Wednesday, October 01, 2008

On death and birth

So...Monday night at 11pm, Bob gets a text from one of our former youth who is still in the area - her dad has been battling stomach issues for close to 2 years now, only to be diagnosed about 6 weeks ago with pancreatic cancer. The text was simple, "Please pray for my dad. They say he may not survive the night. Please pray that he not have pain." Its Wednesday, and they are in the process of getting the house ready for hospice care as the doctors cannot do much else to help him, only keep him comfortable. The young lady who sent the text is not taking it well, as ultimately, she is a daddy's girl thru and thru - her older sister is being strong, but her kids are in 7th and 4th grade respectively and have lived w/grandpa nearly all their lives - this will be a rough one to say the least!
As for the birth - one of my former youth and now a friend had her baby on Tuesday -and he is precious...it was quite the roller coaster of a day since the above mentioned gentleman is in the same hospital - I saw them both Tuesday afternoon - elation of a new baby to the awfulness of just waiting for God to call one of His own home to heaven. This is one of those times when its hard being in ministry - going from one end of the spectrum of emotion to the other in very little time, while dealing with all my own stress.