A wit once observed: “Minor surgery is what they do on somebody else”. I deeply appreciate your prayers for my heart operation last week. Your friendship is not something we take for granted! Last Thursday, I was on the receiving end of four and a half hours of endoscopic heart surgery in Boise. I stayed in the hospital for three days. Ann and I had decided that this was the most prudent course of action, but it was a hard decision for us to make. There is so much going on with Philosophia and “House Nazareth”!

For 8 years, I’ve suffered heart arrhythmia (“atrial fibrillation”). Over the past year, this has been increasing in frequency and lasting longer and has been unresponsive to medication. Because I am gifted with an otherwise healthy heart, the doctors considered me an “excellent candidate” for the procedure (sounds almost like being considered for political office, doesn’t it?)

Everything went extremely well. If you’re interested in the actual procedure or anyone you know is suffering from heart arrhythmia, you might want to take a look at the web site on the technique; if you REALLY want a lot of technical medical information, you can also see a panel discussion and an actual operation online. (Click on “View Live Webcast”; not recommended for the faint of stomach.)

At any rate, this was clearly a bit more than a simple outpatient operation and it’s going to take some time for me to get fully back up to speed.

Would you please pray for continued speedy recovery, the upcoming “House Nazareth” mortgage payment (end of September), and the Ploner’s visit to the States? (Matthias and Sieglinde have carved some time out of their busy schedule to come to the U.S. for two weeks to share the vision of “House Nazareth” from a German perspective.)

Thanks, too, for your continued prayers for Seanne and Daniel. Their time in Israel is going well, although Seanne picked up an E. coli infection. (Not from unwashed spinach; this is an Israeli-grown bug.) She’s feeling better but could still use some prayer support as Daniel heads into the last 14 interviews he’s scheduled to do with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

A thousand apologies for the long delay in posting to the “prayer blog”. The battle has been pretty heavy!
In the midst of this intense time, I am having heart surgery in Boise tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 7) for a heart arrhythmia condition. We are moving ahead after consulting with 4 physicians. Would you please pray that surgery will go well, that there will be a quick recovery, and that this will make a real difference in my future energy and input level for the ministry in the coming years?
Also: Would you please pray specifically:
- that we will find the best firms, best price and right volunteers in Berlin to help in each phase of the remodeling and for us to receive all the necessary funds for each step.
- for the financing for “House Nazareth” to continue to come in; since much of the purchase price money was in the form of short-term, interest-free loans, we need to repay these loans on schedule. Until the remodeling is finished, Philosophia will have to bear the main weight of the quarter-yearly mortgage payments; the first is due September 30th. Also, the first major loan needs to be repaid within the next few months.
- for Seanne and Daniel, as they are traveling to Israel for his work on peace and conflict resolution. Would you please pray for God’s protection as they travel and do interviews in both Israel and Palestine?
- for continued growth and unity in the Philosophia leadership on both sides of the ocean as we work together and carry the responsibility for the direction of the ministry.