Ministry Update
Vivian and I are asking for your prayers.
Some things to bring you up to date on our ministry and family:
- I will be stepping away from my pastoral role at Healing Hearts Ministry. Specifically, the preaching and leadership roles. The workload with the family stress has become too much and something has to go.
- Having renewed my contract as Chaplain at the Correctional Centre, starting tomorrow, (Tuesday June 15th) I will be back to 20 hours per week with a new team, helping put that office back on track.
- The Brothers In the Hood and Journey Through the Bible discipleship groups will continue through the summer, but slightly different format to make things easier and less time consuming.
- The stress for us has been enormous and had begun to adversely affect my ministry at Healing Hearts. I have shelved a number of projects, minimized my workload, and have made scheduled time off later this summer a priority. Vivian and I have prayed a lot about these changes and truly feel at peace about them.
Murray Update
Of course as you are probably aware, the big thing in our lives right now is our son Murray who continues to fight for his life. We had a meeting today with his cardiologist. His heart is pumping at about a quarter capacity and has had to have assistance to ensure that his body was getting the circulation it needs. This has been really hard on his other organs which is why we have been getting different reports from day to day and week to week. It has been a real rollercoaster for us. For now, his kidneys, which had shut down, are responding well to the treatment. His weight is down to just under 100 kg (220 lbs.) and yesterday he lost almost 10 liters of fluid. Of course, that can be very dangerous which is why he is being closely monitored in the Cardiac Care Unit.
The next step is to evaluate his candidacy for a heart transplant, which involves a lot of variables, which the doctor is investigating. He certainly needs a heart transplant, but whether he is a good candidate we don’t know.
We need prayers for Murray, that his heart would get stronger, and of course for his healing, and so forth, but also for his children. We are quite overwhelmed with all of this considering that we are also planning our daughter Eva’s memorial on July 26th. We will continue to send updates as this journey progresses.
With Blessings,
Nick & Vivian Helliwell, & all our children