Being someone who will never give up – unless I have no choice – I’ve fulfilled all the meetings that have been asked of me in these past months, even though preaching is challenging for my knees, and in the days following I REALLY know it’s been challenging! I’m still convinced that God will heal these knees: and having pursued the ‘surgical’ route, mostly because people have pestered me to have my knees replaced (!) I’ve discovered that realistically it’s not a route open to me. Why? Because the really good (and nice) orthopaedic surgeon at one of the best Ortho hospitals in the UK (Gobowen, Oswestry) told me that he could do it, that he could have me walking pain-free within 3 months, he then discovered both my history (pulmonary embolism 5 years ago), and my family’s history of deep vein thrombosis, and I was told that instead of 3 months and ‘healed’ I was a 50-50 or worse ‘candidate’ to die of clotting blood on the operating table… not a difficult decision for me once I knew that! And, having looked at what the osteoarthritis in the knees had done to my legs – if I stand with my feet together, it looks like the horse has bolted from between my knees! – he said he could make SOME improvement to the shape of my legs, but not much…

And he must have been prophetic ahead of my reaching (or not!) the operating table, as, within three weeks, the enemy had bludgeoned me with pretty severe DVT AND cellulitis in my left leg. It wasn’t hard to know that something was wrong as my left leg swelled up to 10 cms (2.5 inches for Americans!) bigger than my right. The DVT has had a humongous impact on my knee(s) as the swelling on top of the osteoarthritis had severely impacted my mobility. Daily blood thinners should ultimately reduce the swelling, but of course, the increased pain in my left knee has put more pressure on my right knee (which was the worst one pain-wise).

So I’d really value your prayers for healing – DVT, osteoarthritis, cellulitis as I hope – and pray – the fairly early in the new year, I’ll be moving into my new home, and I need some legs for that, as well as preaching opportunities that come in. There are a number of overseas opportunities next year too, needless to say Colombia will feature a few times! – and of course, the revival in mid-Wales….