Shoulder Surgery

Update: Sorry I wasn't able to update the blog in the hospital. I was too busy feeling pain. This is me on Friday morning. I was released shortly after. I was in much better spirits that day. I'll post more pics further down this entry. The surgery went well, but there were some complications. Seems I did a lot more damage to my shoulder than they were expecting to find. I had torn a ligament and parts of my rotator cuff. After the surgery, I got sick from the anastesia and was generally loopy for the rest of Wednesday. Thursday I felt better and was able to keep food down but had a hard time sleeping because of the pain. Friday I was doing worlds better, but the ride home in the car was bumpier than I ever remember it being. Poor Sandee hates driving and has a terrible backseat driver for a husband. She's been so flexible and patient with me. Thank you all for praying for me. Please pray that Physical Therapy goes well these next few weeks and that I deal well with the pain. I didn't sleep very well last night because my shoulder hurt so much.

Pictures: (left) only three little incisions for all that pain; (right) they told me I was getting a pillow to hold my arm out... well it's more like a couch.

Please keep me in your prayers this week. I am having surgery on my right shoulder on Wednesday the 27th to tighten up the ligament. I will have to recover for the next few months with physical therapy and rest. The injury is the result of my pride. I got angry at my younger brother one day and tried to tackle him. As I did so, he braced himself on my shoulder, popping it out of place. Now, eight years later, it has come out countless times again and this most recent time at a water park with our students in Italy. One of the great things about doing the surgery over here is that it costs less and I am having it done by the best surgeon in Europe. This guy works on professional athletes. I'll keep you guys up to speed on how my recovery is going. It sounds like the hospital will have Internet.

Paintballing

Today, we went with around 15 high school students to the paintball field on our post. We're friends with the guys who run our Outdoor Recreation activities so they set us up with a great deal. We had a fun time and a few of us came back with some sweet battle wounds. If I look too clean, don't worry. It got shot up in the last match as I was walking out. Sandee stayed pretty clean but don't think she didn't play hard.

Rothenberg odt

This weekend, August 15-17, Sandee and I will be taking seven students to Rothenberg, Germany for a discipleship camp called Beyond Club. We'll attend attend classes on evangelism, seminars on "Running the Race", a concert of prayer and some fun activities around Rothenberg. For those of you who have never been to Rothenberg, it's a beautiful walled city that has been fully restored to look as it did two hundred years ago. Please pray for our seven leadership students. Pray that God gives them wisdom this weekend to be a light in the dark of their friends lives.

Update: Rothenberg was great. It was a lot for some of our less "younger"Christian students, but I still think they gained a lot from it. One story that stands out is that of Anthony. The last night, after a "concert of prayer" event, we were all asked if anyone wanted to stand up and tell what God had done for them during the weekend.

A young volunteer leader stood up and shared for a bit, but what followed was silence. The long awkward type of silence that makes students scared to break. Suddenly, an unexpected thing happened. Anthony shot up out of his seat and started sharing that God had put it on his heart to share what Jesus had done with a good friend of his. This might not sound special to anyone reading this, but for those people who know Anthony, they know he doesn't do things like this.

Later on that night, I was in our room with Anthony and one of his friends talking about random stuff and he brought up the incident. "Yeah, what was that about" his friend said. "I know, that didn't seem very like you" I followed. "I don't know" Anthony said looking extremely confused and contemplative. "I was just sitting there telling myself there's no way I'm going to stand up and talk and then I suddenly felt like I needed to say what I said". "Really" I said intrigued. "Yeah, it was like if I had to say it or I would've thrown up and so I just stood up and started talking". He stopped for a second and then turned to me and said "was that the Holy Spirit"?

I told him it sure could have been and he seemed comforted and somewhat excited by that fact.

Sometimes, all we want to know is that God thinks we're special. For Anthony, I think felt that when God spoke through him that night.

Thank you all for praying for Anthony and all the rest of our teens. It was a really good experience for all of them, even if it made one of them feel like they might throw up.

Vacation Bible School

This week, our teens will be helping out with Vacation Bible School providing much needed volunteer assistance. The reason it's much needed is because our post is cashed from a long deployment and half the post is on leave (vacation) while the other half has one of their family members deployed.

I was a little wary of our teens helping out as much as they are. I know the destruction they are capable of. It's really cool though to see just how much they are contributing to VBS and with little help from Sandee and I. It's all going really well and we couldn't be more proud of our students. From Right to Left in the Pic: Sandee, Giovanni, Sean and Hayden.

My First Blog

Sometimes it takes a bit of prodding to get me motivated. When I get two emails from separate friends in the states asking how things are going and both of them ask about a website, I take it as a cue to at least try this out.

Bear with me as I attempt something new that I don't completely understand. It took me a while to figure out Myspace and even longer to get into Facebook. This does sound a lot like a newsletter without all the paper, ink and envelopes and I know I can put one of those out. Enjoi!