BULLETIN:  Don's surgery has been postponed two weeks to Friday, November 17.

Being an atheist must be tough!

Can you imagine facing alone all the things that happen to us?  Without the comfort that the faith and trust that God wants to help us in all that our life situations bring, I would despair when faced with the big problems that have occurred and will occur again in my life. 

I had occasion to chat with Irelle Dunning Vann last week, and she told me to share with all you classmates via the website that her husband, Don, needs our prayers when he has his lung surgery in Birmingham on Friday, November 3 (now it's on the 17th).  Irelle didn't give me the details, and publishing them would be inappropriate anyway, but she told me that she is convinced that intercessory prayer is a powerful healing tool, and that God listens to the fervent prayers of His people.

She told of a member of her family whose brain lesion that was demonstrated by studies done in the Tri-Cities was causing great unsteadiness and walking difficulties.  When referred to the Birmingham specialists, her church began praying.  After a thorough examination and repeat studies in the Birmingham clinic, the child was pronounced fit and healthy--and the walking problems have never returned.

The Buettner family knows of the power of intercessory prayer.  At four years of age, our third grandson (3rd grandchild) was discovered at the bottom of a pool over 5 minutes after being missed at a Little League end of season celebration party hosted by the parents of a teammate of Kennedy's older brother.  It took 15 minutes of CPR by his father, a physician, to revive his heartbeat, but he was unconcious and having seizures.  In the emergency room of Druid City Hospital, his mom was told that he was going to die.  When I saw his little body in the decerebrate posturing, it made me sick.  I knew that meant either brain damage at the best or the prequel to death.

But, although I got to the ER as soon as possible after I had taken the other grandchildren to their home, the minister of their church, all the elders and many of the congregation were in the waiting area already.  Prayer groups clustered here and there.  Amy was being counseled and comforted, and others were on the phones and cell phones calling the prayer warriors to action.  After this was all over, we heard from people all over the United States and Canada.  The prayer chain expanded logarithmically. 

An air ambulance was summoned from Children's Hospital in Birmingham, but the bad weather was closed in over Tuscaloosa and, although they sent the helicopter anyway, they made plans for a longer ambulance ride up the interstate highway.  Exactly 5 minutes before they departed, while the air ambulance was hovering overhead, the clouds parted just long enough for the doctor and the medics to bundle Kennedy onto the helicopter and take off.  Then the clouds closed in, and we drove in the blustering rain up the interstate 45 minutes to Children's Hospital.

Two positive omens occurred while Kennedy was kept in a drug-induced paralyzed and comatose state while they breathed for him with a machine and administered their magic potions in the Children's Hospital Pulmonary Critical Care Unit.  The doctor who received Kennedy was named Mark Buckmeister.  Mark is the name of Kennedy's deceased uncle whose nickname was "Buckmaster," because of his hunting prowess.  This was uplifting to a small degree, a sign that a saint in heaven was giving us a sign that they were paying attention.

Then, while Amy was searching her Bible for something to focus on while waiting out this horrible vigil, she just let the Bible open where it wanted to on her lap.  The first passage she saw was Psalms 18:16, "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters."

Seven days after he was flown to Children's, Kennedy rode my shoulders (a coveted prize among my grandchildren) out of the hospital, having been pronounced entirely whole.  Although expected to be discovered in follow-up testing, no neurological damage has been detected.

He has represented his school in regional Math Olympics and makes all "A's."  His motor function is likewise unaffected.  His specialty is 2nd Baseman on his Little League team, and he has made phenomenal catches.

So, the Buettners say to the atheists, "Too bad you won't avail yourself of a powerful Helper in your life--One who wants to lift you up and do good things for you."

Now, let's do the same for Donnie V.