Tyler is back in Alaska - Home for the Holidays! 12/16/04

Many of you are aware of our ongoing ministry to our Son, Tyler. Well, he is currently back in Alaska and staying in our home thru the holidays! Kris' family arranged to fly him back to Alaska as a surprise to us! Man, was it awesome to see him.

Here's some great information:

First, Tyler successfully completed is GED (General Equivalancy Diploma) while living in Indiana. So, his "drop out" from school here in Alaska has now been replaced by this excellent achievement. We are proud of him.

Second, he is planning on staying in our guest room here at home through the holidays. We really need your prayers! We are excited about having him around. Pray! He may stay in the area or he may move on, we do not know.

By the way, my next update will certainly have some family pics (um, pictures). None for now.

Frequent updates . . . hope you don't mind. But they are becoming more a regular expression of life - - and not simply our Ministry Updates. Why?

"Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Col 3:17, NIV)

So, it's really ALL ministry, isn't it, if it is done to honor Jesus?

Cassie Followup & Dear Church Partners 12/14/04

First, and update on Cassie's Appt in Anchorage:

The EEG indicated no real change. The DOWN side to this is that we have no real explanation about frequent petit mal activity. The UP side is that, more and more, it is being confirmed that all seizure activity is coming from the same location in the brain. This is necessary if we ever need to rely on surgery to fix this problem (not her Cerebral Palsy, of course - but her seizure activity).

But brain surgery is only a last resort. So her medications have been changed and a grid work for future options has been set up. She will actually be doing away with one medication and changing the other. This gets her back to a baseline, rather than an "add this med to that approach" which we all really wantede. The medication she is switching to does not require the same slow transition the last one did, which is also a plus.

SO MANY of you have had Cassie in your prayers regularly, and we do so much appreciate it.

(Again, for some local folks who get these updates, please refrain from discussing this so openly with Cassie. We want to keep you all in the prayer loop, but we also want to give HER the option about dicussing it.)

In addition, Lighthouse Community Church allowed us to use one of their vehicles or the trip. Our van has headlight problems, door staying shut problems, oil leak problems, and various and asundry other problems! It was a good thing. We were doing 35-40 MPH on stretches of road with 65 MPH speed limits due to near white out and slippery roads. And our trip there and back again were in darkness (Sun up at 10:o8 am and sundown at 3:40 - with a full cloud cover!)

The First Baptist Church of Port Nikiski is a very dear church of supporters and encouragers for our family. I shared with you in our last update about the need for a dryer for our home. Well. the church got word of it at the same time one of their members had a set for sale and the Church paid for it! - - and they also threw in the washer after Kris mentioned that our was just about out, also (Leave it to a man - - I thought it worked fine . . . but the agitator had stopped agitating or something like that, and it did make an awful racket)

Here's a picture of Pastor Harold Lewis, pastor of FBC of Port Nikiski. He's out standing in the snowfall thinking "OK, get this picture out of the way so I can get inside!" Not really.

And this picture is of George, a member of the church who, along with his wife, Barb, was on hand to help us load up the appliances in our van. Oh yeah, The guy on the dumb end of the dolly helping George - That's me!

There or in the air!

Gary

An Update on Cassie & A Piece of Glass 12/10/04

First, A prayer reminder to you:

Kris and I will be taking our daughter, Cassie, to Anchorage on Monday to meet with her neurologist. Here is an update on her situation and, for those of you who are local, we would prefer that you NOT discuss this with Cassie, but with us if you have any questions.

1. Cassie has been in a "modified schedule" for school. All her teachers OK'd her doing her schoolwork/homework from home until after Christmas break - hoping that the seizures she has been having will be brought under control by then.

2. A good friend of ours, who is her band director, asked if she could pick her up and bring her home on the three days last week she would be in Jazz Band rehearsal. We agreed that it would be nice for her to be in school a few hours and it worked fine for two of the three days.

3. All medications she is now taking are in the proper level according to the blood work analysis recently done. So, what is at issue here is what must be done to control this new "stage" she seems to be going through. There are other, newer medications available. Cassie will have an EEG done also to determine to location of where this activity is occurring.

4. Any change in her medication will bring on an entire new set of challenges as she would most likely have to gradually discontinue one medication and gradually increase the other. For this to happen over Christmas break is providential, but it also may mean a few rough times over break.

Cassie and Kris and I are involved in a musical cantata at our church this evening, Saturday evening and again Sunday evening. Please pray with us that she will not have any problems this weekend, and pray also that we will be able to determine the right course of action. Also, pray that our van will get us there and back OK. It's got almost 165,000 miles on it - - and the drive to Anchorage is three hours through what is looking to be some nasty weather.

In one way everything has been put on hold during all of this. But God has orchestrated a few things to make it very evident to us that we are still in His Care. Our dryer went out about three weeks ago ( it was used when we got it) and we have been going to the Laundromat. A supporting church here on the Kenai Peninsula got word of it and. Later that same day, they were contacted by a church member who happened to have a washer and dryer that she needed to get rid of! She needed the money, the church member needed the cash, and the church family needed the blessing! WOW!

A couple of days ago, I shared the gospel with a lady who has a small crystal ball with her. I asked her what the ball was for, and she told me that she needed a room mate and that she was a member of a pagan religion that believed spirits inhabited objects like this - and they talked back and forth regularly. In short, it kept her company.

I guess I should have reacted a bit more wearily, but almost without thinking I said "You know, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and because he paid the penalty for my Sin by dying on the cross, I could now walk into God's presence any time I wanted and share my concerns with him. Now, what would you rather be doing, talking to the creator of the universe - - - - or talking to a piece of glass!?" I had no doubt that what she could have been experiencing was evil spirits. But at the same time, the comparison was just so ludicrous to me that I ended up saying "A piece of glass."

This set her back and, after a short pause, she responded, "Well, I'm a Catholic!"

Remember, YOU are the Salt of the Earth.

See ya!

Gary

Now We're BLOGGING! 12/8/04

Greetings!
We have taken our Harris Hotline Updates into the 21st century with BLOGGING! When we send out an e-mail update, it will also be posted to our BLOG here at www.harrishotline.blogspot.com. Currently, I have the past 2 years of posts online (Can you believe we have been sending these out for almost four years now?!)

The only difference will be that we will try to include pictures in the online posts as often as possible, while we will keep the e-mail versions text-only. I will try to always remember to post a link to the BLOG page in updates we send out. But maybe you should add the link above to your Favorites in case I forget.

See ya!
Gary

Kris' Trip to Elim & White Mountain 12/2/04

Kris recently returned from a ministry trip, and here is her report to you! (PLEASE read the following the post following this one regarding a prayer request for our daughter, Cassie.)

Dear Partners,
Whew! The week before Thanksgiving I was in White Mountain and Elim with my new friend, Karlene, Joel and Rob. Thank you so much for your prayers. I've been looking forward to writing this update just to let you know HOW God answered your prayers-above and beyond imagination!! Last week was, of course, Thanksgiving. And I have to confess to you that I always go WAY overboard on everything. Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday. I love having anyone and everyone who needs a place to go at my house, I love cooking the turkey and all the trimmings, making homemade bread, pies, cookies, fudge. . . You get the picture! I even made homemade eggnog this year! That was my favorite food item.

Anyhow, on to my report on my trip. . .
We flew into White Mountain on Tuesday afternoon and were greeted by an absolutely gorgeous sunset-that’s right the sun sets very early these days! We only had a few hours until our Ladies Tea so we made short work of unloading the plane and transporting our stuff to the Fryer's home. That had to be the coldest four wheeler ride I've ever been on! Karlene and I literally buried our heads in our coats and just held on for dear life as we "flew" down the winding road from the landing strip to the Fryer's home.

We were welcomed into their warm home and spent our first few minutes just sitting and visiting-very sweet fellowship. The Fryers haven't been in White Mountain much over a year and are still building relationships with the folks who live there. God has blessed their efforts and we could easily see how the folks in White Mountain have come to love and appreciate James and Damaris in the short time they have been there.

We had 15 ladies, young and old, attend the Ladies Tea. Many tiny babies joined us too. Including James and Damaris' baby Jacob. It never ceases to bless and amaze me how God uses the environment of a Ladies Tea to inspire sweet fellowship. Karlene and I were welcomed in their midst, they even sang a beautiful song for us in their native tongue-that was extra special!

God even allowed me the opportunity to have lunch with a lady from White Mountain I had met and became friends with two years ago while attending the SALTS Seminar in Cooper Landing. Shortly after lunch Karlene and I pulled Damaris aside to spend some time just praying with her. That is one of my favorite parts of these trips.

The weather started getting a little rough so we decided to head on over to Elim before too late in the afternoon. It only took us about half a hour to get to Elim and just in time before the snow started really flying! Once again we landed just a few hours before the time set for a Ladies Tea. A family from Elim, who happened to be out of town at the time allowed us to stay in their home while we were there. This turned out to be a real blessing though we would have preferred to stay with the Jarrett's-that enables more time to just sit and visit. Mary wasn't feeling too good when we arrived on Wednesday so we fixed our own dinner and got ready to head over to the church.

We had 18 ladies join us at the Elim Tea. We were even blessed to have 2 Elders in our midst. One, I was told, is the oldest person in the village. And she was a character! What a blessing to be with these dear ladies from Elim and to watch Mary interact with them. Karlene and I were once again blessed with a song in their native tongue as well as the Welcome song. I think everyone of us left that evening feeling blessed beyond words.

The sweetest time came on Thursday shortly before leaving when we were able to join Mary in her home for a few minutes. Mary really opened up and shared her heart with us and we were able to pray with her for a few minutes. As we hugged on our way out of her home she looked at me and said, 'You folks really do live up to your name, Barnabas".

Thank you for your prayers!

As always, our hearts are overflowing as we think of you and your partnership with us. May God's blessings just overwhelm you like He has overwhelmed us!

Joyfully Serving,
Kris

Gary Harris

IMMEDIATE Prayer Request 12/2/04

Let me bear my heart with you on something very precious to me. Please pray with Gary and I for our daughter Cassie. She has been having several petty mal seizures during the day and is fearful of having a grand mal seizure while at school or a way from Gary and me. My heart just aches to be able to find an answer for her or a way to stop the seizures from happening. We would appreciate your fervent prayers with us for wisdom and direction, even healing should the Lord see fit.

I would also like to ask those of you who live near us, please don't bring this up to Cassie. Though we love and appreciate you and your deep love and concern for us, it often times makes Cassie feel uncomfortable when folks ask her about her seizures or health-I, on the other hand, would be happy to share with you whatever information we have and welcome your insights and comments.

Kris