I won't talk about any of the medical because Sandy updated everybody.  John
is critical, of course, but the surgery accomplished all they expected.  I
got to the hospital about 2 in the morning and got to pray with John just
before they rolled him out.  I had been asleep for an hour or so when the
call came from Vicki.  Sandy got me up at 1:30 and
Gretchen took me to the hospital.  I left after the second report of John's
condition and got home about 9:30 and after eating a little, went to lay
down for a couple of hours.  Since I now feel like a truck ran over me, I
cannot imagine what Vicki must be like.  Vicki has gone home for awhile
since John was moved to the place where severe heart cases are cared for.
This ain't no circus.  Like I said, and I am not just speaking of how I feel
physical either, I cannot even imagine how Vicki feels.  Her mom, she is in
her early eighties, left sometimes about 3 in the morning and Sandy's sister
came to the hospital and all three of us, along with Rory, sat in an empty
waiting room throughout the night.  By 9 in the morning, the large room was
filled with other people waiting.  John called just before they went to the
hospital and asked me to pray with him and not because he was looking
forward to it.  I was glad to have arrived just before they moved him into
surgery.  It is 1 PM as I type this.  When John called me last night during
the late evening hours, I first told him what I believed the Holy Spirit had
just told me less than 5 minutes before he called.  The impression was so
strong inside, I nearly called Vicki's cell phone but I didn't because I
figured they were in the Emergency Room and had more to worry about than my
phone call.  What I heard was, John is going to be ok.  Not right now
necessarily, but in the long run, he will be all right.  I am sitting here
holding a check John handed me yesterday for our church offering and crying
for my friend.  I don't know the meaning of the words I heard exactly
because I am too close to the situation but I will speak life and lived
based upon the Word of the Lord because they are eternal.  What if you are
wrong, I hear someone saying?  What if you are wrong and Jesus is right.  I
do know one thing that I have had to learn the hard way over 50 years of
walking with the Lord, Jesus is always right regardless of the circumstances
or how things turn out.  Nobody said life was going to be easy either.

Phil.