And I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church

For anyone who checks this blog still, you've probably noticed that there hasn't been much activity here. I've not felt much inspiration to write lately and, to be honest, have been struggling spiritually. And while I do struggle I trust in God's grace and power in Christ to keep me.

I recently had a few encouraging experiences in the past week though so figured I'd blog about them.

The first happened on an extremely stressful and busy day when I was admitting patients from the ER to the hospital. I went down to evaluate a guy with new-onset atrial flutter, an abnormal heart rhythm. When I got to the bedside I noticed that his elderly Korean wife seemed excited to see me. She called me by my name and talked to me as if I should recognize her. I didn't recognize her at first but she successfully jogged my memory by saying "you prayed for me in clinic." I then remembered that I had prayed for her during a clinic visit about 6 months earlier. She told me she had prayed for me every day since that visit! I was amazed. I love Kingdom economics. Before the visit was over she took me aside and told me she was awaiting the return of Jesus Christ. Just hearing His name was so encouraging in the midst of a day when everything seemed out of control and I didn't feel I had the strength to make it through.

A few days later I headed home to Battle Ground to have dinner at my girlfriend's house with some of her family and with a Christian doctor from India who is also a pastor and missionary there. Over dinner we discussed the persecution that Christians face there. He told of how fellow pastors have been poisoned to death by Hindu extremists because of their faith. This man of God faced the same persecution but you could see his joy in Christ. It was encouraging to see how all that he did in terms of the medicine he practices in India is motivated by a desire to spread the gospel.

Lastly, I was paged to talk with the family of a patient I'm taking care of who has terminal metastatic colon cancer. The nurse told me that this man's pastor was in the room and wished to speak with the doctor. I went to the room and the patient gave me permission to talk about his case with his pastor. This patient is a Japanese man with a Korean wife and their pastor is an African American. We went to another room and I had a somewhat difficult conversation with the pastor and the patient's wife. At the end of the conversation I asked if we could pray for the patient. Both of their eyes lit up and they clasped my hands. We prayed for my patient. It was pretty powerful.

So in the midst of much struggle the Lord has encouraged me and reminded my of His goodness and faithfulness in spite of all my sin. Thanks be to God!