Technical difficulties

I have been offline since Saturday morning, when we began our trip

from Pueblo, CO, to Granite, OK. We made the trip fine, had a good

visit with Pastor Tim and his wife, Kathy; preached at the services

there yesterday morning, then drove to Joy and Mark's here in NW

Arkansas in about 6 hours. We had some really heavy rain part of

the time, the first real rains we've encountered so far.

I have a few pictures to post, but will wait until tomorrow. It has

taken me all day to get my computer up and running. I think the

wireless card has gone out, because every time I switch on the

wireless antenna, I get the Big Blue Screen. If you don't know what

I'm talking about, be content in your ignorance! By the time I worked

through the possible fixes, the day was gone, but I am glad that I

didn't lose any files (although I seem to have lost a dozen e-mails

in my attempts to reconfigure the system).

One piece of news: I spoke with Pastor Mike Rogers by phone last

night. I mentioned him in previous posts towards the end of last year

or the beginning of this year. His non-Hodgkins lymphoma was not

completely taken care of by the chemotherapy 6 months or so ago.

The cancer seems to have returned "with a vengeance". He has

done tests to see if the latest flare up is more of the previous

cancer or if it has evolved into something new. He will have three

days of chemo starting this Friday, and the treatment will be

repeated two to three weeks later. Depending on the results of

those treatments, he may have a third round of chemo. A

subsequent treatment being talked about is a stem cell replacement,

in which stem cells will be taken from his body and will be

reintroduced after he has undergone a massive round of chemo,

which will require him to be in isolation for 2-4 weeks. By his

voice on the phone, I would never have guessed he had any health

problem.

We also learned that Louisa, one of our church members, has been

told that she must have an immediate operation to remove a kidney

which has a large tumor. Only after doing a biopsy following the

operation will the doctors know if it is malignant, or not. Your

prayers for both of these are truly appreciated.

This posting is also a test to see how well the new Blogspot feature

works for posting by e-mail. If it works, it may make it easier to post,

which in turn may have no effect on how often I post, anyway. Here goes...