Hello to all our family and friends. Here's our October 2006 newsletter.
Hello to all our family and friends. Here's our October 2006 newsletter.
Dear Friends,
I'm writing you from hospital care at a Christian hospital in San Jose, Costa Rica. If you have not heard this already sit back and read "the rest of the story"!
October 19th was the appointment here at our old stomping grounds, Clinica Biblica Hospital in Costa Rica. Our general MD has been our doctor since 1995 and delivered Tommy and David here. So we go way back and trust him. A hernia was found on me and needs surgery for repair. 
Then I complained about what felt like butterflies in my heart at times. A stress test was done and I failed. It indicated artery blockage. An angiogram was ordered. While the exam revealed no blockage after all, during the procedure I had an arrhythmia. I then had to have an EPS which is done like an angiogram but is a much more complicated procedure. The specialist makes an electrical mapping of the heart using small shocks in different areas throught the main arteries. This was a 2 1/2 hour procedure with me under sedation. I had 2 seperate fibrilations that were very serious in nature requiring emergency intervention to get my heart beating normally again. God is good!! AMEN?!?
So to make a long story short and to give God the glory He's due, I can tell you from first hand experience that He is a great provider. Through my insurance God moved the hearts of the claims agents to understand that these were life-threatening arrhythmias and I must have a pacemaker/defibrilator.
Halloween morning I didn't get tricked. I got a TREAT. A $30,000 piece of machinery the size of a pocket cellphone implanted in my chest. I will be in the hospital recuperating another week. After I leave the hospital I must not use my left arm for a month so the incision in my chest may properly heal. Thank God it is my left arm.
Did you know that God is also a great heart surgeon, spiritually speaking? During this week in the hospital I've slowed waaaaaaaaayy down to a standstill. I've been able to talk with God and more importantly He's been able to talk to me. Sometimes God can bring on a circumstance that you might think is the worst possible thing that can happen to you and you easily ask, "Why me"? I am so thankful to God that he allowed me this life-threatening condition to put me in the hospital to get my attention. He cared that much! I can tell you I've been through spiritual heart surgery this week. God has done more in this week than in my entire life to bring me closer to Him. I'm so grateful He loves me that much.
To commemorate this major turning point in my life that pointed me toward the "Promise Land", God had a team of surgeons implant a permanent memorial in me (my defibrilator). Throughout the Bible when God moved in a miraculous way, He asked His people to place a memorial there. This was so they would never forget. God gave me a special remembrance of an event in the Bible. Look it up in the Old Testament, the first seven verses of the fourth chapter of Joshua (Joshua 4:1-7). This is the account of how God miraculously parted the Jordan River so that all of Israel could safely cross on dry land. God then asked them to take stones out of the dry riverbed and build a memorial on the other side so they'd never forget what He did for them as He promised long ago. My defibrilator will always remind me of this crossroads in my life. I will forever carry the memorial with me close to my heart (literally). And I'm so thankful to God. God is so good!! Amen!?!?!
God Bless You TOO!
Love,
Tom
I am claiming Psalm 139 over my heart and life and believing God is in control. Please read the first 18 verses and pray it with me.
Bless you partners who have helped us get to this place. We have a ways to go yet so keep up the blessings!!!!!!!!!!
God bless you,…………..Tom & Esther
Tom and Esther Fritz