Moving Out
Everything this morning is going well. No fever, a bowel movement and more energy. Daniel is doing well too (just kidding, I´m describing him). We leave for the airport at 4 p.m. The doctors are putting the finishing touches on him so he can leave.
He´s gotten his IV lines removed and is now tubeless. We´re taking care of paperwork and finances and medical records and all that this morning. Not sure when I´ll write next, hopefully tonight to keep everyone posted on how the star of the show holds up on the first leg of the journey.
We´re being picked up in Quito by a Christian guy there named John and he´s taking us to a hotel. He´ll bring us to the airport in the morning as well. Keep us in your prayers!
11 comments:
It's an exciting day!
Thank you again for everything that you have done for the Stinsons. And all of us who are keeping up with him. Thank you!
Chris and Angie
We'll keep on praying>
yeah!!! he can come home, thank God for all his blessings. i hope all goes well and wish him and his parents the best on there trip home. thank you ross for all youve done and for posting everyday to let us know. thats what was so hard for many of us, is we cant be in contact with daniel so this is the only hope we have of knowing whats going on. appreciate it. God bless you and them.
paul
Praying for God's strenth for Daniel and peace and safety for the Stinsons over the next couple days back home. Looking forward to keeping up with your adventures in Ecuador. I commented on the July 14 post again if you want to check that out. :) Hugs--
Oops---Today would be the 14th. I meant to say the July 12 post. :) Sorry about that!
Hi Ross,
Just thought I should chime in and change the tone of your average response from sickening faith to cynical realism. You are obviously extremely intelligent, too bad you aren't also smart. Please feel free to stop reading at this point and go hunt down a miserable death for yourself if you wish. If you maybe want to live a long, healthy life, perhaps you could use these harsh words to help snap you out of your fanatical daydream and start pursuing a life of the real variety. Quick recap of recent events; Daniel and you were camping out in some lady's front yard, and he was hurt badly. Not by breaking his leg or being rolled over by some Indiana Jones-worthy boulder, but by a person with a gun-- And the intent to harm. Certainly not your average Ecuadorian citizen, but still, the odds seem long that after only a couple of weeks in country, you and Daniel should run awry of such a character, unless of course the two of you have been walking around with that stupid "feed me" look on your faces. You haven't been doing that, have you? Of course you have, because you think that God will protect you no matter what stupidity you sport around town. We that have been on the wrong side of the law call guys like you "an easy mark." God can do anything he wants, but does that mean he wants an extremely capable person standing in a sort of religious welfare line, taking no reasonable precautions for himself? Highly doubtful. You will probably find yourself far less able to do God's will on earth after you have left it, and you are trying desperately to board the express train out of here. Maybe that's just my small-minded premature conclusion, or maybe I am the closest thing you have to a disinterested third party that has nothing to lose by hurting your feelings with bluntness. And if two Americans were an attractive target, just divide the expected resistance in half, and things aren't looking good for you alone. Be a good friend to Daniel and go home with him, and while you're at it go to the library and check out Common Sense for Dummies, as I'm sure this exact situation must surely have a remedy in its pages. That may have been unnecessarily harsh, but your willingness to piss away all that you have been given for this ill-conceived trip to minister to I-don't-know-who in Ecuador has me reeling. My feeble mind can't seem to grasp the, uh... logic. Please don't take this for hatemail. I absolutely love Heath and Erin, and as a relative of theirs, you are afforded much from me, including my real opinion of actions that are posing considerable risk to your person. Honesty can be so fun. Go home, and live to fight another day.
Love,
Cale Prestridge
mcprestridge@yahoo.com
If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you lay down your life for the sake of the Kingdom, you will gain life eternally.
The wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are perishing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
In this life, you will face persecution and trials of many kinds, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.
You lack one thing: sell all your possessions and give to the poor.
How difficult it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Cale, I´m not sure if what you wrote was motivated out of love, but I think you did a good job of voicing the fear and timidity that plagues the church. Human reasoning, or ¨logic¨ as you called it clearly cannot agree with faith. I am not attempting to be smart, or logical. I´ve tried that. I could live in a big house and drive a nice car if I wanted to, but that reaks of death to me. I would rather die doing something foolish in this life with full confidence that I was doing it for the Lord than die over a span of 50 years in some rich neighborhood.
You can have your worldly wisdom and your logic. I´ve found something better. A fanatical dream that I´ve decided to waste my life on.
If some one asks for your coat, give them your shirt too.
Yeah, we ARE called to be taken advantage of. I´m taking the words of Christ at face value, or at least trying to. I´d challenge you to say what you did with Scripture instead of human logic. You can´t.
Ross:
After reading the above diatribe I was going to chime in, but your words more than adequately exposed the faulty premise underlying the writer's "logic." Although his critique is mean-spirited in tone, his conclusions are unassailable, if you accept the premise that an overarching principle of human endeavor is to that we should lead "safe" lives. I pity the poor souls everywhere for whom living life "safely" prevents them from living life with passion and gusto.
We have a higher calling than avoiding risk until we die. Living life passionately and accepting the inevitable additional attendant risks does not equate to living life unwisely. Jesus did not teach that we should recklessly test God, but neither did he teach that we should build our lives around the fear of danger. "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."
May God continue to bless you, my son, in your quest to serve our God passionately.
Pop
Ross:
After reading the above diatribe I was going to chime in, but your words more than adequately exposed the faulty premise underlying the writer's "logic." Although his critique is mean-spirited in tone, his conclusions are unassailable, if you accept the premise that an overarching principle of human endeavor is to that we should lead "safe" lives. I pity the poor souls everywhere for whom living life "safely" prevents them from living life with passion and gusto.
We have a higher calling than avoiding risk until we die. Living life passionately and accepting the inevitable additional attendant risks does not equate to living life unwisely. Jesus did not teach that we should recklessly test God, but neither did he teach that we should build our lives around the fear of danger. "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."
May God continue to bless you, my son, in your quest to serve our God passionately.
Pop
I absolutely love being a part of this family. This verse is written above Jack's crib:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." Prov. 3:5-6
All each of us can do is follow the Holy Spirit's leading in our lives and listen carefully to his voice making sure it's the Lord we are following. And it's going to be a very different journey for each of us. How rewarding it is to be a follower of Christ and to be walking in His will even when we have no idea where we are going! Love you cousin (and uncles and aunts and other cousins reading this, etc.) Big hugs from Texas--
Shelma
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter... "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
~Mark 8:31-38
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
~Matthew 5:10-12
Praise the Lord.
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