One of my favorite passages in Scripture is Mark 2 where Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man. What I love about this story is that the man was brought to Jesus by four of his friends. They carried him to the house where Jesus was and saw they couldn’t get in because of the crowd. So they carried the man to the roof, dug a hole in the ceiling and lowered the man to Jesus. What a labor of love these friends had for this man that they would go through all that effort to get him to Jesus! And what faith they had to believe that it was Jesus who could heal their friend.

This story has special significance to me in my present season of kidney failure and suffering because I totally see myself as the paralyzed man: incapacitated, hurting, and helpless. And I see you – my friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ – as the four friends lifting me to Jesus! I have been overwhelmed by the notes, cards, Facebook posts, emails that you have sent to me – encouraging me, supporting me and, especially, praying for me. And Jesus has responded to your prayers. In my last post, I shared how going to the ER was an answer to prayer. And now I am doing better than ever – I’m feeling 1,000% better than I was two weeks ago! Praise God!

Now we’re in the “home stretch.” Our transplant surgery is now less than 2 weeks away (June 18th). Your prayers have brought me this far; I’m asking that you “pray” Letty and me to the finish line! Here are some specific prayer requests:

• My kidney doctor says that there are two levels that need to increase to make my situation optimum for surgery: my hemoglobin and my protein levels. Pray also that my blood pressure stabilizes.
• I have not been able to sleep at all from 1am to 4am (and beyond) each morning because of the dialysis. Right now, I’m learning to live with it by praying, reading and other disciplines. But it would be nice if I could sleep through the night.
• Pray for Letty. She caught a cold on the last day of school.. But she has been fighting it and is getting over it. Last time, her laryngitis “scratched” our first surgery date in March. Pray that she would be completely over her cold and all her levels would be good and acceptable for surgery. Her final evaluation by her team will be on June 12th.
• Pray for our surgeons. Letty’s surgeon is Dr. Baldwin. My surgeon is Dr. Garnett. They are both Loma Linda surgeons and we have confidence in them. Pray that the Lord will guide their hands and give them wisdom as they successfully do this transplant procedure.

Again, I am so humbled by the overflow of your support and prayers! I feel the love of God through you, and it has gotten me through some of the darkest times I’ve faced. I thank God for you and pray for you – that you would experience the fullness his grace, love and mercy in Christ!