Day 50 - August 4 - Connor Sitrep

Stealing a phrase from my big bro, I wanted to give a sitrep of what's going on with the boy today.

First, Connor is feeling better this evening, although he continues to struggle with his frustration over unanswered prayer. I know that God answers prayer three ways - "yes" "no" or "not now", but from our human perspective "not now" sure looks a lot like "is anyone there?". I have decided to take the example of Paul regarding this, and will be sharing it with Connor when I get back to Fresno - in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, Paul talks about imploring God three times to remove the thorn in his flesh (whatever it was - it doesn't say). God finally told Paul "no", and that's when Paul quit asking. The three times isn't what's important - what I see is that Paul asked until God said "no", and that's what I'm encouraging Connor to do about his arms.

More prayer requests - for some reason, Connor's left arm has swollen to about twice its normal size. His white blood count remains normal, so it doesn't seem to be caused by infection, and the doctors are trying to figure it out. Please pray that the swelling will recede, and that the cause is transitory and has no ill effects on the boy.

Another one - on Wednesday, Connor will be taken down to the imaging lab to get a swallowing evaluation, which involve X-ray movies of him swallowing barium (yum!) so they can make sure he can do it right. Two prayer requests here - that he would succeed wildly in the evaluation, as that would cheer him immensely to be able to drink fluids again; and that he would be sustained through it. I'm told it's a grueling, multi-hour event, involving moving him on gurneys etc.. I'm sure you remember how well he takes changing beds, so please pray for his strength, well-being, overall health and stamina on Wednesday so he can pass this test with flying colors.

That brings up another thing - Wednesday will not be a good day for him to receive visitors, if anyone was planning to come down. He is usually completely wiped out after these tests, and I expect this one will be the same. Please consider that before you come down on Wednesday.

I told you I'd post his mailing address again - he absolutely adores hearing from people he knows about things they've done together, reminiscing about his friends and family. If you could take the time to write a letter to him, we would be very grateful. Cards are wonderful, but we notice he wants us to read and re-read the letters he's received, even those from folks he doesn't know. Please consider taking a moment to write him a note. Click here for his mailing address on the FAQ page. Emails to me can also be printed out - just put "letter for Connor" or something similar in the subject line so I know to print it out.

An answer to prayer - before I put out the call for legal help last week, Cherié and I prayed about it and were asking that the Lord would lead us to a Christian lawyer of integrity, who also had either read the blog or at least knew of our story. To make a long story short, I met this afternoon with a Christian brother who is a lawyer, whom I judge to be a man of his word, and whose wife has been following Connor's story for weeks! His first (email) words to me were "when I saw your request for legal help, I felt God leading me to contact you". The fact that he had been referred to me by someone else, and that I actually contacted him before he contacted me, confirmed to him that he was to boldly offer his assistance to us! Pretty cool, huh? God is good all the time!

OK, another prayer request - does this post seem very disjointed? It does to me. Anyway, both Cherié and I seem to be getting migraine-type headaches this evening. That both of us are getting them at the same time seems too coincidental to me. I would greatly appreciate help dealing with any spiritual forces this evening so we can both get the rest we need. Also, Alan heads back to Texas tomorrow, so I'm sure Joélle and he would appreciate your prayers for his safety and for their strength while they're apart.

Alright, alright - I'll quit babbling and end this thing. But I have one more thing to say - I've noticed the debate on faith and prayer in the comments on "An iPhone view", and I wanted to encourage all of us to build each other up in Christ.That's all I'm gonna say about that, to steal another phrase! I've been wrestling with a post on the intersection between my faith and God's will for a couple of weeks now, and I think it will have to stretch over multiple posts by the time I'm done. But I'm trying to understand and deal with the very thing y'all are talking about in those comments. Hopefully God will shed some light on the subject for us, but I'll keep working on it in the meantime. Look for it soon on a website near you!

We love you all. I'm going to finish up before I ramble on anymore. We pray for you guys every night, that God would be moving in your hearts and in your midst as you gather around us, and that He would multiply His blessings back to you for your gracious support of the boy and us. God bless you, and good night.