Amazing Grace Project: Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior

 

The Story Parable

 

The trailer that our family of 6 lived in in Pete's Trailer Court, Portage Indiana. Terry and infant Ted slept on the top bunk in the hallway bedroom in the middle of the trailer. Dad built a safety cage for Ted on half of the top bunk while Terry had the other half. Tim and I shared the bottom bunk.

The Story Parable

How did God break into your life with one of His messengers? I was a boy that lived with my family in a little trailer in the woods of a town called Portage. The trailer court was among the sand dunes behind the grocery store own by “the Greek” called Peter. The store was just off U.S. Highway 20 on a curve that went over railway tracks called “dead mans curve”.

The trailer that we lived in was 8 by 40 feet. My father worked in construction building the steel mills around the Lake Michigan shoreline. There were 6 of us in that tiny trailer. Along with me, my two brothers Tim and Ted and one sister Terry slept in bunk beds on one side of a narrow aisle that divided the master bedroom from the kitchen and living room. A small furnace in a closet and a set of drawers that went clear to the ceiling were on the other side of the aisle.

My dad was a genius when it came to making a shack into a castle. The bunk beds had a cage on top that was my baby brother Ted's crib. I had a train set on a 4 by 8 foot board that was lowered onto the bottom bed with rope and pulleys. The bed in the master bedroom rose up into the wall so that mom could get out her ironing board and sit and iron while she watched her soap opera’s on TV, which was at the end of the trailer.

The tiny television was in the front room facing the couch at the front end of the trailer. Dad had strategically placed a huge mirror above the couch so that mom could watch it while she ironed. They would sometimes lie in bed and watch TV, and I would lean slightly out of my bed and watch TV also. I loved Steve Allen as the host of the late show. I learned to read the letters of “What’s My Line” backwards in the mirror. I made the mistake of laughing out loud, whereupon my skeptical mother said, “You can’t read those letters backwards?” But I could.

One day a man stopped at our little trailer to invite us to church. Someone had told him that my parents had both attended Nazarene churches before they were married. He invited the whole family to attend church the next Sunday. I remember him standing in our tiny living room, by the door, no room to sit down. I remember him saying there was Sunday school for the children.

We went to the small white Nazarene church on Central Avenue in East Gary, now Lake Station. Rev. Luther was the pastor, and he preached an interesting sermon about hell and sin. He told me of an eternal hell with burning flames and painful suffering for those who rejected the Son of God. The story fascinated me, and I thought to myself that it would really interesting to be there.

But then he started to tell about the dying man on the cross, who looked right at me and told me that he loved me. I did not know it was 2000 years earlier. I did not know it was on another continent, in a city near the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea in a city called Jerusalem. I did not know that the dying man spoke in Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and Latin, and that I spoke in English. I did not know, and I did not care about those details.

I did know that my heart was already condemning me for the times I had lied, and the times I had disobeyed. The preacher said that the man on the cross had forgiven me of my sins, and all I had to do was ask for that forgiveness, and it would be mine. 

I was the first one in my family who made the move towards God. I went down to the altar, and confessed my sins. The man on the cross somehow, miraculously came down from the cross and came to live in my heart from then on, till this very day.

I am now 74 years old. I have told this story, or something akin to it, every time I got a chance, any time someone would stop and listen. I rearranged my entire life so that for over 35 years every Sunday, in song and in word, in some way I told about the amazing love of a God who sent His only begotten Son to be lifted up on a cross and looked at you and me, and as He was dying, said to us that He loved us.

God has been with me these many years, and has led me through many adventures, all of which make great stories. Sit by me and I will tell you a story. Walk with me and I will tell you a story. 

The stories are sometimes amazing, and sometimes miraculous, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad.

But the story that is the most miraculous, and the most amazing of all is the story of a dying man hanging on a cross in a different millennium, on a different continent, in a different language who looked across the centuries into the face of a skinny boy in a sandy woods in a tiny trailer, and said, “I love you!” #rmdo

Granddaughter's College Graduation

 

My granddaughter graduated from Alaska Fairbanks University yesterday, Suma Cum Laud. She chose this university because they have a degree program in Homeland Security, which is her area of interest.

This is not surprising, because both her parents and her grandfather were in law enforcement.

What may be surprising to some is that she was homeschooled, as was her mother, my daughter.

We found what our children were passionate about, then helped them find the resources they needed to learn about it and got out of the way.

Perhaps I should add she earned that degree while working full time as a dispatcher. Her hard work made this grandpa very proud!

Mary's New Doctor

 Mary's new Doctor stopped in today. You heard me correctly. A Doctor made a house call.

Doctor Kennedy is a member of the Visiting Physicians Association. He was referred to us by the Hospice Social Worker as they were signing off on Mary as a hospice patient. Mary has no mobility issues and is still verbal. It may be months or years before Hospice care is needed.

He will be able to continue prescribing Mary's meds, including the two new ones that Hospice suggested, Lorazapam for calmness and Morphine for agitation.

On his next visit he wants to do a blood draw for labs. We'll have to medicate her for that.

Your continued prayers are appreciated. And, of course, Mary and I will continue to pray for you.

May God's infinite ever increasing Grace rain down on you and yours in Jesus' name. Amen.

My Projects plus It Is Well With My Soul

 Two projects that I have been mulling on for years are beginning to seem more like two aspects of the same project. One leads into the other. The gratefulness project leads to a humble heart, which is ready to receive infinite grace.

If you read my book, The Rain Parables by Mike Dittmer on Amazon, you can at least see why I suspect God is using me now as a catalyst to introduce my friends to not only my amazing Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ, but also as a catalyst to release Grace in the lives of my friends.

Stay tuned. What are you grateful for today?

My Projects plus It Is Well With My Soul

Mad Dog's Amazing Grace Project : Introduction

The following is an excerpt from my book, The Rain Parables, by Mike Dittmer, on Amazon.

"All my ministerial life, I have been frustrated with... follow up... lack of time... unskilled helpers... overwhelming multiple family problems in the lives of those around me, even when I had been a fulltime pastor. More training and more workers NEVER SEEMED TO BE ENOUGH! But now I understood what the answer was. I understood what the rain stood for.

The rain that God wanted me to pray for was GRACE!

All of this time I had thought that God was ignoring me! But I discovered He was leading me step by step on an incredible journey, an unbelievable journey, simple to teach me to not to rely on my skills, but instead to rely on Him, and to pray for grace." 

This incident explains why I feel compelled to work diligently on this project.

I will write more on this as time permits.

Mad Dogs Amazing Grace Project Video 1

To Russia, With Love

My Russian audience is slowly inching back. 

Perhaps 10 years ago, I was receiving thousands of views from Russia. Then Mary went into the hospital. I barely posted for many years.

Now that I'm back posting on my blog, views are slowly inching forward. On a couple of occasions I noticed a solitary viewer from Russia.

Today after posting I checked the immediate stats, over the last hour. Pretty small numbers, but encouraging. 12 views in the last half hour. 6 from USA, 3 from Germany, and 3 from Russia. Like football, progress is measure in inches.

God is good. Thank you for your support.

Why Sugar Free Ketchup?

A friend asked me this question some time ago. He was curious. Why sugar free ketchup?

My response: Sorry that I just noticed this question. Mary has Type 2 Diabetes, so we try to lower her carb intake, called low carb or keto. I call our particular version "limbo low carb" or How low can you go? I've made up a limited but enjoyable menu which I keep tweaking from time to time. The goal is to keep her A1C below 7. It's currently 6.7.

Happy Easter morning!

Happy #Easter morning! Changed Mary's bedding, PJs. #alzheimers #maddog

GROW UP!

But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

From the Living and Written Word.

Want me to spoon feed you chapter and verse? GROW UP! Google it. You're an adult now.

Henrik Fisker Is NOT Elon Musk

 Boy, did I get that story wrong.

Mary's husband did work for Ford as a design engineer. He was in charge of second shift. But the numbers Mary gave me may be incorrect, and I don't know how many he was in charge of.

Mary's son worked there as a design engineer also. Sometime during the recession of 2008, Ford laid off bunches of design engineers, including her son. Her husband had already passed away.

Her son went out to California to do contract design for an electric car company called Fisker, named after a famous car designer Henrik Fisker, who designed BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Fisker Karma, Galpin-Fisker Mustang Rocket, VLF Force 1 V10, VLF Destino V8, and later, other cars in his electric car line.

When Fisker ran into financial difficulties because of the failure of the battery supplier, Mary's son was laid off. Fortunately there was another electric car company there that was picking up momentum, Elon Musk's Tesla. He worked for Elon, but soon another company Germany offered him a job, and then a second company offered him his best offer, a company from Taiwan.

While working for the German company, they were all together at the Detroit Auto show when Henrik Fisker walked by their display. Her son turned to his German friends and asked, "Do you want to meet Henrik Fisker?" They were surprised that Don knew him personally.

While taking her son to the Detroit airport, her son was driving, telling this story to his mother and my wife, Mary. I was sitting in the back seat, and being hard of hearing, I jumped to the conclusion that they were talking about Elon Musk.

I have told this story wrong a multitude of times, out of my weakness, pride. 

Some Surprises With Mary's Alzheimer's and My Lymphedema

 Hospice will be disenrolling Mary, but that's not as bad as it sounds.

Our social worker is contacting a group of visiting physicians to, hopefully, get Mary enrolled. Not sure how Medicare will save money on this. We don't mind paying for our own supplies, since they're pretty reasonable on Amazon.

Mary's bed wetting problem has lessened. I accidentally discovered that when I completely stopped her medication, not her blood sugar medications, but her tummy medications for her Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 

She had stopped having bowel movements for 2 or 3 days, so I immediately stopped her Pepto Bismol and her lorazapam. Both can cause constipation. I switched from cream cheese to butter on her French Toast. On the third day her constitutionals (British terminology) reappeared. Surprisingly, they actually had some form, small loose pellets. After her intestines were shortened, I was told she would always have diarrhea.

The lorazepam doesn't help Mary sleep. What helps her to sleep is for me to go to bed and make the room dark. I only give it to her once in the afternoon when she's the most restless.

She sleeps so deeply from 3 am to dawn that she forgets to use the restroom, but she's pretty diligent after we change her clothing, so accidents during the daylight hours are less and less frequent.

The solution that the Wound Care Center came up with for my lymphedema was adjustable compression stockings that go from my ankles to just below my knee. They chose this style because I can put them on by myself.

It was surprising how debilitated I became during the healing process. I became so weak that I couldn't lift myself out of a a chair or the toilet. That was pretty scary. Once the compression was back, my strength returned.

The limitations of the new compression stockings are they don't reduce the swelling in my feet. The clumsiness of my slightly swollen feet have made me lose confidence in my formerly superior driving skills, so I decided to hang up the car keys and return Mary's leased car to the Ford Dealer. Fortunately we live in the ideal town for being without a car.

I am uncertain if my balance issues will ever be resolved completely. Both a cane and a rollator, plus a safety officer might be in my long term future. We will see. God is in charge. I feel blessed that I am able to take care of myself and Mary also, and that I have so many helpful members of the family and friends also.

Hospice, Medicare, Alzheimer's, and Mary

 Hospice is discontinuing Mary's care because Medicare has put pressure on them to stop. A social worker has been stopping in at the same time and is working on a visiting Physician's service to start visiting Mary. Medicare will pay for that, hopefully.

I will update you more later. Stay tuned. Keep us in your prayers. May God's infinite and ever increasing Grace fall upon you all in the name of Jesus.