Today was a good day

Today was a good day because I participated in the first annual "Stumbo Walk and Munch". My good friend John Stumbo has been battling a mysterious illness for a year and a half. He defied death in November of 2008 and has struggled with loss of major muscle strength and the ability to swallow. Recently, God healed his swallow issue. If you'd like a way more articulate and interesting account of these things, please visit John's blog at Salemalliance.org and then click on the John Stumbo Blog.

Today was a celebration for his recent swallowing, thus, the "munch" portion of the festivities. More importantly, it was a time for some of the followers of his blog to get together and meet. As it turned out, there were quite a few folks who showed up. I'm terrible with guesstimating, but suffice to say that parking at riverfront park was quite full today. A few folks in attendance ventured a guess at over 200. I would be interested to hear from the Great Harvest staff to see how many cookies they handed out.

The reason I titled this "A good day" is because a bunch of folks gathered together to celebrate a miracle. We have all been praying and journeying with John and God provided a very tangible reward for us all. We got to witness our buddy John walk 2 miles today and sip on a drink and speak to us all (while standing on a precarious chair).

A year and a half ago we were all begging God to spare his life. I have a recollection that is so vivid in my mind, when I go back there... I begged God, I shed so many tears that my eyes throbbed. To this day, this minute, when I call up those days in my memory, I tear up. It was a time in my life that I'll never forget. God met me there though, He did. In my absolute helplessness, my God met me there and today... He showed me the answer to those prayers. Oh, how He loves us.

So yes, today was a good day. And, by the way, the sun shone... another miracle of sorts in Oregon these days. The sun shone and God's love shone brightly. One of the walkers talked to a lady who was there, not attached to the group, but there and asked her what was the crowd about. Well, when told about John's story, she shared that her nephew had been stricken with an illness which made him unable to swallow and she said she received hope from this. What are the odds that this woman would be at Great Harvest and strike up a conversation on this day at this time? Thank you God for, not only using John in so many ways, but also for this lady and her family. You are so good.

My last thought on this is that this event can morph into an annual event... I see a fun run in the future. I think it must be a fun run/walk and am not sure where the funds will go to, but I think that our John Stumbo will most certainly be involved in it somehow.

Dudster