A video recap: "Three Great Awakenings"

It's been about 18 months since I last blogged about Nathan's progress and my musings on his progress, but I thought I'd provide a link here to the four-minute video I made recently that recaps "my take" on Nathan's story. You can find it on the Web by clicking on the link below:

http://digitalstorytellingasia.com/wp/2009/11/26/three-great-awakenings/

There is no audio for the first couple frames (that "set the stage"), so wait patiently for the audio to start. :) And you may want to pause it to allow the whole video to "buffer" so that it plays continuously without pausing to buffer itself.

I hope you find it as encouraging to review Nathan's story as did I! "The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day....Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion according to the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow." (Lamentations 3:22-23, 32-33, New Living Translation)

Home!

It was one month ago today that Nathan had surgery at Oregon Health and Science University. They operated on his legs and jaws simultaneously. He still walks with a bit of a limp and he'll need more oral surgery. (He won't get replacement teeth implants until October or November.) But he has a long break before his next surgery (on July 17), so we've taken the opportunity to head home to the Philippines--for the first time since the accident.

We landed in Manila yesterday. As we drove home from the airport, I asked Nathan how it felt to be home. "Rapturous," he said with a grin.

I share Nathan's sense of excitement and relief. I am thrilled to be back under the same roof with Hannah and Stacey. I am, at the same time, sobered by the thought of what might have been. I told Nathan as we rode home from the airport, "I'm sure glad to be bringing you home in a taxi...instead of a hearse." (God has been so gracious to our family in sparing Nathan. I'm once again reminded of the words of Psalm 56:13 (in the New Living Translation): "You have rescued me from death... So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.")

I've been thinking recently about what it means to be home. Some weeks ago, I got email from Hannah saying that she'd spent a couple days as the houseguest of a friend in Baguio City (where we lived for seven wonderful years). Our friend suggested we move back to Baguio. "Why don't you come home?" she asked. I was touched by her choice of words. "Just where is our home? " I asked myself.

"Home," it is said, "is where the heart is." But I concluded that home is where we have a place in the heart of another, a place in the heart of someone who loves us.

About that time, I read Psalm 90:1 (in the NLT): "Lord, through all the generations, you have been our home!" What a wonderful thought!

It may be confusing to try to identify just where our earthly home is. Is it Manila? Portland? Baguio? (I even have several places in Austria that I called "home" for a while! And I've hung photos of Oregon in our house in Manila to try to feel at home in two places at once!) But our truest home is in the heart of God. That is not just a place where we are always welcome; it's a place that we will never ever leave!

A wonderful discovery

Nathan has, for some weeks, been walking with a cane (that's great progress!)...but he walks with a limp because he can't lift his left foot. He can lift the leg but his foot hangs limp; the nerve in his left leg was damaged in the accident last October. The doctors have been telling us that that nerve might, over time, regenerate....but that it might never recover. Time will tell, they said; any recovery would take months.

Just day before yesterday, Nathan made a wonderful discovery. He found that he can now move his left foot from side to side. He can't yet lift it, but that lateral movement seems to suggest that he will eventually regain the ability to lift his foot, and to walk (or even run!) without a limp.

I couldn't put more fitting words in Nathan's mouth than the words of Psalm 103:

"Praise the Lord, I tell myself;
with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, I tell myself,
and never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He ransoms me from death
and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle's!"

Perseverance and hope

Nathan's surgery went well, but we didn't make quite as much headway as we had hoped. The orthopedic surgeon removed the screws from Nathan's right ankle, but the bone in his left leg has not healed enough to allow for the removal of the external fixator. And the oral and maxillo-facial surgeon was not able to install the implants in Nathan's upper jaw as he discovered that there is not enough bone left. So he took a piece of bone from the back of the jaw and grafted it to the front. We have to wait a couple months for the leg and jaw to heal before Nathan will be ready for the dental implants.

Perseverance, and hope, are the name of the game, it seems. Romans 15:5 and 13 (in the NIV) serves to remind us that "...God...gives perseverance and encouragement..." and that He is "the God of hope."

Hoping in the Lord

A friend reminded me the other day that it's been a long while since I blogged. Nathan is making good progress in physical therapy (he's walking with a cane now!), but his progress in therapy is limited by the fact that the fixator is still in place on his left leg.

And he's got a long ways to go when it comes to his reconstructing his jaw and teeth. He had two root canals this past week, and hopefully, we can push through with surgery on his jaws this coming week. The surgery on his jaws is to be synchronized with the removal of the fixator on his left leg and the removal of two screws from his right ankle. We'll see if all that can be arranged this coming week. We are a bit weary.

I was reminded, as I typed the word "weary," that that is the precisely the word Isaiah 40:29-31 uses to describe the condition that the Lord wants to help us with:

"He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint."

"The LORD will go before you..."

Six years ago, when we as a family were anxious about moving from our much-loved home in Baguio City to the heat and congestion of Metro Manila, Hannah and I were encouraged by Isaiah 52:12: "The LORD will go before you..." I have, over and over, been reminded of that passage as we have moved through the saga of Nathan's accident. It applied, not only to Nathan's transfer from the Salzburg hospital to rehab in Klosterneuburg, but equally to our move to Portland. The most remarkable part of our transfer to Portland was not the Lord's provision of housing (we are staying in my parents' home), but the way the Lord matched us with expert medical specialists.

As we were making plans to leave Klosterneuburg for Portland, I happened to receive email from Jan Naas, Hannah's roommate of 25 years ago (when Hannah was studying in Portland and we were dating). Jan has been working at Portland's highly-regarded Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) for more than 30 years. I told Jan that Nathan would be needing the care of an oral and maxillo-facial surgeon and a orthopedic surgeon as well as rehab. Jan immediately contacted her doctor friends and, even before we had left Austria, helped me arrange appointments with the head of OHSU's residency program in oral and maxillo-facial surgery, and with one of only two orthopedic surgeons in Portland who specialize in trauma cases. Both doctors are professors at OHSU. Within 24 hours of our arrival in Portland, Nathan was seeing those distinguished young doctors who squeezed him into their appointment calendars at the request of colleagues who are Jan's friends. That was remarkable.

But that the the LORD had "gone before" us was highlighted in a small but poignant way on our arrival at the lobby of the OHSU Physician's Pavilion. There, taped to a wheelchair at the front door, was a sign "Reserved for Nathan Haskell." Not only had Jan helped arrange appointments with some particularly expert doctors, but she had thought of everything--from reserving a wheelchair, to showing us around, and even treating us to Starbucks and to lunch. Her kindness in those "little things" served to remind me that we never drop off God's "radar."

Nathan is making progress every day. We will, later this morning, see the prosthodontist who is working with Nathan's oral and maxillo-facial surgeon to reconstruct his jaw and teeth. Nathan is less and less dependent on his crutches, and the orthopedic surgeon has begun removing the stainless steel pins from the external fixator that reinforces the bones in his left leg, now that the bone is growing steadily. We don't know if the nerve in that lower leg and foot will come back or not; time will tell. But it is enough to know, for now, that the LORD is going before us.

Perhaps Isaiah was echoing Moses' words as he urged God's people to move on into territory that was new to them, and daunting: "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 31:8, NIV)

On patience and "the magnificent future God has planned for us"

I just ran across J.B. Phillips' paraphrase of the passage (Romans 8:18-25) I quoted in my previous blog. The Apostle Paul's thoughts on endurance, hope, and patience:

"In my opinion, whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God's purpose it has been so limited - yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!

It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realized our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven't yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience."

On waiting patiently: "This is taking forever!"

Hannah and I tend to look at how far Nathan has come. When I sent her a text message about his walking with crutches, she replied that she wishes she were around to see it. (When she last saw him, he was wheelchair-bound.) She texted: "Not long ago his sitting up was an amazing feat!"

Nathan, on the other hand, tends to focus on how far he has to go. He walks with two crutches--slowly, and with difficulty. (Doctors say that three things heal particularly slowly: bones, nerves, and emotions. Nathan's injuries are to bones and nerves.) And he has months of oral surgery ahead. While he rarely complains, he did express frustration the other day. Said he: "This is taking forever!"

Both points of view are realistic. He is making headway, but it is a slow process...and difficult.

Nathan's accident, and his recovery, have become, for me, a metaphor with respect to the shape of the world in which we live and the work to which we are called. Things are quickly and easily loused up, or even destroyed, but they are only slowly and painfully restored or set right.

Adam's and Eve's Fall into sin took but a moment, but the long-term effects were devastating, and reversing them is a slow process, and difficult. It is not as easy to straighten things out as it is to louse them up. Whether it is bodies that are broken, or our environment that is polluted or destroyed, or relationships that are ruptured, or injustices that are perpetuated, we should not be surprised that restoring things is an uphill battle, a painfully slow process. That is reality; and, as our young friends are fond of saying, we've gotta "deal with it." We must not give way to despair, but rather keep on laboring at setting things right, energized by the hope that there is a Day coming when things will, at last, be set right.


"The creation waits in eager expectation...for the creation was subjected to frustration... The whole creation has been groaning... Not only so, but we ourselves...groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.... Who hopes for what he already has? But...we wait for it patiently." (Romans 8:19-25, New International Version)

On "being mother and father"

On checking my last blog date, I was chagrined to discover that it's been ten days since I last blogged. :(

By way of trying to account for my deliquency as a blogger: I have, since January 3, been quite stretched, trying to be both mother and father to Nathan. It has been more challenging than ever as I made arrangements to travel, spent 48 hours in transit, and on landing in Portland, have begun to make decisions and make arrangements with respect to his medical care here.

I, just this morning, figured out why it is so stressful: It seems to me that to "be both father and mother" is almost impossible. (I am newly impressed with the way Paul described the way he managed to take on both roles in his ministry to the young believers in Thessalonica: "...We were as gentle among you as a mother...," while, at the same time, "we treated each of you as a father... We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy." (1 Thess. 2:7, 11-12, New Living Translation) Paul the Apostle did it all!!) But it is no wonder Nathan and I feel the absence of Hannah.

I will, tomorrow, get right back to blogging on God's remarkable provision. But, for today, I am feeling the lack of what He has not provided: anyone who could take Hannah's place as wife and mother.

Here's to Hannah (who is not only a wonderful wife and mother, but a terrific counselor, professor, and administrator!):

"She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her....
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She gets up while it is still dark....
...and her lamp does not go out at night
(especially while finishing her doctoral dissertation!)
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
'Many women do noble things but you surpass them all.'"

(Proverbs 31:10-12, 15, 18, 25-29, New International Version)

On kindness and generosity

Nathan's progress has been such that there is an end in sight to our sojourn in Klosterneuburg. We plan to leave the rehab center on Thursday, bound for Salzburg (where we will return the car that was loaned us these past six weeks), and then fly to the USA on Monday (if I can work things out with the insurance companies involved).

I was quite dumbfounded at the way 3 John 5 perfectly describes Rob and Sandy Shaffer's ministry to me these past few days: It says "...you are doing a good work for God when you take care of the brothers who are passing through, even though they are strangers to you." (See the footnote in the New Living Translation.) I trust this blog serves as the sort of response described in verse 6: Telling God's people elsewhere of those gracious hosts' "friendship...and loving deeds."

The Shaffers so graciously hosting me is not the only example of kindness and generosity we have experienced these past few days. Nathan's attorney emailed to say that she had an idea she'd like to discuss with me. When I called, she explained that the driver's insurance company apparently intends to "stall" until Nathan's legal expenses compel him to give up on legal remedies, but that if Nathan has virtually no assets (and that is certainly the case!), she'd be happy to take on his case on a charitable basis. What a wonderful surprise!

Psalm 40:1-3 continues to be an uncannily apt description of the Lord's dealings with us over the past three months: "...The Lord...heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair... He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along..... Many will see what he has done and be astounded."

On teeth...and trust

It's been too long since I've blogged. Nathan is making slow but steady progress in his rehab. He has, this past week, gotten out of the wheelchair to walk around on crutches (for a few meters). The Shaffers, the couple with whom I am staying in Klosterneuburg, were kind enough to take us along to see an English movie in Vienna, and Nathan managed to get in and out of the theatre on crutches. I am working on making arrangements to move him to the USA this coming week for more rehab and oral surgery.

Over the weeks I've enjoyed interacting with Fr. Jim Connelly, the director of the Salzburg program Nathan was enrolled in before the accident, and with Eva Aussermair, Nathan's theology instructor in Salzburg. Both Fr. Jim and Eva pray through the entire book of Psalms. I mentioned to Fr. Jim and to Eva that I've always been taken aback by the imprecatory psalms (the ones in which the psalmist calls on God to judge his enemies). After Nathan's accident, I was particularly taken aback by Psalm 3:7: "Arise, O Lord! Rescue me, my God! Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!" I thought to myself, "That's exactly what happened to Nathan! He was struck in the face (by a side-view mirror), shattering his teeth. That's awful! Who would wish that on anyone?!"

But Eva dearly loves the Psalms, and when I mentioned my being taken aback by the imprecatory psalms, she shared with me three helpful thoughts on those psalms (off the top of her head!):

1) The psalmist is calling on the Lord to act on his behalf, not announcing his intentions to "take matters into his own hands."

2) The Lord, through the psalmists, lets us know that He is not put off by our honestly expressing our strong feelings. In fact, He invites us to pour out our hearts to Him. (Psalm 62:8, for example, says "O my people.... Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.")

3) The imprecatory psalms can serve as a reminder to try to see ourselves as others see us. That is, might it be that there be those who are so angered by the way that I have, in some way, hurt them, that they are, right now, inclined to pray God's judgment on me?!! A sobering and humbling thought.

I was reminded of the imprecatory psalms this past week when Nathan and I learned that both the driver of the car that hit him and the company that insures the car have been trying to avoid taking responsibility for the accident. The driver did not even report the accident to the insurance company, and now the company is ignoring Nathan's attorney's letters. Nathan and I were frustrated...and angry. And that reminded me of the sentiments of the psalmists who penned those imprecations....and of Eva's thoughts on those psalms. (1) It is good to be honest--with oneself and with God--about how we feel. (2) At the same time, He wants us to trust Him to deal with injustice...in His time. The verse immediately following Psalm 3:7's "shatter their teeth" imprecation says: "Victory comes from You, O Lord! May your blessings rest on your people." That's what I'm counting on!

"Amazing, amazing..." :)

Audrey, one of Nathan's fellow patients at the rehab center, asked me the other night about where I was staying here in Klosterneuburg. "At a hotel?" she wondered. "At a house," I explained. "In fact, I have it to myself. The people who are leasing it are in the U.S. Actually, I haven't even met them. They're friends of friends of friends of friends."

"But I'll be transferring next week," I added. "Another family will be arriving to occupy the house I'm in now. So I'll be transferring to stay with another family. More friends of friends of friends."

Audrey had to laugh in astonishment at the thought that I had, not one, but two, "friends of friends of friends" willing to accomodate me in town as small as Klosterneuburg. "You know, Klosterneuburg is not a big place," she pointed out. As if I hadn't noticed.

"That's the way you religious communities operate..." mused Audrey. (I'd told her the other day that I'm part of a Christian "community.")

The following morning one of Nathan's nurses likewise asked about where I'm staying. When I explained that I'm staying with at the home of "friends of friends" in Klosterneuburg, but that I'll be transferring next week to stay with other "friends of friends," she kept repeating, "Amazing, amazing." (I assured her that I am as amazed as is she.)

I could not ask for a more remarkable demonstration of the truth of Jesus' words in John 13:35: "...Love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

On being carried: He's big enough!

The Lord has, time and again, brought to my attention passages of Scripture that are uncannily applicable to our circumstances. The most recent example was my running across Deuteronomy 1:31-33 yesterday morning. The New International Version reads: "The LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son.... The LORD your God...went ahead of you on your journey...to search out places for you to camp."

What an apt description of the Lord's care for us! He "went ahead of us" to Klosterneuburg (a place I had never heard of just a few weeks ago) to "search out a place for us to camp" (a house just five minutes drive from the rehab center!).

Most special of all is the phrase "as a father carries his son." I gained a new appreciation of that phrase Sunday afternoon. The house in which we are staying has more than two dozen stairs from the street to the front door. Those stairs become frighteningly slippery when they are icy; and there is no handrail. So Nathan and I had quite a struggle getting him down the stairs in order to get him back to the rehab center Sunday afternoon. It was all we could do to pull it off. A bit scary, in fact. We managed to pull it off. But only barely. It would have been easier had I been big enough to carry him. But I'm not that big or strong. :( It is good to know that our Heavenly Father is able and willing to carry us!

It was great to have, not just Hannah, but Andrew and Stacey and Sarah here for the holidays. And it was wonderful that Nathan's long-time buddy Boram was able to fly in from Oxford for the weekend, beginning the very day Hannah and the Stacey and Andrew and Sarah flew back to Manila and Portland, respectively. (Not only did those family and special friends lift our spirits, but Andrew and Boram were able to help me lift Nathan up those stairs!) But now that they are gone, I have to count on the Lord to "carry" Nathan and me. It is good to be reminded that that's what He's both able and willing!

As a new year dawns...

It has been wonderful to have our family together for Christmas. Nathan has progressed to the point that he can walk a few feet with the help of parallel bars. But the external fixator remains in place as the bones in his left leg are not yet growing together. The trauma surgeon has said that more surgery (to insert steel rods) may be necessary if the bones don't begin growing together within a couple weeks.

My paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 this New Year: ....Nothing takes God by surprise; He always knows exactly what's up, and what He's up to. He has planted in our hearts as human beings a longing to make sense of life. But, as intense as is that longing to know the end from the beginning, we as human beings cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So there is no point in trying to peer into the inscrutable. It is more prudent to take each day as it comes--enjoying God's good gifts (from food and drink to the strength to work) as the Lord sees fit to provide such gifts, and trusting Him for whatever tomorrow holds....


As to what this new year holds for us: Much is uncertain, with Hannah and Stacey headed home to Manila, while Nathan and I stay on in Austria. But this much is certain: "We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us." (1 John 4:18, Living Bible)

Acts of kindness--more uncanny than random :)

Our three-way rendevous in Munich came off without a glitch. Drew and Sarah, flying from Portland, and Stacey, flying from Manila, met up in Amsterdam, per the plan. And their slightly-delayed arrival in Munich gave me just enough time to find my way to the Munich airport before Sarah cleared customs. We were in Salzburg by 1am, but too excited to sleep until 3am. :)

Stacey and I had to be up early the next morning for the long drive from Salzburg to the U.S. consulate in Vienna to renew her passport so that she can return home to the Philippines. The Vienna consulate accepts no applications after 11:30am so we left Salzburg at 7am to make it in time. (I am clueless when it comes to finding my way around Vienna. I'd been there just once, at night, and I'd never attempted to find my way around Vienna's convoluted maze of centuries-old circular streets on my own, much less do so with a deadline.) I realized en route that we had no time to spare, so I phoned the Marriott hotel (in which the U.S. consulate is located) to ask directions. The hotel staff gave me some very sketchy directions and said that "it's hard to describe." So, on reaching the outskirts of Vienna, I stopped at a McDonald's in hopes they'd speak English and be of help. No such luck. The women at the counter did not speak English and were no help.

Then, to my surprise, a middle-aged man in a business suit walked up to the counter and told me (in German) that he'd lead me to the Marriott. How did I understand his German? I'm not sure. I don't think it was a gift of tongues. :) It must have been his mentioning the Marriott by name several times, without making any attempt to explain how to get there. When he headed out the door, I followed him to the parking lot and jumped in our borrowed car and followed his car out of the lot.

Twenty-five minutes and 12-13 turns later, I spotted the Marriott. Our guide jumped out of his car and ran back to our car, gesturing toward the hotel. Then, before I could even roll down the window to thank him, he jumped back in his car and drove off.

By the time we parked and took the elevator to the consular office, it was 11:22am. I apologized to the woman at the counter for showing up without any passport photos. She explained that there was a shop in the lobby that shoots passport photos, and asked us to please hurry there and back. She stayed open late to finish processing Stacey's application; it was 11:50am by the time we left.

That woman's kindness was a blessing; she could easily have turned us away. But the wonderfully uncanny thing was our encounter with the gentleman who took 25 minutes to guide us through Vienna's maze of circular streets. I understood only one word he spoke ("Marriott"); I didn't even have a chance to properly thank him before he disappeared in the traffic. We have experienced one after another act of kindness these past couple months, but none more mysterious that that!

"...Angels are...servants...sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation." (Hebrews 1:14)

"Alle eure Sorge werft auf ihn...

We are very grateful indeed to the many who continue to uphold us in prayer. Tomorrow we are attempting the most challenging logistical feat I personally have ever tried to coordinate: bringing our immediate family together for Christmas from three continents. I will drive from the Vienna area to Munich to meet up with our daughter who is flying in from Manila and our son and his girlfriend who are flying in from Portland. The three of them are supposed to meet up in Amsterdam before flying on to Munich. I have never laid eyes on Munich and speak no German. Our daughter has never before flown alone, and our son has never visited Europe. The possibility for error or confusion is unnerving. (I can now imagine how General Eisenhower felt the day before D-day!) Thank you for praying that chaos will be averted, and that it is a joyful Christmas reunion.

Please pray also, in line with the this season in which we honor the Prince of Peace, that His peace will reign in my heart these next 48 hours! I am reminded of the message of the bookmark that was given me at a Gospel concert that we attended just last night at a downtown Vienna church: "Alle eure Sorge werft auf ihn; denn er sorgt für euch."

I would have been clueless as to what it meant had it not included the reference: "1. Petrus 5,7." I recognized that! :) "Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you." What an appropriate passage! I'm holding onto that bookmark, and its message!

A new chapter: rehab

A new chapter in the chronicle of Nathan's recovery opened Tuesday with Nathan's transfer from the hospital in Salzburg to a rehab center 180 miles (300 km) away, near Vienna. We arranged ambulance transportation as the external fixator on his left leg prevents him from bending his knee, making it difficult for him to get in a regular car. Hannah and I followed the ambulance in the car Gerhard loaned us. I set a new land speed record for me to keep up with that ambulance. :)

The doctor who admitted Nathan to the rehab center discovered that he is unable to bend his right ankle to raise his foot. In fact, he has no feeling on the top of that foot. The doctor said that the nerves that have been damaged or severed may or may not grow back. If not, he will have to wear a brace indefinitely. Nathan was understandably dismayed to hear that, but took it in stride before long.

We were disappointed later in the week to hear that the removal of the top half of the fixator on Nathan's left leg will be postponed from December 15 to December 22. That will delay his being able to get in a car. But the doctor showed Hannah and I and Nathan the X-rays, and we could see the easily-discernible cracks in the bones of his left leg. (The right leg has steel rods inside both the thigh and calf.)

This noon (Saturday) he nearly fainted at the lunch table. He has no therapy on weekends, so he spent the morning reading and typing messages on the computer. He was doing more reading at the lunch table when he nearly fainted. It must have been too much for one morning.

So we are reminded that he has a ways to go. From his brain...to his eyes...to his teeth and jaw...to his legs and feet, he has a long ways to go. Bones and nerves, we are told, are the slowest parts of the body to regenerate. And Nathan's injuries were primarly injuries to bones and nerves. So patience is called for.

Tonight is the two-month anniversary of the accident. He was hit by a 9-passenger van while crossing the street late the night of October 14. I was reminded last night of the accident, and of God's sovereign care, as I read Psalm 139.

My paraphrase of Psalm 139:2-3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17-18:

"O Lord, you knew when Nathan and friends decided to sit down in the playground swings at the park that night...and you knew when he decided to get up and stroll across the street. Every moment you knew where he was. Nothing escapes your notice!

Not only were you aware, you were right there on the scene! None of us can get away from your presence. Manila, Portland, Salzburg; it makes no difference. You're right beside us.

Likewise, day and night, light and darkness, make no difference to you. One of the issues in the police investigation of the accident was whether there was enough light for the driver to see Nathan in the crosswalk. But you don't need streetlights or headlights to see what's up. To you midnight is every bit as bright as noon. Darkness and light are both alike to you.

So Nathan's accident came as no surprise to you. Not only did you know what was going on, you were right there!

We are grateful to all the physicians and nurses who have expertly and compassionately cared for Nathan. But how good it is to know that Nathan's Great Physician is none other than his Creator, the very one who made every last part of his body, knitting him together, weaving him together, in the first place! The trauma surgeons can align broken bones, but they cannot make them grow together again. That is your line of work! And when it comes to the nerves in his foot, even the doctors must wait to see if the nerves will grow back, enabling him to walk without a brace.

We cannot know what the future holds, but we can go to sleep at night knowing that the One who holds the future loves us perfectly and cares for us incessantly. You think of us day and night...without let-up!

It is hard to imagine being known the way you know us, and being loved the way you love us!"

"Like a dream" (Thanksgiving--Part II)

Much has transpired since I last blogged.

Nathan has been walking! Well...sort of: he's hopping. The fixator and cast on his left leg are still in place, so that leg does not bend at the knee and is not to touch the ground. But he has, with the help of a "walker," been able to hop to the end of the hall in the hospital before he is exhausted. He will be discharged from the hospital early Tuesday morning and be transferred by ambulance to a rehab center in Klosterneuburg (180 miles from Salzburg).

Last night was Nathan's first time to leave the hospital campus. We got permission to take him to a very special memorial dinner. Jim Ferneding, an alumnus who had studied in the Salzburg program years ago included in his will a generous gift to the Salzburg program. Jim wished, many years ago, that his Christmas in Salzburg, far from family and home, had been more special. So Jim's brother Mike decided to provide this year's Salzburg program students a very elegant Christmas dinner. Mike treated all the students and staff (and Hannah and me) to an exquisite five-course dinner. Hannah and I never dreamed we'd see Europe, much less enjoy a gourmet dinner at one of The World's Leading Hotels. To say that it was a memorable occasion for Nathan, and for Hannah and me, would be an understatement.

But even that extraordinary experience has been overshadowed by the ways in which the Lord has provided for us in the last few days. My home church in Portland generously made it possible for our other two kids (Nathan's older brother Andrew and younger sister Stacey) to fly from Portland and from Manila, respectively, to join Hannah and me and Nathan in Austria for Christmas. Only after we had purchased their tickets, and lined up housing for them in Salzburg, however, did we discover that Nathan would be moved from Salzburg to Klosteneuburg for rehab. The University of Portland has very graciously provided us housing in their Salzburg dorm, but Hannah and I wondered how in the world we could afford housing in Klosterneuburg for the two of us, much less the kids. We immediately began talking to the Lord about our need. (Not that He didn't already know all about it, but He is the one who commands us to ask for daily bread! He wants us to tell Him about what we need!)

It hadn't been more than a few days when, to our utter astonishment, we received an email from a Klosteneuburg-area missionary whom we had never heard of, much less met. She wrote: "We have heard about your situation from a lot of people. Our co-workers in Klosterneuburg are out of the country; you are welcome to stay in their 4-bedroom house from December 11 to January 11." We were dumbfounded! Almost as soon as we hear that Nathan will be an in-patient in Klosteneuburg, we receive an email offering us Klosteneuburg housing that will accomodate our whole family!

But how would we get around Klosteneuburg, we wondered? Imagine our amazement when Gerhard, the University of Portland's Salzburg program landlord, offered "out of the blue" to loan us his family's station wagon...as long as we need it! Not only that...he made a point of loaning us a GPS as well to help us find our way around Klosterneuburg!

I can't find a better description for our experience of the last few days than that in Psalm 126:1-3. I've adapted it from the New Living Translation:

"What the Lord has been doing for us is like a dream!
We can't help but laugh--and sing--for joy!
And family and friends the world over can't help but say,
'What amazing things the Lord has done for them!'
Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!
What joy!"

The Lord's doing

Nathan's making steady progress.

He has graduated from having Hannah and I push him around the several square blocks hospital campus in a wheelchair to wheeling himself around.

And after eating only pureed foods (as in, cream-of-wheat and mashed potatoes) for days, Nathan was happy to join us on a trip to the supermarket across the street from the hospital to pick out some soft foods to supplement his hospital diet. (His oral surgeon says it will be another week or two before his jaw is up to full-fledged chewing.)

Hannah and I were taken aback the other day to see the oral surgeon remove from Nathan's mouth a (transparent) "plate" that had been affixed to the roof of his mouth. (We hadn't even known it was there!) "What's that?!" we asked. The surgeon explained that it was a sort of "cast." Come to find out, Nathan's palate (the bone inside the roof of his mouth) was broken (split lengthwise) by the force of the blow when the auto mirror struck the side of his head. (Just like what happened to the bone behind his eyes.) One more reminder that it is only the grace of God that enabled Nathan to survive the accident...and to do so without permanent brain damage!

"This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous to see!" (Psalm 118:23)

We'll soon be "snail-mailing" our praying family and friends a short account of "the Lord's doing." If you'd like to receive it, and aren't already on our "snail mail" list, please email your name and address to greg.haskell@gmail.com and I'll see to it that you receive that mailing.

We'd love to keep in touch with the friends who have been praying for Nathan! (Some of you we haven't even met!) I'll continue blogging regularly (but not daily) as well, even after Nathan transfers from the hospital to a rehab center.)

"Don't forget to thank him..." :)

Nathan just keeps on truckin'. :)

His first day in a wheelchair (day before yesterday) he only lasted 25 minutes before he got dizzy. But yesterday he spent two hours in the wheelchair. In fact, Hannah and I took him outside and wheeled him around the hospital campus for a brisk half-hour. It was a sunny day, but there is still some snow on the ground, and he enjoyed the change of scenery.

We got word today that Nathan's been accepted to a rehab program. (An answer to prayer; see my last blog post.) He'll transfer from the hospital to the rehab center on December 11. (Another answer to prayer.) So he and I continue to hope that he can go back to school in January.

He today saw two opthalmologists to troubleshoot some vision problems. They think his brain's OK, and that his vision will improve with time. So it's a race against the clock (well, a race against the calendar) to get back in the game. :)

I'm reminded of a passage my parents taught us around the dinner table 40 years ago (yep, 40 years ago!): "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and don't forget to thank Him for what He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)