Jon Archive | jon and layne heller

Then Comes Jovie Fé

Right Before We Left

A Jon Post

First comes discomfort,

8:00 AM hospital, waiting, waiting, 2 hours, doctor, nurse, smiles.

Words fail at the beauty of my wife

Then comes waiting,

Drive home, nothing, bouncing on a round rubber ball, hope, questions, memories, playing worship music, 3 more hours.

Breathtaking love displayed in my wife

Then comes ache,

Small pains, talking through them, worship together, looking at the clock, tears together, just one hour, back to the hospital

Fire and purity in my wife’s eyes

Pain

Then comes pain,

“Oh it hurts”

-My wife’s beauty, the glory of God’s creation, masked in pain, the sentence of Eve’s sin-

A smile, a tear, eyes shut like thunderstorms before the rain,

“Oh glory, oh pain… bring life, please bring life. Unchain my wife from her torment”

Then come groans,

First Seconds of Life

“Oh stop”

Helpless trust, breathless trust, desperate trust

“Oh Christ save, deliver, redeem!!!”

Then push

Then comes pain

Then push

Then comes pain

Then push

Jovie

Then comes pain

Then comes JOY

Then comes FAITH

Then comes my daughter

THEN COMES JOY

Family

THEN COMES FAITH

Then comes my daughter

…yeah… that’s her

My wife is glowing…

Welcome dear.

Welcome Jovie Fé

My Incredible Wife

…

Alive

…

June 17, 2012

Jon

Personal

9 comments

For those of you who didn’t know, I traveled to the USA about 2 weeks ago to be a part of my brother’s wedding. Paul, the youngest of my siblings, got married to an incredible woman. As part of his ceremony I, along with my brothers and Paul’s best friend, addressed his bride about the man she was marrying. I wanted to take this blog and share what I said to Paul’s wife and try to honor him. Paul has made an incredible difference in my life, encouraging me, strengthening me, and pushing me towards Christ. Here’s what I shared with his beautiful bride last Saturday.

Becky,

Some men strive for great things.
Some men of us love wildly, drink deeply, run hard and live life well.
Some men grow old and wise, living in the broken and the whole.
Some men walk feebly, risk little and live long.

Paul is none of these men.

Some men laugh often, battle fiercely, love their wives with clear eyes and live to be remembered.
These men we look to, marvel at and extol them for their strength of will and arm, their heart of fire and purity, and we remember them well.

These we call Great Men.
Paul is none of these.

For there are yet some…
Some very few…
These hold another title altogether…
These names we men whisper in dark places to find our courage. We read these names in reverent and solemn tones, hushed so as not to tarnish their legacy.

These are the “Mighty Men”.
These are the Heroes.
These of those of whom the world is not worthy.

The man standing before you today…
Here is one of those.

Here is Josheb-Basshebeth, spear in hand, smiling at the approaching 800 enemies.
Here is Eleazar, taunting thousands as his allies retreat, sword frozen in his hand.
Here is Shammah, standing his ground in a field of lentils, roaring to announce his solitary advance against thousands.
Here is Benaiah, laughing at the bad weather, following a lion into an icy pit.
Here is Samson, bone in his closed fist, bringing death at blinding speeds to his enemies.
Here is Jim Elliot, giving what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Here is Horatio Spafford, writing that it is well with his soul as the waves of suffering threaten to crush.
Here is Keith Green, singing and shouting truth to a generation mired and drowning in its own selfishness and greed.

Here is Paul Heller…

Here is one of our Mighty Men.
Here is one of our Heroes.

You tread a path few women are blessed have to known.

We mere men could not be more proud to be at his side today.

I… his brother…
I am proud to be known as the brother of the hero…
I love this man.

I know you do.

Paul Heller…
Your Mighty Man
The Hero of your heart.

Love him well my lady
Love him well.

May 24, 2012

Jon

Personal, Travel

3 comments

When Sleep is Impossible

A Jon Post

I had surgery on my left shoulder a few years back. I remember waking up in agony, begging for a drug to numb the pain. I remember the slightest tremor in my wide, soft hospital bed sending knives through my left arm, shoulder, neck, and chest.

I remember the state-of-the-art morphine drip seemingly doing nothing.

I remember trying to sleep… sleep was by far the worst of it all. Awake after, at most, an hour of sleep because of an uncontrollable quiver of my arm ripping at perfectly placed stitches. Awake after another hour because rolling slightly on the high quality mattress I slept on caused my shoulder to erupt in agony.

I remember trying to sleep… trying… for a month.

So when 16-year-old Antonio went into surgery this week for a tumor on his neck/shoulder,

I remembered…

On Tuesday his surgery went well, his daily text message informed me. On Wednesday morning his message seemed to indicate he was doing well.

Later that afternoon when I walked into the room he shares with 7 others in the surgery recovery ward I could see the toll it took on him to simply roll to his side so he could face me on his twin bed.

“How are you friend?” I asked, hopeful.

“Not great Uncle Jon.” came the reply, “It’s hard to sleep.”

I remembered…

And looking at his little bed that he shares with his faithfully attending dad I knew…

My memories are nothing compared to this.

Antonio’s weary eyes glanced up at me as I told him I wanted to pray for his rest. His lips tugged at a smile but even that effort seemed overwhelming for him.

Antonio’s smiling father walked in with some cookies he’d scrounged up for his son.

“Matakatira! (Good afternoon!)” he greeted me in his language, Mandão.

“Good afternoon friend! Are you well?” My broken barely coherent Mandão returned.

His eyes glanced over his son and I saw the worry there.

“I am well,” he replied, “but my son is not.”

He rattled off a new Mandão phrase that I didn’t understand yet and I smiled and reaffirmed my gratitude for his effort in teaching me his language.

“I was just about to pray for Antonio. Would you join me?” I asked.

A smile and a “Yes” later, our hearts heavy and our heads bowed, we prayed for rest.

And my words and groans joined with Antonio’s and his dad’s as we expressed how eagerly we wait for the redemption of our bodies.

And because my words fail even now as I write this, I pleaded with The Spirit to groan with me and for Antonio’s rest.

For now, Antonio’s unredeemed body needs rest.

April 28, 2012

Jon

Hospital Ministry, Mozambique

4 comments

From My Back

A Jon Post

So here I am laying on my back, hoping, waiting for the pain to go away. I went to the hospital last night. I had and still have trouble breathing deeply, my chest and back complaining loudly every time I try. Concerned about a possible pneumonia infection, the safest course seemed to get a doctor to say yes or no. Exams and an X-ray later, the doctor slapped the X-ray up on the wall and explained the good news and bad news. Good news, no infection in my lungs. Bad news, I have a pinched nerve/disk in my spine and every time I breathe deeply it pinches it more. The only thing the doctor could do was prescribe pain-killers… ibuprofen.

It’s been a tough week for the Heller family. On Monday we rushed Anaya to the hospital when SHE had trouble breathing and was throwing up and had a high fever. She had pneumonia in her lungs and was put on an emergency antibiotic and recovered remarkably fast. Layne wrote an excellent blog about that journey over on her African Gypsy blog. If you’d like to read more about what happened there she says it much better than I could.

I did have time to go to the hospital once this week. In the midst of all the hospital visits it was good to see friends there and hear them express how much they are concerned for Anaya and her health and tell me they are praying with us for her.

So here I am…

I think I’ll list the things that I noticed most this week as we pushed though a few difficulties:

1) Layne is an amazing mother and wife. Seriously. I wish all of you could see how selflessly she threw herself into caring for and loving Anaya and I as our health was compromised this week. She is almost 7 months pregnant and she hasn’t stopped to care for herself once in all of this. She has slept very little and has loved very much. I could not be more proud of her.

2) We have an amazing group of people who pray for us, both here in Maputo and around the world. We are overwhelmed by the responses we’ve been getting from people who have been praying for us this week, especially Anaya and her health. What a tremendous testimony to the Glory of God. Being a part of the communion of saints in this way is so powerful in drawing the lonely and forgotten to Him.

3) God is so so so good. I love that I can say that when I can barely breathe, when my chest and back are in pretty intense pain and when I can move very little without pain shooting through my torso. God is very very very good. I don’t deserve a healthy back, I don’t deserve such an amazing wife, neither I, Anaya or Layne deserve healthy lungs. And yet God continues to be so merciful in His gifts. If Anaya lives 1 year or 100, God’s mercy that He would give her to us, that He would minister in and through her, and that He would trust us with her life, is so great.

4) Pinched nerves really hurt. I know there are many who may read this who know better than I how frustrating it can be.

5) It’s really hard to watch your child sick. Getting IV ports, getting shots, getting oxygen masks pushed over faces, and not being able to explain any of it. That’s hard. Like above, I know there are so many who know this pain so much deeper than Layne and I.

6) Layne is an amazing wife and mother

7) God is really really really good.

April 7, 2012

Jon

Medical, Things we're dealing with

6 comments

Jonny Pirate

A Jon Post

Sorry this post is late in the week. There were a lot of things floating around my head this week and I had plenty that I could write about here but instead I decided to go a different route.

I sometimes draw these “Jonny Pirate” cartoons and I did this one for Layne recently. It’s sort of an “Ode to finding my adventuring/missions girl as I went out searching for adventure/missions”.
Anyway, I thought I’d share it and she didn’t mind.

Sorry to those of you who may be viewing this on phones. I haven’t optimized this site for mobile yet so you may have to go to a computer for this one.

So click on the first picture below and read the little story about finding my beauty out looking for adventure. And her purple sails…