Surgery Results a.k.a. Being Showered in Prayer Helps

Dear All,

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Daniel is out of surgery and it went well. He did in fact have his right colon removed. But more importantly, Dr. Eliason removed a lot of infection that needed to be taken care of for him to be healed. He said that before he thought that was what needed to be done but now he knows that was exactly what needed to be done. So, thank you for your prayers for Dr. Eliason having wisdom.

We were blessed to have many of you with us in heart and prayer this afternoon and several in person. We did have to behave ourselves in the surgery waiting room since we had an elder from Pleasant Ridge, an elder from N. Davis and an elder from New York Ave present. We thank God for each of you that were present in person or in spirit. What a blessed encouragement to Eddie and me!

I would like to say that Daniel is resting comfortably but in fact with a tube up his nose and pain from surgery, he is going to have a tough couple of days. But that is ok. Its the cost of healing. I don't say that to be flippant. I don't like to see my baby suffer. I say that because I know that is how Daniel feels about it. I don't expect Jonathan to get much of Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborn (Daniel's favorite book right now) read tonight between giving Daniel chips of ice and other things. Please pray for Daniel to be pain free quickly.

We are so grateful that there is a clear plan. For example, Daniel has a hole in his back still for drainage that they will purposefully keep open for awhile. Our friend Connie was talking about wound care this afternoon and then Dr. Hendrickson told us she was going to order the exact wound care products that nurse Connie talked about. Coincidence? I think not.

How long will Daniel be in the hospital? About a week, give or take. Jonathan can stay in town until next weekend so that should work out well with him and Sara Ann trading off night shift.

Thank you for your continued love and support. To God be all glory and praise. We place You in the highest place. Sweet dreams to each of you.

Love,
Eddie, Marilyn, Daniel, Sara Ann and Jonathan

Renewal & Confession

Wow, I have about a million things to write about, but such poor recollection. =)

One really cool thing happened last night when I went to pay for using the Internet. I noticed that lady up front reading the Bible and asked her what she was reading. The conversation progressed and I found that she and her husband are yet another example of Christians who genuinely love God and don´t let denominational boundaries interfere. I don´t know how to explain it, but I had a really great kinship with them. I had noticed that there was Christian music there earlier and asked about it, only to have a copy of the CD handed to me. So now my drive to Washington can be complimented by praises to God... in Spanish.

I woke up early and met Becki to get her shipped off to the right city. Then I went back to sleep until my body decided it was done. Ahh glorious day!! When I could sleep no more, I mosied on for breakfast and some sweet time in the word. I´m going to miss the coffee & milk, the bread and the fresh fruit for breakfast when I leave.

I spent some quality time on the Internet this morning, writing overdue emails and taking care of business for school. It turns out that if I didn´t accept my financial aid today, I would have some problems to deal with later. Yay!

Most of today I spent hiking in the mountains/pueblos outside of Baños. I met some great people including a lady with 8 kids and a sweet mountainside farm. I helped her with some sticks for firewood and she gave me a lemon off of her tree. Delish.

I had time to do a lot of thinking and praying and generally hanging out with God. It made me realize how weak and dependent I am. I think I can fool myself into thinking I´ve got things figured out, but coming face to face with the Holy One reminds me of how UN-holy I am. So in the spirit of dismissing any myths of my status as a super-Christian:

• I am prideful and think I can do it on my own, even after severe humiliation and humbling, I am not broken enough.
• I fight a constant battle with lust. Sometimes I let God win, and sometimes I rebel. This is especially difficult when I haven´t been walking closely with the Lord. When I am close to Him, most of my problems generally dissipate.
• I am judgmental and entertain thoughts of other people not living up to what they could. I am sorry and wish for this to be gone from my life for good. It hurts people and separates me from God.
• I care too much about impressing people and not enough about impressing God. This applies to doing cool things and to being spiritual.
• I am not disciplined and use the excuse that I have freedom in Christ. That is a terrible excuse.

Please don´t excuse these dark places in my life. I want them exposed to the light so that I can be healed, not dismissed because others fight the same battles. I need forgiveness from those I have wronged and I realized today that forgiveness comes with a price. Forgiveness comes with the shedding of blood, metaphorical and literal.

Forgive me.

Now all Glory to God who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever hope or imagine. May His name be lifted up because of His faithfulness to show mercy and love to those who deserve neither.

Riobamba and Baños

I´m finally sitting in the fabled Baños, a destination recommended to me by many travelers and locals alike. It´s dark, so we´ll see how it really is tomorrow.

Staying with Roberto´s family was great! They have a nice house in Riobamba and were incredibly hospitable. Roberto´s dad and sister (Natalia) ended up waiting for us at the bus terminal for an hour and a half while we checked internet and stuff, thinking that we would call them when we were ready to be picked up. Yeah, my Spanish still isn´t that great. A little misinterpretation and I felt REALLY bad. They took us out for an AWESOME fried chicken dinner at Happy Pollo afterwards.

Natalia took us around town today (after a breakfast of hot milk with sugar and instant coffee and REALLY good rolls and cheese) to do a little shopping and see some sights including a mummy in a nearby town called Guano. I got a couple sweaters to fend off the cold. We had more amazing food at a restaurant in town with batwing doors. Good stuff.

Spiritual highlights included meeting a lady studying tourism who had never really met a foreigner who loved Jesus. I got to encourage her a bit and give her my email address so she can ask questions. The sweater vendor was also a Christian and I got to encourage him too. Tonight, I met a guy at the actual Baños (natural hot water mineral baths) that used to be a Christian but is now living in San Francisco (those two aren´t necessarily mutually exclusive) apparently doing IV drugs. He said I could live in San Francisco. I was honored.

Tomorrow Becki takes off for a clinic outside of Puyo and I plan to recreate, pray and do other renewing-type stuff in this resort town. I´ll be praying for Daniel and the surgeons tomorrow. I have full confidence that he will make a full recovery and want to give God the glory!!

Surgery for Daniel - Round Three

The latest email from the Stinsons:

Overall Daniel is doing ok, going the right direction in some ways. His brother and sister continue to take turns staying with him at night while Eddie and I go during the day and evening as much as we can. Daniel is comforted by our family's presence. But, despite strong, multiple antibiotics, Daniel does have infection that is not completely under control which is a big concern to the doctors.

So, Daniel is to have surgery tomorrow, Thursday, at Harris HEB at about 1pm. They will take out his right colon (they say he doesn't need it! - plus it has a stinkin' hole in it) and will deal with the infections that are still there in his back. We are thankful for Dr. Eliason, the trauma surgeon, who has taken great care to make the best decision by waiting to see how Daniel is doing, consulting multiple times with his partners, etc to make this decision. It is obviously a very well thought out decision on his part. Please pray for wisdom and skill for Dr. Eliason in this surgery as well as blessings in his life.

To me it is a relief to have a firm direction the Lord is taking us. Although in some ways his body is recovering and several things are a little better, the infection is still there and the hole is still there. For various reasons it is a big decision on whether to wait for the hole to heal more or to go ahead with the surgery. To the best of my knowledge and simple understanding, the infection trumps all and that is the reason for surgery now.

Of course, surgery is still surgery so we covet your prayers as well as your praise to God for His continued blessing on Daniel's life. This will be Daniel's third surgery since July 2 but hopefully his last. And at least this one is in the United States - yea! He will not be all healed after surgery but will still have months and months of recovery. But, as I have said, we are thankful to have our sweet son around and look forward to God's provision of sweet blessings in the months ahead. We know there will be many "iron sharpening iron" moments.

Please continue to pray for blessings on Eddie and I but also on Sara Ann and Jonathan as they minister so sweetly to their brother. You can imagine the things they are "getting" to do. Each is willing to put their lives on hold for their brother. Each is so attentive and loving. Willing to get him a drink, put covers on him, walk with him, read to him, etc. How blessed we are!

We also ask blessings on Dr. Hendrickson who has already given so much since we have been home. May God give her wisdom and blessing as she continues to guide Daniel's overall treatment as his Internist. She has been so comforting and available to us (thanks for taking our call at 9pm last night) and giving (when is the last time someone stopped by the store on the way to the hospital and got you blue Jello?). We are truly blessed. We praise you Lord.

Thanks for the continued care and love of each of you. We have had several sweet short visits that we greatly appreciate. And yummy food to provide physical strength and spiritual encouragement. We appreciate the emails. And we appreciate the prayers. May God bless you as you bless us.

Please pray for Daniel tomorrow afternoon especially. May God receive all glory and praise.

Love,
Eddie, Marilyn, Daniel, Sara Ann and Jonathan

Jungle-Bound

For those of you keeping up with Daniel, I´m going to be posting separately for what I´m doing and what´s new with him. This is the me post.

Last night Becki and I hung out with Joáquin and two of Roberto´s (the one in Girdwood) younger cousins. We toured Guayaquil a bit and saw some cool stuff including an old fort that protected Guayaquil from pirates and the river walk. Joáquin is a brother in Christ and I we got to encourage him in his faith, and vice versa, as usual.

This morning we met up with a girl I met on the airplane ride down here named Kate. She is in a pre-med/med program and is working at a clinic down here and attending classes in the afternoons for 6 months. We went to do some health screening at some local schools and also gave some DT vaccinations. Everywhere we go, we have the chance to plant seeds for the Kingdom and got to do some of that today. After lunch with her, Becki and I took a bus to Riobamba to stay with Roberto´s father. It´s looking like Becki will be going to a jungle clinic while I do a little sightseeing. We may meet up again in Quito, but it´s been good to see her and help her get situated in Ecuador initially.

I´m realizing that I really need some serious solo time after all of this and I´m hoping to get that in the next few days, although God´s plan always prevails and if it happens that I will be around people a lot, God will provide the strength. I wish that I could be in Texas with Daniel, but have peace that I am in the right place right now.

Riobamba is COLD and feels GREAT after months of heat. I´m loving it, but I´m going to have to buy a sweater or something for these mountain towns. The jungle is beautiful, although a bit too foggy to get a really good look. More adventures to follow.

Daniel updates

I´m just going to post the updates I get from Daniel´s mom for those of you who are interested and actually write about what I´m doing, so I get both of them done. Here are his updates for today:

Update on Daniel
It was a good day. We had three different doctors come in today. The internist, trauma surgeon and infectious diseases doc. Another specialist is to come tomorrow about nutrition. They are watching Daniel, trying to get his counts at a good place and then see about the surgery. His blood pressure was low today. His liver has some understandable probs per the internist that she is watching. She is also working on hydrating him.

Treatment plan: about 8 weeks of intravenous antibiotics that he can finish doing at home when he is released, see how he does in the hospital the next couple of days and then the trauma surgeon will be closer to making a decision on removing his right colon at some point (not an emergency but probably necessary at some point) which all docs say would have been protocol in the US, no driving for at least 6 weeks, wound care for front of abdomen, sit up and walk as much as possible (use it or lose it the trauma MD said).

We feel very good about our doctor friend Allison being his primary. She is very proactive. Other docs were great too. Taking time to answer our questions and explain things well. Had loving calls and visits today. We felt loved by them and our Father above.

Second Update

I am tired and it is late but wanted to let you know it was a good day. Daniel saw several doctors today who got various things going. We still don't know about surgery but Daniel will be watched the next couple of days by the trauma surgeon and internist to see how he is progressing. The doctors are still saying surgery to remove part of the colon is the most likely course but they are working on assessing and getting everything going the right direction for now.

We do know he will be on IV antibiotics for around 8 weeks. Dr. Hendrickson explained that he can continue this course of treatment once he is released from the hospital whether that is in a few days or later if surgery is done sometime soon. Other functions are off but not critical so she is working on all those issues too.

We felt very blessed today by all of the doctors. The trauma surgeon was very professional and down to earth. He took time to explain and answer our questions which helped Eddie and I a lot. The doctor prescribing the IV antibiotics gave great direction on what to expect and why that course of treatment is best. And Dr. Hendrickson (our friend Allison) was proactive and very comforting to us. We praise God for putting her in our lives years ago for such a time as this.

Jonathan and Sara Ann are taking night duty with Daniel at the hospital (Jonathan last night and Sara Ann tonight and they'll switch off as needed for now). We praise the Lord for their love for their brother and their Lord. We were blessed with several phone calls and brief visits today. Thank you Iva Nell and Jane Jane for setting that up.

We are all tired but good. Daniel is sleeping better since he has arrived (hours and hours of travel was good for him in that way). Eddie and I are trying to get back to some normalcy in life. Especially since Dr. Hendrickson said this will be a months and months recovery, not days or weeks. We are thrilled to have Daniel around for awhile (instead of Alaska or Ecuador) and look forward to many more sweet times like some of the conversations we had today. Thank you Lord for a sweet son whose heart's desire is to be totally yours.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Yesterday was a full day from 4am to 2:30am. We got up early and shipped Daniel off without too much trouble. He had a pretty raging fever Saturday night, but we slipped him some drugs and prayed and it calmed down. En route to Dallas, Daniel and co. got delayed in Houston, only to run into Becki or her way down to Ecuador. So they got to spend some time together in the Houston airport, which was quite fortuitous in a my-plane-got-delayed kind of way.

Daniel is now in Harris HEB hospital in the DFW area and is being scheduled for another abscess drainage surgery (a fairly minor procedure). His medical records were translated from Spanish by an ER doc there who does medical missions, which helps with the transition in care. I´m receiving updates from Daniel´s mom by email and I´ll try to keep this blog current with how he´s doing.

I slept the sleep of the dead for a few hours after going to the airport, then went to Jon & Cecilia´s church down the road from the hotel. (they were the ones picking us up and helping us in Quito). It was good to be among believers and sing familiar songs to God even if the words were different. I got to see a little bit of Quito before getting on the bus to Guayaquil.

Becki had a big welcoming crew at the airport including me, Leonardo, Roberto (cousin of Roberto in Alaska) and some friends. Her flight was delayed so we didn´t get back to Roberto´s until 2:30 or so and immediately crashed.

We are now praying for God´s direction for the next steps to take which probably will be going back north. My plan is to get Becki situated somewhere she can work while she is down here, then do a few touristy things myself and head home.

God continues to open lots of doors and teach me many things. A few highlights:

• the basillica in Quito: the rich Catholics sit on one side of the preist and the poor Catholics sit on the other side. The rich sit closer to the altar, thus closer to God. Wow. How did this ever come to happen?
• the bus ride to Guayaquil: I found that being alone is not sufficient for spending time with God. Mental preparation and clarity are important.
• staying with Roberto´s uncle & aunt: very hospitable and an awesome breakfast conversation about what it truly means to follow Christ, regardless of denomination.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things will be added to you.