We were up and at ‘em early yesterday. Really, really early. Chris had to be at the church by about 6
a.m. It was Bethlehem Street Market Day. Cailyn spent the night with us, too, so we
had three to get ready this time, one of whom is an almost-eleven-
going-on-fifteen-year-old. It was …
challenging.
But we made it. Second ones there, in fact. Cathy (who
was in charge of the kitchen) was already unloading her pot of soup. And we had so much help with cleaning and
decorating this year that we really didn’t have all that much setting up to
do. Cailyn and I put out all the parking
signs and posters pointing out where vendors would be while Chris did … Chris
stuff. And as vendors began arriving
Cailyn was an amazing helper. She
carried stuff, she helped set out product, she smiled a lot. Very impressive. And later on when Brennan arrived, he was
just as productive. We got almost as
many comments from people on those two as we did on the fabulous soups. Speaking of the soups … we must have had
twelve different kinds to choose from. I
finally got to have a cup of the potato.
Good stuff. The final report
money-wise is still trickling in. Looks
like we made in the neighborhood of $1300 from The Bethlehem Café and Silent
Auction. Add to that around $1200 in
vendor fees. That comes to around $2500
for missions. That’ll be a God thing,
for sure. Special kudos to Chris and
Lauren and Cathy for spearheading this event
And speaking of God-things …
We did have a major scare in the Seaside
Family yesterday. Sometime in the
morning as final touches were being implemented and maybe one or two early
shoppers were beginning to arrive, Lauren got word that her husband Ed was
having some problems over at the fire station.
Now Ed is a 37 year old owner of his own Maintenance/ Handyman
business. Strong as an ax … well, a
smaller ox. Lauren wondered at first
what ladder he fell from or which finger he accidentally cut off. Nothing so simple, unfortunately. Without going into great detail, 37 year-old Ed
had a heart attack. Fortunately, a good
friend (and fire chief), accompanied
by the chief’s wife (and paramedic),
were with him when he began to have the most trouble. They worked out the transport details and got
him to the hospital. Fortunately the hospital on the island is a Level One
trauma facility. They got him in and got
to work on him quickly. It was touch and
go for some time, but fortunately they were able to stabilize him and get him to
the cath lab. Unfortunately, there they
discovered that his “widowmaker” artery was 100% blocked. Virtually a guaranteed death sentence …
unless you are fortunate enough to be exactly where Ed was at exactly the time
the final disruption occurred. One stint
was put into place and the blood flow was restored. He will be in intensive care for a few days,
and his entire lifestyle will be subject to a drastic change, but fortunately,
he is alive and should have a strong recovery.
Now I have mentioned a lot of “unfortunately’s”
and “fortunately’s” in this post. Actually, the most important “fortunately” of
all was the fact that from the moment Lauren left the church (and Seasiders picked up the slack admirably,
I might add. Cathy left, too, meaning
two-thirds of the coordinating staff of the market was gone. I went to the hospital as well, but the real
heart of the market was in those three ladies), prayers were being lifted
to the Father. He heard.
James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Father, thank you for walking with Ed
through a horrendously scary and eye-opening event. Please continue with him in healing and
rehabbing. And be with Lauren and Ed’s
Mom as well as they walk with him. And
thank you as well for Kyle and Joanne being there for him. Amen.
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