If you haven’t already heard, Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter was killed when her brother accidentally hit her while driving their SUV; he never saw her. I’ll be honest; I’m not extremely familiar with his music (though I know some of it), but I am familiar with his philanthropy. Please pray for them as they deal with this tragedy.

Forrest and I had the opportunity to go to an Anglican Men’s Weekend outside of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino National Forest this weekend. The Most Rev’d Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of Uganda, was the keynote speaker, but several major bishops in the global south movement were in attendance, including the Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey (Bishop of Uganda over American congregations), the Rt. Rev. Dom Robinson Cavalcanti (Bishop of Recife, Brazil), The Rt Revd Daniel Gimadu (Bishop of North Mbale, Uganda), and a few other bishops whose names I did not catch.

These bishops and ministers were humble men of God, which sadly, I didn’t expect. I guess I’m just not used to seeing humility on that level. It was a refreshing weekend of reconciliation and prayer, and I hope to get to go again in the future. But for now I’ll just get to look forward to Bishop Cavalcanti being at Christ the King this weekend.

Well, my grandpa had another code blue, but was revived again. He has some sort of heart damage, and they’re doing a scan now to check for a pulmonary embolysis. They plan on running a heart catheterization tomorrow, but he’s also scheduled for dialysis tomorrow.

He’s not functioning like he was just a few weeks ago. It looks like he’ll need permanent assistance for just basic needs like bathing and using the bathroom from now on. In any case, prognosis is not looking too good.

My mom seems exhausted, and everyone else is too.

My maternal grandpa has been in kidney failure for a few days. He had some surgery on Monday to put a hemodialysis catheter into his neck, and he was supposed to have four straight days of dialysis to see if that would jumpstart his kidneys into working again. Well, his heart went into atrial fibrillation (the heart spasms instead of beating) this morning, and he went code blue (legally dead) this morning. He was revived and he’s conscious and “doing well” (whatever that means at this point). In addition, this has been very stressful on my grandma, and she’s contracted pneumonia. My parents and aunts/uncles have been working hard to take care of them and be up at the hospital with my grandpa.

I’m very fortunate, as an adult, to have all of my grandparents still, and my relationship with this particular set of grandparents is very close. I would appreciate any prayers you could offer for any and all of my family.

“Lord, make me like Ty Cobb.”

I was just listening to Rebecca St. James and Todd Agnew sing “Our Great God,” and it just reminded me how thankful I feel right now.

We’ve had a ton of bills lately with the new table (we outgrew the old one), computer (it died), washer and dryer (they were dying together), computer, midwife, doula, tuition, and visits from family. God has provided a lot of money to meet those bills. I mean a lot. Close to $10,000 in the last three weeks. (I broke a Black Friday sales record and received my overload pay from teaching all in the last three weeks.) That almost covers everything (yeah, they add up). What would normally have been a stressful time has not been that bad.

I have a beautiful new son. The birth was incredible. It couldn’t have gone any more perfectly. The doula was incredible when it came to supporting Rachel. The whole time Rachel was in labor, I kept thanking God for her. The midwife was great too, but let the doula pretty much handle things.

My daughter continues to grow in her relationship to Christ. She amazes me sometimes.

I’m glad to be in a church where we can chant, receive communion every week, feel loved, and our children can commune. We’ve actually been able to develop a relationship with a fellow congregation member (though in its early stages, it’s nice to be able to connect to someone other than the pastor and his family). The lady is a bit older than us, but her youngest son is close to Kyrie’s age.

My class this semester will be taught by Reggie Kidd, and it’s on my favorite subject. How great is that? I’ve been able to finish most of the books (I saved the best ones for last, so woohoo).

I’ve had off of work for three straight days. I don’t think I’ve had more than one day in a row off since August (and even then I was usually working on my day off). It’s been a time of healing and rest (though I must say I am wiped out from all the work I am doing–but it’s different work, so in a big way, it’s restful).

We have family coming to visit. Forrest and Rebekah will be here in less than two weeks. The Enloe family also plans to come by. Mommy and daddy plan on coming in February. It will be so nice to have company again, and it’s nice to have a table that will fit everyone (tightly though!).

I love how all of our close friends’ families are growing. Exponential growth is nice when it involves friends.

We are planning to stay our entire summer in Spokane, if possible. Actually, it would be nice to just move up there, so maybe a job can fall in our laps (pretty please!).

It’s Advent. The long green season is fully over.

Oh, Lord remind us once again of your wonderful works. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God.

I’ll be leaving Florida in a few hours, and as usual, I’ve gotten to see some glimpses of God’s glory. Friday was Bob Webber’s memorial service. This was the memorial service that the family chose to attend. It was good to see Joanne again, to see that love she has for Bob. You know how they say some couples were “made for each other”? It’s that way with Bob and Joanne. When Jim Hart asked her if she’d rather be called Bob’s wife or widow, she replied, “Wife.” I was standing right next to her and heard her mutter under her breath, “Forever and ever.”

The mother of one of my classmates passed away suddenly on Monday. My classmate handled it with great faith. His father was diagnosed with terminal cancer on the last day of last term and was supposed to be in heavenly glory by this term, so this has been a bit backwards for the family. She had gone into the hospital on Wednesday and seemed fine on Thursday. She found out that a hole in her esophagus. This, in turn, caused acid to leak into her blood and poison it, causing her organs to shut down. She started taking a turn for the worse on Sunday while we were at the beach. By Monday, they were going to take her off the ventilator by evening, but she didn’t make it that long. It was shocking to me how quickly it all happened. I guess that with her husband dying of cancer, she probably didn’t feel the need to fight for her life. My classmate kept saying, “She always said she didn’t want to live without dad; now she doesn’t have to.”

Another classmate who had missed last semester (due to a viral heart attack) was back again this semester. He told the story of how, through misdiagnosis and wrong treatment, his blood was thinned to the point of leaking out of his stomach. He woke up in a puddle of blood (after having been changing bandages for several days). He thought he was going to die, so he prayed with his father, who is also a pastor (I believe). When he came back into the room five minutes later to take him to the hospital, there was a crusty scab that looked like it had been there for days. Incredible.

On Sunday I hit the beach after worship and stayed in the water a couple hours longer than everyone else. After the beach, I went to a worship service. Brian McLaren was the celebrant, and I had a good chat with him on the glories of teaching English (He was an English prof. Before going into the ministry and then public speaking). He reminded me once again why my background is oh so useful for what I hope to do in the future. Of all the well-known pastors and theologians I’ve met over the years, I have to say that McLaren is probably the most approachable. He’s had this “Hey, guys, what’s going on? Can I play?” smile on his face for the last three days.

Hmmm…I’m too distracted to blog anything else.

I was in and out while Rachel was watching American Idol today, and I saw the judges make comments on Chris. At the end of the comments, Chris made a shout out to friends at VT. I think Simon thought that was an attempt to get votes after a lackluster performance, and he rolled his eyes. Later Simon went out of his way to, out of nowhere, make a comment about how all the judges were thinking about those at VT. Do you think a producer said something to him at a commercial break?

Teaching on a college campus, I feel pretty safe from an event like today. I mean, I guess a student can come kill me if he doesn’t like my grading, but the whole VT thing seems so random and senseless. Was there really any particular aim? Or was this a general desperation killing? I’ve always wondered how these people kill just a few people (or a small group) like they do. On a college campus, it would be easy to kill a hundred people in a large classroom. I thank God that it wasn’t worse than it was.

Killings like this go on around the world all the time. It’s common for this to take place in, say, Guatemala, where Mayan Indians are constantly massacred. We only hear about this massacre because it was here in America. We only care because they were Americans. I think we should care about Virginia Tech. But I think we should care about non-Americans that are massacred also. I wish I could believe that this will open our eyes to the other senseless killings around the world, but we are so self-absorbed that we think of this as an isolated event. If it’s not Americans being killed, we don’t care. This saddens me.

I hate that this will become a big political issue for gun control. I hate that they keep mentioning that he was an English major, not just because I teach English, but because I believe there is a specific reason they keep drawing attention to this. I am not sure which specific reason it is though; I can think of a few. The media just drives me nuts. I can’t imagine how his family feels. I think I would feel a bit exploited as a VT student. On the one hand, I would want the nation to understand my pain and grieve with me, as a nation should, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t want to be at the center of politics and money.

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

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.