There May Be Pain in the Night...

...but joy comes in the morning"!

Those lyrics to "Your Love Never Fails" were the theme last night for Dave. It was a long, tortuous night. The combination of pain and no meds made for an agonizing, minute by minute night, with virtually no sleep.

A flustered young nurse was on night duty. She was Slovak (no offense to our dear Slovak friends!), speaking with a heavy accent that made it hard for Dave to understand. And she didn't understand his Czech either. As the night went on with him trying to ask for pain medication, she began scolding him telling him, "That's just how it is...you have to deal with it".

Ouch. Not fun words to hear just the second night after surgery. He said he was literally watching the minutes tick one by one on the clock, wondering how on earth he could make it through the night.

Thankfully the shift change came at 6 AM and all of a sudden...there was joy in the morning! Not only was it a kind nurse, but another one who knows our friend, Amy! Nurse Lucie was attentive and kind to Dave's needs, getting him something immediately for the pain, with much care and compassion.

When I told Dave that a host of you were continuing in prayer for him yesterday his response was, "Then that's how I got through that awful night". So thank you for praying!

The afternoon was so much better for him. Though he's of course tired, he's alert and feeling like he's a different man than yesterday or the day before! Clear of all tubes now, it was so nice to take a short, slow stroll around the nurse's station with him...something I would never have imagined being possible after seeing him yesterday.

Brona, our cardiologist friend who is caring for him post-op, listened to his heart today and said it sounds great...nice and tight, just the way he wants to hear a heart! He will do an ultrasound tomorrow or Monday, to check in depth to see how it's doing.

At our JV spring conference last week, they team gathered around our family for prayer down in the amphitheater, lifting us up to the Lord. The picture above is from that moment...and it reminds me of what we've felt these past days before and after surgery...literally surrounded by prayer.

I just want you to know...your prayers are making a difference!! Bless you for standing with us so faithfully.