And the "Eyes" have it!
One week
ago I started seeing black dots in my vision.
I went to the doctor and he wrote me a note sending me to a
ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist
examined my left eye and determined that my retina was damaged. She recommended immediate laser treatment to
my retina, so they scheduled me for a procedure on the following Tuesday. By that time I arrived for the Tuesday
procedure, I was beginning to see a black cloud in my lower perifial vision. The doctor examined me, referred me to her
seniors, who examined me, and they schedule me for surgery. They determined that my retina was torn in
two places and had to be repaired surgically.
The following morning I underwent a two-hour operation to repair the
tears in my retina.
While
staying in the hospital I got to know the people in the ward, both nurses and
patients. In the bed on my right was an
older man. He said that he had worked
for the Church of England for 18 years at one of their Hong Kong social
centers. Because of his exposure to the
Church of England he decided it was better to believe in himself rather than in any God. I told him he had chosen to believe in the weakest of all
possible gods. During my stay in the hospital
he often moved his chair over near my bed so that he could overhear the
conversations I was having with other people.
In the
bed on the other side of me was a little boy who appeared to be around nine
years old. He was actually 13 years old
and severely retarded. He couldn't
speak but often screeched like a bird and would pound his hand on the
pillow to get your attention. This remarkable little boy was being raised by
his grandparents. When he was around
four years old his parents discovered how difficult their life would be, and
they divorced. The father went to
nearby Macau, and the mother left the child with the grandparents and
disappeared. These grandparents take
care of themselves and this little boy on just a small government stipend. The grandfather said "you can eat a
meal for five dollars or $50 or $500, we eat our meals for five
dollars."
After I
got to know the family, the grandmother asked me "did this little boy do
something bad in his previous life to deserve this?" I told her to forget about previous lives
and to focus on this for life and the life to come. I
told her that Jesus loves them and he has a plan for their
lives, and that that plan included an eternity where this little boy
would be both whole and happy. I told her that the Lord saw how much
she and her husband
sacrificed to take care of his little boy, and that the Lord would
reward them
for all the love they are showing this young child.
During my
stay in the hospital some of the nurses and doctors told me that they were
praying for me. One evening a nurse
came over and sat down to ask me about whether the church she was going to was
extremely charismatic or not. She was
obviously a new Christian and did not know what it meant to be charismatic or
any other label. I
encouraged her to be
careful about labels, but as we spoke it became obvious that this
church was
involved in some extreme unbiblical practices. I explained that Jesus
wanted his church to focus on the Great Commandment and the Great
Commission, and encouraged her to attend a church that majored on these
.
The
hospital released me a day earlier than I expected, and now I am at home for a
long slow recovery. I have a large air
bubble in my eye which is holding my retina in place. Air bubbles are prone to move around, so I am to look at the
ground most of the time. I'm using some
special speech recognition software to dictate this note.
My computer is on the ground, and I am hovering above the screen. I'm starting to get a headache so I'm going
to call it quits for now. Thank you for
praying for me and my family.
2:31:10 PM 
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