So much better!

We've had another answer to prayer. Last night the pain in my lower right lung was amazingly less than the night before. I can still feel it this morning, but it's so much better. Phone calls yesterday raised the possibility of pleurisy or blood clots, and I promise to pay careful attention and call the doctor tomorrow if it's not improving further. (The weekend emergency room is a grim last resort.) But for now, I'm thanking the Lord for answering prayer. And I thank you, too, for praying. (Blood clots are a general risk with chemo, and a specific risk with tamoxifen, so no wonder my medically trained loved ones thought of that. I did too.)

Yesterday's brunch with the business department of SIM USA was so much fun. They all brought the food, which was wonderful. We sang carols, and Chuck's boss, the director, thanked the members of the department for serving faithfully in their roles so he could devote much of his attention to his special assignment in SIM's global response to HIV and AIDS. "I couldn't do that," he said, "if you weren't covering the local responsibilities." Then--at my urging--he gave a brief report of a number of high-level meetings he attended last week in Washington DC with groups from both the U.S. government and the U.N. It's very encouraging to see the respect they have for the AIDS ministries of SIM and our partners, which results in funding for the medical aspects of several programs.

One of the songs we sang yesterday was a folk song discovered in the North Carolina mountains during the Depression by John Jacob Niles, "I Wonder as I Wander." He paid a young girl a few pennies to sing the haunting tune over and over as he jotted it down in his notebook. The song calls us "poor on'ry (ornery) creatures"--and that we are, for sure! The question it asks can be answered by one word only: love!

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from God's heaven a star's light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's angels in heaven for to sing
He surely could have it, 'cause He was the King.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Let's make time soon to wander out under the sky, and wonder!

Love,
Carol