The "JESUS NAME" Project

 This feels so good to be sitting in front of my computer . This summer has been a whirlwind of ups and downs and suddenly the winds have settled down enough to make life almost feel like normal again.  Some of you know what I am talking about and for those who don't , I wouldn't leave you hanging there!  It all begins with Jesus being the center of everything, He has been our rock, even though at times I felt we forgot who we were and who He was and if at times if we were even saved!  I am going to go back in time just a little bit to January 13, 2008.. It started out like any other morning, getting the kids ready for school... Lunches made, check...Everybody is dressed, check... Okay breakfast, who wants cereal, all four children scurrying around making sure they have everything in their bookbags, make thier way to the table... My husband,Dave, works on the oilrigs he is a Rig Manager and mostly works in Alberta... He usually calls sometime in the rush of the morning and I greet him with a sweet voice trying to cover up the chaos that is really going on, then tell him I will call back when everyone has gone to school. The phone rang right on time, but the call display had a different Alberta number and it took few words to understand why..." Hello, Karen"... yes..Hello I answered back.. Your Husband was in an accident last night and he has been flown by air ambulance to Edmonton for further treatment...Okay the world has just stopped and the kids sensing my shock stopped and waited to see what was going on... What! How? Is he okay? What happened? The questions were circling and I didn't want to think of my Husband being in an air ambulance without me being with him . He got struck in the face my a chunk of metal coming at him at bullet speed. He was sent to Edmonton because there appeared to be a skull fracture as well... She was trying to get over the fact that he was still alive...She said he had a cracked palet and a busted nose, but was alert and talking...He was in her eyes a miracle, cause most people don't walk away from that severe of a blow... I did find out later that day what had happened... They were lowering the rig and a tug line had got caught on a valve handle. This tugger line was attached to the derrick. This valve handle was holding back six thousands pounds of pressure. My husband proceeded to see what was holding the derrick from lowering when the valve handle broke under that pressure and struck him in the face...This piece of metal weighed three pounds by itself, never mind being hurled at an alarming speed...It bounced off his face and landed at least 15 feet away under one of the shacks. He never did have a cracked skull, he should have because when he fell back his hardhat flew off and he hit his head on steel pipe..He still has a bump there to this day... He was released from Edmonton hospital on the 14th of January, yes the very next day...My son and I drove in a blizzard to Edmonton to bring him home...By the 25th of January he was back at work... His face was so swollen when we brought him home and we just watched it go down until he was back to normal...His bruising lasted much longer...He never complained about being in pain and didn't even need much for pain med's... He really was a walking miracle...Every once and a while he would experience pieces of bone making thier way from his gums from his palet being cracked... I thanked Jesus everyday for looking after my husband...I would always pray for him when he was at work,  beleive me those prayers don't fall on deaf ears...  I beleive an angel must of blocked the real force of that valve handle, it is really hard to know just what goes on around us...What we don't see but what is really there in the supernatural...  I won't question it, but I will thank God for it...In everything we must give God praise, even when we are going through some of the toughest trials, and we don't know how we will ever get though them. God see's us through...

 Now we will go to August 2009... The rigs have slowed down and without a job, my husband, found work on a rig drilling water wells for people in Saskatchewan.This is great because he is so close to home. This outfit was owned privately by a man from Hudson Bay... Dave  started working for him in May and they drilled many wells over the summer until August 5th 2009... This time I was in Alberta  in Red Deer Alberta for a conference. I was in a Sobey's parking lot unloading some groceries with friends of mine when I got the call...Hello Karen, yes I said and I just knew this wasn't going to be good. Dave has been in an accident at work...He had a jaw of a 36 inch pipewrench break off from the rig and hit him at bullet speed in the face. He has been ambulanced to Saskatoon... I thought I was going to pass out.. Not again, this can't possibly be happening again. This time it was much more serious... Dave's face was pretty much split in half..He had a split palet, busted nose, a cracked eye socket and 2 teeth knocked out... I found out that before 4 hours of plastic surgery I could have put my finger in his nose and tickled his tongue...Again he had no pain and when the nurse who thought he needed morphine gave it to him..Dave ended up getting really high and told her to never do that again.. He was in the hospital for 3 days and came home...He had metal in his face to hold things together..He went on Workers Compensation and we managed to get by. I bought laying hens as chicks that spring  with the added income with eggs coming in the fall  helped out alot. It was a longer journey this time with healing, and even though the plastic surgeon did a great job with what he had to work with. Dave would require more surgery to correct the first surgery. His palet was to flat and  uneven.Which made his remaining front teeth stick out of his mouth so that he couldn't close his mouth properly.  On the 12th of May 2010, Dave went for oral surgery...This time he had both of his cheeck bones broken to lower them to bring his palet into place,  a hip graft to replace the missing bone where his 2 teeth were knocked out and he had 7 mm shaved off the front of his palet to bring it in proper placement in his mouth.. He woke up with his jaws wired shut and a retainer in his mouth to keep his palet from shifting...Two days later I was able to bring him home... Through all of this he never complained about his situation. He just kept on going.He went for physical therapy and did whatever was required to make his recovery time quicker... Did he ever question God and ask him why did this happen to him.. If he did I never heard him... Was this a hard journey, for all of us yes it was.. For Dave I can't even imagine what he went through, but he never got angry, he just did what he had to do...He returned back to work on the oilrigs as his original job as Rig Manager the 12th of August 2010...He is not scared to be at work, and I have accepted that fact that God is watching over him. Literally he is my hero and miracle in motion... We talk to each other everyday and always end our conversation with I love you... Without the help of my church and thier prayers I don't know how I would of managed spiritually... Yes I did pray on my own, but knowing we were being covered with prayers gave us strength to keep on keeping on,,, Life has thrown us some ups and downs either way, we are still praising Jesus and thanking Him for being our Rock... God Bless and may He keep you all gently cradled in his arms...