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Writer's pictureGarth Steele

I Thank The Lord

Psalm 34:1-8


I will thank the Lord at all times.

My mouth will always praise him.

My soul will boast about the Lord.

Those who are oppressed will hear it and rejoice.

Praise the Lord’s greatness with me.

Let us highly honor his name together.

I went to the Lord for help.

He answered me and rescued me from all my fears.

All who look to him will be radiant.

Their faces will never be covered with shame.

Here is a poor man who called out.

The Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles.

The Messenger of the Lord camps around those who fear him, and he rescues them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him.


Health Update 


I had an appointment at the ALS clinic this week.  The lung tests they do indicate that my lung muscles have gone from 7% in March to zero.  That means that I can't breathe on my own. Thankfully the breathing machines I have been using give me enough air to live. Using the breathing machines doesn't feel any different than my normal breathing three years ago, so that is good! But I am feeling a bit anxious about the possibility that the machine stops working or the pipe comes disconnected and no one is near me, or they don't know how to fix it. I do have a manual bag that can put air in to me, but can the PSW's find it quick enough? ! If you're one of my prayer warriors please add that to your prayer list. 


Another change over the past few months is a significant amount of thick, foamy saliva in my mouth.  It's there all day long and makes it difficult for me to talk.  My tongue and vocal chord muscles are weaker too and the only one who can understand me (10% of the time) is my dear wife Cathy.  It is so frustrating to not be able to speak. Fortunately the eye gaze machine works well and it allows me to communicate with people fairly well. Three years ago I recorded about 300 sentences. So when I type sentences with my eyes on the eye gaze machine it vocalizes the words in my voice.  How cool is that!


I've had swollen feet for a long time and have been wearing compression socks for about six months. It is a real workout for the PSW's to put the socks on in the morning because they are so tight.  As they pull them up sometimes my straight leg will swiftly bend at the knee.  One PSW was six months pregnant and my knee hit the baby in her belly quite hard. Another time my knee bruised a PSW's chin. I'm so sorry for that!


Feeding through the feeding tube is going well. I had the tube in my belly replaced at the hospital a few weeks ago. It takes less than one minute and there is no pain at all. Thank God for that!


Things I Love


Celebrated Father's Day early in June. Both of my kids and their spouses and their children were over for the day. They gave me two gifts...  a pair of crocs to wear in the summer and a painting done by my grandchildren. The crocs also have a jibbitz that says Faith Over Fear on it. Here's a picture of that. 

And here's a picture of the painting. Can you find Mason's hand;  Roman's hand; and Betty's foot?  The oldest grandchild is two and a half years old so the painting matches the age group. 

I love having visitors come over. Every so often I have old and young coworkers from Welch come over.  Two pictures below are of the Welch management team. The first one is from 2008 as we celebrated our 90th anniversary. The second picture is the same four people sixteen years later. The four of us  (Garth, George, Faith and Michael) are all retired, but we love meeting together!




















My five siblings and their spouses and my nieces and nephews come over. And friends and neighbours come frequently. Every month Jeff Ritskes brings an organ over and my friends from a Leader Impact group come over and we sing hymns for an hour. I love modern Christian music but I also love the old hymns we sang as children at church. If you want to dig into your faith and how it should manifest itself in your work place then let me know and I can get you in touch with a Leader Impact group. 

I also love water skiing behind my boat but I haven't been able to do that for three years so we sold the boat this spring to a fellow from Toronto. The picture at the top of the website shows the name of the boat "Faith Over Fear".  Turns out that the buyer is a Christian and the day after he looked at the boat the title of his daily devotion was "Faith or Fear"! So he likely will keep the name of the boat. How amazing is that?! Here's a picture of me saying goodbye to the boat when we pulled it out for the last time in October 2022.

On our porch we have a painting of the boat on an old wooden water ski.  It was painted by an old high school friend, Diane Munro (nee Stewart).

For six months now we've had a neighbour lend us their wheelchair accessible van so I can go to church on Sundays. They have been so generous and I love them for that. They are moving in a week though, so we're looking to buy our own van.  Be praying that we can find a good used van at a reasonable price. 


Faith Over Fear 


I'm still counting on Jesus to heal me from ALS. My faith in Jesus eliminates all the fear I could have had. Is my faith strong enough to lead to the healing? There are many verses in the Bible that promise healing to those who believe in Jesus. For example, Psalm 103:2-5 says  “Praise the Lord, 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 desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  As the Bible says, we have to place God's word in our heart to receive all of the promises God has made. And we have to focus not on carnal issues but on spiritual issues. Hebrews 11: 1 says "Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see." And I can't see the healing but I have faith in what I expect! Hebrews 12: 2 says "We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him."


So I'm counting on my faith for a miracle from God.  Be praying for my faith to impact my spirit and to lead to 30 more healthy years on this earth! I love you all and I hope that your spiritual health improves because of a greater impact of Jesus on your life!


Please check out the updated Prayer Points.


Garth.

 

May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace through your faith in him. Then you will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

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16 Comments


tell steve
tell steve
2 days ago
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Catherine Amell
Catherine Amell
Aug 06

Dear Garth,

I am posting a picture of your boat with it's new family. I am not sure how you feel when you see this picture. You can trust me when I say the boat is in great hands. It is definitely being well taken care of by my husband and as you can see there are a few potential skiers to pull in its future.

You are in our prayers, we do and will always think of you especially when we see the "Faith over Fear" name. I love the name and when I saw it, I knew that we were meant to buy it. There was no doubt we would keep the name on it especially when t…



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Catherine Amell
Catherine Amell
Aug 10
Replying to

You are welcome. Yes, we had the whole boat polished and had the large side "Mastercraft" redone as well. It looks and is working great!! Thank you for sharing your faith with us, the name makes for a great conversation starter. God bless and we continue to pray for you and your family.

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Mark Peterkins
Mark Peterkins
Jul 04

Thanks for the update Garth. Continuing to pray for you.

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enricoseminerio
enricoseminerio
Jul 03

Garth - thanks for sharing your story with us and for your strength in spirit and in faith. Re your boat and waterskiing- I'm remember the many times waterskiing at Steve’s cottage with the West 5 gang- great memories. Take care my friend.

Enrico (Rick) Seminerio

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Keith Brown
Keith Brown
Jul 03

Thanks for your open sharing, Garth. I am praying and trusting and thanking God with you. Here is one of my favorite promises: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." 2 Tim 1:7

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