Wow, I feel pretty good for a dead guy!!! That is, basically, what the surgeons said when they saw my scans...I would never survive the surgery. On my last visit to my neurologist, I candidly said that it does not instill confidence when the surgeon says that he has never done this type of surgery before (my stroke was double sided, in other words it was not left sided or right sided, it was both.) My neurologist said that she was confident no one in DES MOINES had ever done that surgery before, and she was pretty sure no one in IOWA had done that surgery. The doctors gave my wife about a 50/50 chance of me surviving the surgery. If I survived the surgery, I had a 30/70 (about) chance of waking up, and if I woke up, I had of 0% chance of being the same.Well, 6 months later I feel as good as I have ever felt, and I do everything I used to, it just takes a little longer. I am encouraged every day, and I want to continue using my life to bring glory to God.
A few years ago I was presented with the opportunity to come back to Stratford, Iowa, to First Baptist church, as their pastor; for those of you who have followed this blog for some time, FBC in Stratford was my first pastorate. Let's just say I prayed about it as I was jumping at the opportunity. The church has a parsonage, so I could live there and not have to worry about a houe payment; and I needed to slow down, and this was a part time position (which, as a side note, allowed for me to get a greater disability from the VA than when I was working full time with St. Croix Hospice...) We love Stratford, and absolutely love the church; the people are wonderful and accepted us, again, with open arms. This was, for me, the perfect position: I get to pastor a church I LOVE, I get to do life with people I LOVE, and I have already had the opportunity to do weddings and baptism services for kids (adults now) that I have known their entire lives. IT IS GREAT. The longer I have been here,
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