In HIS hands and in HIS time.

On May 24th, 2016, Jack and I got up early to go to work at our camp ground in Guadalajara. Mid morning I heard Jack give a yell from far away. I was painting the outside of one of the cabins and I got down off of the ladder, put my paint on the ground and began to walk as fast as I could and then began to run. I saw him from afar off, leaning on our car. When I got near, I knew something was bad and wrong. He was very pale and barely able to stand. Said he had pain in his chest and in his arms, but he figured it was because this was the 2nd week he’d been putting in over-time trying to get the new floor of the porch finished.

I helped him to the porch and laid him down on a mattress and then gave him an aspirin. He was in a bad way…and so I called his cardiologist.  He told me to come in at 4 p.m. so he could check him out, but in less than an hour, with my heart pound out of my chest, I was headed out to the main highway. I sent a text message to the dr. and said, “we are on our way. I’m sure it is his heart. Will meet you at the ER whenever you can get there.”

I drove like a crazy lady (God’s angels clearing all the traffic in front of us) all the way back to Madrid. At one point, Jack told me he was having a hard time getting air…thought it might be his allergies, and I handed him my peppermint essential oil. He put a drop in his palms and began deep breathing. Shortly afterwards, he was able to breathe better, and laid back (he was in the back seat) and fell asleep.

When we arrived at the first of the 3 hospitals we would visit that day, they confirmed he was having a heart attack and had we waited even one more hour, he wouldn’t have made it. At the 2nd hospital they did a heart cath and determined that he had 3 blocked arteries and needed to be transferred to a Cardiac ICU to prep him for surgery…and in case he needed emergency surgery during the night. On Wednesday, at 8 p.m., they operated on Jack and did a double-bypass – the 3rd artery was too sick to fix!

This has possibly been one of the hardest trials of health that we have experienced in our married life and in our ministry, and yet, we can affirm that we had a certainty and an assurance by faith that God was in control, and that every step of the way and every new valley we traversed, HE was carrying us in HIS hands, and HE was in control of our world and our times (Psalm 31:15a “My times are in THY hand…” – my life verse) What a precious gift to experience the prayers of so many and to know that we were continually being lifted before the throne of grace.   We are climbing out of the valley, by HIS grace, and continue to allow God to change and grow us in His likeness, not just in our health, but in a special way, in our spiritual health!

Thank you so much for your prayers for the ministry, for the church families, for the unsaved who are attending the services, for our health and for our daily walk with our Saviour!  Here is a picture taken about a month before his heart attack, and one taken on his birthday, on Sept. 7th. So thankful we got to celebrate his 59 years. “To God be the glory, great things He has done.”

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So my first joyful note is dedicated to my Savior, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Gratitude fills my heart to know that He sought me till He found me!

Secondly I praise the Lord for my parents, Lavon and Carolyn Waters.  I am so thankful to be their daughter, and blessed to have grown up with my sister Connie (now in heaven) and my brother, David.  Each day of our lives in Uruguay and then in Spain, (until we grew up and left home) were knitted together with God’s love.  We are a blessed family!

Soon I´ll continue writing “joyful notes” about the rest of my wonderful family and will try and include pictures of them from the past as well as updated ones.  This way you can also share in their lives and ministry and pray for their requests as well.  Joy

Today is March 19, 2012 – Father´s day – in Spain.  Just wanted to take a few lines to say how grateful I am to God for the Dad that He gave me.  His example of godliness, his work ethic and his passion for God and His Word are just a few of the character traits that come to my heart on this special day!  I love him so much and thank God for allowing Him to have good health to be able to continue to serve on the mission field.  So, happy father´s day to all the fathers in Spain and in a special way to mine! Joy