personal relationship that we have with our Lord.  We do not need to be knee bent, head bowed, hands clasped to get a prayer to God.  We do need to remain obedient, we do need to take the pause to pray and we must not doubt that our prayers are being heard.  They are and they are effective!  Always remembering that His will be done.

Please pray for God to permit Rachael a voluntary sign that can be repeated.

We thank you guys for all the prayer.  You are incredible.