Francis Alexander; 60 Minutes
Dear SBC Family,
Two things I want to bring to your attention as this Memorial Day weekend approaches. First, long time member Francis Alexander passed away Wednesday afternoon. Francis was the father of Terry Alexander. He died almost exactly 5 years to the day after his wife Bessie died. While we praise the Lord for their glorious reunion, we want to be praying for the family as they mourn the loss of their father. The viewing will be Friday from 6-8:00 pm at the Ankeny Funeral Home. The funeral service will be here at SBC at 10:00 on Saturday morning.
Some of you may have heard that 60 Minutes this Sunday night will feature Tim McCloud's and Ryan Aarhus' infantry unit in Iraq. Since the program will conflict with our Sunday evening services, we are planning on purchasing the program and putting it on our web site next week for those of you that would like to see it. As you may know, we are planning a special evening service with John Leonard as he and Bev along with the girls will be returning next week to Brazil to resume their missionary status. I hope everyone who is available will be here this Sunday night for this special meeting.
In Christ,
Pastor Nemmers
Wed. Night Service & Sunday
Dear SBC Family,
I have two very important announcements to send your way. The first has to do with this evening's service. Pastor Mark Vance along with Matt LaPine are going to present a special preview of our upcoming FOUNDATIONS MODULE that we are going to offer beginning June 13th. This promises to be an excellent overview of this tremendous upcoming course. I will take a moment to deal with one misunderstanding which I have heard. The FOUNDATIONS class is not just for new believers. It is understandable that some of you may have thought so, but it is actually for everyone. This summer's class will deal with two of the 11 major Bible doctrines that the book covers. I am convinced that this series will tremendously strengthen your faith. There is a sign up list in the foyer. Please take advantage of it tonight or this week-end.
This Sunday Cedarville University's Heartsong singers will be with us in the morning services. The music of Cedarville has always brought a great blessing to SBC. Also, I will be preaching from I Cor. 1:18 and following which presents the cross of Christ against the wisdom of this world. This would be a great Sunday to invite friends, especially unsaved friends to church.
Hope many of you can make it tonight.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
Heartsong from Cedarville This Sunday
HeartSong is a talented group of students from Cedarville University that presents a fresh expression of their faith through music. Whether at a large conference or a small youth event, their quality of music and desire to serve provides a clear picture of the type of students at Cedarville University.
HeartSong will be ministering in the morning worship services. This event is free and open to the public.
Ava Johnson Update
Our trip to Omaha went well and we are home! We arrived at about 8am and were out of there by 11:30am. Ava was a trooper through it all and is very happy to be home.
To all of you that were praying about Ava's sedation, it went super. Ava's tummy was empty so when the 'sleepy' drugs were put through her NG tube, it upset her tummy a little and she threw some of it up, but then was fine. It started taking effect within five minutes and she even slept through most of getting an IV. She slept through the entire MRI and only started moving her feet at the very end. She woke up very happy and is still a little sluggish, but is acting great.
She did end up getting an IV put in so they could put a contrast dye through it for the MRI. She only had two pokes, but who's counting!?
The MRI took about an hour and I was able to sit in the room with her while it was being done. They gave us both big headphones to wear to protect our ears from the noise of the machine. I have to admit, I took a little nap while I was sitting there.
We did get to talk to the doctor before and after the MRI. He was actually supposed to be on vacation today, so it was a blessing that he was there at all. We will not find out the complete results for a couple days, but he was able to tell us a couple things. One thing (and the main reason we did the test in the first place) is that he was able to get a look at her left pulmonary veins and they are attached and there does seem to be at least some blood flow through them. The second thing is that he could tell just by looking at the pictures that Ava's right ventricle has a lot more muscle mass around it than normal. Just to make that more clear, the right ventricle in a normal heart is about 1/3-1/2 the size of the left ventricle and in Ava's heart they are about the same size. This shows that her right ventricle is working a lot harder than it should which means that there is some pulmonary stenosis. That said, the doctor does not believe that she at risk for heart failure at this time and he may recommend that we take her to a Cath. Lab to get an even better idea of what is going on. But we will not know fully for a couple days.
We continue to wait on the Lord and enjoy our smiley, silly girl. Thank-you for all your prayers, we could definitely feel them today.
Rejoicing day by day!
Jessica Johnson
The Legacy of Jerry Falwell
Tuesday, May 15th, Jerry Falwell died in his office at the age of 73. Falwell's impact in the evangelical world raises a host of questions regarding the role of the Christian in the political realm. In a recent op-ed piece, Cal Thomas addresses this issue with great clarity. We encourage all of you to read his article on the legacy of Jerry Falwell.
