Halloween Update

Hello All—

Happy Halloween, peeps.  We had a pretty good day today.  Kari slept most of the night last night and was pretty confused in the morning, but by about 11am she was clearing up.  We went outside and stayed up in the chair for over 5 hours which is the longest in a long time.  As the evening went on though, she started to slip back into panic and confusion.  She tends to have extreme anxiety either over something that she can’t explain to us or over something that even she can’t identify.  It was encouraging that she slept, but until she sleeps on a consistent basis, it looks like our problems will continue.  At least today we had a sliver of hope.

I also want to give you all an opportunity to participate with our home church, Brookside Free Methodist Church, in a one week-long fast that starts tomorrow (Tues. Nov. 1st)  The purpose of the fast is to submit to God this whole situation—Kari’s health and mental status obviously, but also all the other issues that surround this.  If you want a good starter list of what to pray for, go to the “prayer and blessing” link on the website.  Specifically our pastor has called us to do a “juice fast,” which means that you would only consume juices and water for the duration of the fast.  If you are healthy, you should be physically able to continue all of your normal activities.  Of course, the exact manner in which you fast is a personal decision.  Some people at our church that don’t feel able to do the juice fast have fasted from solid foods, from TV, from the internet, from a particular food item like coffee or soda, or basically anything else that would be a constant reminder of the purpose of the fast.  If you feel led to participate, give it a try.  You should commit to doing it for the duration of the fast, but if you really can’t make it, there is still a great benefit to doing what you can.  To help us understand what God is doing and teaching us during the fast, we often share our experiences and feelings with each other to gain better discernment.  I would encourage you, if you are not a member of Brookside, to let Jenny Switkes (jswitkes@hotmail.com) know that you are participating and also email her some of your feelings/experiences.  That way we can better understand what God is doing amongst the body of believers and is doing or will do with Kari.  If you don’t want to use your name, that’s fine too, and if you don’t want to let anybody know what you are doing, that’s fine as well—it’s all up to you.  BTW—I know that most of you will probably not read this until sometime on Tuesday, the day this all starts, so if you want to participate, just join in whenever you are ready.  If you have any questions, you can also email Jenny at the address above.  God bless you all.

Aaron.