the gift of Gab

I pray that you have a blessed 2009 living in the knowledge of the faithfulness of our One True God.

Posted by Gabi at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Gabi at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I am full of God's grace, that's not actually what I'm going to talk about. Rather it has to do with a visit to the emergency room. I know it's hard to imagine that I might actually hurt myself. ;-) But I did.

On Friday night, my parents and my friend Elizabeth hosted a wonderful going-away party for me. There were well over 50 people there. I was really touched by that and had a great time. I did spend most of my time by the front door though and felt bad that I wasn't able to mingle as much as I would have liked. Overall, the whole thing was quite lovely. What a great send-off!

In Tucson, we don't like to put up street lights so that we can see the stars better. In gerenal, this is a good thing. And in this neighborhood, as in many older neighborhoods, there are no sidewalks on the streets.

As I was walking in the dark to make sure one of my friends made it to her car ok, I caught my sandal on the pavement and took a dive. I scraped up my knee and the heels of my palms as well. When I got back inside, I noticed that my elbow was hurting. Pretty soon it started to seize up and it got harder and harder to bend.

About 4 years ago, I did something very similar. I was stepping off the curb in a church parking lot and lost my footing. When I went down, I jammed my elbow. (Are you sensing the theme of gracefulness here?) Since the doctor initially thought I had broken it, I had to keep it very still for a couple of weeks. By that time, it had seized up so badly that I had almost no range of motion left in that arm. It took nearly 6 weeks of physical therapy to get my arm back to 100%.

By the time we got home from the party (around 11 pm) I realized that I had reinjured my arm. So off we went to the emergency room. The doctor confirmed what I thought. Thankfully, it was not broken. He gave me a sling, told me to take some Ibuprofen and ice it to keep the swelling down. We got home around 1:30 am.

Hm. The timing of this couldn't have been worse. This was less than 48 hours before my flight to Zambia. And it was my right arm! Thankfully, I was able to get some laser treatment on both Saturday and Sunday morning. That made a significant difference in the swelling, bruising, and pain level. Then I realized that with my arm in a sling, I wouldn't have to carry any of my luggage. And I could probably get people to help me put my very heavy carry-on into the overhead bin for me. Hmmm, not so bad after all.

So throughout my flight, I asked people to help me lift my backpack, to help me open my water bottles, and various other things. Ironically, it was the airline and security employees that wouldn't/couldn't help. But there were plenty of other very kind passengers who were willing to help me.

By now, Wednesday morning, my arm feels much better. I've kept it moving and I've gotten a lot of my range of motion back (about 70%). The woman who runs the FMZ guest house is a trained physical therapist and will help me get my arm back to 100%. Praise God!

Posted by Gabi at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My brother Michael graduated with his M.Div. about 4 years ago. He's been wanting to pastor his own church since that time. It's been a lot wait for him, but yesterday, he was finally ordained as a Priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church (NOT Episcopal USA) www.iccec.org. Now he is going to pastor a small parish near Tacoma, WA, in a little town called Pyuallup.

Of course we couldn't me more excited for or prouder of him.

Since Michael had lived in California until early November, he chose to have his ordination there so friend from his church and from seminary could attend. So on Saturday, November 29, the four of us piled into Mom and Dad's car and drove to Southern California for the big event.

Wow, what a big deal this was! It was a marvelous ceremony. Very liturgical, very formal, and very God-honoring. I wouldn't have missed this for anything and am so grateful that God allowed me to stay for this.

I was that crazy lady that was wandering all over the church with her camera trying to get pictures from every angle. It was a little difficult sometimes since the candidates (there was another guy being ordained also) were facing the bishop and had their backs to the congregation. It was not ok for me to go behind the altar rail to get pictures, so most of what I got was from the side. At one point, I went to the end of the rail and tried to hang over it a little. Poor Michael thought I was going to climb around it and break ALL the rules. I think he just about had a heart attack!!!! He may have also giving himself whiplash shaking his head so fast and furiously. Don't worry. I didn't do it.

Of course, after the service there was a great party with tons of people and food. We estimated that close to 150 people showed up!

If you click on the picture below, you'll get to the photo album of 183 pictures of the event.

Ordination to Priesthood

Posted by Gabi at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)