Our week-long family mission trip to Nicaragua awed me: the time spent with my twin granddaughters, and the opportunity to see mission work in a beautiful country I had heard about for years. The 3 hour plane ride from Houston to Managua was not too bad (after our long trip to Japan.)
On the mountain of the village by the dumpBy the house made of pop bottles.Me and several children at the village
Children at Susuma VBSTwo sweet little girls at SusumaOne of the classrooms at the Susuma school.
One of the greatest blessings was the families who traveled with us. Five families represented, with 18 people – more kids than adults and all got along well. The team members all have exceptional hearts for God and people, and it was a joy to get to know each one of them!
I made it through the trip just fine and did not tire out – until after we returned. My health seems to be fine. And thank you for your prayers; it made a difference.We cried to leave these sweet children, they warmed our hearts so much!
Thanks for your awesome support and prayers during my hyperbaric oxygen treatments. You are my social support team. You also provided me a list of more than 90 movies to watch! How about that! I took about 30 movies off the list because I had already seen or could not watch (Night at the Museum is too scary. I can’t run from the room like I do at home!) The movie list gives me hope that I will not get too bored through the treatments.
My heart beats a little faster the first minutes in the oxygen bubble. I have little control for the next two and half hours. I can knock on the clear glass but I cannot immediately jump up and walk away. The oxygen pressure has to be reduced gradually first, so I am stuck and learning to relax and not worry. God teaches us in many ways.
I had a dream after the first night of treatment. Dreamed I was speeding in a race car down one of those multilevel, circular, mad Dallas-type highways, steering from the passenger’s back seat and peeking around the person in front of me. Wheels tilted over the pavement edge! No one sat in the drivers’ seat! Then I looked and saw someone driving. A thin, middle aged man with short cropped blond hair. He smiled. It was Mead, my oxygen treatment tech. I woke and realized I have put my life in his hands.
I did not watch a movie the first day but prayed and dozed for 2 ½ hours. The bubble is too cold for me to sleep, even though I am up to eight blankets, four hospital blankets doubled. Most of the time when the movie ends, I have time to meditate.
Movies I watched. The first movie I declined after 2 minutes. Already had nudity. (I forgot to take a movie with me.) Then the tech started the next choice. Here are the movies I have watched so far.
Fried Green Tomatoes.
Taken From Me. Great story line about Tiffany Rubin whose son was kidnapped and taken to Korea.
Amazing Love: The Story of Hosea. The book of Hosea, and God’s amazing love story was awesomely portrayed.
Under the Tuscan Sun. It was good, real life stuff, but had some sex scenes.
Home beyond the Sun. About adoption.
Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.
Jane Eyre. The newest one. Charlotte Bronte is definitely a classic writer.
The Second Chance. Christian movie.
The Philadelphia Story. Old time mushy, with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart.
Actually I watched a 10th movie. Leaning Spanish words in preparation for our mission trip to Nicaragua. I have finished 10 movies with 50 more to go!
The treatments are easy and I am feeling fine. They are to help improve my health now and for the future. Radiation can have long term negative effects, especially if you had too much, so these oxygen treatments are helpful for current healing and also preventive care.
I started hyperbaric oxygen treatments yesterday to help with wound care and radiation damage. After evaluation, doctors’ referrals and insurance approval, I began the treatments at Mercy Hospital. My cancer has been gone for 2 1/2 years but radiation left some damage to deal with. These oxygen treatments are supposed to help. So, I look at this as a positive step.
I was nervous as I changed into an all-cotton hospital gown. I could wear no jewelry, lotion, hair products, nail polish, or contacts—due to the risk of catching fire in the oxygen rich chamber!
I spent two and a half hours in a pressurized 100% oxygen bubble, pressurized to about 40 feet below sea level. My ears popped (like in an airplane) during the 15 minutes toward maximum pressurization, and during the 15 minutes as I was brought back to normal pressure.
Yesterday, for the first treatment, I chose to spend the time dozing and praying, reverting back to my radiation days when I sang Jesus songs to myself! I felt fine.
If I could read books during that time, I would be delighted. But unfortunately, I can’t take a book or kindle into the bubble chamber with me. That limits the choices to sleeping, praying, or watching movies.
Every day for the next three months I will spend the morning getting treatments, except the week I go on a mission trip to Nicaragua, and Cousins’ Camp when all 12 grandkids will be here.
Today, I watched “Fried Green Tomatoes” while in the bubble. I love watching movies, but really—60 movies! If you know a good movie, please make a suggestion; I’ll be glad to try it out as long as it is not scary or rated bad!
Please pray for my health and that God will continue to strengthen me. Although I’m not looking forward to time in the bubble, I am looking forward to completing the hyperbaric treatments and hopefully, healing of some radiation damage.
Several hundred students from Nepal attend the University of Central Oklahoma. Rosemary, a Nepalese student, has come to our home Bible studies and attended our church, Henderson Hills Baptist Church, since she arrived last year. She is majoring in nursing. This sweet girl is very quiet and has become very dear to me.
Rosemary’s father is the pastor of an independent Baptist church in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. When the first earthquake hit Nepal, Rosemary couldn’t reach her parents. Very worried, she kept trying. Finally, hours later, her call got through. Her father was ministering at one of the four village churches where he also preaches. It took him two hours to walk back home through the debris.
Her parents and sister, who live at the church, are okay. With houses fallen down around them and fearful of aftershocks, they moved outdoors to the churchyard where they sleep and eat.
Church members began to show up at the churchyard, homeless, with their houses gone or uninhabitable. One church member, a young girl, died in the earthquake. Many church families came to the church for a place to get food, to sleep in the church yard, and for safety.
Rosemary’s parents began to help the people living on the church grounds. Food prices have skyrocketed, and most jobs are gone. Rosemary and friends collected a little money to send for the emergency need, but it will take a long time for Nepal to recover.
Through the aftershocks, the church walls cracked more. Now it’s too damaged to repair and too dangerous to inhabit. The church will have to be torn down and rebuilt. One of the four village churches where her father ministers was destroyed, the one in Tuper.
Rosemary’s family still lives in the church yard because they cannot move back into the church. With no place to go, they need shelter soon because the rainy season will begin around the end of June.
My heart goes out to Nepal, to this church, and to Rosemary’s family. Does anyone know what we can do to help encourage and rebuild this fellow Nepalese community of believers?
Apprehensive about his first trip to Japan, my husband, Bill researched the cultural dos and don’ts online. He did not want to offend anyone. However, after a long 24 hour trip, friends greeted us as we stepped off the plane and made us feel welcome. Someone accompanied us everywhere we went and guided us through the cultural protocols until we returned a week later. Here are a few things we learned.
1) Tokyo is as crowded as we heard. Bill said he saw more people in a week than in all his years in Oklahoma.
2) If you want to do some luxurious shopping, Ginza is the place to go. We stayed in the old classic Hotel Monterrey where Miho’s beautiful wedding took place. Located in the central upscale area, we ate in restaurants nearby and walked down the awesome main street which is closed to traffic on Sunday afternoons. Not that I purchased anything at these stores!
Ginza
3) The Shinkansen, or Japanese Bullet Train, was so fast that the countryside whirled by. Going 170 or more miles per hour, we could hardly take pictures. Actually, the train system appeared to be twenty third century development. Thank you Reiko, for guiding us through the train mazes because we would still be lost if it wasn’t for your help.
By the Bullet Train
4) You will have luck if you see the yellow train (Doctor Train). It rarely appears. We saw it in Tokyo and everyone started taking pictures. Then again, we saw it in Osaka! We saw it twice on the first day we ever traveled in Japan, while the Japanese people we visited had never seen it before! Are we lucky or what?
5) Japanese Christian churches may be rare, but you can find one. We visited Saeko and Hide at their church in Osaka and had an Oklahoma reunion. What fun!
6) Japanese love to give gifts. We were showered with gifts every time we met someone new. Thank you, my Japanese friends, for all the kindnesses!
7) The little children were adorable! We fell in love with Meya, Noah, Mia, and the one month old baby Noah. So precious.
See his UCO hat!
8) Japanese people are warm and welcoming. Families welcomed us into their homes and they were the perfect hosts! Many others came from all around Japan to visit with us. Nao just happened to be there from Singapore, and brought her fiancé!
9) Bowing is just part of the culture. Japan is truly one of the most polite and respectful countries we know.
10) Japanese food is outstanding and healthy. Of course, we ate exotic dishes (exotic to us because we had never tried before) like eel, squid, octopus, raw tuna, and squid ink. It may be unusual but we really liked everything we ate! Thanks to those who broke bread, or sushi, with us!
11) Japanese temples are a magnificent sight to see. We loved going to Kamakura and Enoshima. We even saw Mt. Fuji from the distance! Some sweet friends took time to showcase their countries finest wonders.
Kamakura
12) Sumo wrestling is sumo wrestling. Not that the sport is new, but we had never seen a huge arena with seats on the ground yelling for monstrous contestants. We plan to research the rules to this serious event. Thank you for the opportunity.
Me and Mr. Sumo
13) Friends will always be friends. We were so happy to see many people after six, seven, eight years or more – those we met in Oklahoma. Our hearts were blessed, and we hope we blessed them too. God was good to let us visit Japan! (I have many more pictures to post later.)
If we offended anyone, we sincerely apologize, bowing with our face to the ground. The Japanese culture is beautiful and so are the people!
