Dental Days #6&7
No, I didn't get lost! When I left Tuesday morning, Dr. and Mrs. C asked if I was going to stay all night with my relatives and I said no. However, I knew I might be late coming back, so I took my antibiotics and my toothbrush stuff with me.

Now it's Wednesday night and I still haven't made it back to Dr. C's house. I spent last night with my mom's second cousin and am spending tonight with my one of my first cousins once removed. We visited, toured Grant's Farm, ate at Ted Drews, and went to a Jazz Concert at the Botanical Gardens. Now I'm getting ready for bed. I'll head back to Dr. C's tomorrow morning.

I'm sure your prayers were at work this afternoon. While I was placidly touring Grant's Farm with cousin Linda, the cell phone was turned off and I had no idea that Dr. C was fratically leaving voicemails. DHL lost the impressions that we sent to the lab on Monday. For three nail-biting hours, Dr. C was calling DHL, the crown lab in California, and Linda's cell phone. When I finally called to check in with Dr. C this evening about 7:30 (having no idea anything was wrong), Dr. C was glad to report that DHL found the impressions, they are being delivered to the lab at 8AM tomorrow, and we'll have them back Saturday afternoon.

So... instead of getting these irritating plastic imitation teeth out of my mouth tomorrow, we get to practice patience until Saturday. PRAISE GOD!

Thanks for your prayers. Keep praying.

Okay... so as I type this, blogger can't find my blog. It's missing! So I will type this anyway and perhaps it will end up posted on my blog--now located in never-never land. If you are also having problems locating my blog, could you please leave a note so I can document it? Thanks!

You saw my notes on Sunday, right? What I didn't mention was that one of Dr. C's Indian friends wanted to take us to lunch afterward. So we went to India Palace and ate (or attempted to eat) from the Indian buffet. For the first 20 minutes, I simply sipped my water. Then I finally was able to down some dosa and soup. Pradah told us it was a north Indian restaurant with most of the workers from Punjab. With the abounding number of turbans and the amount of fair skin, I also wondered if some of them were siehks.

Today was a more relaxing day. We napped on the back porch in the morning and then ran errands through the afternoon. I am completely and totally wiped out. My mouth is still throbbing. And I think I'm going to go get ready for bed. Tomorrow I'll go visit my relatives southeast of St. Louis. PRAY I don't get lost.

Church was interesting this morning. I located the bathroom within 10 seconds and became well acquainted with the tile on the bathroom floor before and during the morning service.

My pain medicine is making me nauseous. I appreciate the medicine...with its help, I slept through the night last night for the first time since we started work on my mouth. But this morning's after effects weren't so good. So we stopped the medicine totally this afternoon...I was almost in tears with pain. This evening I took half a pill and am waiting expectantly for it to start working.

Interesting note: For the past year, I've been concerned at times because I seemed to lack my usual energy and I just wanted to sleep all the time. There were also random times like four weeks ago when I ran a fever and my face felt swollen for two days. Dr. C said that the infections that have been festering in the roots of my teeth could well have been causing those problems.

Thanks again for your prayers and notes!

Dental Day #3
Today they did all the prep work for the crowns. It was mostly very painful. Then they put temporary things in until the actual crowns come in next Thursday. When it was all done, I was tired of being brave. I think I wore Dr. C out too. Just before we left the office, he numbed my upper mouth again so I can sleep before the pain sets in. So I'm okay at the moment. Dr. C says I'm 97% finished!

I did get most of the spyware cleaned off of Mrs. C's computer this morning before the 9:00 dental work. I think I have one last registry key to get and I think I know which one it is.

Thanks to all of you who have left notes. They cheer me up. Oh, and I just got a care package from my sister! THANK YOU!!!

I have to go get the groceries out of the car. Love you all!

Dental Day #2
I got up this morning and spent about half an hour trying to get the spyware stuff off of Mrs. C's computer. We'll work on it more tonight. Then we headed off to the dental office about 8:30. The office was closed, but one of the assistants came in to help. Between 9:00 and 1:00, Dr. C and team finished up 18 root canals in six molars. Oh, and three fillings.

It was interesting. A salesman had come by yesterday trying to sell new equipment for doing root canals. So Dr. C told him to come back this morning. He did...so they used my mouth to try out this new equipment. I think it all went well. It was very fascinating to hear them discuss this method vs. that method and this tooth vs. that tooth and this bit vs. that bit.

I'm going to go curl up and sleep.

(Where I am? Illinois...getting dental work done.)

Dental Day #1
Well, the day started with an exam. We started with lots of x-rays. ("Here, bite this." Beep!) Then we had a physical poking and diagramming ("Mezzio. Mezzio-Distal. 234.") Then they pulled out what looked like a caulking gun and squirted blue stuff on my teeth. ("Okay. Bite down naturally.") Then they mixed up moldable plastic stuff and put it in metal trays and got molds of my upper and lower teeth. ("There we go.") Then I got to go free. Ate a big lunch, took two Aleve, and went back to the office for the afternoon.

Two and a half hours and 8 numbing shots later, Dr. C. and his team had finished up 18 root canals on 10 teeth. We've got 6 more to do tomorrow. My head is a little achy and my mouth is a little throbbing. My lips are dry. I'm on antibiotics for the massive infections I didn't know I had. Oh, and did I mention I'm taking Aleve?

Thanks for your prayers!

Quote from prayer meeting this evening: It's not really a compliment to be called in to the ministry. After all, God uses the foolish things of the world...

I'll be heading off to the Alton, IL area Wednesday after work for my dental work. PLEASE pray for wisdom for the dentist and quality work with no complications. And pray for peace for me. I'm pretty scared.

When I am tired, I love the hymn "He Giveth More Grace" by Annie J. Flint.

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Note to the Sterling Community: Dr. Kim from the biology department is leaving Sterling College. Although he was never one of my professors, Dr. Kim served as an encouragement and a challenge to me in my academic, personal, and spiritual life. Sterling College will miss him.

I'm here again for three days and then I'll be gone to Illinois for two weeks getting dental work done. I'm not sure what kind of computer access I'll have there... we'll see.

Story from KS: My Calif. friend and I were at the Farmers Co-op fueling up the farm truck when a local guy (who I didn't know personally) stopped and talked to me. He had a question for my father about harvesting oats and I agreed to pass the question on. At the end of the conversation, the local guy asked, "What's your name again?" "Dorinda." "Lorinda?" "DORinda." "DORinda... how old are you?" "24" "Are you single?" "Yes." "Oh, we'll fix that," he said, and got in his truck (where his daughter was waiting for him) and drove off. It was quiet as my Calif. friend and I got back in our truck. "Don't worry," I said to her. "That doesn't happen all the time." After that, we laughed and laughed.

Thought from tonight's prayer time: We were discussing how God chooses to use us to reach the lost world. Anything is possible with God. He could just say the word and make all of them Christians. Quote E: "Sometimes I wonder why India can't reach their own people without America's help. But for some reason God seems to like this partnership thing."

How are you partnering with God?

Good Morning! Yes, Dorinda is still alive.

I spent five wonderful days with my family in Kansas at the first part of this week. Perhaps I should have blogged while I was there, but I liked my sister's statement: "Computer time is very limited and I've got better things to do while I'm on vacation seeing my family in Kansas."

A ministry co-worker from California accompanied me on the trip "to see what harvest was like." We drove the combine, buried ourselves in the wheat kernals, dumped the antique wheat truck at the elevator, watched the deer jump through the field of wheat, admired the sunset, played in the creek, spotted a blue heron lounging at the side of the lake, listened to Grandpa tell the story of the Arkansas jumpin' mule...

The trip ended as we arrived home about 2AM Thursday morning. I flicked through my snail mail quickly before I went to bed and found a letter from an out-of-touch acquaintance. She was one of my students when I was an RA at college. Depressed, suicidal, and without Christ, she had been a part of my prayer list ever since that time. I opened her letter Thursday evening to find the statement, "As a sister in Christ, Dorinda, I love you."

As I read the rest of her letter, I sat down on the floor and started weeping for joy. I could almost hear the angels in heaven rejoicing with me over this lost sheep who had allowed herself to be carried and healed and rescued by the Shepherd.

How great is our God!

At lunch today, I was walking along the edge of our recently finished parking lot, eating my turkey and cheese sandwich and thinking about the busy days ahead. As I thought, I noticed the sunflowers growing in the middle of an island of neatly planted elephant grass.

Sunflower plants, thought I. Why? Why are there sunflower plants growing here? There are no sunflower plants growing in the nearby fence row or undeveloped lot.

I continued my meandering walk and my mind recalled a picture my cousin had taken during the building construction process. It was a picture of a sunflower growing just on the inside of the 8 foot chain-link fence. The mental picture of seeing a sunflower through a chain-link fence brought another hazy picture into focus. It was at the Cooper Hall construction site four years ago. There was a sunflower growing just on the other side of the barbwire-topped chain-link fence on the east side of the construction zone.

Why? Why were there sunflowers growing in construction sites? Why at the edges of construction sites?

The mental processes whirred, trying to find an answer. Too many things were fitting together. Then the answer hit me. An answer probably everyone else knows, but I (being slow as usual) just figured it out.

The construction workers eat sunflower seeds. And the good are oft interred with their shells.

I'm getting ready to head to my hometown for four days of vacation. I'll drive the combine and the 1947 wheat truck. We'll go creeking in Bluff Creek. I'll see my family--all of them. The Librarian will be visiting from VA and Susan will be up (for two days) from TX.

I will be sharing about the ministry in my home church on Sunday evening.

Pray that all of the details will be worked out for this weekend's trip. Thanks for all your prayers regarding my stress... it's much better. I haven't had bad problems since Monday.

The seven states that comprise Northeast India alternate between being majority Christian and majority Hindu. There is much civil and political unrest. Most of the people are part of small, family tribes. Few of the tribes trust each other. Alternate weather patterns of flooding and drought and you have -- like many other areas of India -- an area that is a challenge to minister.

The Apatami are one group of people in this area.

I was listening to a radio preacher Chip Ingram this evening as he continued his series on "Unfailing Love." He was speaking about guilt--a topic I find myself wrapped up in far too frequently. His words hit home as He spoke about failure and our too-human reaction: "I've messed up. I'm a bad person. I'm sorry. I'll try harder."

His closing statement caught my attention: "The answer is not trying harder, it is trusting more deeply."

Today's thoughts are along the techie end of things...

I was facinated by the fact that Alice Hertz replied to the opportunity I offered for a Gmail account. However, I had already received two emails from interested parties before her comment was posted. I did note her email address... it looks like she got her yahoo login in August 1996! Considering that Yahoo! Mail began in October of 1997 after Yahoo! acquired Fourll, she was a very early Yahoo user! Alice, I would be interested in knowing if my detective work in correct.

By author Seth Godin, a very brief but interesting summary of Google's big opportunity.

Google pretty much has taken over Internet searching. They've got one of the most popular (if not the most popular) blog services. They offer language translation and pop-up blockers. They are venturing into e-mail serivce and spam blocking (with promising popularity).

There are some who think that Google should be placed in the same category as Microsoft. You know, that "attempting to take over the world" category. If you like to laugh at conspiracies, stop by www.google-watch.org. Even my conspiracy-minded cousin laughed at their accusations.

To my non-techie friends... I'll write to you tomorrow.

Notes to my friends who post comments: Don't put your email address. I already have it. And posting it with your comments will enhance your possibilities of getting spam/junk mail.

Saw my sister C. today. She had a two hour layover at the DFW airport, so Susan and I picked her up. We had a sack lunch at the Founder's Plaza before returning her to the terminal. Then Susan and I went to Six Flags for three hours before we went to a movie party.

Today was all goof off after one busy week and before another busy week. Now... good night!

Do you ever have those days when you ask God to change you? And He takes you seriously?

Pray that I would continue steadfast and write down what I learn.

I think it is highly ironic that when you spell check your blog post, the spell checker thinks that "blog" is a misspelled word. Perhaps it should be bloc, Bloch, bloke, or bolos.

aHHH! I typed my almost my entire blog entry, left to pray with my roommate, and my blog entry was GONE when I got back. It was just a blank screen. Too bad. It was really interesting... to a geek. Maybe I'll rewrite part of it later. One mention: did you know that I could sell my invitation for a gmail account (see yesterday's blog) on ebay for $100?

Prayer request: Pray that I wouldn't be stressed. I'm finding myself sleeping with my teeth clenched. I'm having trouble with diarrhea after every meal. Both of these are classic stress signs for me. PRAY that I can turn the busy events of the upcoming week over to God.

Anyone interested in being a beta tester for Gmail? I can get you your own Gmail account if you're interested. Leave me a comment or email me in the next 48 hours to claim your exclusive prize. One lucky person...

Quote for the day: The Purpose of Prayer is not to inform God of Our needs, but invite Him to rule Our lives. -Clarence Bauman

We had a beautiful lightening show through here last night. There was some pouring rain, but by the time I was heading home from prayer meeting, the only part left was the thunder and lightening. I wanted to just stand on the balcony and watch the lightening fork across the sky in 18 different directions.

Praise God! I've gotten up early in the morning for a run/walk each day this week. It helps my day start a lot better. This morning was beautiful... the air was all clear after the rain and it was actually almost cool out. (Since Dallas doesn't significantly cool down at night during the summer, it's a treat to have cool air in the morning.)

Mel left for India yesterday. She had been volunteering at our home office for the past 10 months and will now be teaching at one of our elementary schools in India. Please pray for her as she is still traveling. Pray for God's grace as she gets acclimated to a new climate and culture--especially in the middle of the summer like it is now.