Thank you everyone for your prayers these past few weeks! I knew others in addition to my family were praying.

After a great journey to Birmingham, Alabama last Tuesday, coming home yesterday was a different experience.

This week I was at a most valuable conference looking into and learning about the relationship between pastoral care and deeper aspects of spiritual warfare.

This is a hugely significant topic for Veterans (actually for everyone) suffering from such wounds of war as PTSD, soul and moral injury and other forms of combat trauma.

It was an excellent conference: interesting, good fellowship, highly qualified and gifted speakers, sound and balanced theory and filled with much practical information and hands on practice.

My flights home were quite badly affected by the bad weather up and down Eastern USA. I eventually got into my house at about 11:30 pm, last night having “been on the move” for 12 1/2 hours, of which about 4 1/2 was delay, sitting waiting at departure gates (3.5 hrs) for planes to get rescheduled or in the plane in the middle of the airfield at Philadelphia (PHL) for an hour waiting for bad weather to clear enough between NYC and Albany to enable a 42 minute, safe but bit bumpy flight at 7,000 feet instead of the usual 20,000′. The pilots did well and got us home which everyone on the plane was very happy about!

With the delays, I anticipated missing my connection at PHL, but our flight attendant was even more delayed so God worked all things together for the good of those who love him, allowing me and presumably others, to make their connection. Had she been on time, I would have been about 10 minutes late and would have had to spend the night and most of this morning at PHL airport before getting the first possible flight to Albany offering a seat at around noon today – in fact I would not be home by now!! Praise be to God!

As you pray, please also remember two other families we know.

My brother-in-law, Bill (85), died peacefully but unexpectedly at home in England at about 6:30 AM last Saturday (8/3). Pray for my sister, Joycelin, and her daughters, Amanda and Penny and the families. Bill, a good man, was in their and our family for over 50 years. Pray for his peaceful eternal presence with God.

And pray for a lady who is a longstanding parishioner of the church we attend. Pray for her family. We don’t know much detail but, apparently, she was involved in a serious car accident and was helicoptered to hospital with severe head injuries.

But I want to end this post with a blessing!

When I arrived at Albany airport after 10:00 PM last night I was expecting to see son Toby -thank you for driving me home as well as to the airport very early last Tuesday morning! In fact, he’d been waiting for well over an hour because of the delay I had at PHL. It thrilled my heart to find 2 granddaughters there too! They gave me a lovely, smiling, happy welcome and were so helpful retrieving my suitcase from the carousel and wheeling it to the car!

On this very cold, sub-zero, day I’m very blessed and pleased the specialist in Boston didn’t want to see me this week. Only the second week since coming home from ending a month’s stay there in early July that we haven’t had the tiring nearly 500 mile round trip there and back.

Next visit on November 14th.

The thrush in my mouth and throat is still present and sore – but I do feel somewhat more energetic and motivated most days.

Hoping the US election result will cause all parties to work together in a united way and get the country governed better.

D+107:September 26, 2012– And Feeling Good, Praise God!

Doxology: Revelation 5:13 (Louis Bourgeois and Thomas Ken)

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

Thank you all so much for your messages and ‘likes’ on this site, and at CaringBridge and Facebook (Click the links on the home page to access them), let alone your prayers and good wishes. Thanks for all the cards, letters, phone calls and a few home visits too. We welcome every one of them.

Today is the first Wednesday in nearly 4 months we have not had to see my specialist in Boston. I didn’t realize what a pleasant relaxation not having to be there would be! Although my energy levels are not yet what they need to be, being at home gives me an incentive to get on and do some of the things that have dropped by the wayside recently, especially answering emails and social media messages, as well as praying for God’s overwhelming blessings on each person replying to these ‘posts’.

Health condition seems unchanged since last week, so we pray this good news continues and is reflected in better blood counts in Boston next Wednesday.

I bought a bike recently and have gone out on it a couple of times as part of my campaign to get fit again. I cycled 5 miles on a local cycle path (largely flat) last Friday and by the time I got home my legs were like jelly! I didn’t realize this illness would cause me to be so out of condition. Once the Hickman line (a port) is taken out of my chest – maybe next week – and the wound heals up, and the doctor gives me permission to do so, I’m looking forward to doing some gentle swimming at our local YMCA swimming pool, if I can find a quiet time to go. However, with the Autumn/Winter flu season soon to start, I suspect this might not happen for quite a while. 🙁

Didn’t get to sail my small dinghy this year either. 🙁

Following on from Meryl’s comment about an impromptu support group of combat Veterans and Bone Marrow transplantees at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) last week, I’m asking each of you to pray for the upcoming Welcome Home Initiative (WHI) Retreat – the 14th one, 12th at the Greenwich, NY Christ the King Spiritual Life Center. It takes place from November 12-14. There are about 30 combat Veterans, several spouses and the largest number of female Veterans coming we have ever welcomed. I want to carry out my usual role of co-leader, leading the two Tuesday morning sessions, but it looks extremely unlikely at this stage. So pray for a miracle to happen that the doctor says I can be involved. Also pray for the right number and quality of hosts to be available for every Veteran. Pray for sufficient money to run the Retreat, which is free for the Vets. See www.christ-the-king-center.org/WelcomeHome for more details. How about a STAFFORD Vet coming sometime? (I served and did my combat tours in Northern Ireland with the STAFFORDS – The Staffordshire Regiment). 🙂

Pray also for a highly successful Warrior Retreat taking place near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, from October 4-6. This has been inspired by the example of the WHI Retreats. I was asked to help but I had to tell the pastor organizing it yesterday that I am not able to go. Fort Campbell is a key base for Special Forces and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The STAFFORDS and 101st have a historical connection. The 101st jumped into Nijmegen, Holland as the South Staffords landed by glider near Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem. The STAFFORDS and its successor regiment, 3 MERCIAN (STAFFORDS) commemorate the Arnhem battle on September 17 annually. 🙂

Finally today, I want to pay a very special tribute to my wonderful wife, caregiver extraordinaire and Special Angel. She’s a Special Angel ’cause no other woman would ever put up with the likes of me for the 44 years we have known each other. She is the most unconditionally loving person I have ever known and she is always here for me. Thank you, Meggiewife (and I’m the only person who ever uses that name)! 🙂

Penned by Noel – the first time I’ve felt like writing in over three weeks!

The Boston Dome. Some fun feedback is in order! Someone suggested I should get a wig in an Afro style, with dreadlocks! What do you think? Or white-ish, to reflect the senior citizen time of life I seem to somehow arrived at. Or a ginger one? Ginger was the color of my youth and middle years. Short or long hair? Flat, straight or wavy? Would a wig make me look and feel more elegant, distinguished, good-looking, intelligent? Or not? What say you?

Prayers, visits, support, encouragement, love. I am overwhelmed by all the TLC shown me over the last month. The hugest thanks must go to my special caregiver and angel, Meryl. But also to everyone else who has read these pages, added comments, sent emails, made phone calls (thankfully we have not been overwhelmed by these); thanks to the huge numbers of people praying for us; to the several who have donated through these pages; to the wonderful medical and ancillary folk who have looked after me so well in the hospital and the cancer clinic; to those who visited me either at the hospital or at Hope Lodge; especially to the donor, who made the transplant possible in the first place – a marvelous gift of self sacrifice! THANK YOU, including anyone I have missed thanking.

British Army reductions. It seems the UK government is to announce a large reduction in the British Army this Thursday. The Army will be at its smallest size since the Napoleonic Wars about 200 years ago. I won’t make any comment about this except today it seems very likely that the infantry regiment, whose badges I wore for nearly 30 years, will be disbanded, having had a name change about 5 or 6 years ago. A sad day, if the news is confirmed.

Meryl and I have been praying for and greatly distressed by the sad news of two friends who have died whilst we have been in Boston, even though they are now at peace and no longer suffering, being united with Christ in glory. We have also been distressed by the news of several friends who have either had to leave their homes or be packed ready to evacuate at a moments notice. We do not know if any of them lost their homes to these terrible wildfires in Colorado Springs. They are still not yet fully under control. Finally we have also been prayerfully concerned about those who are affected by the powerful storms and heat over much of the mid-west and east of the USA, let alone the storms in UK over the last couple of weeks.

But, regardless, God is good – all the time!

And I’m so pleased to be going home tomorrow!

Thank you, one and all!