Church

27 Mar

Posted at 14:12h in Church, Missions by

Mary has been on the chemo now since Friday afternoon and it is making her extremely sick.  She had to receive more blood and platelets on top of that yesterday.  The chemo is causing a great deal of pain and she pretty much all of the other side effects that chemo treatment brings.  Bro. Bob stated that they have her sedated, but the pain is too much.  She just lays there in a fetal position and they try to get the nausea under control.  There was a moment of levity on the phone when he was explaining that he doesn't do well with vomit and that he has to keep a bucket going for him too.  Dawn is on her...

25 Mar

Posted at 10:48h in Church by

After a difficult night of fighting fevers and then being treated for some kind of infection, the doctors told Mary on Thursday afternoon that she has a type of Leukemia that responds well to chemo.  Of course with hers being so far along, that poses some issues.  Her chemo treatments have been put off as she waited for these test results and because of the fevers, and need for blood transfusions.  This news from the doctor is good news and has lifted Bob and Mary's spirits.  They decided on attempting to start the chemo on Friday. Thursday night was another hard night for her, with temperatures reaching 104 degrees and receiving more blood.  She is exhausted, but they are starting the...

23 Mar

Posted at 21:59h in Church by
As many of you know, Bob & Mary Johnston have come off of the field temporarily due to Mary having Leukemia.  She has been sick for some time now and following some testing and a diagnosis in the Dominican Republic, they decided to come back.  She was too weak to travel so she received several transfusions and once she was able to they got off the plane and headed straight to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.

08 Feb

Posted at 16:47h in Church by

I had been waiting for the results from a bunch of blood tests where the doctors were checking to see if anything else was attacking my kidneys, and they all came back negative or normal.  The plan they have for me now is to preserve my kidney function for as long as possible and to monitor the protein leak and kidney function with blood and urine tests. I will not be going on any medications until the protein level changes or I become symptomatic.  I have to find some new pain killers other than NSAIDS, and find some "granola" ways of keeping inflammation under control.  My diet will remain a low salt, low fat, low protein, low fun one with keeping...

04 Feb

Posted at 01:12h in Church by
Well I went today to see a Nephrologist in Seattle.  I had some more blood tests among some other things, and got to spend quite a bit of time with him.  Based on my medical history and the tests thus far, here are today's conclusions: I have been diagnosed with two things.  One is what is called "thin basement membrane disease".  This disease allows blood to leak into my kidneys, and is mostly benign with a small percentage of people having progressing problems from there.  My other "possible" problem is "iGa Nephrothapy " -  this is a kidney disorder that occurs when IgA—a protein that helps the body fight infections—settles in the kidneys. After many years, the IgA deposits may cause the kidneys to leak blood and sometimes protein in the urine. While 25% of adults with iGa develop end-stage renal failure, if this is what I have, I increase the percentage due to the fact the TBMD is leaking blood and protein into the kidneys too.  If you wonder what these things are, or want more information, you can google it (been talking about it all day...kinda don't want to anymore).

01 Feb

Posted at 16:23h in Church by
I wanted to post a thank you to all of you who have been praying for me the last couple of weeks.  I also wanted to post what has been going on and will update the blog when I find anything else out or have any procedures.  Here is what has been going on... The men in my church wanted me to increase the life insurance that I have, so I had my agent set me up with another policy and order the physical exam.  After the labs got back, the insurance broker sent me a letter indicating that my insurance would be "rated" because of a high microalbumin/creatinine levels in my urine sample.  I thought this was odd, so I asked my doctor to run labs to prove them wrong.  The labs the doctor ran came back worse than the insurance ones though.

17 Jan

Posted at 19:58h in Church by

It has been a little while since I have been on here to blog.  I will try to do better.  As I was thinking about what I might post, the first thing that came to mind was a few prayer requests.  There are about a million that I could put here, but I would like to ask you to pray for just a couple that I have from the past couple of days: 1.  Please pray for Julie...

24 Dec

Posted at 13:27h in Church by
“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; ” (Ephesians 4:14) I am amused at the comments I have received in response to an earlier post on the False Doctrine of Calvinism.  I have received some (which I had to remove) on the blog, some emails, and phone calls by those trying to defend their Calvinistic positions or to criticize me for mine. Many of the arguments are sad distortions of Biblical truth with a cult-like twisting of context and an ignoring of the whole counsel of God.  But to be quite frank, much of what has been said has been silly at best.  I have chosen not to respond to the comments for many reasons, but do want to let all of you know that the intention of my post was to warn the people that I pastor, some pastor friends, and some churches (all who I dearly love), about the resurgence of Calvinism and Reformed Theology in fundamentalism.  I will not engage in debate, regardless of how tempting it may be to do so.  If I personally know you...I will try to help you with the questions you may have.

22 Dec

Posted at 18:27h in Church by
'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck... How to live in a world that's politically correct? His workers no longer would answer to "Elves", "Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves. And labor conditions at the north pole Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul. Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety, Released to the wilds by the Humane Society. And equal employment had made it quite clear That Santa had better not use just reindeer.

18 Dec

Posted at 15:47h in Church by
Matthew 25:32–33, “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” In reply to some of the colorful responses I have received regarding my recent posts on Calvinism I would like to say a few things… One individual said, “Pastor, I find it rather deceptive that you post an inacurrate description of what Calvinists believe, and then in the sidebar of your blog you have a Tweet where you are quoting the Calvinist Jonathan Edwards.” First of all, I don’t believe my description of Calvinism to be “inaccurate” at all.  I am an opponent of Calvinism, so I expect those in favor of that doctrine to not agree with my take on it.