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

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.

Latest Bob UpdatePosted by Rick on April 5th, 2007

Dear prayer partners, [that seems to include everyone, family, friends and colleagues!]

This is Joanne and this is really just a quick update as several people have asked about us. We’ve waited quite a while to update this time because for two to three weeks things have been up and down a great deal.

On Sat. for instance, Bob had a very good day and was able to write. However, yesterday was very difficult but with some help from Hospice and your prayers, as well as those of close friends who came over after church to pray with us, we weathered that crisis.

Each day is different. Bob is in decline and we know where this will probably end up but we still take each day at a time and thank God for his blessings and all the time we’ve been given. Bob has outlived the most optimistic prognosis by four months and every day of that time has been a gift even though it’s often been hard.

I know that Bob is suffering more than he lets on so I ask for specific prayers that he won’t continue to suffer physically but will be aware and alert to the end. We still ask for a miracle healing because we believe and trust that God can do that and we honor that belief. But, we also ask for grace and peace these days and I ask for your prayers for continued physical strength and health for myself so that I can serve Bob during these hard days.

There have been many, many times when we almost couldn’t pray but knew that many of you and the Holy Spirit were praying with and for us. We could feel it in our hearts and we could see the benefits so know that your many prayers have mattered.

Last night we watched Ben-Hur, which we do every Easter season. It’s my favorite movie and we always marvel at the clear Christian message it presents [from Hollywood in 1959 no less!] and it buoys our spirits during this Lenten season. If you’ve never seen it or don’t remember it, watch it. It will warm your heart and the actors actually “act” in it!

Love to you all,

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

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

Latest on Bob WebberPosted by Rick on January 22nd, 2007

Dear friends,

Four weeks ago this past Saturday my oncologist sent me home from the hospital with the news that I had 2-4 weeks to live. However, once off all the heavy medications, I began to feel better—not well enough by any stretch to return to a normal life but better than I felt in the hospital.

I seem to be holding my own at this point after continuing to improve steadily those first two weeks. Now I seem to be holding my own, neither worse nor better from day-to-day.

The cancer, which has remained inoperable, is either, 1) being destroyed and I am healed [which we pray and hope is the case] or, 2) is temporarily in some kind of holding pattern and may stay that way for a while or take a quick downturn at any time.

Please continue to pray for both Joanne and myself. We are both a little depressed, yet continuing to trust in the power of God to heal me. Thanks so much to all of you for your many, many continuous prayers, for your love and for all the cards, emails, etc. We literally feel upheld by your faithfulness and intercession on our behalf.

Love,
Bob

I lost a long post about all the things I’m thankful for…Posted by Rick on October 6th, 2006

One of them was the weather though, so I should go enjoy it.

Happy Hispanic Heritage month (uh, do I have any Hispanic readers?)!

Ahhh, Life is GoodPosted by Rachel on October 4th, 2006

So, on Sunday afternoon, our AC broke. Smoke started coming out of it, then it started making crazy noises, and the neighbor even came over to check on us and see if we were okay. We had to turn off the AC for the rest of the day and we managed throughout the night with fans in our bedroom. The next morning, we got a completely NEW air conditioner. It works great! I am so happy it was fixed so quickly; we’re having a hot week.

Rick’s cell phone screen also died recently. He found out his phone was under warranty and called to get a replacement. It came much quicker than we had expected, and now he’s got a new, working phone.

Our Time Warner cable wasn’t working because of some Norton firewall spyware on our computer. Rick was able to figure out how to delete it and now I’m surfing the net!

Oh yeah. Our digital camera also broke, but thankfully since Rick works in electronics at Sears, he was able to get an amazing deal on a slightly better camera, so the pictures don’t have to stop!

All is right with the world. This might possibly mean that I’ll be blogging more, especially pictures.

Also, Kyrie got her presents from Grandma Lisa. She loves them all! I’ll update with pictures soon.

Fall and I really get alongPosted by Rachel on September 25th, 2006

I am SO glad summer is over. Today is absolutely positively beautiful. We didn’t even reach the 80’s and tonight we’re supposed to dip down to 50 degrees. I really hope this is a long-lasting weather trend…preferably at least into Saturday (Kyrie’s birthday). We’re planning a trip to the zoo, and weather like what we’re having today would be as perfect as I could possibly imagine. My complainy attitude about the south tends to go away at about the same time that the humidity and heat does. It is true that sometimes Louisiana is a wonderful place to live.

Yahveh rof’ekhaPosted by Rick on June 9th, 2006

Rachel’s grandmother made it out of surgery. They were able to remove part of her colon. It is fortunate they were able to do it today because it was about to rupture.

kol hanneshâmâh tehallêl yâh halelu-yâh!

DestressingPosted by Rick on April 5th, 2006

Okay, so the last 24 hours has set the world right again.

I’ll be teaching a four week summer class: $4,223.13 in the bank (YES!) Katrina cuts have been hard, and I’ve been considering applying elsewhere, but add the summer pay to a, hopefully, large raise, and I’ll stay another year. Hopefully our professional development money will be back next year. On the good side of finances, my retirement account should triple (it’s more than doubled in the last 7 months) from last August to the upcoming August, and the market hasn’t been extremely great. It’s so fun to watch invested money grow. But Bush’s social security plan sucked, right?

Tickets to Spokane have been purchased for May 10-July 6th. They cost $130 more than they would have cost yesterday, so I’m not too happy about that, but I think I can deal with it now that I have a bit of peace of mind about the next year.

The scholarship I created appeared in the News-Star on Monday, so add another page to the portfolio (raise! raise! raise!).

Things are looking up from a month ago.