It is August 18 and "Thank the Lord," we are now on our long but positive part of our journey. Operations are over, blood sugar has leveled out, blood pressure is 114/70, and therapy is well on the way.

We have living with us Shivaun, Brenda and Greg, all who want only God's will for their lives. They are like angels, and everything Ray fought against he is finding a comforting blessing. He gets up three times a day for meals and a walk in his wheelchair. His therapy is still in bed. Friday he will try walking on one prosthesis with a walker. It is a challenge but he seems ready to meet the challenge. The therapist said it will take a year before he walks with no limp - no cane.

My real reason for writing is to let you know that your support was surely one of the contributing factors in Ray's recovery. Our dear friends all seemed to be cheering him on as he kept going down, rising and going down again. He beat all odds. God surely has a reason for sparing his life.

Do you want to hear a capsulated story of Ray's journey from old life to death and into new life? "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, lo, He is with us."

At about 2:00 a.m. on April 11, Easter Sunday, Ray awakened me to tell me he couldn't breathe. His lungs were full of water. John, Kris's husband was with us from Colorado. I ran downstairs and told him to go by Ray while I called 911. Within 1/2 hour he was in emergency at Hoag Hospital. From then on the glory of God shown round about him, and one part of him (his old man) went through heart failure, kidney failure, and stomach failure; everything shut down, but his spirit and new man started emerging. In the early hours of the morning of April 13, he asked me to pray with him and I told him to pray along with me. After we finished, he said, "Oh, thank you for helping me find my place in the Rock." Well in prayer we had never called Jesus "the Rock", so I knew he was speaking from his own experience.

Then he began like a sage of old, giving us counsel on our Colorado property. He said he and Doug would be ranch hands working together. He wanted to get out of bed and warn the people that we are headed into something great and terrible but he said no one was prepared nor would they understand, for they had all left the living God. He said Piecemakers would understand, so I called Anne and Doug and they came up to the hospital about 2:00 a.m. He said, "I think I'm going to leave you all. God's calling me." Anne said, "No, Ray", and he said, "Don't say that, Anne." His spiritual death to that old Catholic stubborn man was so real he kept thinking he was dying physically. He made the nurse pull all the machines. He told the nurses to thank God daily because their job was given to them by God. He said the city of Costa Mesa knew we (Piecemakers) were God's people and we should be sure we represented Him as He is. He told about people who called him trying to convince him that I was leading people astray. To my surprise, he told them I was walking with the true God and not to concern themselves about the rest of the Piecemakers.

Well, what went on from 2:00 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. was a story written in the heavens. At 4:00 a.m., Mike came in and Ray said, "Mike, I'm leaving. Don't feel bad. Be sure and thank God for your little business and talk often to Him and listen to Him." Mike kept saying through tears, "Yes, Pops, I understand, Pops". Ray said, "Hug me, Mike," and Mike fell into his arms. When Ray pulled through and didn't die, Mike said (like only Mike can,) "I'm going to kick his ass when he gets out for putting me through that awful time."

Kris came home from Colorado when his kidneys started failing and then one thing after another happened. First his right leg was cut off below the knee. His back caused him more problems than anything else. His ruptured disc was so bad morphine didn't touch the pain.