A Gimpse of God at Work

I am always amazed when I look back and see God's hand at work. Here's a story that is sure to build your faith.

THE BIG PICTURE OF GOD AT WORK

This is a story that I have seen unfold over the course of three years, but one that comes around full circle. It starts out with me, Eric, when I was on staff at Wellspring Church. One day I took a phone call for the secretary right at closing time. On the other end of the line was this lady, Cheryl, who was looking for churches to check out in the area. As she and her husband, Steve, were having difficulties in their marriage and problems in their family, she thought it was time to get back to church. I shared with Cheryl that she would need to try Wellspring for a while to see if it would be a good fit for her and her family. I told her of all the different ministries and areas that they could get plugged in. After attending for three weeks Steve accepted Jesus Christ as his savior. His life drastically changed.

Steve was on fire for the Lord, wanting to get involved and help out wherever he could. It didn't take long before Cheryl and he started doing short term mission work in Mexico and also on the streets of Chicago. After a year and half of this kind of outreach, God spoke loudly to Steve that there was a need right in the streets of Grand Rapids.

Steve took an early retirement at GM to get involved on the streets of Grand Rapids and ministering to the homeless. So in January of 2009 they began. Cheryl and he and a few other couples made some soup and coffee and collected blankets, coats and gloves and went downtown and passed out the supplies to the homeless who live on the streets and under the bridges.

One of the homeless men that they first met wouldn't even talk to them. His name was Scott. They kept going back week after week giving him supplies and praying over him. Soon Scott came out from the bridge having enough energy to walk downtown to the church on Division Ave. Soon after coming to the church week after week, Scott was led by Steve and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. Not long after this I came downtown with my family to help serve.

After meeting Scott and praying with him several times I too struck up a friendship and bond. As it turned out Scott was slowly dying of cancer living under the bridges. Not long after he was diagnosed with Cancer, the Guiding Light Mission was able to get him some medical assistance and treatment. It was touch and go for a while there as all of us who served at the inner city church prayed for Scott's health. Finally, Scott was given a clean bill of health by the doctors. And now he is on his own and has his own apartment. Today, when you see Steve and Scott talking on the street you see a miracle of love and dignified respect for one another.

In my conversation with Scott today he would tell you that he was content to lay under the bridge and die. But, because of the consistency of a few good men bringing him food and supplies, and praying over him, he got a sense that somebody cared for him.

Now this isn't the full circle, there is more to the story. Steve and the rest of the servants working in the inner city church had been praying for more supplies. There has been a large need been for clothes and shoes that fit bigger men, more XL and XXL type clothes. After praying for three weeks the prayers were soon answered. I had met a man two years earlier while getting a treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease. His name is CB. I had asked him to drive me downtown to an appointment that I had on Saturday. CB picked me up at my house, loaded me into the van and off we went. Little did he know that my appointment was to serve the homeless.When we got there CB met Steve they realized that they knew each other from the GM plant where they both had worked. CB ended up that day walking the streets with Steve talking with the homeless and praying with many hurting people.

Now here's the answer to the prayers for the clothes.

Because the plant at GM had closed CB was still there helping to dismantle shelving units and clean up all the locker rooms. Normally GM has a strict policy to throw out any items in the lost and found that have not been claimed. They do not donate items in order to not show favoritism to one group over another. But because CB was so compelled and moved at the incredible need of the homeless right in GM's back yard, he asked his supervisors if it would be all right to bag up all the hundreds of shoes, boots and articles of clothing that had been left behind and take it all to the mission. Because of his relationship with his boss they agreed. CB called me and asked me if Steve and the inner city mission would have a need for these items.

CB had no idea that we had been praying for clothing.

Five truckloads later, the mission now has more than enough XL and XXL clothing for the upcoming winter season.And in one of the bags of clothing Steve found a large amount of money from the guys and gals at GM that had taken up an offering. Arn't God's people so amazing!

When we are faithful in the little things like answering a phone call, or serving in the mission and praying for someone in need, God is faithful and just to answer our prayers.

Feeling much better

Just a quick update to let you know that Eric had a pretty uncomfotable week last week until Saturday night as the pain seemed to subside and stop. He has been able to stop taking the vicadin on Sunday and we feel that the stones have passed. We were able to strain and collect small crystal like pieces that we can have tested so we can hopefully prevent this from happening again. Thank you for all your prayers, calls, meals and visits. Have a blessed week!
Lori and Eric

The ALS Walk is less than 3 weeks away! Please let us know if you are able to come join us on October 10th downtown to walk for ALSA.

A long night in the ER

Last night at about 2:30am, Eric woke up with extreme pain in his abnomen so I got him up. We thought it might be gas pain so we waited up a while with no relief. I decided to give him a vicadin to see if the pain would subside enough to sleep and he threw up a few minutes later. I then checked his temp which read 101.6 so I started to worry more. We called my aunt who is a nurse at about 3:30 and decided to wait another hour to see if the pain would go away which it didn't so I called my parents to come stay with the kids and we were off to the ER at around 5 this morning. When we arrived, it was very slow so I thought we would get fast service, however, there was a big problem getting a vein to run an IV in Eric. We had many nurses and Dr's attempt to poke him numerous times with no luck. They wanted to rule out appendicitis and wanted him to drink a contrast to do a catscan on his abnomen. He instantly threw up the first few sips of the drink as they were still trying to poke him. They decided to try his artery in his groin at this point which failed miserably too. They even brought in an ultrasound to try to see the vein and ended up going to the other side to try again with a very large IV needle. After a lot of pain and a lot of blood and many tears shed and prayers said by me, they finally got his IV port in. They tested his blood and urine and we tried to prep him again for the Catscan. He received pain and naseau medication and was finally brought to the catscan at about 9:30 this morning. They would not let me go with him which was our second bad experience. No one passed on his health status with ALS so they asked him to transfer to the table when he got there. He could hardly talk because he was tired, heavily medicated and laying flat on his back. When they finally understood him, a very thin woman and an elderly man transfered him to the catscan table. All the while no one explained to us the procedure except that it would only take 5 minutes. When they finally got Eric on the table, they put a bunch of pillows under Eric's head which restricted his breathing. He tried to tell them, but they couldn't understand him. They finally figured it out when he kept staring at the pillows and shook his head no. The older gentleman said not to worry that he couldn't breathe well because he was on oxygen, what they didn't understand is Eric's forced vital capacity is very low which I explained to the prior doctors in our room. They taped Eric's arms down and he felt like he was in a straight jacket and fed him through a tube. A while later, they appeared by his feet and pulled out the blanket from his groin and applied the dye and did the procedure with no explanation of what they were doing. Eric arrived back at the room by 10 and was groggy and clearly not happy but too tired to talk. Eric's parents and my parents were at the hospital by then waiting with me. They came back with the results later and said "the good news is you don't need surgery, the bad news is you have a kidney stone and will need to pass that." They gave us some prescriptions, paperwork and pulled his IV and sent us home by about noon. Eric's mom is staying here with us a few days and my parents went to get the groceries I have been meaning to get the last few days and we slept until 6 tonight. Eric is still in pain and I need to go get his RX. Please pray that he can be comfortable and that it will pass quickly and the pain can be controlled.
We have been meaning to update the blog this week after he got back from his trip which was amazing which Eric and Zach will update you on soon. It has been a very difficult week for us adjusting with school and schedules and emotionally.
As much as I enjoy the break from taking care of Eric, it is hard to go back to the routine after I have a break. When I do it every day, it feels like our "normal" and when I don't like when we were in Hawaii with no schedule or responsibilities, I realize how hard it really is when we go back to our routine and I get almost irritable instead of full of grace. We both have been having a very hard time coping with this disease this week and have shed a lot of tears. Please keep us in your prayers as you have been. My sister and her family have been struggling this week also with her cancer and chemo treatments and are facing some very big decisions so that makes it hard for our whole family. Sometimes I feel like this world is so broken with sickness, sin, broken marriages, financial strife etc, I just want Christ to return and take us all home to glory! Our life verse comes to mind especially today:
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

May the Lord watch over us all this week and provide for all of our needs.
In Him,
Lori and Eric

Father Son Road Trip 2009

In my quest to visit all fifty states here in America I have been planning a trip with my son Zach to go see Mt. Rushmore for the last few months. My friend Doug and his son Max told me that they have always wanted to see it as well. On the map South Dakota does not look that far away. We planed our route to include going into Wyoming, Montana and up into North Dakota on the way back home so that I could knock off four more states. I have to admit it was farther than I had anticipated. Thank you Doug for being a trooper and driving the entire way! It was an amazing trip. Not only to spend time with a good friend but spending time with my son and hanging out with just us guys helped build our spirits up. Mt. Rushmore was a spectacal to see in person. I was amazed at the history and determination of one man to have the vision to build it. There were no deaths during the building process while using dynomite and rope swings and hanging off the side of the Mt.I didn't realize that there was such a controversy with one of the faces being put on the monument. Can you guess which one? It was the last one, Teddy Roosevelt. The reason is he had only died six years before the construction and many conservatives thought that it was too soon. But when you look at what he had accomplished for the countries' development there was no doubt they had picked the right person. We had no major issues and adapted quite well... unless you count getting lost in Montana. Let me explain; the GPS said to turn onto a highway that looked more like a two lane paved road. Soon it turned into a gravel rock road and we continued for several miles. Did I tell you there is nothing but huge fields in Montana. After a half hour or so we finnaly came upon a large farm house and we stopped and talked to a man with a cowboy hat who was sitting on his golf cart with his dog. We asked him if the directions to highway 20 continued on this path and if that would lead us to Highway 85 heading north into North Dakota? He responded with a wierd disbeliefed look on his face and said, "Yep." I can't imagine what was going through his mind. It was a low profile mini-van rolling down the two track farming road that you drive tractors on, trying to get onto a highway. It was so bad that at one point we came across cows on the road where there were no fences to keep them in, so they roamed back and forth on either side. Thank goodness we bought an atlas in South Dakota and were able to find our way to highway 85. Even though everything was spread out so far there was many beautiful scenes to take in. We saw many dear and what looked like antelope along the way. I had always wanted to take a ferry boat across Lake Michigan and rememebered that there where two ports on the Wisconsin side. We got on line and called the Michigan ferry boat lake express. And wouldnt you know it they only had one spot left. So we took it. We thought that Chicago traffic and construction plus being a holiday weekend it might take us eight hours to get home from Milwaukie but by ferry it only took three hours saving us a lot of gas as well. I was amazed at how quite and smooth the jet express boat was. Doug and I dozed off for some well needed rest while Max and Zach wandered around the ship taking pictures. We played a practical joke on Lori when we got home asking her to get on map quest to find an alternate route around Chicago and then after a while as we were pulling into the drive way, told her to look out the window. It was so good to be home.

Father-Son Road Trip!

Father-Son Road Trip!

Last night Eric, Zach, Doug and Max Campbell left on a road trip to see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. They left about 8 last night and stopped in Iowa City, then will head the rest of the way today. They plan to go through four states Eric has never been to before on this trip leaving only 5 states that Eric hasn't visited in his life. They have been talking about taking this trip for a long time and planned it about a month ago. The weather looks beautiful this weekend and I have heard that it is an amazingly beautiful trip. This is a trip that didn't interest me much driving so far to see past presidents on a mountain? My former boss yesterday said "it's about the Journey!" This is so true about this trip and about life! Maddie and I are home having a girl weekend and we slept in til 11 today and are hanging out with Kelly and her girls who spent the night. We ate junk food, watched a movie, did Kareoke, had a dress-up nerf gun fight and had fun laughing at eachother. I hope to get a lot done while Eric is gone and also do some relaxing and fun things with Maddie before school starts next Tuesday. Keep Eric, Zach, Doug and Max in your prayers for a safe trip and good memories created this weekend. They will return home on Monday. Hopefully we will have some great pictures to post soon!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Lori

Please join us in the Walk to D'feat ALS on October 10th!

Dear friends and family,

It’s that time again, dust off your shoes and come out and support our great cause, “THE WALK TO D’FEAT ALS.” We’d like to thank those of you who have supported or participated in previous walks on our Team Fox Trotters to benefit The ALS Association. If you haven’t participated in the past, we’d love for you to join our team this year! SAVE THE DATE: This year’s walk is about six weeks away on Saturday, October 10, 2009. Your support and presence really gives me the hope and determination to fight this disease.

Many people might wonder what the money raised from this event will go to, how will it help the cause. Due to my involvement and relationship built with the ALS association I can assure you that the money is well spent. Some of the ways in which the money directly benefits patients includes: holding monthly support groups on how to deal with this disease, in home visits from nurses, respite care (giving care givers a break), utilization of the loan closet, being able to borrow equipment when a patient can’t afford it on their limited Medicare budget, and of course a large amount of it goes to our national research effort to find a cure for this terrible disease. All of these resources have impacted my life in one way or another. With over 38,000 people suffering with this disease there is a real need for support.

Recently, researchers funded by The ALS Association identified a gene that causes familial ALS. This is HUGE! This finding will be helpful in further research, even for those of us with non-familial ALS.

Here in West Michigan, our local chapter uses three major fundraisers to raise the money. The biggest is the annual Walk to Defeat ALSTM. It brings in more than half of the funds needed by our local chapter to operate.

In 2007, thanks to your help, we raised over $17,000. Last year we all brought in over $7,000. This year we are hoping to have over a 150 people walk on our team Fox Trotters to raise $15,000!

We hope that you can join Team Fox Trotters. We will be wearing the blue Fox Trotter T-shirts again. If you plan on walking or need to order a T-shirt, please contact Lori at lorifox@sbcglobal.net or (616) 532-4752 and give your size and who will be walking. The cost of the shirt is $10.00.

Our Captains this year are Dan & Tanya Bolkema. They will be responsible for encouraging and answering questions about the walk, on-line donations, corporate sponsorship, and any other questions you might have. You can contact them at dabbolkema@sbcglobal.net 616-813-2022 or 616-644-1811.

For more information about the walk, visit www.walktodefeatals.org or call 616-459-1900. If you are unable to walk this year but would like to make a donation to our team, you can go to the link at the top right of our blog to find our personal walk page.

All our love,

Eric and Lori Fox