From rfepley at gol.com Wed May 5 21:09:51 2010 From: rfepley at gol.com (Russ and Flossie) Date: Wed May 5 21:09:59 2010 Subject: [Epley Update] Answer to prayer! Message-ID: God has worked amazing things on our behalf and we praise Him for His faithfulness. Joel is now the delighted owner of a 2001 Buick LeSabre. It is exactly what he wanted. He is very, very pleased. We are so grateful for God's provision and trust this car will work well for him for many years to come. We are so grateful for the many prayers and practical help. Thank you for praying with us! Blessings, Flossie From rfepley at gol.com Thu May 27 20:32:58 2010 From: rfepley at gol.com (Russ and Flossie) Date: Thu May 27 20:33:03 2010 Subject: [Epley Update] Timing Blessings May 2010 Message-ID: <4477d7a6e6832d6a1ee071219f1ed38b@gol.com> Thank you for praying for my trip to the US. It was very satisfying to see so many friends and family members. There were some people I hoped to see and didn't get to, but that disappointment was balanced out with seeing a couple I hadn't seen in 50 years. (I'm sure they thought I'd grown quite a bit since they last saw me at five years old!) Another friend I hadn't seen for almost 30 years. How I thank God for His protection through so many miles of travel. Since there are more stories to tell than my jet lag will allow, I'll relate three instances where God's timing was especially evident. Driving into Virginia I planned to visit my 91-year-old Aunt Ruth. Joel's and my traveling schedule was so tight that there wasn't a lot of flexibility in when we could stop in. The previous week Aunt Ruth broke her femur and was in the hospital so we drove directly there. When we arrived, two cousins that live nearby were at the hospital as well as their sister visiting from Kentucky. I was so happy to see them. At first Aunt Ruth did not seem to recognize me. I told her who I was and her eyes started twinkling. I have rarely seen eyes speak so much love. It was very moving. We all sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and then hospital staff came in to take her for surgery. She died that night. If I had been just 15 minutes later, I would have missed seeing my dear Aunt Ruth. Growing up as a missionary kid and then having served as a missionary most of my adult life, I have had very limited time with my extended family. I am so grateful for the special memory of Aunt Ruth's eyes communicating her heart. To get home I flew from Fort Wayne, IN to Chicago and then from Chicago to Tokyo. When I arrived in Chicago I saw that a friend of mine (another missionary who lives close to us here in Japan) was on the same plane. We were able to ride the bus from Narita airport into our area of the city. Her husband picked her up at the bus stop and gave me a ride home. It's challenging to manage heavy luggage on the train...particularly when I'm tired. It was such a blessing to been driven to our front door! Another timing blessing came Tuesday morning Japan time. I was somewhere flying over the Pacific Ocean headed home when Russ got up out of bed and experienced severe pain in his back. He struggled to get to Christie to communicate that he needed help. God in His sovereignty had already arranged for a missionary friend to come to our house early that morning with plans for an outing. Kathy's parents have prayed for Russ so while they are in Japan they wanted to get together with him. Kathy was able to drive Russ to a doctor and take care of all the arrangements in Japanese. We are not sure how it happened, but Russ has a compressed fracture in his 11th vertebrate. Russ is able to go about most of his usual activities and medication is doing a good job of controlling the pain. We need wisdom to know how much and what kind of exercise to do so that Russ will not lose his mobility but also avoid overdoing and aggravating the problem. Now we are asking God to watch over Christie as she is in the Philippines visiting friends for the next two weeks. Blessings, Flossie