Family first

We have looked forward to our exciting trip to Egypt for a long time, but now that it is scheduled for two days from now we are finding that it will be necessary to cancel our plans.

Over the past several weeks Olen's dad (Eugene) has developed health issues we have been dealing with through various doctors. In the process of this they hospitalized him and after running many tests they located several issues we needed to deal with. They discovered a heart valve that was not working properly and which had to be surgically replaced. Prior to the scheduled surgery they did a heart catheterization and found a heart artery was almost completely blocked. The situation in that artery could have resulted in a fatal heart attack. Therefore open heart surgery was scheduled to correct both major issues. (In a few days he will probably also have a pacemaker implanted, but the doctor preferred not to do that at this time.)

He was in surgery five hours or more, but he did very well and both repairs were successful, a fact we are very thankful for. We are also thankful for the many calls, visits and especially the prayers.

However, our trip to Egypt must be cancelled. We are needed to help with Pap's care and drive Olen's mom back and forth to the hospital for visiting sessions. Whenever he is dismissed to go home he will need our help there, and his mom will need assistance.

So, although we are extremely disappointed about having to miss the trip, we are thankful that these problems have been corrected and an 84-year-old preacher has been granted extra time to continue his work for the Lord. We will miss being with all of you who are going on the trip, but perhaps we can follow through with these plans at another time. In the meantime, those of you who are going, please enjoy it double-measure for us.

The blog? Check out http://scenewithsharon.blogspot.com/. Some of you may remember Sharon... (she's the "cutie" seated among the flowers in Pergamum that I photographed for my blog on the "Steps of Paul and John"). Sharon has plans to blog this trip on a daily basis, and I am sure there are others. If anyone else plans to do this, just send me the address for your blog and I will list it here. This time Olen and I will enjoy the trip vicariously through the blogs of others.


To all of you who are actually making the trip: have a wonderful time, and a safe trip. To the readers who were going to travel with me vicariously, tune in to Sharon's thoughts through her blog. I am sure you will NOT be disappointed. She is an outstanding photographer.


So, until I actually go on another journey (September...Italy!), God bless!