This is something that I read this morning. I was really encouraged.

The Master Builder

Years ago, a man was driving his car down the road when his engine sputtered and stalled. Try as he might, the driver could not restart the engine. As he stood glaring at it, a poloshed black limo pulled up beside him. The chauffeur hastily jumped out and opened the back door for an elegantly dressed gentleman. The man asked the driver about his problem and offered to take a look under the hood. The man scoffed at the idea of such a finely dressed man having any knowledge of mechanics, but no one had stopped to help, so accepted the assistance and threw open the hood.
The gentleman leaned over the engine, twisted a few wires, tapped a few cables and tightened a few plugs. Then he told the driver to try and start the car. This time, the car responded immediately.
As he closed the hood, the driver thanked the gentleman profusely. Then he asked for his name.
The gentleman replied simply, "Henry Ford."
Henry Ford made the car, so he had known exactly what was wrong with it and how to fix it! Jesus Christ is the One by Whom, for Whom, and through Whom everything was made. He knows what's wrong in your life and how to fix it.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,

and saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 34:18-19

PRAISE THE LORD!!!
I wanted to first thank all of you for joining me at His throne last Sunday. It was truly encouraging to know that people from all over the world were praying at the same time. Well I am writing early this morning because I have some great news!! One of my prayer requests last week was that God would somehow raise my red blood count and keep it steady. Well I received my results from dialysis today from a Monday blood test and my count was at 13.1! I was stoked. This meant that my RBC had gone up from last week. Well then I had an appointment with the Hemotologist today after dialysis and he again took a blood sample. This time when the results came back (after checking twice) my new blood count was at 16.9!!!! That was an increase of almost four points in just two days. Talk about an answer to prayer. Isn't the Lord good?
As the doctors today shook their heads in delightful bewilderment, my mom and I kind of laughed. After they had left the room, my mom leaned over and said, "Don't you just love to amaze people." Well it isn't really me that is amazing people, it is the Lord. My life is his and he is really bringing glory to himself each and everyday through my condition. I can't thank Him enough for his Grace and Compassion.

Please add to Nate's prayer list below the priority request: That God may choose, in His mercy and grace, to miraculously regenerate Nate's single, atrophied kidney.

I wanted to take this chance to thank everyone who have been consistently praying for me and my family during this time. It has been about two months since I left hospital to begin this new chapter of my life. God has been working tremedously in my life in the ways that He has provided for my needs or through divine appointments where I have been able to talk about him with people. We have all been praying specifically for my blood count. Well I am happy to say that my most recent count was at 12.3!!! This is an increase of almost 2 in just a week. Talk about an answer to prayer! I also want to thank all of you who have made me prayer stars. I have them up on my wall and it is an encouragement everytime I see them.
I do have some prayer requests as we wind down April. I hope you don't mind if I write them in list form. Please keep these in your prayers:
-Clear understanding with everything that has to do with
Insurance
Medicair
MediCal
Starbucks
there seems to be so much information and paperwork that it is mindboggling knowing who gets what and when in order for things to be processed.
-Blood count to raise and stay steady (between 12 & 16)
-Kidney Donor(s)
-Multiple tests to determine matches
-Finding match and getting transplant by beginning of summer
-God will prepare next step after transplant ie. job, gradschool

It is April 22nd... Two months ago I was spending my fourth day in the hospital. Looking back on these last two months, I can really see how God has been with me through all of this. Whether that be through every one of you, who have been such an encouragement through your prayers, or through His humor. For example, the other day, well actually four times a week, I walked into my dialysis center for treatment. As I lay there on the recliner with my blood traveling in and out of the machine, I am distracted by this young girl walking straight up to the window. Apparently the windows of the center are those kind that you can see out of but not into. You probably already guesed it, but in case you haven't, this girl was walking up checking herself out in the mirror-like windows. It was hilarious!! First it was her hair, then her eyes, and then as she walked away... she totally checked out her ______ ! Well the reason I tell this story is to show how humorous God can be sometimes. Here I am along with fifteen or so elderly people sitting there having our blood cleaned just so that we can survive, and next door to the center is a tanning salon where people are going in daily lessening their chance of living longer. It is kind of ironic that these two centers are next to eachother.

Some dear friends in Colorado have suggested that we hold a "Concert of Prayer" for Nate at a specified time and date so that family and friends around the world can simultaneously intercede on Nate's behalf with our heavenly Father. Since this Sunday, April 23rd, is Nate's 25th birthday, we thought that this would be a great day for this special outpouring of prayer.

Wherever you are in the world, synchronize your watch, then join us at God's throne, at 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time), Sunday, April 23rd. Later this week we will post specific requests.

Hello, family and friends.

On Good Friday, Nate met with his transplant coordinator at St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange, CA. Most of the information shared at this meeting was a review of things heard at earlier appointments. However, the following items will be of particular interest to those of you who have inquired about donating a kidney to Nate:

1. The 4-day/week dialysis that Nate currently undergoes performs only about 12% of normal kidney function.

2. Most patients on dialysis cannot qualify for a transplant because of age and/or additional health challenges.

3. The waiting list for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor is 5-8 years, depending on the recipient's blood type.

4. A willing, living donor can shorten this time frame to as little as six months.

5. With today's advances in transplant technology, living donors only need to be blood-type compatible. A living donor must be at least 18 years old, but preferably not older than 55. Donors may not be solicited, but must willingly volunteer.

6. Living donor transplants last twice as long as deceased donor kidneys.

7. Living donors are thoroughly evaluated to determine how kidney donation will affect the donor (physically, emotionally, etc.). The donor must be free of any medical condition that may affect their remaining kidney's function in the future.

8. A living donor will remain in the hospital for 3-4 days after surgery. They will be cleared to return to work after three weeks, but will be restricted from major physical activity for six weeks.

9. The recipient's insurance will cover all medical expenses for the donor, except travel and loss of wages.

10. Nate is scheduled to meet with the transplant surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital on May 25th. It is imperative that the rest of his body is stabilized by this date (red blood count, heart, stomach, etc.).

11. In the meantime, we have been asked to compile a list of blood donors to provide blood for both Nate and his kidney donor.

If you are willing to donate blood, or want more specific information about kidney donation, please contact our oldest daughter, Alicia Epperly, via email (Alicia.Epperly@gmail.com).

Thank you for sustaining our entire family with your prayers. The power of the worldwide Body of Christ is truly amazing. We are still praying that God, by His grace, will choose to regenerate Nate's atrophied kidney. Enjoy a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

~ Tim

This is the introduction of a book written by Ken Gire called Intense Moments With the Savior. I found it to be pretty applicable given my present condition.

Our Savior’s life was not an unbroken succession of intimate moments that changed people’s lives, or incredible moments that captured their attention, or instructive moments that challenged their thinking. There were intense moments too. Moments when he overturned the tables of moneychangers and moments when money changed hands and his enemies turned the tables on him.
As we focus on these intense moments, we see that Savior as a son who learned obedience through the things he suffered. But through this apprenticeship of suffering, Jesus learned something else.
He learned to feel.
He learned the feeling of hunger from his forty days in the wilderness and thirst from his feverish hours on the cross. But he learned to feel a greater hunger in the wilderness than bread alone could satisfy and a greater thirst on the cross than mere water could relieve. He learned the pain of rejection and the sorrow of unrequited love.
We learn to feel in much the same way. We learn to feel when our faith is tested in some wilderness. When our best-laid plans go awry and out bravest prayers go unanswered. When we’re belittled by a crowd or betrayed by a colleague. When we’re deserted by our friends or done in by our enemies.
Whether it’s a single thorn in the flesh or a crown of them mashed on our heads, suffering teaches us to feel.
But learning to feel carries with it both a blessing and a curse: a blessing, because those feelings are what lead us out of ourselves; a curse, because once out we can never again go back and enjoy the simple pleasures of a self-absorbed life. For suffering sensitizes us not only to the world around us, which is needy, but to the world within us, which is needier still, and ultimately to the world beyond us, which we long for in so many ways. Yet in so few ways do we ever fully realize it.
Until we suffer.
Then we realize that this is not our home, that our home is with him who suffered and died and left this earth to prepare a place for us. Once we understand that and who it is that keeps a candle burning for us in the window, then the road ahead, however long, however difficult, is infinitely easier to travel.

I thought this was a cool pic of my mom, grandpa, and me

This past weekend I ran into an old classmate of mine from Biola. We hadn't seen eachother in about a year so naturally we asked the all encompassing question, "Hey man, how have you been?" Unfortunately for him, I let him answer first. He had no clue what I was about to say. When he finished telling me about his recent marriage and job change, he asked about me. And this is what I said...

"Well I have had a pretty interesting year so far. I started the year working at Starbucks and looking forward to going back to school when things got turned upside down. I told him that in February I started having a hard time breathing. My chest was really tight and with every breath pain shot all throughout my rib cage. This pain increased so much that on Sunday Feb. 19, my girlfriend called the ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital. It was there that I was diagnosed with having acute renal failure. Basically my kidney had failed! Not only that, but it was found that I was only born with one kidney. Talk about a wake-up call!! I had absolutely no idea."

I must say, the first few days in the hospital were very eye opening. First of all, I have never liked hospitals. I hate the smell, I hate the feeling of depression whenever I walk into one, and now I was the patient. Every doctor that came in and saw me continued to pour on new information that would have to be understood at a later time. Honestly, a lot of it simply passed through one ear and out the other. So after a week in the hospital I was ready to leave.

So where am I now?
This new chapter that I was beginning was going to be a hard one. I am currently attending dialysis four times a week for four hours intermixed with doctors appointments. Since leaving the hospital in Feb. my hemoglobin (red blood cells) count has been low. So much so that the doctors are baffled at the cause of this problem. Two weeks ago my doctor admitted me into the hospital where I received another blood transfusion. I was also the beneficiary of a bone marrow biopsy. The reason for this fun adventure was to see if I was actually producing new red blood cells and to see if it was cancerous. I am happy to announce that the findings were very good. I do not have cancer!! However, for some reason the mature red blood cells are not exiting the bone marrow.
So now I am patiently waiting the results of additional blood tests to find out what is really going on with my body.