The Longest Day - 06/22/05

Dear Praying Friends,

1. Cassie - her situation has not changed much. Things are pretty strainedaround the house. We are still waiting on the test results.

2. Family - Chelsie is working at Fish Processing Refinery but not on the "Slime line."She is on the go, go, go, and we love, love, lover her.

Tyler is settling in to a good work routine and is looking for a place herein the area. He's come a long way from the "wayward son" days, but stilllikes to party (although the random drug test fear at work seems to bekeeping him in line). He even prayed at the table on Father's day. That meant more than any other gift that day.

Kris is working all sorts of hours in the summer at ACC. We don't see toomuch of each other. She's quite a trooper. It's a whole lot different inthe summer than what she does during the School year with students.

3. Finances - Our support is down almost $500 a month from where it startedat the beginning of the year. ACC extended the offer to kris to continue inher mentor role during the school year. But since it is wholy supported byour fund raising. she had to take a paycut of $500 a month.

We have just not been able to focus too much on getting out and maintainingour support. There was just a bit ofl loss due to the shift over to ACC. Most of the difference is the result of just some unfortunate situationswith several supporters.

As the result of the lower salary, I am going to have to find moreconsistant work. We were tettering back and forth for a while with my parttime driving and income from computer work, but we just cannot go on,I'm waiting on an interview as the tech guy for a homeshooling network herein Alaska, called IDEA. It would be in their local office, right around thecorner from campus. Pray! It would be great to fucus once and for all about finishing off some debt we had from the bookstore we used to own. I'll do whatever it takes to keep Kris on Campus.I pary for many of you as often as I can.

Thank you for sticking with us.If you haven't partnered with us financially with us, but have been with usover the years as our evolved, won't you please consider so now?

Thank you for the gifts that have come in to offset some of the expenses forCassie as we prepare for a trip to Seattle.

Gary Harris
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Alaska Christian College, www.akcc.org http://www.akcc.org/
35109 Royal PlaceSoldotna, Alaska
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Cell 907-252-1574

The heat is on - Continue Praying 6/6/05

Praying Friends,

Kris and Cassie got home this evening from Seattle. In Kris' words "Cassie has had too many petit mal seizures today to count." Part of it has to do with the need to get back to therapeutic levels on the medication she was removed from during the first 4 days in Seattle. Part of it also has to do with the exhaustion she is experiencing.

Here are some very specific requests

1. Cassie will sleep thru the night without episode.

2. That Kris will sleep at night without episode. It's 1130 now, and the only way I could get Kris to go to sleep was by promising her I would stay up until 2 or 3 so she could at least not have to worry about hearing Cassie call. I mean it, friends. Kris is really, really, really worn out. Pray for strength

3. Cassie will return to high levels of medication shortly, and her episodes will once again return to a manageable level (What am I saying? How do you manage something like that? Well, you know what I mean)

4. All the results from Cassie's tests in Seattle will get to the top of stacks of paper, at the top of every doctor's list who has a part in the next three weeks of review.
5. We will need to schedule another appointment with the neurologist in Anchorage soon. Pray that timing will be right.

6. Pray for our financial situation. We need additional funds for this next trip to Seattle. Some of this is for accommodations - - but we have already seen God's people responding in that area. But more importantly, I will not be able to work at all this next trip up - - - and we need money to replace the income I will not be able to bring in to the family from my side work. If you would like to help with this, please contact me directly. While I think it could be sent to ACC and marked specifically, you would not receive a tax receipt for this gift. So, it might be better just to send it to us directly, or in care of our church. Anyway, just let me know directly if God is asking you to help in this way.

7. Pray for our resolve to get thru this. At times everything seems normal. At other times, we seem to have our own private hell that no one else knows about. We seem to jump from one state to another several times in the course of a day. Very burdensome grief followed by "Oh, we'll get thru this OK!" It's like I get up in the morning and determine to put on a good mood like I would decide what I was wearing.

I am teaching the book of Hebrews in Sunday School class. We have been talking recently about Christ as the perfect man. Sure he was God, but he was also man. And as such, it resonates with us when we read that he experienced what we experience. I know he knows how my wife is feeling right now as she tries to sleep. I know he understands my daughter's frustration and fear. And, all else said, I can sigh a sigh of calm resignation - - - He knows them, and He truly does care for both of them.

This is no trivial statement when we say that we know people are praying for us. At this late hour I can almost FEEL your prayers. You really are our lifeline right now. Thanks for taking the time!

Gary Harris

Update from Kris On Cassie 6/4/05

Dear Praying Friends,

First of all, thank you so much for your prayers and love. This has been a horrific week that has been more than bearable because of your love and prayers. The Lord allowed Cassie to have many seizures beginning just a few minutes after being admitted. The seizure activity was intense and very difficult to watch and be powerless to stop. However, the Dr.'s got the information they needed in 3 days instead of 6 days and we were able to be released early. The Dr.'s will need about 3 weeks to process all the information they were able to acquire. We will have a follow-up appointment with Cassie's neurologist in Anchorage once he gets the recommendations from the staff here at Harborview. If Cassie is a good candidate for the surgery we will be making another trip to Seattle for one more test that will take a couple of days. Depending on what they find out, they would go a head and do the surgery and keep Cassie for about a week for recovery-for a total of around 10 days here at Harborview.

The Dr.'s at Harborview made it very clear that there are no guarantees that the surgery would take care of Cassie's seizures completely. Depending on the area of the brain that would need to be operated on, Cassie COULD lose her fine motors skills completely in her right hand (the side impacted by the cerebral palsy), and/or some of her speech skills. And the surgery could only decrease the number of seizures she is having, but not all of them. At the same time, the surgery could take care of her seizures completely. Only God knows.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we hear the results of her testing and move forward with her treatment. So far, medicaid has covered all of Cassie's expenses and we are very grateful. However, as we anticipate the next trip to Seattle there will be expenses that medicaid will not cover. Should our next appointment lead into surgery for Cassie, Gary needs to be here as well.

God has graciously provided the means to fly Gary here and home but we will have the added expense of housing and meals during that 10 days since only one of us can stay in the hospital room with Cassie. We appreciate your prayers regarding this, as well, as we look to the Lord to give us direction and provide for Gary to be there with us at this next appointment.

I am sending this update from Seattle as we had a little mix up on our return flight. Since medicaid is paying for this trip we had to have prior authorization (PA) for everything. The orignial PA had our return flight set for May 31st. I do not know why, as we were originally suppose to be at Harborview Hospital until Monday the 6th. I called the airline office as soon as I knew we were being released on Friday and thought I had everything taken care of. We were suppose to fly out today (Saturday) at 1:30. About 4:30 Friday I found out that I couldn't get the return flight because our PA had us returning on the 31st not the 4th. By the time I found out I needed to contact the PA office they had closed FOR THE WEEKEND. So here Cassie and I sit in our little hotel room in Seattle until Monday! Lord willing, we will be able to settle everything first thing Monday morning and be well on our way back to Kenai sometime Monday. Once again, your prayers are greatly appreciated!

After such a grueling time at the hospital we have actually really enjoyed just laying around, watching old movies, taking long walks around this very historical part of Seattle, eating and sleeping. We believe God has a purpose in everything-so we are thankful for the "lay-over" and enjoying it the best we can. Though we are homesick and ready to see family & Kenai again! (-:

Love to All of YOU,

Kris and Cassie