Hands Headlines

These days have been another clear example that we need a partnership team – caring, praying friends like you – just so we can continue on in ministry and in life.  Not long ago I was talking with Campus Crusade Vice President Roger Bruehl, who has been on staff for over 35 years.  Roger told me something I’ll never forget:

“If someone offered me a 6 digit salary to continue doing exactly what I am doing in ministry right now in lieu of having to maintain my own financial and prayer support team, it would be a no brainer:  I would choose my partnership team over any salary or incentives – sheerly because of the cherished relationships and prayer support.”

Your relationships with us are cherished. We NEED you in times like these and in ordinary days as well.  Would you take 5 minutes and pray for a few of the requests we have listed below?  We’re so grateful for you.

In some ways, the last 12 months have been tough for our family.  In other ways, we’ve experienced the goodness of God in a new level that we would have not even seen otherwise.  So we can in no way claim that God is anything but full time good, loving, awesome, and in control.

Just to recap the last 12 months:
October 2008:  Shannon’s mom passed away.
December 2008:  Shannon’s grandmother – her dad’s mother – died.
Early 2009:  It became obvious my dad’s dementia was worsening and he had some small strokes.
August 2009:  We began a new year and another adventure in home school – teaching 3 at home this year.  No major hardship here, it just takes a boatload of coordination and daily energy to do it.  Do I hear an “amen” from any home school moms out there?
August 2009:  My dad’s health slid further downhill and I began traveling back and forth to Georgia, helping my mom.
Sept 27th, 2009:  My dad passed away.
October 2009:  Continued to help my mom, and then traveled to Virginia to visit Shannon’s dad.

Considering that it is a 24 hour round trip driving to Virginia (Shannon’s family) and a 10 hour round trip to Georgia (my family), in the last 12 months we’ve spent a cumulative 10 1/2 DAYS – approx 13,000 miles – of pure driving time. This doesn’t include this summer’s ministry training event in Colorado – we flew.  So, yes we’ve done every possible road trip game possible in the van – sometimes we feel like we’re driving in our sleep.  It’s possible we could drive one of the round trips in our sleep.  I’ll bet our van could.

So, how are we doing?  Emotionally tired! Shannon and I are still in the grieving process – there are lots of emotions, memories and conversations to process.

But, bottom line, we have seen the goodness of God. We feel His comfort and love. Our parents are with the Lord, we feel so much peace knowing that we will see them again.

Here are some prayer requests for our family:

• Pray for the Lord to walk us through the grieving process
• Pray that we will know how to appropriately spend time talking and processing memories
• Ask Him to continue to lift us with His love, giving us emotional strength
• Lift up my mother as she is at home in Georgia now; she’d been married to my dad 50 years
• Pray for me as I continue to help my mom tie up several loose ends, make decisions, etc.
• Lift up our kids – Avery, Addison, and Toby – as they go through home school every day, that they would learn experientially to trust God with their attitude and decisions
• Pray that we won’t feel overwhelmed by the many things we’ve fallen behind in
• Ask God to continue to bless our relationships with our teammates
• Pray for our marriage to be strengthened and flourish as we receive God’s grace
• Pray for the holidays for us

Thank you!  God bless you.

Today would have been my Dad’s 75th birthday. He went to be with the Lord on September 27th. Shannon and I haven’t had time until now to write down the events of the past few months related to his illness.  Here’s the quick recap:

As mentioned previously, my Dad’s health had been declining as a result of an Alzheimers-related condition.  He started showing some signs of it at age 69.  Because of this disease, in recent months he had had several minor strokes and they were happening quite often.  Mom had to take him to the hospital a few times but he would pretty much “bounce back” from his stroke after just a day or two.  Even so, his condition was worsening.

In late August he was admitted to the hospital again and I went to be with he and Mom for a few days. From late August till mid October I spent almost as many nights in Pelham as at home with my family in Orlando. Dad became just too much for my Mom to handle at home – even with home health care assistance four days a week – and he continued to have mild strokes which kept temporarily taking away his ability to walk. During this time he was also incredibly confused and at times agitated, not always in an angry way, but it made it challenging to understand if he was in pain or not and to care for his basic needs.  We made arrangements for him to be admitted to the local nursing home and were waiting for a space to open up there.

September 15 Mom took Dad to the hospital again and I returned to help her. This time my father did not recover and never left the hospital.  I was privileged to be at his side when he entered God’s wonderful presence.

His condition had been critical for at least two days, yet I was surprised he passed away so quickly.  I had always thought that Dad had a strong heart – and he did – yet pneumonia took over his lungs and shut them down.  His vital signs had remained fairly in the normal range even up until an hour before his death.  God just took him home and he stopped breathing.

Shannon and the kids drove up for the funeral in Pelham, which was held on September 29th. Afterwords, we all stayed with my Mom for a week and then she returned with us to Florida and stayed for a week.  I returned her to Pelham and stayed with her again several days, helping start the process of all the legal/financial steps of settling Dad’s accounts and making sure Mom is taken care of.

Mom and Dad had been married 50 years. She is taking it day by day, but has been doing well.  For several years, she single handedly cared for my Dad with his dementia.  The vows “to have and to hold in sickness and health” definitely applied to her and she fulfilled them beautifully.  It was a tough job towards the end, very time consuming, yet the Lord gave her such joy in doing it.  I’m so proud of her.  Mom’s at home alone in Pelham now, staying active and relying on God’s grace. She wanted me to tell you all how much she has felt your prayers and appreciates you so much.

At the funeral service, my brother spoke.  He basically shared with everyone what he had wanted to tell Dad on the day he passed away.  It was an amazing tribute and I encourage you to read it here. Even if you didn’t know my Dad, I think you’ll enjoy some of the stories told.  We laughed and cried and praised God for Dad’s life.  We’ll miss him a ton, but he’s been transferred, by grace, into the Kingdom of God’s Beloved Son.

P.S. You can also read the obituary here.

Our chance encounter with the President’s arrival at Tri-Cities airport for a quick visit last week.  Obama was breezing through for one of his town hall type meetings at the local Kroger there.  Surprisingly he did not have time to receive an invitation to Avery’s 10yr birthday party, which we celebrated that same night.

Video during our patient wait of his arrival:

And the big plane did arrive!

The motorcade rushed past us – just 100 feet away.  At least we got a wave:

See a few more snapshots here on our Facebook album.

Hard to believe she’s in double digits. We celebrated with a small party last week.

For her present, we gave her 2 tickets to the Barter Theater in Abingdon to see the musical – Wizard of Oz.  She loved it!  . . . And she chose me to be her guest and escort!

These are just a few.  You can see the whole album on Facebook here.

Our 2008 family Christmas card courtesy of Kristina Wood photographry and Smilebox.com

Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox greeting

During our last trip to Virginia, we were met with winter weather!  An inch or two of snow covered the ground – nothing serious – but it was much to the delight of our Floridian family!

Check out a little slide show with the kids having fun:

Make a Smilebox greeting

Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.  — Psalm 100:3-5

We give thanks to the Lord for many things indeed.  He is kind and good.  At the top of our is to say “thank you” for is . . .you!

We couldn’t do what we do without you.  Our hearts are grateful for you.

Yesterday was a first for the Hand clan.  We took a short spin in a chopper!  Shannon and the girls went up and then Toby and I rode next.  Very cool!

It’s amazing how different your house and office look from the air!  And I thought Minnesota was the land o lakes but we are literally surrounded by water around here.  You just never realize it until you see the perspective from the air.

The copter came from JAARS and has been on site all weekend right behind our neighborhood at Wycliffe Bible Translators’ USA Headquarters.  They are having a major celebration this weekend called the Last Languages Campaign.  Wycliffe, Campus Crusade and JAARS all partner together on Bible translation and visual story learning projects.

Tags: helicopter, first, family, wycliffe, JAARS, translation, last languages, aviation, missionary

Our friend and neighbor Kristina did a great job with the annual Hand Clan photo shoot. It was a windy day so it  was more than a challenge.  It’s more than a challenge just to get all 5 of us to look at the camera! No doubt Kristina is extremely talented and enjoys photography very much.  She’s got an eye for it.

Here are the results: