Count it all JOY

 We are fervently packing up some final things and getting them out of our house.  This is all in preparation to get our house on the market.  We haven't had the time to fully settle in at my parents' house, so we are living out of boxes, which are everywhere.  We are also packing our bags to head over to Hawaii.  The memorial service there is scheduled for this Sunday – 2pm at Punahou in the chapel.


Philippians 4:4-7
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice...And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
 
This morning’s study in my daily devotional was very timely, as things with the Lord usually are.  Here is a small excerpt:

Every day we are told both explicitly and implicitly that real joy cannot exist apart from success in all our relationships and happiness with our standard of living.

...joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), and it must be evident at some level in the life of every believer.  Joy need not be tied inescapably to our circumstances, for we have the Holy Spirit, and we can decide to rejoice always (Phil 4:4).

Of course, Christian joy does not deny the existence of pain or the legitimacy of grief.  Being made in God’s image, we are complex creatures who can be both sad and joyful at the same time...

We can grieve the death of loved ones because we no longer have personal communion with them.  At the same time, we can have a deep, abiding joy, knowing that death for the Christian is only temporary.  Christ’s death and resurrection have crushed this enemy, and now we wait for God to finally and fully defeat death when the new heaven and earth dawn (1 Cor 15:20-28; 2 Tim 1:10)

TABLETALK from Ligonier Ministries and Dr. R.C. Sproul

I think this describes well what my family is going through.  

There are tears, and we are very sad....the void, is so big... it is deafening.

But there is no despair here.  There is no hopelessness here.

We do rejoice in the Lord.  He is our rock...our strength...and all of our hope.

Warming up, rehearsing, and worshipping the Lord before the service. 


 I sang ‘Amazing Grace’ at the San Jose memorial service last Saturday.  When looking at the verses, I was interested to learn that there are more than 16 verses – some not part of the original version.  In addition to the first verse, I chose two that seemed the most fitting.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

            My chains are gone
            I’ve been set free
            My God My Savior
            Has ransomed me

            And like a flood
            His mercy reigns
            Unending love
            Amazing grace

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

This is our blessed assurance...it is available only through Christ....  

Celebrating Charlie's Legacy

As you can imagine, the last 5 days have been a whirlwind for the Wedemeyer family. Even with Charlie being terminal ill for the past 34 years, we truly never planned that this day would come... and how it would impact us.  

We are resting on the promises of God, but our finite minds still wrestle with saying good bye to our husband, dad, and grandpa.

We have had an amazing outpouring of prayer, support, emails, and cards.  Again, as mentioned in prior emails, we wish we could respond to each of the hundreds responses, but Lucy and Carri are truly overwhelmed at this time.  

We are in the throes of planning Charlie's memorial service and have finally confirmed date/time/place.  This will be opened to the public.

Celebrating Charlie's Legacy  
HP Pavilion (The Shark Tank)
Saturday   June 19th
11am

A reception will follow at Calvary Church in Los Gatos - 4pm


Carri and an abundance of her friends will be working together over the next 10 days to pull together what may be the celebration of a lifetime.
 
In His Grace,
Keith Andry 

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  **** HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYERS  ****

The Wedemeyer Family would like to invite all high school football players (past and present) to wear their jerseys to the memorial service.  This includes all CCS teams.  

Please contact Craig Williams for more detail: ckkmwilliams@sbcglobal.net 

Charlie's Memorial Service TBD

Dearest Friends and Family,

First, I want to personally say thank you on behalf of the Wedemeyer family for all of your emails and phone messages.  In as much as I know they would like to personally respond to each and every one, you can imagine things are are hectic in the Wedemeyer household.

Second, many of you have asked about the memorial service.  A date and time time have not been confirmed for the service.  June 19th has been mentioned, but we are still working through the particulars. We should have a confirmation this weekend. Carri will try to email and post an update on the blog no later than Monday.

Again, we do thank you for all of you heart felt prayers.  Our hope is that all of you can rejoice with Charlie and his family, for we serve a Mighty King.

I have posted another videoclip from Don Mapes' amazing documentary "Courage to Live; The Charlie and Lucy Wedemeyer story".

In His Grace,
Keith

Charlie & Lucy Wedemeyer - Testify to Love

Angels are rejoicing

Charlie Wedemeyer:  February 19, 1946- June 3, 2010

Greetings to all of our family and friends,

It comes with both great sadness and much rejoicing that Charlie has been called home to meet his Heavenly Father.

Charlie courageously battled through multiple surgeries and infections. He finally succumbed to pneumonia.

At 3:30 in the morning we were awakened by Kale coming to the house. He told Carri and Lucy that his dad wasn’t doing well and it was time to go say goodbye.  Charlie was heavily sedated so there was no suffering in the end.  Lucy, Carri, Kale, and nurses close to the family spent 5 hours praying and singing hymns and songs of worship.   I know it was a precious time for everyone there.

It is surreal to think this man who has suffered immeasurably is now gone from this world and is now in a place where there is no sin, no pain, no sickness, nor anymore death.  

Praise God for the hope we have in Jesus Christ!   Thank God for choosing Charlie to be one of his own.

It has been said for those of us who know the Redeemer Jesus Christ, this is NOT, nor will it be, our best life now;  

Our best life is yet to come- Hallelujah, Amen!

Services are tentatively scheduled for Saturday, June 19th in Los Gatos.

Carri will be posting updates in the coming days. Again, we do thank you for your prayers. 

May God be glorified in all our circumstances.

In His Grace,
Keith

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.                        Romans 5:1-5

Urgent Prayer

Keith here...
It is 3:30am and we were just woken by Kale.  Hospital called and asked for family to come to hospital.  It is very serious.  Carri and Lucy are heading to hospital in the next few minutes.  Please pray for the Lord's continued strength and comfort for the Wedemeyer family.

Charlie - Pneumonia

Wednesday June 2

Today my dad took a downward turn.

His blood pressure dropped and was not coming up.  We got a concerned call from our nurse saying that we needed to come.

My mom, Kale, and I made our way to the hospital.  They took a chest x-ray and finally realized that my dad has pneumonia.  That explained some of the immediate problems he was having.  Kale said it is inevitable to get pneumonia when you are in the hospital this long.

They have my dad on a strong anti-biotic.  They cannot give a breathing treatment (which would help his lungs) because it would be too much for his heart.

He is sedated with pain medication.

So we wait...and pray.


Prayer requests:

• blood pressure comes up
• he is able to kick this pneumonia
• that his liver functions better
• that he remains pain free
• that he tangibly senses the presence of the Lord

By His grace...
with much thanks and love,
Carri



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While this has been a difficult time for my family, this has also been a difficult time for our nurses.  We have some pretty incredible women who not only provide nursing care for my dad, but have also truly become part of our family.  This has been very emotional for all of us.

Lisa - who I mentioned often - used to be a nurse for my dad.  She is now a full-time Marriage and Family Therapist.  She has been at the hospital with my dad almost non-stop.  I don't know how she does it, or what we would do without her.  She has led some incredible prayer times in my dad's ICU room, in the ICU conference room, in the OR waiting room.  

I was disappointed to learn that I missed her today.  She came to see my dad, and pray over him - and she brought in some of her students (yes, she also teaches...) to see my dad.

I asked her to recount some of what has gone on this past week...

This first surgery saved his life. Lucy and I, and a few dear others waited for 4 hours. 

How we waited...We at first waited worried... 

That got old, and tiresome...so, quickly, we waited in prayer, reading scripture, laying hands on each other, and because we had a worship leader for Charlie's private nurse, she sang accapella and we all rejoiced. 

Then we got out the cameras, because, where there is Lucy Wedemeyer there is a camera, so we exchanged snapping our minds for snapping photos! 

Some would call this mini-church, or waiting room worship, but Lucy calls it GOOD GRIEF! 

During this last week there were 4 surgeries, in varying degree of criticallity, each time before and after we would convene, and pray, read scripture, lay hand, prophesy, cry, worship and lay hold of God's faithfulness. 

During these periods of GOOD GRIEF, the Lord manifested - in Lucy's words - it was the weighty presence of God's Glory, it is Shekainah Glory.

We could barley stand, just holding on to Charlie and the bed rail; we were in Awe. 

During one session, the Lord revealed a bastion of angles, all wearing crowns, and one angel, carrying a crown, a king's crown, distinctly more elaborate then the crown the angles wore... 

In this moment, Lucy prayed a psalm, in part, psalm 103...Praise the Lord oh my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name, praise the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits...who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. 

 
Before and after each surgery we sought the Lord, and again the weighty presence would manifest.  At one point, while we were praying for Charlie, Lucy was healed from a headache that has pestered her for days. 

I sensed Lucy was to be the focus of prayer. We held her hands up and prayed ardently - strength, favor, protection, and even immunity.  Immunity form the enemy! 

We have experienced well meaning people, who do not understand, or just plain old don't know what to say, or who have an erroneous opinion, they at times have misspoke loudly. 

The Lord has covered Charlie, Lucy, and the children. 

Please continue to pray for Lucy to do what the Lord asks her, without hindrance or onslaught. 

Pray for her protection.
 
--
Lisa Bennett, Ph.D., L.M.F.T

Charlie - Status quo

Today we are status quo.

Dr. S will be taking my dad back into the OR today to change the wound vac and observe the state of the tissue and organs.  We’ll know more after that.

The shocker for me, personally, has been mention (by the doctors) of my dad coming home!  This was not something we thought would be a reality.  

Maybe they think they are sending him home to die.  

We are trying to be ready for anything.  The thought of having my dad come home is a bit overwhelming as his care is so much more complicated now.

Everyday, my dad is a little bit better.  Very, very small increments.  But better – not worse.

His pain is still controlled by strong medication.  This medication adds to his being ‘out of it’ most of the time. 

Last night when I went to visit my dad, I brought my mom some dinner.  She was telling my dad that I brought her some delicious homemade lasagna, and he ‘gave her the eyebrows.’  Many of you know that my dad is famous for his ‘eyebrows.’  

I got to tell him about the fun the kiddos had playing in the water today.  I had his attention for about a minute.  It was a wonderful moment....it gives the heart hope...and also makes it sad.

My mom wants me to convey how grateful we are for all of your prayers.  She expressed how we can’t even begin to explain how palpable the presence of the Lord is in my dad’s hospital room.

Rejoice always,

pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.    Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise prophecies,  test everything;  hold fast what is good.       

1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 21

 

Many of you have shared that you have included my dad/family in various prayer requests with different groups and churches.  We are so appreciative.

Below is a link to a clip of the Courage to Live video  - an incredible film that Don Mapes made.  It may be helpful for those who aren’t familiar with my parents’ story.

Courage to Live - opening segment
 

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Every summer I plan to give the kids swimming lessons, yet – it never happens.  Kaleo can swim, and the next older 2 can kind of swim, but I would never feel safe having them all at a pool by myself.  I avoid that situation at all costs - won’t be around a pool unless Keith is with us.

The kids do love the water though.  So this is my current compromise.  Nothing like a nice dip in the pool, right in Nani and Grampa’s backyard!  

If you fill it, they will come!

Kawika (15m)