Good morning. I hope that this Christmas has been a merry one for you, your friends, and your families. Some of our family will be gathering today in Portland to celebrate the holiday and my release from the hospital.
The surgery by all accounts was a success. I have all the usual post-surgical complaints but the people at Oregon Health Sciences University have been taking great care of me over the last month as we’ve made decisions on how to best advance my care. I owe them a great deal of thanks.
It will take a couple of weeks to fully recover – and I won’t do a lot of writing during this time (keep visiting Street Prophets for all the latest) but my health should return to normal with no long term problems in a fairly short period of time. Don’t count me out of the game for long.
My thanks also go out to everyone who has written an e-mail, sent a card, or made a call over the last few weeks. I apologize for not writing a response to everyone (or even worse- only sending out an auto response) just yet. The sites Salt, A Religious Liberal Blog, and The American Street all asked their readers for prayers and I wanted to say how much I appreciated that. I know that churches in South Carolina, Missouri, North Dakota, and Oregon have offered prayers for my recovery during their worship services. The e-mails and cards and the great support offered by the Eden community have just been tremendous. This love that we share through Christ is a sustaining love and your prayers have kept me lifted up.
One more thank you before I close: The Rev. Dr. Arvin Luchs from Portland's First United Methodist Church and The Rev. Dr. Pat Ross from Portland's First Congregational United Church of Christ both provided excellent pastoral care to me through out this episode and I am deeply grateful.
On an unrelated note, the site Bloggam ran an interview with me a couple of weeks back. Talk to Action’s Fredrick Clarkson read the interview and posted a few nice things about what he enjoys about this site. Check it out.
Thanks again. Now I'm going back to bed.
