Gateway Teams

It's been a long time since we've posted, but I want to let you know about a good friend of mine and supporter of our ministry, John Roberts. I've known John (and his wife Amy) for over 20 years, having attended church with them as well as playing in bands and worship teams with them.

Please pray for John (his wife, Amy, and their boys Jacob and Andrew)......read on as my sister Kelly explains....

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing to you to ask you to pray for a good friend of our's, John Roberts, who had a stroke on Sunday evening. He is in his early 40s and was in good health aside from having a serious bout with Influenza Type A last week.

John was given a medication (I think it was called TDA) at about 2:00 a.m. Monday morning, 3 hours after the stroke occurred, which was to thin the blood and help with the stroke. When they took him for testing 6 hours after the stroke had occurred, they discovered his carotid atery was 100% blocked. This is inoperable because they would have to bypass it and with the medication they had given earlier he would bleed to death. He is fully aware and cognisant, and had been able to squeeze his left hand a couple of times during the day. They also believe there is another blood clot somewhere else and they did an MRI last night. He will be getting those test results this morning. During the night he had lost any control of his left side and they said that was probably caused by swelling in his brain. The first 48 hours after a stroke are critical, so we are calling on everyone we know to pray for him.

Please pray for this family: John's wife is Amy and they have 2 boys, 11 and 8, named Jacob and Andrew. John traveled a lot for his job with Northwestern Mutual Life and it was by God's grace that he was at home with his wife when this happened and not alone in a hotel room. John is also an accomplished pianist and he and Amy are in a Christian contemporary band called Beacon. They were scheduled to perform at a coffee house, John Harbor's in Menomonee Falls, this Friday.

Thanks,
Kelly Fehr

The update to this is that John is sitting up and doing a little better, but he has no movement in the left side of his body at all. We're heading to see John this afternoon as we just returned home from a week away.

Thank you for praying for John and his family. These are good friends, so this one hits close to home for us. Blessings.