Oma's 80th and Second Surgery

As My Brother in law Rick Postma posted for me a couple of days ago, I had my second surgery Wednesday, November 30, and I am thankful for the way it went.



Surrounded by beautiful young ladies Michelle Schuit, Christine and Jessica

At the start, it was thought that the second surgery would be
-not as successful
-more dangerous
-more complicated.

The surgeon, Dr Steven, saw us the evening before I was discharged and said the surgery went well, being able to take more of the tumor then he thought he was going to be able to. In reality,  it might have the same result as the first surgery.  The first surgery in July 2010 was very helpful, allowing me to have a year in which I could do my work and many other projects I had been wanting to do for years, with energy to spare. I hope that I will have another good year which is in the hands of the Great Surgeon.

I found that having an armband gives a person access to
-porter services in case of needed scans
-food (If you are going to be in the hospital, make sure you have an armband!!)
-recognitions as a person. ( ask me about it some time)


At the Pennings Christmas Dinner with Ryan and Jessica

One thing the surgery has already allowed me to do is to attend this year's addition of the Annual Pennings Christmas Dinner, which focused on Oma Pennings turning 80.


Getting flowers from Dad!

We had a good time playing old-fashioned shuffle board, crocinole,and monopoly.

There was a lot of fun and fellowship all around

Gary's Surgery

Dear Family and Friends,

My wife Diane, who is with Joanne, just called to say that the surgery went well.  The surgeon used the word "uneventful".  This means that as much as the cancer was removed as possible resulting in a very similar scenario to the first operation which took place in July, 2010.

We can all thank the Lord for this and for how well Gary has done since the last operation until just recently.  May the Lord restore him once again to a similar measure of good health so that Gary can continue to use his considerable talents in providing for his family and serving the Lord in his church.  May He also continue to graciously provide the contentment that is so evident in Gary and Joanne as they, along with their children and all of us  travel long this path that He has laid out for them.

Rick Postma
On behalf of the Vandenbrink family

Psalm 34
 ¹I will bless the LORD at all times;
   his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
²My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
   let the humble hear and be glad.
³Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
   and let us exalt his name together!
 ⁴I sought the LORD, and he answered me
   and delivered me from all my fears.
⁵Those who look to him are radiant,
   and their faces shall never be ashamed.
⁶ This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
   and saved him out of all his troubles.
⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps
   around those who fear him, and delivers them.
 ⁸Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
⁹Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
   for those who fear him have no lack!
¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;
   but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
 ¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
¹² What man is there who desires life
   and loves many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
   and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good;
   seek peace and pursue it.
 ¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
    and his ears toward their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
   to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
   and delivers them out of all their troubles.
¹⁸The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
   and saves the crushed in spirit.
 ¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
    but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
²⁰He keeps all his bones;
    not one of them is broken.
²¹ Affliction will slay the wicked,
   and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
²²The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
   none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Surgery Wed. Nov. 30, 2011

The following is the email sent out by Joanne on Nov.7

Dear Family and Friends,

The date for Gary’s surgery is now booked for Wed. Nov. 30th at 9 a.m.
He is doing o.k. and keeping busy. I’m sure he will make good use of the extra week he has before his surgery.                                          


After Gary's First  Surgery (July 16, 2010)

                                                                          
Please pray that Gary will continue to remain healthy and that nothing will get in the way of his booked surgery for next week. You can also pray that we will feel at peace and trust that God has all things in His control and that we can leave the future in His loving care.

Joanne


Recently at a parent teacher meeting I met two people who asked me how I was feeling. This is not unusual- I find that the amount of concern shown and the promise of prayer for me has been very humbling.
At that time to explain how I was feeling I related an event that happened recently that sort of showed the type of thing that is difficult for me.


Ryan and Danny the Cat

My son Ryan and I were walking out of the woods when he said to me, “I am looking forward to coming back here 15 years from now to see how my little oak tree is doing.” (This is a realistic expectation for him), but tears sprang to my eyes, because barring a miracle, I will not be there to share that with him and I do not even know of any way to ensure that our family will still own this place so that he even has opportunity to go and look. It’s not that I fear the unknown or the illness- I believe that as Romans 8 so eloquently promises, nothing can separate me from the love of my Saviour.

What I regret is missing the fellowship and camaraderie of Ryan and the others of my family, especially in some of the things we have been working on so closely together.

David  in foreground working on the bridge

To answer the question I referred to Revelation 22:1&2 where it refers to the river flowing out of New Jerusalem and the tree(s). Compare with Ezekiel 47:1-12.  I think some versions refer to the tree as plural (certainly in Ezekiel).
If this is so, I hope there will be oak trees as well.


C.S.Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia are among my favourite books

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Last Battle, relayed an idea that has always held fascination for me.

When the children go into Aslan’s country (the new heaven and earth in that story) they recognize their beloved country Narnia.

"Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream." 

Ancient British Oak Woods

"It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone else was feeling. He stamped his fore hoof on the ground and neighed and then cried: ”I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.
Bree-Hee-Hee! Come further up, Further in!”

All this was quoted directly from C.S.Lewis's book without any permission, something I hope that I do not go to jail for at this time in my life. I hope "Jack" would understand.

I cannot say with absolute certainty that the idea portrayed in this section of Lewis’s book, the idea that any good or worthwhile thing in any place or country is only a shadow of something real in Heaven is accurate biblical truth, but I do find the idea immensely attractive, and not incompatible with what we are taught in scripture.

If this were true, I can picture some day walking with my family along The River and seeing an oak tree (or maybe even an oak woods) and saying “doesn’t that look like the place where Ryan planted his little oak in Anderson?”


Our little creek in Anderson

                                                                             
To all my children and dear wife, Joanne, my brothers and sisters, my fellow Christians in Bethel Free Reformed Church, and the dear people who have become good friends, it has been a great joy to have had fellowship with you here. I hope to have more time for this, if God spares my life for another year like He did with the last Surgery.

If that is not the case and He calls me home at this time, it has become my firm belief that we will know each other and will be able to fellowship and do things together in the new heaven and the new earth. I will look forward to meeting you along The River.

I relayed this to someone recently and he said : I think maybe it will be more like Samuel Rutherford conveyed in one of the the last stanzas of his hymn “the sands of time are sinking”:

"The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth but on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land."

This brings me back to the very first blog I wrote about the words of this contemporary song:

“I can only imagine
what it will be like
When I walk
by your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine
[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I do not know whether Lewis’s vision or Rutherford’s will be the one that I will encounter.  I hope it is a combination of the two, but I firmly believe that it will be glorious.

Thanks for your prayers,
Gary

Another Surgery Needed

          Taken at Jerry and Anna Menkveld's Wedding Oct.15th

Dear Family and Friends,

On Monday November 7th we saw the neurosurgeon and an intern at University Hospital.
He reviewed all the scans that had been done since the surgery of July 16, 2010.

After a brief neurological examination and a review of the scans, they determined that:

-I am doing surprisingly well for my condition. (I have had a very good year and undertaken a lot of projects that I had been wanting to do for years, and have had the energy to do them)

-I have had some symptoms again lately (headaches and fainting spells) and according to the surgeons, this is due to a regrowth of the tumor.

-Interestingly, a lot of regrowth had already occurred by October of last year, but it did not affect me until now

-The plan is for surgery similar to what I had last year, but the schedule will not allow that until at least the week of November 21-25, but they will call me with a date.

-For the time being everyone is suggesting not going to work and driving is also not permitted.

My needs at this time are: (things to pray for if you are the person to do this)

-God’s care and protection from injury until such time as I go in for surgery

-Patience and good planning for the use of my time 

Gary

From the reaction the surgeon gave while looking at the past scans (one of surprise and wonder) and the fact Gary had such a good year makes me believe that God truly answered your and our prayers.

Please pray that our family will remain strong and that the next surgery will be as successful as the first time.

Thanks again for all your prayers. Joanne

---

                                 Horses are watching as the corn is being combined on Oct. 28th.

                       David enjoying two of Felicia's five kittens. They were all sold within a few days.
                                                                        We will miss them.

                                Christine and David at Jerry's wedding

The happy engaged couple to be married on Feb. 18th 2012 D.V.

                                                     

                                                                     
                 Please pray for us as we wait to hear what date Gary will have his surgery.

---

Thanksgiving

On Friday, October 7, circumstances dictated Joanne to write the following email to our friends, relatives and prayer supporters

We are writing at this time to ask for continued prayer especially about the up coming M.R.I. It has been 15 months since Gary was diagnosed and up till now has not had any symptoms like he had before his surgery.

Over the past 2 1/2 weeks Gary has been having mild headaches and last week he experienced dizzy spells as well. This was becoming quite a concern but did not effect his work until early Friday morning when he got up in the night because of a headache and had a black out and a fall. The rest of the morning he felt dizzy and nauseated and the headache persisted so we went to University Hospital Friday after lunch to see what was going on. They did a CAT scan that evening but nothing was found different or showed need for alarm which made us sigh with relief. Thankfully Gary could go home. They increased his steroids again and he takes pain medication for his headaches as needed.

The MRI date was pushed up as an emergency to this Friday afternoon which is almost a week earlier than planned. We are grateful for this as there is continued concern especially with the happenings of the last few weeks.

We are thankful for the past MRI results and pray this time will not be any different. The headaches and dizzy spells are definitely a great concern and we pray that it is only due to increased swelling and not regrowth.

We were very calm about it all and I give thanks to God for His constant nearness and the peace He is giving us from day to day.
All praise be to God,
Joanne (also on behalf of Gary)

It was unfortunate to spend the entire Friday afternoon and evening in the hospital, especially as we had three children who had come home for Thanksgiving.

Michael was home for the weekend bringing with him his guinea pig, Henry, as well as his brother Ryan, who his landlords, Richard and Cora Wilms, had been nice enough to drop off in Hamilton.

Ryan and his SKS rifle

We all slept in the next morning and had a late brunch after which we went for a nice walk through the woods. All of us went , as well as many of our animals. Only David and Leanne were missing, as they had a camping weekend with the Adams family.

Christine leading Brownie

Jessica and Ruby

Joanne and Starlight.

Even Danny the cat came along

Ryan showing his woodsman's lore in identifying plants.

It was a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend.

The soya beans are ready to be harvested

An interesting tree that has grown up in the middle of a rock, splitting it in half.

The moist few weeks we have had have resulted in a proliferation of weird mushrooms in the woods.

The rest of Saturday was taken up in getting ready for winter and regular maintenance things, such as storing the trailer away

Ryan contemplating whether his oak tree will survive the winter ravages of rabbits, deer and mice

Taking in supplies for the horses

Unfortunately, Danny the cat did not come home with us after our walk and we spent some time worrying about him since we have coyotes in the woods and Doug started to combine beans that same evening.

Christine and I stayed home and listened to the sermon on the telephone on Sunday morning, after which we went for a walk out to the woods to look for Danny. We did not see a glimpse of him, however when we returned home, we found the cat in the barn sleeping on a straw bale.

The water in the creek is surprisingly clear for the time of year.

All in all it was the type of weekend in which we realize that though we are still living in a world ravaged by the effects of sin, God already in this life  gives us many undeserved blessings which have been promised:
 2 Peter 3:13 "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Letting Go

On Monday, Sept. 5 we left our son, Ryan with another family in Lindsay, Ontario, to board there as he attends Fleming College. An  acquaintance of ours did some inquiries in her church and found a family whose son had just moved to Calgary, and who have a lot of empty rooms in the house. Ryan could even share meals with them. The room is absolutely perfect: roomy, a desk at a window facing east, walk in closet, receptacles in the right places, a fine bed, everything he needs.  He has been planning this for over a year and we have been planning with him, and yet we looked on this event with much apprehension.  It is natural for parents to try to make paths easy for their children and when there are many uncertainties it can be difficult to continue.

We had many worries. When living in dorms on campus, peer pressure can be negative and difficult to resist.  The other option was living off campus and six km away from the campus in a town we knew little about, and  we wondered how he would travel to and from the campus. Cars are expensive to insure. Are bicycles safe? All winter? His place of board is close to a bicycle trail that winds through Lindsay and can bring him straight to the college.

Ryan and I spent three hours on Saturday checking out the beautiful bicycle trails and the best routes for biking from his place of board to the campus.

Are there buses? We had not seen any evidence of Lindsay being serviced by buses, but when we explored over the weekend with our bicycles we saw bus stop signs at nearly every street corner.
The church we attended on Sunday couldn't have been more welcoming, even praying for us in the evening service. We enjoyed the services on Sunday and heard a very good message from Psalm 23 about God's love and care for us.  The new youth pastor is staying in the same home as Ryan as well.

It has been three weeks now since we dropped Ryan off  and we are confident that he will get along well in Lindsay. He has been back for one weekend and we have had encouraging emails from him. We need to practice living out Philippians 4:6 " Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." We need to  trust  God that He  will make all things well, trust Him before the outcome actually happens.

Life Keeps Changing

Hi Family and Friends,

Monday, Aug. 22nd we received the results of the MRI Gary had on the 17th. We are happy to report that there was no significant change again this time.

We are thankfull that all things are good at this point and we are very happy how things are staying stable.

Gary has been keeping busy with work and projects and is feeling well or just like always.

We also had 10 great days of camping at the beginning of August, sharing weekends with both sides of the family as has become a summer tradition.

Please continue to pray for good results and thank God for His faithfulness and His mercies that He has shown us over the past year.

Have to see the sunset!

A lot has happened since the last entry. Our home life keeps changing. Jessica our youngest graduated from grade 8 and has finished home schooling. She plans to go off to high school in September.

 

Gary spoke at Jess' graduation on behalf of all the parents to the graduates.
Their graduation text was Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."
The following are exerpts from the speech:
This verse talks about God's initiative and does not mention our involvement in the process. God promises to instruct us, teach us and to counsel us.
We know from scripture that He wants us to be involved in the process as well. We are to be actively reading and studying His word and praying and listening for the voice of His Spirit.
The author of Hebrews gives us a challenge in chapter 11:1-2 ...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus...
When I supervised the hurdles at track and field I noticed that some of the participants looked at the track, some at the hurdles, but some couldn't help but look at the person next to them. This generally slowed them down. The author of Hebrews uses the illustration of an Olympic race to illustrate how we are to walk the Christian life. Athletes would make sure that they carried nothing with them that would slow tham down and that nothing would distract them form doing their utmost best. In the same way, we need to focus on God and His teachings and follow Jesus our Saviour.
Graduates and all of us: God's eye is on you...there are blessings...so let us keep our eyes on Jesus. May this encourage and challenge us.

 

David and Leanne are engaged and plan to marry next June 9th D.V. We are very excited for them.

Ryan graduated from grade 12 this past June and is heading off to college on the long weekend.

Christine went to Ireland to meet David's family and friends.

Michael is starting his second year of teaching.

Thanks for all your on going prayers for us.

Gary and Joanne