Brain Aneurysm Surgery by Dr. Troy Payner and Dr. Aaron Cohen-Gadol

This is the surgeon who performed Rick's life-saving brain surgery. He is awesome!

Imagine Spot 1

This speaks for itself.

The View from Apollo 8

APOLLO 8 Christmas Broadcast from Moon

The historical Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast from 1968 was referenced in a sermon last night, which inspired me to do a little research that is well worth sharing.

Can you imagine being in the space craft along with astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders when they saw this humbling and spectacular scene? It was so awe-inspiring that they took turns reading from the Book of Genesis.

I'm sure when they saw the beauty and majesty of the earth from their particular vantage point, it erased all doubt that the Lord God is the Creator of all things.

Take a few moments and listen.

It's a girl!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Richard Cameron faces death

Taken from Fair Sunshine:Character Studies of the Scottish Covenanters 1680

Covenanters defeated at Ayrsmoss.

Richard Cameron killed

....The course of Richard Cameron was as swift and bright as that of a blazing meteor. He was fiercely hunted, but kindly housed, and although there was a huge price on his head, there was none that would betray him.

Closely sought, he was ever sheltered; greatly loved, and that unto death, ever with his brother Michael by his side. His sermons were full of the warm welcoming love of the Lord Jesus Christ for poor helpless sinners: 'Will ye take him? Tell us what ye say! These hills and mountains around us witness that we have offered Him to ye this day. Angels are wondering at this offer. They stand beholding with admiration that our Lord is giving ye such an offer this day. They will go up to report at the Throne what is everyone's choice.

'He preached memorably from such texts as these: Jeremiah 3·19, 'How Shall I put thee among the children'; Matthew 11.28, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 1 will give you rest'; Isaiah 32.2, 'And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest'; Isaiah 49·24, 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered.''; and John 5.40, 'And ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.' In the midst of this sermon, seeking to make a contract between human hearts and Christ, he fell aweeping, and crowds wept with him, their hearts tendering to the Man of Calvary.

As was Cameron's preaching, so was his praying, and his practising.

Such as he believed what James Frazer, fellow-sufferer in the same cause, said 'Of a Minister's Work and Qualification':

'That which I was called to was to testify for God, to hold forth His name and ways to the dark world, and to deliver poor captives of Satan, and bring them to the glorious liberty of the children of God. This I was to make my only employment, to give myself to, and therein to be diligent, taking all occasions.' And thus he goes on, clear in his apprehension as to the greatest calling on earth, and finishing so markedly, 'and my own soul to lie at the stake to be forfeit if I failed; and this commission might have been discharged though I had never taken a text or preached formally.

'May we all be delivered from merely taking a text and preaching formally!

The last week of Richard Cameron's life was lived with about sixty others. Patrick Walker, the Covenanter Pedlar, the Covenanting John Bunyan, says of them in his unique record, 'they were of one heart and soul, their company and converse being so edifying and sweet, and having no certain dwelling-place they stayed together, waiting for further light in that nonsuch juncture of time.

'They were somewhat armed, and about twenty of them had horses. Some may feel that they should not have taken up arms at all. Many Covenanters themselves felt like this, believing that there was a better testimony to be gained by suffering than by resisting.

Their own outlawed ministers and writers counselled them to be, 'as jewels surrounded by the cutting irons,' and so, 'to seal from your own experience the sweetness of suffering for Christ,' since 'there is an inherent glory in suffering for Christ.

'But there were many others who, while they could go through much themselves, could not endure seeing others subjected to the utmost miseries and cruelties, and were as those when 'every man had his sword upon his thigh.

'Whatever we feel, we cannot but love them, these rebels so glorious, so brave for God

....The Lion of the Covenant spent his last night on earth at Meadowhead Farm, the home of William Mitchell. In the morning he washed his face and hands in an old stone trough. On drying himself, he looked at his hands and laying them on his face, he said to Mrs Mitchell and her daughter, This is their last washing. I have need to make them clean, for there are many to see them.' At this Mrs Mitchell wept.

That day at about four in the afternoon, the dragoons came upon that Bible-reading band 'in the very desert place of Ayrsmoss.

'The Covenanters gathered around their young leader with the horsemen on either side of those on foot. He led them in prayer, appealing three times to the Lord of Sabaoth, to 'spare the green, and take the ripe.' Looking on his younger brother, he said to him, 'Come Michael, let us fight it out to the last; for this is the day that I have longed for, to die fighting against our Lord's avowed enemies; and this is the day that we shall get the crown.

'To his loved fellows he said, 'Be encouraged, all of you, to fight it out valiantly, for all of you who fall this day I see heaven's gates cast wide open to receive them.' Then, 'with eyes turned to heaven, in calm resignation they sang their last song to the God of salvation.

'The dragoons emboldened by greater numbers and better arms attacked at once. The wanderers, as was their wont, defended bravely, and David Hackston says, 'The rest of us advanced fast on the enemy, being a strong body of horse coming hard on us; whereupon, when we were joined, our horse fired first, and wounded and killed some of them, both horse and foot. Our horse advanced to their faces, and we fired on each other; I being foremost after receiving their fire, and finding the horse behind me broken I then rode in amongst them, and went out at a side without any wrong or wound. I was pursued by several, with whom I fought a good space, sometimes they following me, and sometimes I following them.

'At last with a treacherous and unfair blow David Hackston was struck down, but, he says, 'they gave us all testimony of being brave resolute men.

'Nine were slain 'of that poor party that occasionally met at Ayrsmoss only for the hearing of the Gospel.' Among them had dashed to God the dauntless spirit of him known among men as the Lion of the Covenant, Richard Cameron. And Michael, the unseparable, went with him.

Most escaped into the wild wide mosses. Six prisoners only were taken. These were William Manuel, John Valiance, John Pollock, David Hackston, John Malcolm, and Archibald Alison.

From the severity of his wounds and from the harsh treatment he received, William Manuel died as he was being carried into the Edinburgh Tolbooth. From the same causes John Valiance died the day following. John Pollock was most cruelly treated, but in the midst of it was steadfast and cheerful, and was banished as a slave to the American Plantations with the marks of his torture still upon him...

The other three prisoners were executed, David Hackston being shockingly murdered upon the scaffold, and John Malcolm, and Archibald Alison were hanged. Said John Malcolm, 'let His Cause be your cause in weal and woe. O noble Cause! O noble Work! O noble Heaven ! O noble Christ that makes it to be Heaven ! And He is the owner of the Work! ... I lay down my life, not as an evildoer, but as a sufferer for Jesus Christ.' Said Archibald Alison, 'What think ye of Heaven and Glory that is at the back of the Cross?' The hope of this makes me look upon pale death as a lovely messenger to me. I bless the Lord for my lot this day.... Friends, give our Lord credit; He is aye good, but 0! He is good in a day of trial, and He will be sweet company through the ages of Eternity,

'Of those who escaped from Ayrsmoss, 'some wept that they died not that day, but,' says Patrick Walker, 'those eight who died on the spot with him went ripe and longing for that day and death.

'The dragoons dug a pit and tumbled the dead into it, after they had cut off the head and hands of Richard Cameron, and the head of John Fowler in mistake for that of Michael Cameron. These were put into a sack to take to the bloodthirsty Council in Edinburgh.

In passing through Lanark, the dragoons asked Elizabeth Hope if she would like to buy some calves' heads, and shaking the martyrs' heads out of the bag, they 'kicked them up and down the house like footballs,' so that the woman fainted.

On reaching Edinburgh, the dragoons put the heads upon halberts with the cry, 'there are the heads of traitors, rebels!' One who was there said that he 'saw them take Mr Cameron's head out of the sack; he knew it, being formerly his hearer - a man of fair complexion with his own hair, and his face very little altered, and they put a halbert in his blessed mouth out of which had proceeded many gracious words.

'Robert Murray, as he delivered them to the Council, said, 'These are the head and hands that lived praying and preaching, and died praying and fighting.' And those ghouls of gore paid over the price of the blood of one who died at about the age of his Master.

Before the hangman set head and hands on the bloodstained Netherbow Port, the fingers pointing grimly upwards on either side of the head, a hero saint lying in prison was shown them. He was Alan Cameron, Covenanter. The cruel question was asked him. 'Do you know them' His son's head and hands which were very fair, being a man of fair complexion like himself.' He kissed them saying, 'I know them, I know them. They are my son's, my own dear son's. It is the Lord. Good is the will of the Lord, Who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.' A prisoner, head of a broken home, the father of martyred sons and daughter! It is the answer of the more than conqueror, the sufferer in Christ, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; and having the heart full of the power and music of the Good Shepherd Psalm:

Goodness and mercy all my life

Shall surely follow me;

And in God's house for evermore

My dwelling place shall be.

Twenty Nine Years and Counting...

September 15, 1979

Twenty-nine years ago today I married my best friend, Rick Vice. It has proven to be one of the wisest decisions of my life. Our marriage is like a fine wine; it just gets better with age. We took the day off today, forgetting about all the things of life that constantly demand our attention.

We drove to Covington, Indiana, where we enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of our favorite (four star) restaurants, The Beef House. During the hour long drive, we talked about old times while listening to our "date music," which included Dan Fogelberg and Jefferson Starship. On the way back we stopped at the little church in Shadeland, Indiana where we were married. It's not a church any longer. It's now the home of a quilt shop, but it still looks the same. We stopped in to look around and when we told the shop owner why it was special to us, she dropped what she was doing, congratulated us and offered to take our picture.

We both came home a little tired, so we relaxed in our living room while listening to a previously recorded 70's music special from one of those public television channels. We just couldn't help ourselves, though. We were inspired when some of our favorite songs began to play, so we slowly danced in our living room. I'm sure our grown-up kids would have laughed had they been watching.

Hey, what am I doing on the computer? The night is still young!

I am truly a blessed woman!