Oooohweeeeh! Hotter Than Blazes in Texas!

So Windy and I, along with Bro. Leroy drove up to Madisonville, Tx. to help put up Hardieplank on the outside of mom's new house/garage. Glad it was a single-car garage and the house was to be bricked so we got out of that. We got started on Monday morning at 7 am and it was pleasant. Dink, my brother in law showed up and brought a Senior from his old high school to help out. We got the system running and got the back and north side done when a light rain fell and muddied and dampened everything including our spirits. We did get the south, long side done of the 16' x 20' building done with rain dripping down our neck, back and cracks which left the front around the garage door. We broke for lunch and after lunch hit it again. By this time the sun had broken through and got things REALLY steamed up with a sauna type heat. We finished around 2:30 and loaded up tools to go back to mom's, shower and leave by 5:30. We had a good visit with April and Leigh Ann, Karen and Dink's and Chance and Zoe over at Karen and Dink's new home on Sunday night which was fun.

The Black Forest of "Inner Fear On"

We've been circling this forest now for two years. Ever since I became a bit fatigued at work and my legs felt like jell-o and I couldn't walk to my Bible study at lunch and Jeanne suggested I go see my doctor. I did. Dr. Yana Finklestein said my labs showed that my liver enzymes were off the charts and she didn't know why. I suggested that it was likely due to my Hepatitis. She was a bit shocked and surprised but sent me straight to Dr. Victor Yang who proceeded to draw enough blood to keep the bats at the Houston Zoo alive for 2 years. He also did a liver biopsy and an upper GI. He suggested we get on the AMA approved prescription for treating Hepatitis C which was Interferon and Revivarin. After reading the "side effects" and talking to others who had gone that route we decided not to go there and to seek alternative methods. My wife, Windy, did the HUGE amount of research and we tried just about EVERYTHING imaginable. Nothing worked for very long to keep the viral load count down to zero. Not even prayer. Imagine that. Oh, well. That brings us up to date, July 11, 2008. While eating lunch today, I get a call from Dr. Galati who is known by all doctors in the city for his expertise in dysfunctional livers. Known in some circles as the "Golden Boy" of the liver trade, we had gone to see him at the recommendation of Dr. Jorge Luengas, our PCP. I liked him but when he told me they were going to start up a new research on a drug to kill the HCV and that it also involved Interferon and Revivarin PLUS a "new" drug, photophase or something like that, we slowly backed out of his suite of offices and ran away as fast as we could. However, I did leave him my phone number in case he wanted to use me in his new drug research. I can't tell you why I ever said, "Maybe" to him. Well, after trying IVs of Vitamin C, colloidal silver and hydrogen peroxide, and realizing that it wasn't working for me, we figured this was going to be our "last straw." The "side effects" are NASTY with a capital 'N' and leaves the patient without some mental reasoning powers that he went into it with. So here I am. Staring at that black forest and realizing that I might have to go in there alone. Or not. Maybe Jesus will go with me. Or not. Windy will have to stay outside and holler and shine a flashlight so I might be able to find my way back out. From what the nurse told me on the phone today, I'll be part of a "3 Arm" study group. Or 3 groups. All 3 will receive the traditional treatment of Interferon and Revivarin but 2 groups will receive the "new drug" and 1 group will receive a placebo. No one will know who's getting what until after 3 months (12 weeks). The treatment will involve 1 injection per week for 4 weeks plus 10 pills a day every day. Then the shots will be reduced to 1 every two weeks for the next 4 weeks and then 1 shot in the final third month. The pills intake will remain the same. At the end of the 3 months, if my viral load count has not gone down significantly, that will mean I was one of the patients in the placebo group and that I will then go onto the "new drug." I'm still not sure of this. Something still doesn't feel right about it all to me. Can't say exactly but being a guinea pig for Big Pharma isn't my idea of how to get cured of a chronic disease.

Our Trip to Jamaica, NY

June 18, 2008
We left last Wed. at 6 AM to fly to JFK airport in NYC. I had been invited 2 yrs. ago to speak at the 21st Fraternal Gathering held in the South Ozone Park ecclesial hall in Queens, NY. Due to my health I couldn't make that trip but decided to offer my services to them this year. They accepted and Sis. Windy and I flew up with anticipation of seeing my brother in the flesh, Clint Isbell, who was cruising up that way in his "Grand Banks" style trawler. We landed at 3 PM and Bro. Gideon Drepaul took us to Penn Station to catch a train via a whirlwind tour of the streets of NYC, dropping us off to catch a 2 hr. train ride down to Manasquan, NJ where Clint picked us up in a rental car. We toured the beaches of "Sea Girt" and then headed back to the boat for a great dinner and sleepover that night. Beautiful weather, calm seas and wonderful night of sleep.
Next morning we set "sail" (no sails, 125 hp engine) to NY harbor at 7 AM. The Atlantic was smooth and with just a few large rolling waves we made it safely to NY and cruised by the Lady of Liberty after 7.5 hrs. of travel. We moored at the 79th St. Boat Basin Marina run by Joe and stayed onboard for dinner and another sleep. During the day for some reason, the waves were rolling in so often that the boat rocked and rocked to the point of almost making items on the table slide off. No barges or large boats or even smaller boats were passing but these "ghost waves" kept rocking us until the sun went down and the tides had finished running. Then all went quiet. Very strange. We had a good, restful night's sleep. Next morning, Friday, June 13th, Clint rowed us over to the dock which was quite a row against those "ghost waves" and strong current until he managed to get the dinghy over to some shallower water. Then the rowing went easier. We headed out towards Central Park which took four city blocks interupted by lunch at Subway's. We made it down to the 51st St. Columbia Circle and got on the subway to the Queens area. Clint went with us for a ways then we all got off and he caught a sub back to the boat and we continued on to Bro. Gideon Drepaul's house via his phone directions. We arrived in time for supper with his dad, Bro. Clive Drepaul and Sis./Wife Christine Drepaul and brother, Bro. Tim and Sis. wife Gaitree and son Caleb. Lovely meal. We then went over to the So. Ozone hall where I presented a class on "Earthquake, Wind and Fire: Gentile Dreams Disrupted in Zion!" After the class we went with brother Roy Lindo who kept us at his home for the next 3 days and nights. Simply a wonderful host. His daughter, Patricia, cooked the most fantastic Jamaican cuisine for us the two next nights.
The four classes on Sat. went well, Sunday exhort and lunch with another class following. We stayed one more night and then left on Monday after a restaraunt lunch, "all-you-can-eat" buffet of West Indian food with Bro. Joe Badlu and Sis./wife 'Vee' and Bro. Roy. DELICIOUS!! SPICY! But now I'm back to boiled cabbage, squash and the bland diet of a dying man. Mmmmm!!
We left JFK airport at4:30 PM and Bro. Leroy picked us up at IAH around 8 PM.
We thank God for His mercy and gracious care through our trip.

Apathy in the Body of Christ

OH, MaN! What a time for us all to get apathetical in the Body of Christ!! He's got his hand on the doorknob of his 2nd coming and at such an important time as this, what in the world are we doing? Maybe that's the problem. We're all "busy in the world." This type of mindset will drain our thoughtfulness for God's business and concern for His people. We'll become interested in ourselves and families to the exclusion of those in the ecclesia who have left their "fathers' houses" like Abram to embrace the hope of Israel. We'll forget about those "for whom Christ died" that are beyond the pale of our own flesh and blood. We have lost our fist love like Christ warned the ecclesia in Ephesus (Rev. 2:4). The only remedy that Jesus offered them was to remember from where they had fallen and repent and DO the things they had done back then at the time their zeal and enthusiasm was so high!! The consequences for failure would be a very dark place to assemble. He threatened to remove their lampstand from its place. So regardless of all the good things that Jesus had commended the Laodicean brothers and sisters for, that clearly wasn't going to be enough to let them remain a bonafide spiritual lampstand of God's truth and spirit. Too much was missing. A genuine first love and works based upon that first love. We, as an ecclesia, might possess a "form of godliness" but still find ourselves "denying the power thereof." Without that power, or fuel and spark we're a "pretty car" without gas and a battery gone dead from trying to start it up over and over for the wrong reasons. Getting up on Sunday mornings in time to get to Sunday School for reasons that are anything but God-glorifying and ecclesially edifying and family fructifying is for the wrong reason and will soon manifest itself in our apathy. HELLO. We're there now.

"Our Human Nature"

So just why do we humans do what we do? So many reasons but to simplify is essential to helping ourselves develop into the next superior race. Research scientists from biologists to psychologists will hit and miss the causes of our actions but God's Word will certainly give us a clear answer if we study it objectively. There are three basic forces of our nature that we need to be aware of. One is the desires of our eyes. Being blind has its advantages. Our eyes can lead us into trouble faster than a blink of the eye. The mental images which are transmitted through our corneas to the brain are always distorted by our mind. We see what we want to see. Seeing through "rose-colored glasses" is an old saying with lots of meaning. We filter out what we don't want to see. "Eye-candy" comes in all sorts of flavors and colors and shapes. The internet has opened up windows of pornography and materialism that our race will find hard to shut. Finding the spiritual strength within ourselves to shut these "windows" will give us a greater advantage over the flood waters of immorality that has seeped into our homes, schools and businesses and which will destroy us.