Rich's perspective

Many thanks to all who have been praying for me and sending me get-well wishes.

God spared my life for a purpose and I cannot believe the wonder of the human body that can close up and start to heal a hole in my body after only a few days. The biggest risk at this point is infection, and thanks to Carol's excellent care, we have been able to keep the wounds clean.

I have been to several doctor's appointments here in the US, and two different doctors have marvelled that I have had no permanent damage. A centimeter in any direction and I would have bled to death, been paralyzed or would need massive doses of Viagra!

Nevertheless, the recovery has been painful at times and feels like a constant cramp in my thigh and sometimes an intense burning in the wounds then they get hot.

As I thought about what happened, I realized that the Bible says we are in a Spiritual Battle for the souls of men, and when you are in a battle, you have to expect to be shot at, and there are going to be those who are wounded or killed.

In a Spiritual Battle, those wounds can be physical which you can see, like mine, or spiritual or emotional, which you cannot see.

I am thankful that I will live to fight again, but as always appreciate your prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.
Rich

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day with all of us together.

Richard wanted to go to church since we're staying here on the property of our home church, Crossing Community Church. The only difficulty was getting down the steps of this missionary apartment. Then we put Richard in a wheelchair and got him into church.

Everyone was very encouraging. Our pastor, Tim Smith, said some really nice things and allowed Richard to tell his story to the congregation. As he was speaking, Richard mentioned that we should pray for the young man who shot him and others like him, many of whom did not have the benefit of a loving father in their lives. He encouraged the men to be godly fathers.

After church, we went to our friends' the Colombos, parked Richard in a recliner in front of ESPN so he could watch the Brazil-Cote d'Ivoire game. We ate delicious ribs and rice that tasted a lot like Haitian "Diri Djon-Djon."

Back at the apartment, after dressing changes, etc., Richard took his pain medication and got in bed. Then all of us came into the room and Grace, Joy and Ricky played guitar and sang. A sweet moment. A great Father's Day.

Thank you for your prayers.
Carol

He's home!

Richard made it home to PA last night.

Grace, Joy, Ricky and I bought balloons and went out to JFK airport. Gerhard Laemmle (Crossing Comm. Church) generously offered to drive us out there and Pastor Tim offered his wife's van ;). Even though there was tons of traffic, as soon as I got out of the van to go look for him, Richard called my cell phone to say he was ready to go. An American Airlines worker who was wheeling him out had loaned him his personal cell phone to make the call.

He was in good spirits, but the pain medication was starting to wear off. He had had a shot of local anesthetic before getting on the plane. We got home a little after 10, he walked slowly up the steps to the missionary apartment (good leg, bad leg), ate ice cream (thank you, Kevin) & Ibuprofen PM and went happily to bed.

We went to the doctor here and that went well. He needs to keep the area still for about a week to let the wound heal internally. He's not supposed to hobble around on the crutches too much this week. But we are allowed to get him to comfy spot in a house with cable TV and let the World Cup matches take his mind off of his injury.

We are so thankful to God that the bullet didn't hit bone or an artery and that Joseph, a stranger until Friday, took the time to drive Richard to the hospital. And we we're grateful to our missionary co-workers who spent the day making sure everything was taken care of!

Thoughts about the shooting

This is the answer I sent to my nephew and his wife who expressed some beautiful words of comfort and encouragement including feeling sorry for the man who shot Richard...thought I'd share it.

"It's interesting that you expressed feeling sorry for the person who did this. I do too. Although if it were me being shot, I KNOW I would feel quite angry at him or her at that moment. ("Who are you to wreck my life by just pulling that trigger? What did I ever do to you?") But I also know that there's a lot of frustration, anger and sadness behind that act. And I know that all of us need Jesus for the sins we commit--we're not perfect like Jesus is. Anyway we do pray for him. He's probably extremely poor and without hope. Some people whose lives were already pretty hopeless before the earthquake have become unbearable. Even though we don't see ourselves as rich, we don't have to watch our kids cry for not having food. It's possible that the man who pulled the trigger has witnessed that kind of thing. Or has just watched someone die for lack of a few dollars worth of medicine. Of course that doesn't excuse this person--doesn't mean he can just go around shooting random foreigners. But we can be humble knowing the truth that our not-so-heinous sins are evil in comparison with God's goodness. And God spared Richard's life. And Richard may even play soccer again!"

Friday morning

I finally got to talk to Richard last night. He had been released from the clinic where they had cleaned out the wounds.

He sounded amazingly good! I'm not sure how much of that was the pain medication ;). And he's so happy to be coming up here. It's been hard being separated. He said they gave him a local shot for pain, I guess while they were cleaning the wounds. But he only has antibiotic and Tylenol for today.

He'll be getting on a plane today at 2:25 Lord willing and arriving in New York at 8pm where we'll be waiting.

After hearing Richard sound so good on the phone I slept peacefully.

This will be one Father's Day when we'll really mean it when we say "glad to have you as the father of our children" and "glad to have you for a Dad."

Update

Richard is supposed to be released from the Clinic where he was this afternoon to stay at a Bolosse Campus house tonight. Then he is going to be helped through airports by wheelchair and fly to New York where I will pick him up at 8pm tomorrow evening.

Thanks for your prayers today...please pray for the traveling tomorrow.

thanks,
Carol

Richard injured in a robbery this morning

This morning I got a call from my CrossWorld supervisor informing me that Richard had been robbed early this morning while he and a co-worker, Debreus, were loading equipment onto a bus to be taken up north for the World Cup Outreach.

He was shot in the leg during the robbery. The bullet went right through (and out of) his thigh. He is going to be OK, but will be coming up here to Pennsylvania to recover.

It seems that God was already working in that a stranger drove him to a Doctors Without Borders hospital and he has already had an xray. The doctors could see that no bones were broken and no artery was hit. He is getting good care and the doctors will advise our mission director, David Schmid, who has been with Richard for the past few hours, how and when he can travel up here.

I was going to go down there to help him make the trip, but David advised me to wait. He said that most likely one of the missionaries down there could accompany him to Pennsylvania.

We are a bit anxious, of course, but our pastor, family, friends and co-workers have been really supportive.

We would appreciate your prayers for Richard, he's in some pain and was pretty traumatized. Please pray for these arrangements and that God will use this for His glory and for good in the lives of Haitians.

As I get more details, I'll update the blog.

In His good hands,
Carol