Just spoke with Angela, they have just boarding the plane … 8 hours and a bit to go :-)
Archive for May, 2004
A Story for Our Time
An unemployed man goes to apply for a job with Microsoft as a janitor. The manager arranges for him to take an aptitude test. After the test, the manager says, “You will be employed at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you a form to complete and tell you where to report for work on your first day.”
Taken aback, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the MS manager replies, “Well, then, that means that you virtually don’t exist and can therefore hardly expect to be employed.”
Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having only $10 in his wallet, he decides to buy a 25-pound flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. In less than two hours, he sells all the tomatoes individually at 100 percent profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night.
And thus it dawns on him that he could quite easily make a living selling tomatoes. Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplies his profits quickly. After a short time he acquires a cart to transport several dozen boxes of tomatoes, only to have to trade it in again so that he can buy a pickup truck to support his expanding business. By the end of the second year, he is the owner of a fleet of pickup trucks and manages a staff of 100 formerly unemployed people, all selling tomatoes.
Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decides to buy some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picks an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the telephone conversation, the adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he has no e-mail, the adviser is stunned, “What, you don’t have e-mail? How on earth have you managed to amass such wealth without the Internet, e-mail, and e-commerce? Just imagine where you would be now, if you had been connected to the Internet from the very start!”
After a moment of thought, the tomato millionaire replied, “Why, of course! I would be a floor cleaner at Microsoft!”
Moral of this story:
- The Internet, e-mail, and e-commerce do not need to rule your life.
- If you don’t have e-mail, but work hard, you can still become a millionaire.
- Seeing that you’re reading this got this story via the internet/e-mail, you’re probably closer to becoming a janitor than you are to becoming a millionaire.
Sunday Night
Dear praying friends
We have had a good weekend with Rachel at home and on a spiritual side, Warwick Cole-Edwards preaching 4 messages on missions. I have yet to meet another man with such a passion for missions & evangelism as he has.
Rachel has been sleeping and eating well. This morning she went to church. Angela spoke at both services, thanking the folk (you people) for prayers, encouragement’s, support in many ways, including finances. Warwick prayed for this family in the morning and I tonight.
They fly tomorrow, accompanied by Dr. Ingrid. Please pray for a safe flight and that both Rachel and Nathan will be able to cope with the change in pressure, etc. in the air.
God bless and keep you all and thanks again … I’m off to snack supper now.
Don
Moved out Movable Type
Angela, Rachel and Nathan will be home in two days – I just can’t wait.
Other than that it’s been a weird day – I worked through the night ’till 9am this morning to resolve an issue and apply an e-patch to Opera 2.5.2 (patched from 26 to 30) – Still didn’t resolve the issue though.
Anyway, home by 10am and then to bed (Always strange sleeping during the afternoon) – I was woken up by a call at around 3pm so my prospective marathon sleep was interrupted. Anyway, awake now, so time to look at the ol’ website.
I’ve been running Movable Type 2.661 (MT) as backend for three months now, and I must say it’s not too cool. The only cool thing ’bout “MT” was the ability to post to the site directly from Stella (My P900 Sony-Ericsson)
For a couple weeks now there’s been a lot of “talk” on the ‘net ’bout how MT have changed their licensing and billing model and the winds of change started filling my sails. So when I stumbled upon what looks to be a pretty good back-end on Sourceforge called WordPress it was as if I din’t have a choice…
The thing I liked least ’bout MT was it used CGI to create it’s pages – WP does it’s processing directly in the php pages. I also am more comfortable hacking around within the php code than I within in the perl/cgi.
So I bit the bullet and surprisingly, only 4 hours later, I have a totally upgraded and fully imported site … A lot faster “switch-over” than three months ago when I shifted from Postnuke to MT.
I haven’t don’t all the hotlinks and about page yet, but the “core” is up and the thing that took me the longest to finalise was the tweaking of the style I found. There’s a lot of (free) style-sheets available for WordPress, ‘nother bonus!
I haven’t found too many plugins though, but I’m sure they’ll pop up soon enough.
Another mention is that I did all this using FireFox on Stella running Debian 3.0 Sarge. As can be expected the problem I have with Windows XP and listening to K-LOVE (drops connection every 30 minutes or so for about 5 seconds) didn’t happen once during my codeing/streaming audio session …
And I guess that brings my days of “living alone” to an end …
Praise God for the wonderful things He allows us to enjoy and do.
God Bless
Roy
Finance Available
God really is great in His abundance … Today I received news that a zero interest loan has been secured in my name to eleviate the pressures of Rachel’s outstanding hospital bills.
Praise God, and richest blessings to all of you who are working so hard on behalf of the Verrips Family providing us support in so many wonderful ways.
Loving Thanks to all from Roy, Angela, Nathan and Rachel
Saturday Update
Dear Praying Friends
Rachel slept from her 6pm bottle until the 10pm bottle when Ang woke her. Then she slept again until 3am and feed just enough to take away the hunger bite and returned to the Land of Nod until 8 this morning. Then she drank 140 mls instead of 100 mls. And now, she has returned to the Land of Nod.
All seems well and we praise the Lord. Amen?
We have removed Ang’s cases from the rafters in the garage, dusted and washed them, because today is the BIG packing and shorting day. What to take and what to leave.
Remember the tea and refreshments after the morning service tomorrow. This is our way as a family thanking you for your many facetted support and prayers for Rachel. and her mommy and daddy. You are invited and welcome … and if you want … Bishop Warwick Cole-Edwards is preaching on missions. He did this last night expounding Acts 1:8 in context and will be preaching tonight, 6pm at a Bring ‘N Share meal.
Enjoy you day and God Bless
Yours together for His cause
Don
Friday Night
Dear Praying Friends
Rachel has been home since late morning today and is slowly adjusting to the changed environment. At the moment she had about 1/2 hour to go for a bottle and she is waiting!
Please pray that all goes well over the weekend and that the return journey goes well.
Talk to you soon.
God bless
Don
All systems go
Dear praying friends
It’s all systems go!
Rachel’s cymovene course was completed tonight and she is off oxygen! Praise God and thank you for your prayer support.
We have just return from the hospital and the princess is looking good. When she wakes for her next feed they will be removing the drip and oxygen lines.
Her colour is much better and she has been picking up weight. Her little cheeks look chubby. She drank 125 mls at 6pm!
Please pray for the following:
- Firstly … praise the Lord
For Rachel’s great improvement
Healing re the RS Virus
Yellow colour fading. The jaundice and hepetitis must be reducing
A generous gift today towards the hospital account
Rachel should be discharged tomorrow
The wonderful staff at Pta East Hosp. - For Ang as she sorts and packs her goods
Remember they were here for 7 months - For their adaptation to a hotter and more humid climate
- For Dr Ingrid’s husband and children she leaves behind for the time she is away
- For Dr Ingrid as she hands Rachel over to the new medical team
- For Roy as he prepairs for his family’s return
- For Rachel’s health in the long term
Removal of hernia; cyst on lungs, of the CMV virus - For the present and future expenses
- For the Verrips family as they are re-united
Let’s give our King all the glory … Amen?
God is good … all the time!
Yours for His Cause …. “souls”
Don
Great News Day
Dear praying friends
I saw Ang today, but not Rachel.
Jenny says Rachel is smiling and cooeing … what a good sign!
The oxygen has been reduced again.
The cymovene will be administered tomorrow for the last time.The the drip will come out.
It’s all systems go. Praise the Lord!
Please pray for Rachel to come off the oxygen and to be strong enough to leave for home (Dubai) on Monday 31 May.
Please pray for all the arrangements, packing, visa for the paeditrician, etc.
God Bless
Don
About the Verrips Family
We are a Christian family currently living in an apartment at Sahari Villiage, Ras al Khor, Dubai.
Roy is an Information Systems Manager for the Grand Hyatt Dubai – Aside from spending time with his family he loves anything Linux and is currently enjoying reading The Chronicles of Narnia …
Angela works from home raising Nathan and Rachel – When the kids are asleep and if Roy is working late you’ll probably find here doing cross-stitch or reading Meave Binchy.
Nathan is two and a half, going on five and loves to talk, dance and sing. At the moment his favourite DVD is “Meno” (how he pronounces Finding Nemo) and he is a real big help with his new baby sister.
Rachel was born in March 2004 with a rather bad congenital infection, CMV (i.e. Cytomegalo Virus) – She spent her first month or so in hospital and has seen a lifetimes share of IV medication through her tiny veins although she’s now only just over 3kg (6 lb 9 oz) in weigh.
We like giving the things ’round us names: We refer to our car as Phoebe and our computer as Sarah – Roy calls his phone Stella (SonyEricsson P900 he sometimes uses to update this site or take pictures with for the Photo Albums).
We’ve lived in Dubai for almost 2 years now, but Angela and Nathan have spent about 10 months in total living with our parents (Don and Jenny Kirkwood) in Pretoria on two seperate occasions. 10 weeks in March/April 2002 while Angela got her driving license and I worked 24/7 opening the hotel, and again from November 2003 through May 2004 during a complicated pregnancy with Rachel, and an even more complicated first two months, mostly spent in hospitals.
We are a bible believing Christian family who put God at the centre of our household. We still maintain spiritual ties with St Pauls Church, Arcadia, Pretoria South Africa where both Angela and I served as members and youth leaders, and where we were married. We are presently members of Emirates Baptist Church International here in Dubai. Now that we’re all together again as a family at home, we look forward to serving Our Lord as He directs us.
Kids
I was testing the children in my Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.
I asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”
“NO!” the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”
Again, the answer was, “NO!”
By now I was starting to smile. Hey, this was fun!
“Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?” I asked them again.
Again, they all answered, “NO!”
I was just bursting with pride for them.
Well, I continued, “then how can I get into Heaven?”
A five-year-old boy shouted out,
“YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”
It’s a Good News Day
Dear praying friends
Rachel turns 8 weeks old tomorrow.
With your help we are delighted to report the following today:
1. Rachel is on 25% of oxygen off 1 lt of flow This is good news because if she is off oxygen before the flight things will be so much better
2. You will recall they are now using a drip for her medication. The drip was bleeding and so it was removed. Another will be fitted tomorrow.
3. She is feeding on 100 ml of milk by herself. She is a hungry girl again – every 3 to 4 hours.
4. During the day she does not sleep so much. Maybe it’s the noise in the hospital ward. Even though Rachel and Ang have their own room, you can hear the other kids exercising their song items. During the night she is sleeping well..
5. The blood culture done shows no bacterial infection, so the problem must have been the cvp line.
6. They have stopped the adrenhalin innolation.
7. They have found a hernia in her groin area. It will need an operation, but only once they have sorted out her clotting profile and platellets, otherwise she could bleed to death.
Prayer requests:
1. Thanks to our Father for giving the remarkable recovery / healing that has and is taking place
2. That Rachel will be off oxygen before they leave on 31 May
3. That she will be able to come out of hospital and be part of the Thanks Giving Tea with refreshments after the morning service on the 30 May (Pentecost Sunday)
4. That Rachel and Nathan will take mommy and grandma safely to Dubai, together with Dr Ingrid Pistorius
5. That God will look after Dr Ingrid’s family in her absence
6. That she will be able to hand Rachel over to the new paeditrician in Dubai without problems or misunderstandings
7. That Roy will be able to cope with the flood of people arriving … after been alone for sooooo-looooong!
8. For those living at & Amber Park. It’s going to be hard not having Nathan around after 7 months!
Please remember the tea after the morning worship service on 30 May.
It’s tea and it’s free … but we do want to express our sincere love and thanks to everyone for their participation and support during these difficult times. I say again … without your prayer support it would have been very hard going … 10,000 times more difficult than the comrades up run!
Warwick Cole-Edwards will be ministering over this weekend and Jen, Ang, Nathan and Rachel will be packing their bags. This is another prayer item.
1. Packing the bags – within the weight limits! No, Nathan will not be able to take all those parts with him he removed from Wuvie’s car
2. For Warwick as he speaks on Missions on Friday night, sat night and at both Sunday services.
As a thank you to Warwick I’m taking him on a short 21.1 pre-comrades training run on Sat morning … it’s at the Gerotek testing facility … the race track is sloped far worse than the Indy 500 track and the hill are built to test the 4×4 heavy duty trucks … hope he will be able to preach 3 sermons after this!
Lots of warm gospel love as we serve the King together
Don
Monday news
Dear praying friends
Today a week and the Verrips family are set to return to Dubai. I think Roy must be waiting and praying and hoping that this will become a reality. It’s been a long time!
Due to other pressures I did not see Ang and Rachel today, though I spoke to Ang twice and Jenny and Nathan went to ensure the doctors and nurses are doing their thing properly.
1. Due to an infection the cpv line was removed today;
2. The pipe in the nose for feeding has been removed as well. this means the little princess will have to suck that bottle;
3. She is on 45% of a liter of oxygen … the supply is decreasing;
4. The pediatrician is considering flying back with Rachel to hand her over. This will cost an additional ticket though
5. Ang found out today that should Rachel need oxygen on the flight, an aided ticket needs to be purchased at an exhorbitant ammount
Prayer Requests:
1. For Rachel’s healing
2. That they might return to Dubai as scheduled on 31 May
3. That some how the pediatrician might be able to go with and hand Rachel over as they pediatrician on that side has only heard about such an illness. He would want to know the case history, what has been done and what Dr. Ingrid Pistorius would have done should Rachel have staid in the RS of A.
4. That the airline company would be gracious and provide whatever is needed for Rachel’s flight at no extra cost.
5. For their reunion and the getting back into a routine, with a sick princess
6. For Nathan to adapt quickly. He just loves playing outside during the day. He gardens with Joshua, washing the stoep with ester (has his own mop), rides his push bike, plays with Cliff’s tin engine that is over 40 years old, etc. All these are outside. Dubai does not lend itself to outside playing during the day.
7. Nathan is cutting teeth.
8. For meeting all the accounts that are still to arrive.
Thanks for being available to assist us in this mammoth environment … and only prayer moves mountains! Amen?
There is also some humor to share. Two weeks ago I received a refund from SARS. They even deducted a fine of R900 due to a late submission. (The man who completes my forms experienced a real crisis and was unable to keep his clients books up to date. he says a letter from himself to SARS will short the matter out.). I received a refund and a statement … and today I received a final demand to submit my 2003 tax forms within 30 days or else. And all I can say is … or else what? Ha Ha
God be with you and comfort you and strengthen you as you serve a Sovereign, glorious Master who is always in control of all situations!
Don
Pictures
Angela, Nathan and Rachel – Just another few days and then Roy will be in the picture too and the Verrips Family will be complete again …
Saturday Star
Dear praying friends
1. Rachel is very alert … hears mommies voice and looks for where the voice is coming from
2. She is still tube feeding
3. They increased her oxygen supply to 60%
4. Blood test will be done tomorrow
5. She is battling with winds
Prayer Requests:
Rachel seems uncomfortable. Please pray for healing.
I have listed many requests over the past 9 days. Please look at these and present them to the Lord
God Bless and Keep you as your love and serve Him.
Have a blessed Lord’s Day tomorrow.
Don
Friday Update
Dear praying friends
We are at the end of another working week. Rachel has been cared for in the Pretoria east Hospital now since last week Thursday. Since then we have seen her get a bit better and then take a dive and then get a bit better, etc.
The staff and doctors are just superb. They know their job and their commitment to their profession and to serve their clients is something wonderful. We ought to be praying for them as their tasks are not always easy, neither are all their clients.
Please pray for Ang. She needed to see a doctor today and is on medication. This is a health issue and not related to stress. She is still holding up wonderfully. She and Roy value your prayers more than words can express.
Let’s talk Rachel Paula
1. Her CRP (Infection Rate) is down. It’s on 48, still too high but better than it was.
2. Her white blood cells are on 9 and the platelets are higher. Both readings better but not right yet.
3. She is on a blender which separates oxygen and flow. She is on 57% oxygen. People breathe the oxygen in
the air at 21%. She needs more flow. With the blender they are able to reduce the oxygen without tampering
with the flow required.
4. She has been taken off the drip, but the CVP line is still in her neck and only used for administering the cymovene
5. She is now drinking 40 ml of her bottle and rest she gets through the tube in her nose
Prayer Requests
1. Angela’s prayer requests
a. That Rachel’s CRP rate will be much lower and that she is off oxygen enabling them to leave on 31 May for Dubai
b. That the pediatrician is Dubai will be helpful and friendly
2. From Me
a. Praise to God for the manner in which He has been providing such good staff and the way He uses them to bring healing Rachel’s way.
b. For the next 9 days. Rachel’s healing. Provisions to cover the costs.
c. For Roy, Ang, Nathan and Rachel as they prepare for their reunion
Again, thanks for your intercessory support. The progress made is due to your sacrificial undertaking.
For those in, near and around Pretoria (though the Americans, Cape Tonians, etc. are most welcome), we intend having a “Thank You Tea & Refreshments” as a small gesture for all who have prayed, supported, visited, provided meals, phoned, given money sacrificially and been their for the Verrips Family and ourselves during this difficult time.
1. We are not sending out invitations … all are welcome
2. The provisional date is after the Sunday Morning Service 30 May 2004
3. Because of the nature of the support, individuals will not be thanked individually.
Some have been able to pray short prayers and others long prayers
Some have been able to do this, that and the other thing
So please understand that the family is so grateful to God for all of you that they just want to say Thank you
Jesus for using these wonderful people.
Please diarise that date … and we pray that the princess will be there too.
God Bless … yours for His purposes and gospel
Don
Wonderful Thurdays
Dear praying friends
Today we celebrated the Lord Jesus’ return to glory. We are blessed in our church that we have an evening worship service and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Today Jenny and Nathan spent time at the hospital and after our worship service we went there as well.
1. Angela is fine … but I feel she is now taking strain. Who won’t?
She just loves her little daughter and it’s precious to see her look and talk to Rachel.
Rachel keeps a keen eye on mommy … looking at her until mommy look at Rachel.
2. Today Rachel seems so much better. They have reduced the oxygen from 2 liters to 1/5 liter.
Although most of feed is still through the pipe, they now allow her to drink some of the bottle.
She is a little out of practice and gets tired sucking.
Her tummy is down some, her stool is a better color
It seems as though Rachel will be in hospital until next week sometime.
3. Thanks to all who have been:
a. emailing and calling
b. visiting
c. and special to all for your prayers.
Prayer requests:
1. That Rachel will be well enough to fly on 31 May
2. That God will heal her completely
3. That God will have His hand upon Roy and Ang as they are separated
4. For the reunion of this little family. Although Roy was with them in Nov and again three times after this, they
have been in RSA for almost 7 months.
Yours for the glory of our ascended Lord
Don
End of a busy week
It’s been a busy week – At work my boss, Colin Lubbe, from the regional office was in town. This meant meetings with Vendors, site visits to Data centres, round table discussions, etc. etc.
Although VERY draining to an extent it was good filling the role of stategic Information Systems Management for a change, and not just deal with the daily operational concerns, as I’ve been doing so much of lately ’cause of our current “low” staffing levels within the Department.
Unfortunetly though the work doesn’t go away, and I will “loose” my day off this week as a result, but what can you do? I must say the hardest thing of all is knowing I can’t go to church tomorrow.
OnIy 10 more days and then God-willing Angela, Nathan and Rachel will come home? It can’t come too quickly!
God bless, and thanks again for all the prayers; not just for Rachel, but for Angela, Nathan and I aswell.
Love to All
Roy
