Medicine of Immortality "It's a cold, and it's a broken, 'Hallelujah!'"

Bob update 4/15/07Posted by Rachel on April 15th, 2007

Dear prayer partners,

From a human perspective, I feel that the end is drawing near for me.
Yet, I still believe that God can work a Divine intervention and/or
give me and Joanne the “peace that passes all understanding.” Please
pray that I won’t linger in an unconscious state.

I also ask that you pray for peace for my wife, children and
grandchildren.

You are all in my heart and my thanks to each of you for your
faithfulness in prayers. We have felt them!

Peace and the Lord be with you,

Bob

Andrew Hilleke, 1983-2007Posted by Rick on April 9th, 2007

The Lord took home Andrew Hilleke last night. I knew Andrew for several years, and he was a character. Full of life. Intelligent. Funny. He is going to be missed by a lot of people. He went to be with the Lord on the Lord’s Day—the best one of all, Resurrection Sunday. It’s very fitting for a person that special.

We sit down here, and we are all enduring our struggles. Personally, I’m tired from overwork and lack of sleep. Like all of you, I’m still dealing with sin and pain. He’s resting with Jesus. When we deal with the loss of Andrew, we experience pain and hurt. He’s with Jesus. Let light perpetual shine upon him.

Bob Update 3/9/07 :-(Posted by Rick on March 10th, 2007

I am failing physically these days and this has been a tough week. I
am now having my abdomen drained twice a week and they usually get
6-7 liters each time. I have pain, which is manageable, and fatigue
but both vary day-to-day.

I’ve had to cancel my class at Northern Seminary for the spring
quarter, much to my distress, but my doctor doesn’t think that I’ll
be able to travel in a month. It was a seminar course, meeting once a
week, but I was looking forward to getting back to teaching.

Right now, what productive time I have, four to five hours a day, I
put into [surprise!], my writing and time with Joanne. I am trying
hard to complete my book contracts before I die. Right now our lives
are too indefinite to schedule anything other than what I have to do
to stay alive.

All the prayers, love, your blessings, emails, cards and thoughts are
with us daily. We literally thank God for each day that we’ve had and
for what days are left.

Love,

Bob and Joanne

The Lord be with you and with thy spirit.

Bob update 03/03/07Posted by Rick on March 6th, 2007

Dear family and friends,

We continue to be encouraged and inspired by your cards and emails. As we read, we pause to think of many pleasant times we have shared.

God continues to give me life day-to-day for which we are thankful. In the last few weeks I’ve experienced a downturn of energy and fluid has accumulated in my abdomen which requires that I go to the hospital to be drained. Other negative signs, including some increased pain, are brewing and we are keeping our eye on them.

Please continue to uphold us in your prayers, especially for complete healing. As long as I am alive, I believe that God can heal me. In addition, pray that I will have increased energy and stamina to enable me to return to Northern Seminary for the spring term and teach a small seminar class that meets once a week.

Joanne is well, We both thoroughly enjoyed having the month of Feb. here in MI, in the midst of God’s beautiful creation with snow, ice, the wind and trees. How did God ever dream up winter? It has a beauty all its own.

I’m still “lying low” these days and doing some writing as I try to recover my physical energy and health. I have managed to attend church a few times and that was good for my spirits. We are having a sober Lenton Season but with a “bright sadness”—a term used by Alexander Schmemann.

God Bless!

Bob and Joanne

Latest on BobPosted by Rick on February 21st, 2007

Again, a quick update. We met with my oncologist today for my weekly checkup. He had the results of the MRI report done last Friday. It shows that there has been no change in the cancer in the pancreas or the spot on the liver since the CT scan done 12/4/’06. That was ten weeks ago. This is good news! The cancer is dormant at this point but we don’t know how long this might last. Given my prognosis six months ago, this is an answer to prayer!

Please join with us and pray that the cancer be disintegrated completely and that full health and strength will be restored to my body. There is no medical procedure or chemotherapy that can be done at this point which would lengthen my time as compared to the very toxic side effects which can be lasting. Quality of life is my goal at this point. The doctor gives me two more months but he was wrong before.

Thanks for all the fervent, continued prayers for me which I believe have added length of life and improved the quality of my current life and ministry.

We continue to live in the two “realities” simultaneously, thanking God for the healing He brings each day and praying for healing tomorrow. We continue to be surprised and overcome by the faithfulness of God communicated to us daily in scripture, prayer, song, the Eucharist and tears intimacy.

Love to you all,

Bob and Joanne

Bob updatePosted by Rick on February 15th, 2007

From Bob:

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about “living in two realities.” Many of
you responded that you would pray for us one day at a time, thanking
God for a good day and petitioning Him for a healed day on the
morrow.

Joanne and I have prayed this way daily—and God has been good to us,
one day at a time. However, things have become a bit unpredictable
recently and I have some “not so good days” in terms of increased
pain and feeling tired. Plus, my body seems to move like a tired,
old, rusty gate. I am scheduled for a test, MRI, this Friday to see
where things are at, nine weeks after leaving the hospital.

Please continue to pray for Divine intervention and complete healing
in spite of these recent changes. God has greatly helped Joanne’s
stomach, etc., so your prayers have already helped. I also doubt I’d
still be around were it not for all those prayers as there were many
moments when Joanne didn’t think I’d make it and I was too sick to
even realize it.

I’m acutely aware each day that, “For me to live is Christ, but to
die is gain.” Thank all of you, once again, for the outpouring of
your many prayers on our behalf. Words are inadequate and cannot
express the meaning your prayers, cards and emails hold for us. I
wish I could answer each one individually but thanks for not putting
that burden on me. Thanks again for respecting our privacy,
especially in the coming weeks, by not calling or stopping by.

We set aside February as the month to just be together, spend some
quality time that we’d expected to have together during my sabbatical
and to celebrate Valentine’s Day, maybe for the last time. [Of course,
I’ll honestly admit I’ve also done some writing too!]

We love the cards and emails if you want to communicate with us and
please continue to pray.

Love, Bob and Joanne

Dr. Robert E. Webber updatePosted by Rachel on February 10th, 2007

Here’s the latest email from our dear friend, Bob, Please continue to pray for his healing and renewed strength:

Living Between two Realities

Once again, Joanne and I want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have so faithfully and earnestly prayed for us. Thanks for the numerous emails and cards! We’ve been totally overwhelmed.

I’m now more than six weeks out from the day I was sent home from the hospital with my oncologist’s words echoing in my mind, “You have two to four weeks left to live.”

Since my last email I have been steadily improving, so much so that Joanne says, “The old Bob is back.” We have been asking ourselves, “how and what do you pray for” when you live in-between your doctor’s realism, “I’ve never had a pancreatic patient survive” and the experience of feeling that “God is healing me.”

So, how do you pray? I want to ask God to heal me but what if he already has. But, I’m also reluctant to be presumptuous and tell everyone I’ve been healed given the statistical downside of pancreatic cancer and the fact that we are foregoing any definite tests for now, like a MRI, CT scan or PET scan.

So, here is how we solved our dilemma. We live and pray one day at a time. We pray each day and say, “Thank you God for the healing you gave me today. Please heal me tomorrow.” It has occurred to both of us that if we were truly spiritually sensitive, we would have prayed that way all of our lives but it took the threat of imminent death to bring us to this point.

We cannot begin to tell all of you how we have benefited from your consistent prayers. We’re convinced that God is answering those prayers and that all the improvement thus far has come from God’s healing powers and that He is the source of all grace. I am confident that God sustained me today but I’m also painfully aware that I am “terminal,” at some point, in the larger sense of the word, as we all are. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and we all face a great future.

Please continue your prayers for both of us. Joanne will see her doctor and have some tests done as her stomach tension and discomfort continues. We think it’s “caregiver” stress but want to be sure. Also, although I’m better, my strength is fragile and I fatigue easily. Some days are better than others. We appreciate the way everyone has maintained our privacy and ask that you continue to do so.

I hope that you all know that the love and prayers you have “sent” our way are being returned to you from us. We are so deeply moved by them on our behalf.

The following is a quote I came across that seems to define our dual life as Christians and the “between two realities” phrase above:

“Our favorite distinction between the spiritual life and the practical life is false. We cannot divide them. One affects the other all the time; for we are creatures of sense and of spirit, and must live an amphibious life.”

Love,

Bob and Joanne

Pregnancy LossesPosted by Rachel on February 1st, 2007

A few days after I found out that I miscarried, one of my friends found out that she lost her baby, too. She had conceived twins, and miscarried the first twin early on, and was hoping the second would hold on, but it didn’t. The pain of a miscarriage was still very fresh in my mind, so I actually cried when I heard her news. Just today, I found out that another friend of mine has lost her baby at 10 weeks. All three of us conceived around the same time. The woman who conceived twins actually tested on the same day as me. We were all pregnancy buddies. I just feel so sad that this happens, and I don’t understand why it’s happened to all three of us. God knows what He’s doing, but I don’t really understand it. Please pray for all the mothers who have lost their unborn babies. I don’t think the pain ever disappears completely.

SalemPosted by Rachel on January 20th, 2007

I’m not sure how to start this post, but I am ready to share this with you all.

We found out I was pregnant with our second baby on December 20th. On January 15th, we discovered that we were losing our baby. I was exactly 8 weeks. An ultrasound indicated that the baby had stopped growing at around 6 weeks. This has been perhaps the hardest thing we’ve gone through as a family. Experiencing a loss is overwhelming, especially when it is our beloved child. We’d already begun bonding with our little one, and it’s been a painful several days. We are beginning to heal and rest in the knowledge that our baby is now with Jesus.

We named our baby Salem Jude. Salem means “peace,” and Jude means “praise,” or “the praised one.”

We hope to be reunited with Salem in the Resurrection someday, and we rejoice that our child is in the arms of the Saviour.

Sickness, sleep, and avocados (or Random thoughts 9,163)Posted by Rick on December 17th, 2006

So, as Rachel mentioned a few days ago, we were struck by the plague. I was bowing my knees a few days ago, a couple days after Rachel was sick. Everyone else was sick yesterday, and we’re all starting to feel better now. I think the sickness has mostly passed, but we’re all weak, and I think my digestive system is still out of whack because food just feels like it sits in my stomach forever.

I think my digestive system is always out of whack when we come up here anyway. When we’re at home, we eat mostly vegetables and whole grains. We don’t eat a lot of white flour carbs (any really) and we’ve cut most of the meat out of our diets. Black bean tacos became a favorite in the fall, and I mentioned them to Rachel before I fell asleep last night, which made her mad at me, because then she started craving them. I was craving a avocado, tomato, and swiss sandwich from Sparky’s. (Speaking of Sparky’s, I’ll get a free sandwich after I buy two more. Yessss.)

I’m also in the mood for some wild berry sparkling cider.

Kyrie drank her wine today at church before I noticed she hadn’t eaten her bread. Today was the first day back in Salem’s sanctuary since the fire 11 months ago. Kyrie was delighted with the stained glass and banners.

I was exhausted after church (eventhough we were in bed by 11:30), and then we went to Red Robin for lunch (which sealed the deal), and Kyrie and I both went down for two hour naps.

It’s kinda jolting to go from 60-70 hour work weeks to a really long vacation. Despite my sickness, I was still able to polish off three books this week. Yet, I’m still too lazy to update my sidebar book widget. The only real benefit to that widget is that it adds color to the blog.