Pastor Buddy’s Blog

What a wonderful weekend! It is as if God’s love decided to settle on the holy hill. (The holy hill is a special name that I gave Christian Challenge when we moved the ministry to Pearce Road in 1990.) In fact we had a family of visitors with us yesterday who asked their family member that attends Christian Challenge, how she ever found this ministry. They were in awe with the atmosphere of love that flows in our congregation. Of course every pastor thrills to hear those kinds of testimonies.

But it really has been a wondrous weekend. Saturday morning the ‘holy hill’ was filled with church members with rakes and other tools helping to tidy things up a bit. Jaune’ was more than happy to have them on board. And since I have a natural lazy streak, it was my joy to see all the work and fun taking place. The fun part was when our youth pastor, Jon Martinez, got buried under a large pile of leaves with the young people piling in on top of him. Of course my great dane CJ had to get in the middle of things. He made sure that Jon got plenty of loving from him. CJ thinks he is a human so he was right in the middle of the young folk when they piled up on Jon.

Then Sunday morning — Nathan had pictures of the raking party including a movie of CJ frolicking with Jon. He showed them to the church Sunday morning. Of course laughter was the course of the day. But what a day it was indeed. I shared one of my songs with the congregation, ‘What Kind of Man is This. Had to pick on Warren Spurgeon. He had asked me to sing a few weeks back, but I kept putting it off. Anyway I shared with the congregation how I could always tell when a phone call was from Warren. He says, Is the old man there? My response is usually, ‘Hello, buzzard bait. All I can say is that if there is anything to the so-called confession message, then Warren should be emitting a strange smell by now. Of course laughter continue as the matter of the day. Naturally I dedicated the song to Warren.

The worship was awesome. Nathan ministered from Psalm 95, ‘The Sheep of His Pasturing. When it came time for personal ministry, it was nothing less than beautiful. Nathan is such a capable pastor and teacher. Hearts were touched. A number of people came forward for personal prayer. It really gave me a warm feeling to see how well the church responds to Nathan.

Nuff on that — Yes, I’m on the road again. This morning I had a muga (heart) scan at Cabrini. (Multiple Gated Acquisition scan) This sort of scan is very telling with regard to a person’s heart. Wednesday I go in for a pet scan. This scan is also very telling. It pinpoints with accuracy where the lymphoma is located. Then Thursday I go in for the bone marrow extraction. I realise all this sounds rough, but it is really an important part of preparing me for the chemo treatmenst. Next Monday the surgeon will put a port in my upper chest area for the chemo treatments.

Everything is going well. At this point no hospital stays are indicated. Everything will be done outpatient. The oncology doctor is very upbeat. The chemo treatments will be spaced three weeks apart and will include from 6 to 8 treatments. Of course all things are subject to change because of the great Physician. And both my doctors, the surgeon and the oncologist give credit to the Lord for all healings. It is so good to have believers as your attending physicians.

And on top of everything I keep getting wonderful calls from so many friends. How could anything be better? This may seem like a strange thing to say, but I have to say it anyway — This trial has already proven to be a blessing in more ways than one. And the Lord assured me that the trial would reveal itself to His greater glory. I’m not sure what that means specifically. It really doesn’t matter. The One who called me into His everlasting kingdom, continues to be my constant companion. What more could I ask for?

Well, thats it for now. I’ll keep everyone abreast as things move long.