Re-post from one of our home-grown missionaries: Great encouragement from our dear Pastors wife - Mrs. Esposito. Heres an update on my Pastor. Thanks in advance for reading. **I actually told him 280,000 miles. Dear Praying Friends, I read last night from Colossians before going to sleep, “Epaphrus, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, ALWAYS LABOURING FERVENTLY FOR YOU IN PRAYERS, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you…” Col 4:12-13 I was reminded how important my own prayer for others is, and also reminded of so many folks that “labor in prayer” for my husband and family and our church. And I wanted to take a moment once again to say, “ THANK YOU, SO VERY MUCH!” One of the greatest encouragements we have is to know folks are praying. It means the world to us. I hope your holidays were good. We spent Christmas morning, after going to breakfast with the children, with Pastor Esposito. We packed up our gifts for him and one another, and set up “Christmas” under the gazebo on the patio at the facility. We enjoyed it, and I believe he did as well. It was a great idea that my daughter in law had as we were trying to plan out the day. I also went to the mountains for our annual teen camp with the children New Years week as is our custom. I missed it last year, and we decided it good for me to go last minute this year. I think it was very good for me to get away those few days. I also had a lot of alone time to take snowy prayer walks in the forest and to plan for the new year. My daughter, who is a senior this year, said spiritually speaking it was the best camp ever. Daily I am amazed at how very far God has brought us over the last year. Often lately I have told my husband, “Joe, do you realize that a year ago you could do nothing? That doctors never expected you to wake up? God has brought you SO FAR you are doing so well. Yesterday when the nurse came in to bathe him, he was exercising his own left arm, bending it at the elbow up and down as if lifting weights (it’s one of the daily exercises we do with him). I told him just a little over a year ago he was in ICU, and his hands were lifeless and cold as ice. A couple of days ago our own missionaries, the Vongs, came to see Pastor. (What an encouragement they were to me!) Bro. Vong told Pastor that they were done with deputation and leaving the following day for Cambodia. He said they had traveled over 100,000 miles. Pastor was looking at him and listening intently, and to that he mouthed, “WOW!” Not only a small “wow” – it contained all of the expression and personality of Pastor Joe Esposito. That was a big “WOW” to all of us. (I remember our excitement when he first raised his eyebrow a tiny bit – his first facial expression.) lately he had been repeating, “I love you” if I asked him, and often trying on his own to lip things we can’t figure out…but this was so clear and so expressive. The Vong children spoke to him one by one, and he looked to each of them in interest. What a blessing. Thank you Vong family. Our church folks who have been to visit, have also been excited at the increased responsiveness and ability to turn his head and eyes and be attentive. He has responded what looks like “fine” and “good morning” to nursing staff as well. Praise the Lord. He is doing well with holding himself up straight when we sit him up with minimal support. He is getting stronger, it seems. Last week I asked him to tilt his head up and down putting his chin to his chest….and he did it very well. This is a big step, as well as turning his head while sitting. He still seems to have some sort of balance problem or something that causes him to tense greatly on his left side. We can get him very relaxed and looking out the window, then when we tilt him forward, and side to side, he tenses up – particularly his left arm stiffens and pushes. We continue daily Monday to Friday, and it seems to be helping him. I am hoping he will be allowed to stand again soon. Most of all that we ask Pastor to do, (reasonable requests that push him just a little bit as the physiatrist encouraged) he will try to do….like with bent knee – tip it in and out, put your tongue out to the left or to the right, push my hand away, etc. We are continuing daily with the PMV valve, and he is doing very well with it. He doesn’t act distressed as he used to, only for a moment. His cough and swallow seem much better and more reflexive rather than us telling him to do so. He tries really, really hard to make sounds when I ask him to do an “ahh” or “MMM”…but thus far no voice has come out. I hear the voice in the cough, so I know it’s still there. Please pray for him to be able to make some sound. The speech therapist had said a while back that it would be good for him to hear his own voice and maybe motivate him to do more. I plan to have the practitioner I mentioned in the last update come again. I waited for the holidays to pass. I e-mailed her yesterday to see when her next available time is. We are also checking into getting the device that will track his eyes and allow him to communicate. Joseph asked him yesterday if he thinks he can do that, and Joseph said he lifted his head way up and looked right at him and nodded in a big way. Joseph also practiced having him look different places on the computer screen to test how he thought he’d do with it. Hopefully we will be able to do this very soon. I joked that he will finally be able to communicate with his wife that probably really frustrates him on a daily basis – not knowing what he wants to communicate to me, and guessing wrongly. Sarah had said we needed to buy the 20 questions game. Sometimes I know he’s trying to “tell me something” but I can’t figure it out, and we both give up eventually after I ask him many things and he shakes his head no to all of them. On New Years Eve, I glanced back through my Bible At verses I had marked where God showed me something. I came across Psalm 109:26-27. Help me , O Lord my God: save me according to thy mercy: that they may know that this is Thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it. Like Isaiah 41:20 that has been hung above my husbands bed for the last 15 months, this is our prayer. That God would do something extraordinary...that all would know that it was HE who had done so...that Hed receive the glory. Thank you for joining us in this prayer. Sincerely, Mrs. Joe Esposito Pacific Baptist Church, Long Beach, CA Pray for Pastor: pacificbaptist/pastor/ “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer”
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 03:28:02 +0000
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