Saturday, July 30, 2011

GENUINE FAITH

Read in my devotional this week:

This is genuine faith....believing and declaring what God has said...stepping out on what appears to be thin air and finding solid rock beneath your feet. Therefore, boldly declare what God says you have, and He will accomplish what you believe. You must, however, exhibit genuine faith and trust Him with your entire being. You must be willing to live by faith, not hoping or desiring to live any other way.

If God has said something, surely you do not want to suggest He has lied! If He has spoken, will He not fulfill it? If He has given you His word....His sure word of promise....do not question it. You have His promise and you have even more----you have Him who confidently speaks the words.
                                                                                                                Streams in the Desert

Belief in healing promises is just that....stepping out on the thin air of medical reports and PET scans and professionals that show and proclaim cancer.....and believing that the solid rock of healing will catch you.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

THIS WEEK

We've had a busy week and it has been all joy. Mom and Dad came to visit, then a few days later we had 4 friends from home come up. We started "the tradition" last year and were able to do it again this year. If we all have anything to say about it, it will be an annual get-together until something forces us to stop!!

My "grand-deer" have been coming around more frequently. The babies are growing like crazy. The loons have had a few noisy convocations on the lake, with up to 9 of them in a pack. We passed a loon with two babies the other day, which was quite a sight. We have an eagle on the lake, and the geese babies are almost as big as their parents. We can feel the summer winding down as we see the growth of the animals.

Hard to believe we will be heading home in 3 weeks. If only this were the beginning of the summer....there is always a little grieving involved when we head the cars south again. How we love our woods and water.


Dick's 8-pound northern caught one morning



One of the fawns in the front yard

Vermillion friends Jill, Patrick, Laura and Kayla came to visit!

Laura, Sam, Kayla and Patrick accidentally overturned the canoe on the way to the island and had to swim home!

Jill, Mary, Laura, Patrick, Kayla and Sam after our nightly campfire

Dick playing UPWORDS with Mom and Dad (yes, it is serious business!!)


I think I have chemo next week, but I'm not sure. Other than my back being bad the past 2 weeks, I've been feeling fine. Praise God.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

WHILE I'VE BEEN AWAY

I cannot blog at the cabin on our internet, so waiting until I am at a library is making posts rather infrequent. Nonetheless, I thought I should check in with you and share the mundane facts of life while I've been away from my blog.

We picked 15 quarts of strawberries this week, and froze all but 1 quart. We'll pick more next week. We hope the raspberries start blooming soon.....we need rain. Ideally I want to freeze as many quarts of raspberries and blueberries as we can get to take home for the winter. Do I sound like a squirrel, hoarding nuts for the winter?



The new floors are finally done. It was such back-breaking work. We are in awe of people who do this for a living! Dick did an amazing job. We have moved back into the bedrooms from the living room, and all we have left to do is nail in the baseboards in Sam's room. I cannot tell you how happy we are to be done! The ash wood is beautiful.....every plank has different coloring and grain.



Dick finishing up the floor....


We "babysat the kids" again this week. Mama deer left the twin fawns on the hill by our bunkhouse. We noticed them at 2:00 and they were still there, not moving, at 6:00. I am fascinated at the communication between the moms and babes, which is clearly, "I am going out to the deep woods MOPS meeting and you two stay still and do not move one inch until I come and get you." At any rate, I was there with a camera when she came to pick up her charges, and was able to catch all three of them.



Mom picked up the twins....



One of the babies laying on the hill, waiting patiently!

Dick and I have committed time every morning on the deck for Bible study and prayer. We are also organizing all that we have learned about healing in order to share it with others. We feel sure that God has a healing ministry waiting for us. We are blown away by what we have never been taught about divine healing.


Sam was off with two buddies last week to Sonshine Music Festival in Willmar, MN and then to a Twins game. He was asked to counsel at Miracle Bible Camp a couple weeks ago, and was able to do that because he had no lawns to mow that week. His mowing business is giving him enough income for the school year, he hopes. He will counsel one more week in August.


My parents came for Mom's birthday and we had such fun. Despite the suffocating temps and one day of rain, we still celebrated! I am so grateful they can still make the trip to our cabin. We have 4 friends from Vermillion coming on Saturday, and we can't wait!

I am a great-aunt again. My niece Rachel had Phoebe Ellis Hillestad at 8 yesterday morning. She is beautiful and perfect. Rach had serious complications last night and nearly died. They needed to do an emergency hysterectomy from sudden and massive internal hemorrhaging, but we are SO grateful to God for saving her life, and for the expertise of the doctors who assisted Him!! You sure never know when life can turn on a dime. Congrats to Rachel and Scott and big sibs Lucy and Asher. We sure can't wait to meet Phoebe!!


Our sweet new Phoebe

I hope all of you are having a great summer and are surviving this insane weather!!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

A COUPLE REUNION PICTURES



Cut and pasted a few family reunion pix off my niece's blog....She put up lots of pix from the weekend. I shouldn't be stealing from her....she's a lawyer and knows how to sue me.
I plead for mercy, Gretchen.

Great-auntie Mary holding Jack, with his Grampa Chris looking on

Mom and Dad with their 3 great-grandsons, Hendrik, Jack, and Will

Me and "my girls."
Five sweet Hieb nieces....

Chemo yesterday went very well. My labs, kidney function and liver function are all perfect. The nurse got the catheter in with one poke, and I was able to come home and sand floors and clean garages, take a swim and make a dessert. SO grateful to God for His provision during these infusions.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

HAPPY BELATED 4th OF JULY

Greetings from Infusion Room #3 in Hibbing, MN. My Alaxi (nausea drug) is dripping in, and my chair is massaging and warming me. All is good. (Except for the sleepless night on the steroids.....I am not exaggerating....I did not sleep one wink all night). Heading to Wal-mart for my weekly shop after this, and then home. It's supposed to be a gorgeous day and I want to get some beach work done.

Our family reunion had to go to plan B. What are the chances of a reunion (planned 1 year in advance to be held in a state park) being a total wash because the state government shuts down the day 32 people are supposed to arrive?? It happened. Everyone was re-routed to my brother's cabin in Detroit Lakes and we had a great 2 days together. I will post some pictures once I get them. My sister-in-law is a photographer and she took tons of pix and is getting us all a CD of them.

Dick and Sam and I left the reunion Sunday night instead of early Monday morning to get the 3rd and 4th coats of urethane on Sam's floor (we are laying ash planking). We did the 3rd at 11 that night and it was a perfect night of warm and dry breezes. It was set up by morning and we got that last coat sanded and urethaned and it dried all day. It had to be hard enough for tarps and pads to be laid down for an electrician to be working in there today. The floor really is beautiful. As much as our bodies and backs ache from the job, it will give us great satisfaction that we did it all ourselves. Tonight we move Sam back in his room, move the furniture out of our room, and will get the stain on tonight. By Friday, it should all be done and we will be doing a major happy dance, let me tell you!!

Our baby fawns were laying behind our garage yesterday. Mom was no where to be seen...she must have left them there. They were so still and didn't move. As much as I wanted a picture, I didn't want to startle them with a click. The mom obviously left them in a place that felt "safe" and we didn't want to take that away. We enjoy our resident deer so much.

Dick and I have never felt stronger in our bold and unwavering faith in my complete healing. As we read through the Gospels and Acts, we see that there are so many more instances of Jesus healing diseases than even forgiving sins. But the caveat is always faith. Faith in what goes against human reason. Faith that says God will do exactly as He says he will do. Faith in His Word as being His will. We are taking Him at His Word and believe healing is happening. The creator of the universe has a right to put conditions on His miracles, and that condition, according to Scripture, is unwavering faith (NOT HOPE). We are so excited to point others who need healing to the truth about healing according to our mighty God and healer, Jehovah-Rapha.

My only prayer is that I might be able to sleep at least a couple hours in the next 2 nights on steroids. It is so hard to be sleep-deprived. Thanks!!