Roger's electric lift chair

Archie enjoying Roger's chair (caught out) and we couldn't
resist taking photo's!! (at Brenda's place)

Going up, up but not out!!

Before all the activity. I do miss not taking Archie for walks down the river.

An update on Roger

It is Sunday night 28 November and the days are certainly racing by. We have just said goodbye to dear friends after a lovely meal together. We met David and Sue a few months after we married in 1976 and they have been good friends ever since. Sue has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and we are truly feeling for her at this uncertain time. It puts things into perspective for us and makes us realize we are not the only ones going through difficult days.

Roger is doing quite well, though he is getting slower and doesn't have as much energy and takes a long time to eat his meals. He needs to have smaller meals 6 times a day, but I am finding it hard to adjust to this routine. I had a good chat with a friend in Adelaide last night and she is going to help me find some good recipes to make adjustments for Roger. I am so blessed to have such good friends to call out for help, and also friends who respond to a cry for help as well.

Roger has been driving and enjoying the freedom this brings. I do not feel confident driving with him (except when we go on a long straight drive - like to my sister's farm in Hyden). He now needs to surrender his license and have driving lessons (ridiculous) and will be given a driving knob to help him to be able to drive. But until he surrenders his license he can still drive around. Oh my goodness!!

Roger has seen a Speech Therapist and had a good chat about what is going on in his mouth. His tongue is losing muscle, but the rest of the muscles in his mouth are good. His speech is not as clear as it used to be and sometimes I find it hard to understand him. He definitely can't talk and eat at the same time these days.

I need great patience with all that is going on, and I am not always the most patient person. I seem to be on a steep learning curve in every way and sometimes it is all too much. But I do know I am a strong person and I also know that my loving Heavenly Father is walking right beside me each moment of every day. I would not cope if I didn’t have my faith in God.

We have found a lovely Christian Community about 6 minutes from where we live and we have been there twice so far. Everyone is warm and friendly and we feel very much at home already. It is a shame we will be going over East for a month and will lose this connection for a month. But at least we know we have these lovely people to come home to. We know we will be very much supported here in the months to come.

Well, we have just lost power again. It seems to be a regular occurrence here, probably because people are using their air conditioners!! (It has been 34C the last couple of days and more to come). I will copy and past into a Word document and post this tomorrow.

.......so, after a rather good nights sleep, though hot, here is the post for you to read!

Our arrival in Perth

We arrived in Perth on Tuesday 14 September. We had a really good flight from Frankfurt via Kuala Lumpur (spent 3 hrs there) with everything going smoothly. We didn't really sleep on the flight but were no worse for wear on our arrival. We didn't have jetlag, which was good.

On Wed. 15 Sept we visited a Dr so that we could get a referral for Roger to see a Neurologist. The Dr was very lovely and understanding of our situation. We have chosen well.

On Thurs 16 Sept we visited the Neurologist. My sister Irene came with us. The Neuro started the process of Roger getting therapy help at Shenton Park Rehab.

The following week we had a visit from a nurse care advisor from the Motor Neurone Society. This was a most helpful visit for us. We will be attending an information afternoon on Thursday 28 October. Roger will also give a blood sample for research.

We have been in Perth nearly 5 weeks now and each week we have had either Dr's visits or some other paper work to undertake. But things are coming together for us here and we are beginning to feel a little better about the upheaval of moving here.

We are looking at a little unit to buy. Trying to sort out whether we can afford this or not is taking up a bit of our time. Hopefully it will be worth it.

As you know, Roger is getting worse not better. The sad part about Motor Neurone Disease, particularly at the beginning, is that the person does look so well. Roger is really well, but he is losing weight (now 74kgs) and his left arm is almost useless. His left leg is growing weaker and weaker. He is amazingly positive and determined and I admire him for that.

I will try and keep you posted here on how things are going for us.

OUR SUNDAY

I think many of you would know that Roger has been doing a series this past 3 Sunday's at Crossroads International Church of Basel http://www.crossroadsbasel.ch/.

Here are the topics he has touched on:

The topic for 13 June message is Jesus' heart for people on the margins
Luke 7.36 - 8.3
The topic for 20 June message is God's heart for those who have lost their way
Luke 15. 11- 32
The topic for 27 June message is How Jesus helped out at a family Celebration
John 2.1- 12

Roger left us with 3 questions to ponder after his message on Sunday:

Are we a community of people who are compassionate to the forgotten people of our society?

Are we a community of people known for forgiveness and grace?

Are we a people who will throw a party to show that we are generous to those who cannot possibly afford the cost?

You can download and hear his messages. It will be well worth your while taking the time to do this. Last Sunday 20 June a friend made a video of Roger preaching and it has turned out well. But of course we haven't a clue how to put it on youtube!! It would be good to do it though. After the service yesterday Roger had some good conversations with people. We had some friends visiting who normally do not go to Church. A lovely lady asked to pray for us both and this was very special to us. Yes, we know ALS is taking over Roger's body, but slowly at this stage, but still God is working very powerfully in both our lives to bring glory to his name. We can but leave the future in his hands and know he has the very best in store for us, whatever this might be.


Roger, Joshua (nephew) and Gaynor in Tours, France before our mammoth bike ride together

UNEXPECTED PLEASURES

We had an amazing experience yesterday (Friday 25 June) when we had lunch with Nicci Vaughan who is store manager of The Job Factory. We met Nicci through my lovely friend Rylla who decided we should be put into contact with each other, so that's how we met.

In short, The Job Factory contains a nice cafe, clothing for sale, musical instruments, all things nice (!!) and a restaurant on the top floor. They employ people who are finding it difficult to get a job and train them up. At the moment they have around 120 trainees, each having a mentor. As well as working they go to school one day a week and learn communication skills, etc.

Here is the web address, but of course it is all in German, but it you go to it, you will get a bit of an idea of what they are up to: http://www.jobfactory.ch/

We were so thrilled to meet Nicci, to hear about how God originally touched her life and has now transformed it and is using her many skills to have a real ministry to these young people through The Job Factory, which was started by a Swiss Christian man with a real vision for helping young people.

We had a tour of the whole complex, including all the offices, print works, IT and factory. Absolutely amazing.

And of course we can't help but smile as we meet yet another person in the twilight of us leaving this beautiful country. And we wonder......what is God up to?!!

SMALL GROUP

Back in April we began a small group in our home here in Schopfheim. We decided to meet weekly on a Monday night and one of the purposes for the group to start was to intercede for Schopfheim. There isn't a lively Church here and we believe God wants us to begin praying for this to happen. Friends of ours who moved to Schopfheim 2 years ago have been prayer walking actively around the village and we hope to do this also, especially when we are shopping and generally meandering around the place.

Last Monday night there were 7 of us in the group and we are praying God will lead us to more people in the area that would like to join us. As a guide we are using the 4 W's

WELCOME
WORSHIP
WORD
WITNESS

This means we can all take it in turns to lead one of these W's. A great idea and we hope to use this in the future as well.

This is an English speaking group at the moment, but we feel it needs to be a German group, though if it has English people in it, this is a great idea. Sometimes English people give a lightness to the group that otherwise might not be there. We are very excited about belonging to this group. We feel blessed and very encouraged at this time.

MY ROGER

One of the great things that has happened since we have been back in Germany in October 2009 is that Roger has had the opportunity to preach every month at Crossroads International Church in Basel. This is an English speaking interdenominational Church and has been going about 7 years. Approximately 120 - 150 people meet together each week. Currently they are looking for a new pastor and really need our prayers as they make this big decision. Here is the web address if you want to take a look. http://www.crossroadsbasel.ch Also you can access Roger's messages from this website. He will be preaching 3 times in June - 13, 20 and 27. Roger is currently thinking and praying about what he will speak on. He has some good ideas that are formulating!! Roger has given away most of his theological library to 2 young German guys who are studying for the ministry. Although this was a hard thing to do, we are both happy that Reuben and Matthias are able to benefit in this way. As theological students you never have any money!

We have been going to Crossroads regularly most weeks but have also been making an appearance at FeG Loerrach just to say hi to our many friends and keep in contact. Last Sunday we were treated to wonderful music by a very professional brass band (12 guys). The service was fantastic and we were so glad we were there. We are not sure when we will get another opportunity to visit, probably not until August.

We recently started a Small Group here in our home, but in English. We are 3 couples meeting and are very purposeful, following the 4 W's - Welcome, Worship, Word and Witness. We are so very blessed to have this time with special people before we head back to Australia. We are so encouraged each week by this group. We are also specifically praying for Schopfheim as there is not an alive, welcoming Church in this area. Both the State Protestant Church and the Catholic Church are without ministers at the moment. We also need to be specific about prayer walking when we go shopping, etc in Schopfheim.

UPDATING AT LAST

It has been a long while since I have blogged here and, with Roger's help I hope to rectify this and bring our blogging friends up to date with what has been happening in our lives since we went back to Australia for 10 weeks in August 2009.

Five days after we arrived in Melbourne we both visited our Doctors for routine check ups (we appreciated visiting our Doctors and being able to speak English after 3.5 years!!). When Roger came out of the Doctor's room, the visit was to change our lives forever. The Doctor suspected Roger had Motor Neurone Disease and gave him the name of a Neurologist to visit. We had to wait 2 weeks to get an appointment then Roger was examined by the Neurologist and he confirmed Roger was in the early stages of MND or ALS.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. (courtesy ALS Assoc. website http://www.alsa.org/als/what.cfm).

Roger has always had very good health, so this diagnosis came as a huge shock to us both and to our family and many friends. As you can imagine, it really put a dampener on our visit back to Australia, especially as time was taken up with more medical appointments and other tests. This meant that our plans to catch up with our many friends did not happen as we had expected, or was cut short (like our visit to Adelaide).

We both felt we needed to come back to Schopfheim, Germany which has now been our home for over 4 years. The photo above is from the summit of our nearest hill at 750m. We have many close friends here and we have enjoyed the ministry we have had here. We were feeling rather shattered and angry that God would cut this short, but now have come to accept that he has other plans for us and we trust him for each day and for the future.

We are in a good way at the moment and we are trying to take each day at a time, make the most of our time together, make the most of our remaining time here in Europe and we have even started dreaming about our future in Australia together and the things we might do, with however long Roger might have left on this earth. We really want to 'seize the day' and we want to continue to be faithful servants here on earth for our Heavenly Father.