"Still Waters Artist" - a poem for the storm

We WILL have hard times on this earth, that's guaranteed!  Jesus said, " In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."  (John 16:33)



                                                   Still Waters Artist

                                                                                                                                           
   Jesus,

   When pain is a storm that my boat unmoors,
   You turn my eyes to still waters' shores.
   With artistic wisdom uniquely yours,
   You re-weave the peace that my soul restores,    

                          touching and teaching me through my tears,
                          lovingly lifting me from my fears
                          up toward the clearness of Son-lit spheres
                          where yours is the Music that my heart hears;          

                                              
               painting me portraits of divine Grace,
               setting each detail into its place,
               sculpting Eternity's Time and Space,
               which someday I'll share with You face-to-face.

The rage of the storm seems more faint and blurred
when all through your artwork your Voice is heard.
I watch and I listen, my senses stirred
by a Poem composed of the Perfect Word.

                    As power dances deftly at your command
                    and kindles the strength that I need to stand,
                    You draw me a map of your Father's Land,
                    where someday I'll walk with You, hand-in-hand.

                                   No, storms that unmoor can't compete with You.
                                   You hold me through all that the storms might do;
                                   You steady my hope, once more prove it's true
                                    that You love me far more than I ever knew!
                                                                                                               --Becky Rhon
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During the three years we spent in Dallas, attempting to raise enough support to be able to return to Quito as full-fledged members of HCJB, we went through some pretty rough times.    Many storms unmoored our boat. And He held us through them all!

If you are reading this and you feel like your boat is in a storm, take heart!  Jesus loves you far more than you'll ever know!

I'll continue our story next time.  God bless you and give you peace.

"I started to die!" - Germán

If you haven't read the previous post, PLEASE do so now, before you read this one. You need to have the background of the events surrounding my husband's hospital stay, and the awesomely incredible way God provided for us during that time.  (Go ahead...I'll wait!)

So what happened? First, here are some excerpts from his diary, to flesh out the story:

"At 2:00 p.m. on Jan.14, I was being hospitalized...fifth floor, room 532; this was my place of meditation for long hours...if it befell me to die, was I prepared to go? Yes...I felt peace; several days before entering the hospital I had cleared up loose ends with my Lord...He was the one who comforted me.  A hospital is a place to meditate on how short life is here on Earth, on the eternity we have yet to know, on the people here...whether they are ready...

"They took me to the OR the next day.  The anesthetist was the only one I knew.  My doctors weren't there!  Then a doctor introduced himself, 'I'm from England. I'm going to do your tracheotomy.'*...what could I say? (Glad to meet you! Go right ahead, but be careful!?) ...put me to sleep for 4 1/2 hours...at noon they woke me up...'Mr. Rhon, how many fingers am I holding up?' 'Two.' ...intensive care unit...try to figure out if any part of me was missing!  I had no voice...but it wasn't the time to tell anyone what had happened. 

"On the 16th...'Mr. Rhon, you're improving quickly.'  I answered, 'I'd improve even more quickly if they'd give me something to EAT!'  I hadn't eaten anything since the 14th...Now I could communicate; they had put a plug in my tracheostomy tube...with it covered, my vocal chords would work...In the ICU children weren't allowed to visit...finally I was back in room 532...how happy my kids were to finally see me, and I them.  Debbie had drawn some lovely pictures for me...I put them on the wall...

"Nine days in the hospital...how wonderful to get HOME and be able to REST!...I had lost 15 pounds. I'm sure I didn't sleep more than a total of 12 hours in those 9 days."

Once he was home, he wrote down his experiences and shared them with me. His most vivid and long-lasting memory is of the moment when he suddenly felt himself leave his body and everything around it and start shooting up toward bright light.  Not "a" bright light (like in the picture), just bright light - all around, it was all light, so intense it filled everything, but didn't hurt his eyes.  It was like he was in an elevator, rushing up into the light.  There was beautiful, sublime music all around, that gave him a profound sense of peace and tranquility.  It was indescribable...precious. He felt such joy, and was praising God with all his being.  He was going up to meet Him!

Then, suddenly, the "elevator" stopped and he was back in his body, waking up on the operating table.  One of the nurses said, "Mr. Rhon, we almost lost you!"  

 (* Fortunately, I had mentioned Germán's apnea to the surgeon, who was SO glad to have that information; he said performing a tracheotomy before the actual surgery would give them a chance if he stopped breathing on the table. Even so, he slipped away from them for a few moments before they could bring him back.)
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Once again, God was so good, not only caring for Germán during a potentially dangerous procedure, but also giving him the overwhelming gift of a foretaste of His heavenly Love and Joy and Peace.  Has anyone reading this ever had a similar experience? I'd be interested to know about it.

God bless you all this week, and fill you with His Peace.

Acro...WHAT? Oh. Never heard of it. But God had...and He was ready!

After the disappointment of realizing that we didn't have a high enough support level to go back to Ecuador, we geared up for another year in Dallas. A couple months later we found out what one of God's reasons was.  Germán had for some years been troubled by something nobody could put a finger on.  His cheeks, tongue, fingers, and other tissues were growing and thickening. (It's hard to describe!)  He already had very thick fingers, and I remember when we bought our wedding rings, he had to have his enlarged; now that ring didn't fit him, and he had it re-enlarged.  His cheeks seemed to have a pleat in them.  And he'd scare me at night with his apnea.

I asked my endocrinologist if he had any idea what kind of a specialist Germán should see, given his condition.  The doctor told me to bring my husband along so he could have a look (no charge).  Almost the moment he saw him, he said, "You have acromegaly." It's caused when the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone.  (If he'd had it before puberty, he could have become an eight-foot giant!) The underlying reason is usually a tumor on the gland.  So the doctor referred us to a surgeon...and then asked if he could take "before and after" pictures! (It's not a very common condition.)

On the way to the neurosurgeon for the first appointment, in August of 1990, we talked about the best time for the surgery.  Germán would need something like three months off the job to recuperate, and he wouldn't be paid, although since his boss really liked him, he was keeping his job open for him.  We decided the best time would be in January ('91), several months away.  We asked the surgeon if it was alright to wait, and he said it was fine, as the tumor was not fast-growing. We heard later that some of our kith and kin in Ecuador (and who knows where else!) criticized us for waiting so long, as if we were afraid to confront the issue.  (Just get it done with, already!)  But Germán had a logical reason.  He was the foreman of his shift at work, and he knew the production pattern for the year.  He knew that in the winter there was much less demand, and production slowed way down.  That was the best time to be away from the job.

NOW...enter God! (Actually, He'd been there all along, of course, but now we started seeing Him work again through others.)  Around Thanksgiving, when I picked up our kids from school one day, the teachers handed me several bags of groceries- everything needed for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. (Debbie had asked for prayer for her dad, but hadn't mentioned that we'd be income-less come January.)  Around Christmas, we got a phone call asking if we were going to be home. They didn't say who was calling.  Then a car drove up and several people started bringing in large boxes, and more boxes...Christmas gifts, foodstuffs, and coupons for perishables, including a turkey.  I had tears in my eyes. Apparently our pastor had asked City Hall to add us to their list of Christmas donations for the needy!   At some time, maybe after the surgery, I was called to the church, given a couple of big boxes and told to fill them from the church's "pantry" of donated foodstuffs.

Next act: my parents wrote about what we were going through in one of their prayer letters, and we knew we had more people praying for us...but not only that.  We started getting checks in the mail!  I can't remember amounts (just that one was a check for $1000!), but the $5 ones were as much appreciated as the $25 or the several-hundred-dollar ones. God had people send us a little more than what Germán would have made from his salary at work for those three months!

Then we had the expenses, not only the surgery, but the specialist appointments, which were way above our affordability! We worked something out with the hospital, and then with the surgeon.  My Dad had flown up to help out (another gift from God), and he asked the doctor if it was OK for us to pay his fee little by little (like $20 a month).   Fine, said the doctor.  Not too long after, we received his bill  - over $3000. (This was 13 years ago. Who knows how much more it would cost now!) But when we looked it over, we saw that the whole thing had been CANCELLED!  We didn't owe him a cent.

 Having this surgery done in Ecuador would have been a lot riskier (possibly more because of the post-operative care than the surgery itself), and we realized what a blessing it turned out to be that we hadn't been able to go home.  In the next post, I'd like to tell you about something that happened to Germán during his surgery.  It's something you read about others going through, but never imagine you will yourself.  Please join me!

(Before I go, remember with me Who paid our enormous Debt, so that we could have spiritual health and eternal well-being!)

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One year turned into three...but I tried a lot of recipes!...like this delicious Fruit Cream

 We stayed at the HCJB compound in Miami for a bit, where someone there offered us a car...for one dollar.  BUT the car wasn't running! However, Germán is, among other things, a trained auto mechanic, so he set to work on the car with borrowed tools, fixed it up, made it work again, and it served us well for the whole time we were in the U.S. trying to raise support.

It usually takes about one year, they told us, but I guess that's for those who have lots of contacts and know lots of people.  Since that wasn't the case with us, our year turned into three. (Besides, with our children in school, we couldn't just pick up anytime we wanted and head for another city for meetings.) They told us to settle in a place where we knew someone, so we went to Dallas, Texas, where my sister and her family lived.  We rented my parents' house (they were still in Ecuador) and enrolled our kids in a Christian school.  (We were reluctant to put them into public schools, as they had both been in the small Christian missionary school in Shell, and the atmosphere would be more what they were used to.)  Germán looked for a job, finding one after several frustrating weeks.  When his potential boss talked to him about his salary and mentioned an amount, Germán told him he really needed more than that...gave him a larger number...and the boss accepted it!  (Thanks, Lord!)
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One of the things I liked about living in the States was that I could expand my cooking experiences! There were many ingredients that were unavailable then in Ecuador, but now I could indulge my avid interest in trying new recipes (and sometimes coming up with my own variations). I enjoy checking out all kinds, including ones from different lands and cultures or time periods (like from ancient history or the Middle Ages). I have had hundreds and hundreds of cook books throughout my 40 years of marriage. (Not all at the same time and in the same place! The most I've had at the same time, in the same place is only about 240.) Of course, although many have been gifts, and a few I've bought,  I certainly couldn't afford to buy hundreds of cook books; however, we lived close to the headquarters for the mission my parents were affiliated with, and on the compound they had a "missionary barrel" that was a little building full of used stuff that had been donated.  We were allowed to "shop" there, too, and I was amazed at how many cook books showed up.  Just about all the categories one could think of!   See, God even supplied tons of free cook books for me! 

Here's the recipe for Fruit Cream a la Rhon.  Try it!  It's easy and really good, a great dessert when you want something light. (Or serve it as an accompaniment to angel food cake.)
       All you need is: 1 cup each - instant vanilla pudding (made according to directions)
                                                  - plain yogurt
                                                  - Cool Whip or sweetened whipped cream
       Mix them very gently together, add 1 - 1 1/2 t. vanilla and about 4 T. sugar (or its equivalent) or to taste.
       Now fold in 1 or 2 cups of fruit - or as much as you like!.  My favorite is crushed pineapple (drained).
       Keep refrigerated. (I like the fact that this is easy to make sugar-free.)
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When we had been in Dallas a year, our support level was still so low that we knew we couldn't return to Ecuador yet. It was discouraging, but then we discovered one of the reasons why God kept us in Dallas for longer than we wanted.  Germán was diagnosed with something fairly serious. I'll tell you about our next "adventure" (or "ordeal"!)  in the next post!