JamieDoyle(dot)com

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My wife is pretty much a “rock-star kinda chick”!  She came through this surgery amazingly and endured 10 days in a hospital room beautifully. While she was trudging through the pain and the monotonous, drag-on days in the hospital – my Mother came out for a few days to help around the house and with the kids.  Thanks Mom!

Currently, with the help of Jennifer’s Parents and her Grandma, this first week out of the hospital has gone very well.  My wife is still in pain from the surgery and has to be on some pretty potent pain-meds.  Her parents and Grandma being here is a huge blessing as well – thanks Schumacher clan!

The good news is:

She’s at home.  Being home does wonders for a person’s soul. I sincerely believe you heal faster when you are where you belong and are surrounded by love.

Still no signs of the Crohn’s disease – God can and will still do the unexplained – ‘nuff said there

She can eat what she wants with no restrictions unless she feels like it’s affecting her.  So, no special diet or weird supplements.

We got to see a church full of love as they responded with love by: praying, watching our kids, preparing meals and visiting.  Thanks to the Radiant Church family.

We got to see a community of friends from all over the world respond with love – I love social networking!  Thanks everyone!

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WARNING – graphic content

I sit writing this blog post in in a unique predicament – and yet, it’s not so unique in the grand scheme in this world in which we live.  My wife has undergone some major surgery… I won’t go into all of the gory details (at lease not yet) but I will say that she’s gotta a huge scar that runs the length of her mid/lower abdomen, and part of her guts were removed – and the rest re-arranged with titanium staples and stitches – it’s like internal interior decorating in a human body: “We wanted to create a calm flowing feeling from the upper bowel to the lower bowel. So, we added a splash of color on this wall.  Perhaps a potted palm over there and a snappy drape on that end table…”

This post isn’t really to illustrate my unique view surgery, but the fact that God can do amazing things when we think, (you ready for this?) when we think He was kidding or forgot about us. God is faithful!  Let me expand this thought:

You must realize that Jennifer has dealt with Crohn’s disease since she was a teen and was actually diagnosed with it when we were first married.  She has been hospitalized 6 times in the last 14 years because of it.

Back at the end of November, Jennifer was told that no sign of Crohn’s disease was present – which we celebrated, along with many people God’s healing power.  Then, 2 days later a severe flare-up sent us into the ER at the end of church on a Wednesday night.  The Doctor’s diagnosis was that this was obviously related to Crohn’s disease.  They got the pain under control and used steroids to bring the stricture down.  After a few days in the hospital we went home discouraged because we were sure that God had done a miracle a week earlier.

Stuff was good since the beginning of December.  Jen never really had any severe pain. And we enjoyed our Christmas.  Then again, last week on a Wednesday night, we were on our way to the ER again – Jennifer having sever abdominal pain.  We waited out the night as the Doctor’s tried the same strategy as before… It didn’t work.  So a Surgeon met with us to tell us that according to the CT, and the current strategy – things aren’t getting any better.  She needed surgery.

So, they went in and did the surgery and removed over a foot of dilated intestine.  Then the surgeon took off on a flight and we didn’t see him again until this morning.  As I was dropping the kids off at the school, the surgeon, who was back in town, met with Jennifer to tell her some interesting news… news that we had no idea about.  As he performed the surgery, he decided to examine the entire digestive system.  Let me be more blunt:  He took as much of her digestive system as he could and pulled it out of her abdomen. He then laid it beside her on the table and began to examine it inch-by-inch – looking for any signs of Crohn’s disease.  Guess what?  He couldn’t find any!  Please understand that if a person has Crohn’s disease, a surgeon can find signs of it through-out the digestive system.  He proceeded to remove the section of intestine that was dilated but concluded that: the dilation was not due to Crohn’s disease and this surgery should be the finishing touch.

Pretty cool, huh?

Let me wrap this up.  We forget that God is faithful… But isn’t that the point?  God is faithful because He knew we would forget it.

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After much trevailing and consideration – ok… not really that much; “The children’s ministry blog with jamie doyle “- which was hosted at a free blogger site- has moved to it’s new home here at jamiedoyle.com.  It’s all still being developed and I’m still undecided about the theme as of yet – but rest assured, some new posts will follow (I have several in the hopper at the moment that need refining).

you can still follow me on twitter @jamie_doyle.com to find out when this thing will be updated – otherwise change your bloglines subscriptions and I’ll see you then.  Thanks for joining me!

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I get to do one of my favorite things coming up in August. I get to lecture for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians.

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I wanted to say a special thanks you to kidology.org for re-posting my advertisement from this blog about our new CD – “the BIG spin”

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Whew – lots of stuff going on since my lat post. Taking a new children’s pastor position has proven to take up more time than I had anticipated – but I love being in my element. Let me say that I love being a Children’s Pastor!

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It’s been fun teaming up with my Pastor on the on-going sermon series on the book of Acts.  The idea is that the kids and the adults are learning about the same thing.  This week we are in Acts Chapter 9 about Ananias praying for Saul – even though he doesn’t really want to do it.  But because he is obedient – the church not only experiences a time of growth and peace; but, Ananias helps to usher in a convert who is the greatest influence on the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church!  So our emphasis will be on obedience.

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I am in a phone conference as I type with a company that helps churches design a portable church for new church plants and new campuses.  This is pretty exciting to see what God is doing in this church to reach a completely new neighborhood in the Colorado Springs area.

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Yep – I have become the new Children’s Pastor of Radiant Church in Colorado Springs. So, it’s official and I will actually start there the last week of May. OK, wait – let me back-up: beep, beep, beep.

As you know from the previous post, I went out to the Springs on an compatibility trip to check out the Pastor, staff, church, area, etc. to see if it would be a good match… and the Pastor, staff, church and area were watching me to see if it would be a good match. At the end of the trip, the Pastor even put it all out on the table – in writing: An UN-official offer that he said he would officially offer me during my next trip. I have to tell you, it was great to have it all in writing, in front of us as Jennifer and I prayed about it.

It seemed to be a great match! So, last weekend, they brought me, my wife and my oldest son out to see the area and do an official candidate-kinda-thing. We had a great time and really connected with the Pastor and his family, the staff and many at the church. On Monday, we were officially offered the position of Children’s Pastor and I officially accepted.

This is such a cool church – they have completely tricked-out the entire Children’s Ministry Wing and the decor starts right in the lobby. You can check out some pictures here.

Now – I get to experience the joys of moving my family and our stuff cross-country!

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