kathy,

Wow. That is rough, I can't imagine that. We here, our church that is, is 
doing similar for a mother of two young kids battling cancer in our church. 
Households taking turns cooking and bringing by dinner and etc. But in your 
folks case, what a job to try to keep one's spirits up, as it were, in the 
midst of such. Why is it some people seem to go unscathed through life and 
they just live life, not for God , may not even be a believer and yet no 
matter what happens, things turn for good, and then there are those, 
believers alike,  who seem to attract calamity in succession without 
relief? Is it a Job thing or what. Don't you just wish you could find the 
cure and answer to their problems and let them live a semi-normal life? Or 
what seems semi-normal. Thanks for sharing that.

Brad

>Well Brad,
>         You asked me to share, so I will.  This week, our church is 
> ministering to a family in real need.  They used to attend our church, 
> but left when their daughters hit puberty because we don't have much in 
> the way of ministry for youth.  The mother had a breast removed this past 
> March.  She had tried to return to work, but it has been discovered that 
> she is allergic to the medication that she was on, so she is waiting to 
> find another medication that she can tolerate. Her job is important 
> because she carries the insurance for the family.  Her husband has 
> twisted bowel syndrome, which means that, every once and a while, his 
> intestines just knot up and he has to lay in the hospital, on pain 
> killers, until they straighten themselves out.  He can't eat much in 
> those situations eithre, for obvious reasons.  When he is working, he 
> delivers beverages to local stores in the smaller towns around 
> Bangor.  Near the end of last month, he was making a delivery to a small 
> country store.  He had cases of beer and wine stacked up on a hand 
> cart.  Someone at the store had carelessly left the trap door to the 
> celler open and, as Steve was backing up, he didn't see this and fell 
> into the celler, on to the concrete floor with all of the beverages 
> falling on top of him.  He has massive injuries.  This couple's two 
> daughters are learning disabled and, on top of that, the younger one is 
> deaf.  The younger daughter was hospitalized last week with what may have 
> been blood poisoning.  Her leg was swollen and hard, with red streaks, so 
> it had to be drained and so forth.   Both parents are out of work, for 
> now and it just goes on.
>         Anyway, even though they have left our church, we have kept tabs 
> on this needy family, because it is the right thing to do.  We took up a 
> collection for them yesterday.  Some people have offered to purchase 
> grocery store gift certificates, and I've organized for some dinners to 
> start, until we learn what else they need.  This is truly the fun part of 
> ministry, trying to help others in need.  I had made prayer shawls for 
> the mother and two girls earlier this year to reach out and Greg is going 
> to talk to the pastor of the church that  they are attending now to 
> coordinate efforts.  We don't want any walls.
>         I know that I tell you guys these stories from time to 
> time.  This is what church is to me, reaching out as Christ's hands and 
> feet to those in need.  When you think about it, pray for the Barker 
> family.  They can use it.
>God bless,
>Kathy