Praying for Peter

May 2010 The Journey Continues - Peter Taiwan Update

2010-05-25T13:10:00.008+08:00

May 2010 Taiwan Newsletter Text

What Do We Do With The Role/Gifts/Abilities God Has Given Us?

(1 Corinthians 11-15; Romans 12-13; 1 Peter 2 & 4; and Ephesians 3-4)

Do you know what these passages are about? Some of you might know. I do not want to get into all the controversies that can be connected to these passages or how sometimes these passages are used. Some people see spiritual gifts, some see God empowered abilities, and some see God given roles and careers. I do not want to enter that debate, but I do want to talk about these passages. Some of my research on church planting brought me back to these passages several times this month. When I took the time to read and pray through these Scriptures, I made a few observations that will apply no matter which interpretation you take on the whole. First, whatever these “things” are, it is according to faith, it is according to the grace given to you, and it’s function is for the benefit of people other than you. It is amazing how all of these “things” do something amazing no matter which way you look at it. You, “individually” have been given “something” from God which is to be used for “communal” benefit (1 Corinthians 12:7; Romans 12:6; 1 Peter 4:10; Ephesians 4:12-13). It stood out to me that these passages at the same time emphasized who you are as an individual, and at the same time emphasized who you are defined within community. Second, God purposely made me the way I am. I do not mean sinful habits and sinful desires. I am referring to the part of yourself that makes you who you are and gives you a place within community. If this is true of my strengths, this may well be true of my weaknesses as it was for Paul (2 Corinthians 11-12). I am not referring to sinful things as weaknesses; I am referring to things that I would personally have looked at myself and thought of as a weaknesses. For instance, my dyslexia and A.D.H.D. (I am merely reflecting my perception of my experience, this is not judgement on others who have dyslexia or A.D.H.D.). You could equally pick anything about oneself as long as it is truly a part of oneself. My point is to say that God made us the way He did for a purpose. We may not know or understand the what, or why, however we do know He lovingly made us on purpose. Third, these passages also show me that we are made for each other and intends for us to be built up by each other. I think; just as God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God Jesus the Messiah are one and a community to themselves. I think He/They enjoy Himself/Themself/Themselves, and He intends for us to to be community like He is community. Also, of course, for us to be community with Him. These “things” He has given us are for taking part in making that idea reality for us and as us, rather than just individuals.

Here are a few observations from that study of the above Scriptures.

Spiritual Gifts

Purpose of the Spiritual Gifts According to Context of the Passage:

“To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

“we have different gifts according to the grace given to us” (Romans 12:6).

“For the culmination of all things is near” (1 Peter 4:7). “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature” (Ephesians 4:12-13).

Key Roles/Spiritual Gifts/Abilities in each Passage

1 Corinthians 12 - message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, healing, performing miracles, prophecy, and interpretation of tongues.

Romans 12 - Prophecy, faith, service, teaching, exhortation, contributing, leadership, and mercy.

1 Peter 4 - love for one another, hospitality, serve, good stewards, and speaking with God’s words.

Ephesians 4 - Pastor, teacher, prophet, apostle, and evangelists. The Journey Continues Inside And Out

(1 Corinthians 11-15; Romans 12-13; 1 Peter 2 & 4; and Ephesians 3-4)

My Journey Continues: Eight Months and Counting: One Small Step For Jesus One Great Leap For Peter

Physically: This month I have continued to exercise as much as I have free time to exercise. I probablyam progressing, but at this point I am hopeful but cannot really tell if I am progressing. The fact that I am exercising with a timeframe of six months to one year changes my perspective a lot. I feel good but pretty dizzy all the time. My hearing seems to be about the same.

Emotionally/Spiritually: This month I continued to trudge along physically, but I made a huge leapforward emotionally or spiritually or psychologically depending on your perspective. I think God was at work in me this month as I was studying the passages I referenced above, reading the book of Job, reading an article on “calling” by Dan Allender, spending time in silence and solitude, and listening to some of the lectures from two courses on lay counseling. I am hesitant to say something like, “God spoke to me” because I am frankly not sure. I definitely think God is guiding me and teaching me, but do not ask me to put my finger on exactly what God is doing/saying. I always cautiously take the advice of Proverbs 3:5-6 in these situations and acknowledge God as I proceed and put my hope in God’s willingness to correct me rather than putting my hope on my understanding as being faultless. That said, let me share with you what has been on my mind and heart, and what has come out of all this, this month. Reflecting on my findings in the Scriptures, I began to think about a few things I have struggled with since I was an elementary school student. I was angry with myself as I struggled to learn to read and was overly critical of myself. I thought to myself, “Why am I stupid and everyone else is so much smarter than me” (as I struggled with dyslexia and A.D.H.D which I got excellent help with from my school and my mother). I thought, “Everyone else reads so much faster than me.” Later in Junior and Senior High School that self rejection developed into self hatred and self condemnation. I still remember feeling like, “this life is so miserable, the sooner I die, the better.” That statement characterizes my thoughts and feelings as I transitioned from High School to college. Some people meet Jesus on a mountain top experience. I was in the cave underneath the lowest point in the valley where there is no light and no hope. It was that darkest of places where I never knew the light could shine that I found Jesus. Or, more accurately Jesus found me, I finally realized He was there all along. His Word told me He loved me and that I had value. “I have value!” I wept, fell on my knees, and began to follow King Jesus. I was so empty and hurt that when I had only experienced a little of Jesus; grace and love, I thought I was healed! I was like someone dying of dehydration thinking that first sip of water was all that was needed. I was like someone who had forgotten what it was to drink water. When I was in college, I remember fasting, spending times in silence and solitude, and pursuing Jesus with all my heart, with a single question in mind, “Is it really possible that you love me? Aren’t I just like all those pharisees that you rebuked?” Either His Word is true and I am loved, or have I just been believing a lie. I held onto the Word of God and was affirmed in holding onto the truth. A few years later I could finally hear Jesus leading me back to where I found Him. I thought I was already healed, but He showed me that my journey was far from over. It took moving to the other side of the world (Taiwan), going through culture shock, struggling to learn Mandarin Chinese, and struggling to build relationships with the Taiwanese people I had come to love; to bring to the surface remaining wounds buried as far out of sight as possible. God provided me with some amazing community, and provided some wonderful journey mates through grace groups to bring me another critical step forward on my journey. Now, I am beginning another step on that same journey. It began this month as the Scriptures and what I was learning was digested in my mind. I do not know where this will end up, but it will be good. That has meant re-entering the pain and re-entering that cave I left so long ago. The time I had in grace groups helped me re-enter that cave and look at that elementary school experience and say “I don’t, I won’t hate you.” I worked with lots of help from my brothers and sisters in Christ; worked to be able to love and accept that little child. Now, I re-enter the cave again with mixed feelings. But this time I bring wonderful news that enables me to love that little child in a whole new way. Before I strived to loved that child despite all his shortcomings and all the things that he/I is/am not but wish I could be. Now, I got to re-enter the cave to love that boy wholly, because I am a child of the King and because He made me this way on purpose. Because He loved first, I loved Him (Jesus). Because of Jesus’ love, I can love the person I hated more than anyone else in the world, myself. He gave me value and significance that even I had to acknowledge. I am talking about healing, not narcissism. My life is a story, Jesus is writing that story. That story fits within Jesus’ story. For the first time in my life I can see my weaknesses; the parts I hated so much, as an important part of the story. They are not merely things to be overcome or triumph, in spite of. These weaknesses are ways for me and for others, to see Him at work. I really believe in what He said to Paul, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). For the first time I can accept myself, even though I am not the person I once had dreamed I could be if God just enabled me. I have let go of that dream, and have taken hold of who I really am. Now, I can celebrate my weaknesses, and I can see my weaknesses differently. It will be exciting not to see how God works in spite of my weaknesses, but how God will work through my weaknesses. How my weaknesses could embolden others to catch a glimpse of just how great the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob really is. How great is the God revealed in Jesus the Messiah. How great is God who fills me with His Holy Spirit and ordains me as one of Jesus’, fellow priests. I rejoice to be a part of a kingdom of priests in Jesus‘ priesthood (1 Peter 2). I finally see I am both an individual and I have a special place in God’s community. I am not useless (as I used to secretly tell myself)!!!! The lies no longer have power over me! I show you my shame so you can see God’s glory. Please keep that in mind as you think about what you just read. I am being vulnerable with you so you can see just how great our God is.

Month of May in Review

- Ting, from Craig’s N.T.U.T. Bible study was baptized in Xin Dian. Praise the LORD!

- I had a great time in Bible study and a birthday dinner with N.T.U.T. students.

- My Birthday, I’m twenty-nine years old. Had another great date with Jesus on a night hike in Taipei. Also got to spend time with my friends.

- Talked to a buddhist that tried to convert me to buddhism at Long Shan temple. So there is such a thing as evangelical buddhists. It was very informative. Good chance to understand better what people actually think. Buddhists use special Chinese vocabulary (like Christianese) that was difficult to understand.

- Listening to the Bible in Chinese. I am trying to have God write His Word on my heart. This month I continued to focus on the Gospel of John; which I am teaching through in my English Bible study at N.T.U.T. I also began focusing on getting through the Sermon On The Mount in Chinese. So far I have only made my way through the Beatitudes. I haven’t been learning very quickly, but what I learn I had to listen to fifty to a one hundred times. So even if I cannot get the Word accessible to my conscious mind; it definitely is in my subconscious.

- Re-wrote my personal ministry plan corresponding to my teams field ministry plan. We update these every year. Also, I thought this time was special because language school is no longer my primary focus. My path is lengthening!

April 2010 Update

2010-05-12T12:08:00.005+08:00

April 2010 Taiwan Update from Peter

The journey continues: 7 Months Out

The visit to the doctor last month was good for me. I did not receive the news I had hoped. However, it did give me a picture of the coming year; and of my future. With a longer view of recovery in mind, I have spent a lot of time this month mentally/emotionally adjusting to the idea of being constantly dizzy for at least the next six months to a year, drawing near to Jesus, and expressing my trust in God (the God who designed my body) by spending time exercising (my body). I have been climbing a lot of stairs, running by the riverside, doing squats to strengthen my knees, abdomen exercises to strengthen my core, training my sense of balance, and hiking. This month when I went night hiking near Jian Tian M.R.T. station I had a bit of an epiphany. It has changed the way I try to improve my balance, and has made me think about my journey with Jesus a little differently. I went hiking at about five in the afternoon. It was still light out when I went up the mountain. However, while I was on the top of the mountain the sun went down and the darkness came out. Hiking is difficult enough; climbing stairs and maneuvering around objects while experiencing vertigo. When the sun went down I discovered something important about my balance. (Just want to make a disclaimer, I am not a doctor and the following is merely my hypothesis to explain what I was experiencing). As my vision became impaired by the darkness I noticed my sense of balance went a little crazy. It gave me the sense of being drawn in this direction and that; seemingly for no reason. I think, when I can see clearly; I experience my sense of balance differently. Normally the fluid in one’s ears (functions like a level: carpenter’s tool) primarily provides a sense of balance. Mine is still broken. As I explained in the past. I have been trying to use my sense of vision to help me have a more accurate sense of balance. When my ability to use my vision became impaired I discovered just how much it had been making a difference. On the mountain, in the dark, I found myself depending on my sense of touch for nearby objects to help make up the difference. The part that was most difficult as I did this was thinking counterintuitively. My sense of balance was telling me I need to do one thing and I had to do the opposite based on my sense of touch. Just like I have become accustomed do doing with my vision. It actually worked! I made it down the mountain safely and learned an important lesson. Until my sense of balance recovers I will need to be able to use and trust my other senses to help me think counterintuitively at times in order to balance properly. So now, I am trying to train my balance with that in mind. For example: I do an exercise with my eyes closed so that I can retrain how I interpret my sense of balance when I cannot depend on my vision to override the information my ears provide my brain. I hypothesize my brain is probably making new interconnections to accomplish the same task in a different way. God did an amazing job designing the brain. These brain retraining and balance exercises have helped my balance to improve this month. I also began using a jump rope this month.

I think our spiritual life can be similar, it also requires counterintuitive thinking. I think we interpret our experiences through a lens (interpretive term: like when you wear glasses you see through the lenses) made up of our thought life, beliefs, and experiences. I think that the sins we have committed as we grow up plays a part in that lens. This makes following and trusting Jesus very challenging at times. I think this is similar to the way I experience balance in light of my vertigo. My ears tell me one thing, my eyes tell me another thing, and my sense of touch tells me something else. My ears, sense of balance is the least dependable of these three. Sometimes I have to think counterintuitively in the sense of what my ears are telling me and my experiences sinning are telling me. I have to decide to trust something other than my ears and experience with sin in order to move forward. This feels awkward at times because I have to go against what feels right and natural at times in order to do what is actually right and natural. I call it counterintuitive because my body and mind are not accurately interpreting reality and I have to go against those senses at times. I have to choose to trust something else. For my balance, that may be touch and vision. For my life, that would be trusting Jesus. He is not idealistic or unrealistic; we are! He actually understands how reality operates. Sometimes we just have to go against our own senses and assumptions to follow Jesus. This is one place faith plays an important role for both my body’s balance issues and for my spiritual life. Sometimes you cannot understand until you trust and obey. Faith is not a blind leap. Faith helps us to understand

knowledge. Through faith, we come to know Christ. Through faith I realize my balance is wrong and my vision or touch is right. This is not ridiculous nor is it without a basis. Through trusting that Jesus actually knows what He is talking about and obeying Him you come to find out He really does know what He is talking about. As I train my brain and my mind, and as I train my body, I am training myself to reinterpret how I understand the information my senses are giving me about how I experience balance. I am also learning how to interpret my experience of reality through Jesus‘ teachings. This is critical because sometimes balance and my sense of how the world operates is dead wrong. I must and will learn how to retrain the way I think; so that I can retrain my brain; so that I can change my life. So that one day I can balance, dance, ride a bicycle, and do others things once again. That has been the journey that has begun this month as I continue on my journey to recover. Still realistic, practical, and hopeful. Determined to never give up.

Church Planting & Discipleship: A View of Learning For The Future

As I excitedly and prayerfully continue down this path in the direction of discipleship and church planting Ican already see I will need to learn and grow as much as possible. Since I hope to plant churches that will not be lead by a seminary trained pastor, I have to make some adjustments. I also hope the people that make up these churches will be diverse in age and stage of life. That means the churches will be lead by regular people with regular day jobs and families. With that in mind, I imagine the role I want to grow into is that of the skilled teacher and facilitator. I want the end result to be an indigenous church that is self governing, self supporting, reproducing, self sustaining, and a church that grows into not needing me (Ephesians 4:11-16). Facilitating disciples that make disciples, and planting churches that plant churches. The most challenging part of that job is possibly also the most important part of the job. I need to train, teach, and facilitate the growth of regular people for the “work of ministry” (loving people well) with the top quality training I can provide without sending people off to school, and without people realizing I am giving them such sophisticated training and resources. I think this second part is a real concern because a lot of working class people might not feel comfortable with attending or leading in standard structures of traditional churches. Education is essential for upward mobility in Taiwanese society and many working class people have very little education. Thus, they are trapped. Thus, they feel unqualified for work of ministry. Please understand when I use the phrase, “work of ministry” I am envisioning a very very broad interpretation of what that means. I think God intends for us all to be His priests, and this His end goal is to restore the world to holiness (Gen. 1-2; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5). People will need to learn how great Jesus is; He does not need them to be great; they just need to serve the great God. I think God has especially prepared me in this way. Until I realized Jesus is great than I imagined. He does not need my skills and abilities. He wants my heart to be willing to obey and trust to Him enough for me to follow Him. This change was a paradigm shift for me and it probably will also be for many regular people here in Taiwan. For this job, I need to be able to teach people starting from wherever people are; guiding them towards maturity and towards following Jesus. That is why becoming a great teacher matters. Jesus was the best teacher to ever walk the earth. It seems to me that He had an amazing way of meeting people where they were at. His teaching was based out of knowing God personally and being very familiar with His Word. My teaching won’t be a uniform system, but instead, teaching according to the type of learner each person is and where they are on their journey. Thus meeting people where they are at. Jesus is this the master and disciple-maker. I am not the one who says, “follow me” I am not the LORD. I too am a disciple; just a little further ahead than those who are not His disciples. I see all that I do as being done inpartnership with Jesus, His Holy Spirit, and the Father. It is critical that I am facilitating and teaching in harmony with Him. I need to be competent in working with people other than those who are my peers and those younger than me. I must grow into being able to work with people older than me, people with husbands and wives, people with children, and grandfather and grandmother. I think that the most strategic person I could reach for Christ in the family would be grandpa. He will heavily influence his children and grandchildren even after he passes away.

Grandpa and grandma are too important for me to wait until I am sixty or seventy years old before figuring out how to connect with them. So I need to grow in knowledge, wisdom, maturity, understanding, closeness to Jesus, into Jesus’ character, and as a teacher/facilitator. Does that sound a little overwhelming? It does to me too. I need your prayers. I have confidence Jesus will help me grow and give me plenty of opportunities to connect with a diversity of people here. So I want to lay out for you how I will use my free-time to grow in the following areas over the next year or so: counseling (Dan Allender, Siang-Yang Tan, Larry Crabb), spiritual formation/discipleship (Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Marva Dawn), chinese/Taiwanese history, church planting (Wolfgang Simson), and first century Judaism (Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Tacitus, Philo). I have included all these focuses and authors so you can see what will be influencing me. I would love your input if any of you have input you would like to give me. I think focusing on these areas will provide me with the tools I need, and these tools should enable me to grow into being much more diverse than my experience/age would normally allow. If this looks idealistic that is not my intention. This is not research for a master’s degree. These are tools for real life. This strategy for learning and growing has come from the needs I see in front of me. This way I can live out life like Jesus, and I can teach by intentionally modeling instead of just explaining. The people I am reaching out to need to see how to love like Jesus more than understand the theory behind loving like Jesus. That is why the research is necessary for me; I must strive to have mastery of understanding and behavior in these kinds of areas. I want to shift discussion towards: how do we obey Jesus such as: how to love wives, husbands, kids, parents, and grandparents. The fact that I am not old enough, and my life experience in not enough, is not an excuse I can afford to rely on. I pray the churches I plant will be discussing and living how do I love my enemy, not why I should or should not love my enemy. So they can be able to disciple other Taiwanese people. So they can plant churches able to teach people how to love their enemies and teaching them how to bless those who curse them. Churches with people that will be able to and willing to teach others how to obey everything Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). Please pray with your imagination. Imagine what the people in these churches will look like before knowing Jesus, and magine what they might look like in maturity. Let’s pray these churches into being, that Jesus Kingdom may come and His will may be done on earth and in each of us as it is done in heaven. Let’s pray, act, and watch as God brings justice to the world (make things right).

Month in Fast Forward

This month I studied chinese a lot. Finally finished my last text book on Christian vocabulary. I will now have a lot more time to focus on building relationships and working towards planting churches. I did a lot of exercising. Having the students take turns teaching the English Bible study has been great. We read and discussed through John chapters two, three, and four. Spent time building relationships and drinking tea. I have also spent a good amount of time in prayer and thinking. I got to meet with two missionaries who have been reaching out to working class people in Taiwan for more that fifteen years each. It was great! I accompanied them and saw what they do, we prayer walked, we sat and prayed together, and we talked. It was a blessing of an opportunity for a new missionary to get to learn from two veterans.

Other Prayer Requests

-Please pray for opportunities to build relationships with working class Taiwanese.

-For my ability to speak Chinese and Taiwanese to improve.

-For churches to be planted and for disciples to be made.

-Wisdom in conveying complex and Biblical concepts very simply and accurately in Chinese.

-For my dreams and hopes for what a church plant might look like be dashed to pieces so that I don’t hold onto my

ideas too strongly and so that Jesus’ dreams and hopes for the Taiwanese may rise out of those ashes.

I really enjoy reading your responses to the newsletter, thoughts, suggestions, and any questions you have about my

ministry or the culture here please feel free to email me. You have no idea how God will use your email. Thanks

for reading.

Update #29 on Peter

2010-04-25T06:18:00.001+08:00

We are in the midst of a 48-hour prayer room activity and at the moment, I’m hosting and Peter just entered the prayer room. When he exits in an hour, he’ll take over the hosting from me and I’ll get some sleep.

I’ve been meaning to make a final entry on this blog for a long time and it seems that the time has come to do it. I’d like to finish while he is in the room.

I feel like this blog served as a “connecting point” for many people and it seems fitting that I’d connect with you one more time before I hand it all over to Peter to do with as he sees fit. This blog was never anything except a place to tell Peter’s story…

Thank you for your support of Peter and thank you for your kind words about me and the blog entries. I didn’t intend to be the only one posting on the blog, but it turned out that way. I didn’t ever mind posting updates about Peter, but I hope the content of the posts made it clear that Peter’s recovery and care was the result of a Holy Spirit led coordination of many people with all of the spiritual gifts (as a group) necessary to meet many needs. I should probably recap these people and their giftings/contributions here but I’d accidentally leave people out and I’d like to post this before Peter exits the prayer room.

After soccer practice today, Peter was eating lunch at our house and talk turned to his accident. He asked me how it affected me to think back on it now. It was thoughtful of him to ask and I think it shows great understanding on his part. I told him that I wish it had never happened… but since it *did* happen and since there were many decisions to make and plans to coordinate… it was a blessing to serve Peter, his family, and the Lord together with the other missionaries here and the Taiwanese brothers and sisters. All of our lives are changed because of what we all experienced together. It was one of the great examples in my own personal experience of what “the body of Christ” or, the Church, is supposed to look like.

Which brings me to you… the readers… the praying people.

Your prayer and other support for Peter was (and is) a key part of the healing process. We experienced many miracles because of you. Your prayer helped us think more clearly and be less tired while trying to care for Peter. Prayer is not a last option… but is the best option. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer.

Peter’s recovery has slowed… but he’s still getting better. He’s still wobbly… but he helps at soccer and is now running and doing other exercise. His hearing is still very poor in one ear, but nearly normal in the other. He struggles with the speed of recovery… but then remembers that he has almost no business being alive… and his perspective sharpens again. He is fully aware of how serious his accident and injuries were and how loved he is by all of his friends around the world. He is still a picky eater… but he is passionate about ministry… is pained by injustice in the world… is an avid reader… and is as joyful as ever.

If you aren’t already friends with Peter on Facebook… you can find him there and check out some of the videos and other items that he has posted regarding his accident and re-birth.

I’m thankful to know you even in this “virtual” way. I’m thankful that we were able to serve together during a tough time for all of us.

I’m thankful for Peter and his family.

I’m thankful that God has seen fit to reveal to us some of the ways he has been glorified through this tragedy… we aren’t guaranteed that opportunity and though we often demand it… we have no right to it. But for whatever reason… God has given us glimpses of his glory… and we rejoice.

Bless you all.

Update #28 on Peter (from Peter himself!)

2009-11-13T20:47:00.001+08:00

Peter sent me the following update to post on the blog. I’ve known for a while that this day would come… when Peter could write/type to you with his own hands and share his own thoughts. A suggestion if I may… grab some tissues before reading on…

--Scott

=================

On Oct. 14th I got out of the hospital after a 4 week stay. I then went to stay with my parents at Chad and Alicia Edwards’ apartment. Five days a week I have been going back to the hospital in Yong He (the hospital where I was taken in an ambulance and received care). I am slowly continuing to recover from the accident. I have been spending 2 hours a day in the Rehabilitation department receiving both Occupational therapy such as working on regaining the coordination skills in my left hand such as putting pegs in holes with chopsticks, and working on printing in both English and Chinese. I have also been receiving Physical therapy which focuses on training my central nervous system to override what my inner ear is not capable of doing right now which is to balance. They began re-teaching me to walk with a walker, then to walk without one after a week or two, and then began creating obstacle courses made up of stepping up and stepping down as I moved across a ten foot space with bars and then without. I am coming close to not requiring continuation of Rehab as I can almost walk a straight line which was their objective and now am able to write with my left hand (still rough looking as mine always have been). I have been told by my mom that I still do look a little like Jackie Chan in the “Drunken Master,” (movie) because of my periodic staggering as I walk. But I am maneuvering (with some assistance) the streets of Taipei City, which is at least as busy and crazy as downtown Manhattan. As you know I don’t drink but this helps my mom to lighten up these moments for herself (I think).

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle. From the moment I was hit crossing the street to about 14 days after that, I don’t remember much of anything. Because of this, I have been spending a good part of the last 4 weeks healing, doing rehab, and trying to catch up on what took place during this time. I have been reading the blog Scott so generously created, notes of encouragement in the log book that Jennifer Reynolds, my team partner started the day of my accident, email letters, Facebook messages, photos and videos of me during this time. All of these sources have been such a blessing in putting these two weeks back together for me. In a way, I am grateful for the loss of memory in regards to remembering the pain of being hit as well as the emergency care and brain surgeries (one to put the brain monitor in and the other to reduce pressure in my brain by removing a blood clot and excessive bleeding).

A very special letter from a 9 year old little girl, Eden Udell, arrived at the hospital from Missouri which drove home the seriousness of my injuries. It had been written the first week of my accident. She said “I hope you get better or if God wants, you can go home with him. You are in God’s hands”. This was especially moving and loving because she comes from a family whose second oldest daughter, Mirium (at only 15 years old), was killed in a car accident in which she had fatal head injuries. They weren’t able to relieve the pressure in her brain in time to save her. The Udell family loves me (Peter) very much, so this hit very close to home and brought up memories & pain of the loss of Mirium, and the discussion within their family of “What do we pray for, Mommy, when someone might die?” What do you pray for when a loved one is in critical condition that might give you peace? I think Eden said it best! Miriam died before Eden could know her but Eden knew and loved Peter, so it was scary for even her.

Eden is one of 5 children of Jack & Trish Udell’s. Jack is an ER doctor and Trish an English professor. During my 4 years in college they became my adopted family in Joplin, Missouri spending Thanksgiving, Easter, and they saw me through getting shingles during my 6 month internship at College Heights 18 months ago.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, visits, letters, and encouragement. These efforts have meant so much to me and made such a difference for me. Going through this experience has caused me to ask a lot of questions, come up with few answers, and ponder many things. So many people have been so good to me in so many ways through this experience that it has caused me to think God has been at work in many people’s heart’s in many ways and people have responded in amazing ways. I have been so completely impressed by how people have prayed for me, encouraged me, and worked together to help me. It has made me ask myself the question, “Am I worth all this love, kindness, and trouble people are going through for me?” Everyone has helped me so much it became a fairly difficult question for me to answer. Maybe I have been thinking the wrong way, thinking of myself like some sort of asset that needs to have enough value to be worth all this effort and work and kindness done on my behalf? Maybe God does not weigh and value the same way that I do. When think of what has happened since the accident I am overcome by thankfulness because no matter what my worth, God has poured out so much love and grace through so many people it is amazing to me. This experience has also reminded me that my life is not my own, each day of life is given to me from God. I think that through many of you God has poured out His love, kindness, mercy, and help - on me.

We saw my neurosurgeon Dr. Zheng last week at Yonghe hospital and he told us that I am making great progress and he doesn't anticipate any further medical difficulties (as far as brain neurosurgery is concerned) unless I felt some unexpected pain come up. He also told us that I would be able to fly to California from his perspective in regards to brain pressure but recommends we check with the ENT doctor. I went to the ENT doctor next. Dr. Liou did a review of CT scans, and did an exam of my ears and eyes. He said that I could fly but not to pop his ears or fall asleep during taking off or landing due to trying to avoid further ear pressure. I was also informed by the ENT that I need to stop doing anything that causes pressure by straining my body such as when you do pushups on the parallel bars, or holding an L on them [like I did last week]. This is because he explained my ears are fractured which has caused a hole in the vestibular area [a para- lymphatic fistula] which causes fluid to escape, causing vertigo. My vertigo will improve as the hole closes. My right ear is significantly worse than my left.

We went to NTU (National Taiwan University) 2 weeks ago for cognitive testing with a psychiatrist (5 weeks after the accident) in an effort to create a baseline assessment. Today, the Rehab brain trauma specialist Dr. Lu, and the psychiatrist Dr. Shu, stated that I performed cognitively in the normal range for a non- injured patient. This was good news! Some of the subtests indicated a need to work on short term memory skills. The doctors said this was very typical for patients with similar brain injuries to mine. The recommendation was to provide me with 6 weeks of intervention sessions to work with me on short term retrieval. I had my first session today and it was great! My first assignment is to use a daily log, monthly planner, and to notice what I find particularly challenging for me this week in regards to short term memory. The doctors explained that short term memory for example is remembering what you did that day or what took place in a telephone conversation. They expect that I will make very good progress.

Each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, all of my teammates and team leaders of Team Expansion go to Lao Dong, an hour and a half east of here. This is where, for 40 years, Ted & Bev Skiles started and have run an orphanage for babies and the placement of them. Ted & Bev are referred to as the grandpa & grandma of all the missionaries. My dad and I will be joining them this year. This will be a very special time of celebration for my dad and I as all of my friends/coworkers have been through every step of the trauma of my accident and recovery with me. I am looking forward to seeing joy on their faces after such a difficult ordeal for all of us. My mom is flying home this Saturday so that she can get back to work. My dad will stay with me until I can fly back for a short visit during the Christmas holidays. I am getting more and more independent but it will be nice to have my dad move me back to my place in Banchiao before he leaves Taiwan permanently. Then, hopefully, after talking to my elders at College Heights, Shepherd of the Hills, and getting my Visa set up for my second year, as planned prior to my accident, I can fly home with my dad for a Christmas visit.

Update #27 on Peter

2009-10-30T18:23:00.001+08:00

I have a few updates about Peter and some pictures below the updates…

I’m going to share these updates with bullet points instead of taking time to organize it all into paragraphs. I’d rather get the info out there to you sooner…

The physical therapist at National Taiwan University Hospital remarked that Peter’s long-term damage should be fairly minimal since he woke up from his coma fairly soon.
Peter can continue his therapy at the Gengxin Hospital (where he has been since the accident). They are doing a good job.
It is expected that people suffering brain trauma like Peter have experienced will have some problems even 6 months to 1 year in the future, even if they were never in a coma. So, the progress may be slow, but looks good for Peter looking a year into the future.
The therapist gave Peter 3 words – black, happy, bicycle – and periodically asked him to recall them… he immediately remembers, but forgot them after a few minutes. This does mesh with what most of us have already known. Peter does have some short-term memory issues. We don’t yet know when and if this will improve… time will tell.
On November 4th, Peter will have a psych evaluation focusing on memory and cognitive functions. There will be a follow up appointment on November 12. It will be good to have some standardized and quantitative testing and results to measure Peter’s progress. The test on November 4 will serve as a baseline.
Peter got a big laugh out of this test… the therapist wanted him to do “jazz hands”. His right hand was pretty jazzy… but his left hand’s jazz factor = zero. But that was a week ago… maybe his hands are more jazzy now.
The other day, Peter was with friends at a food court and he tried walking with his tray of food. Although we all appreciate Peter’s willingness to *try*… his friends were a bit worried… and so was Peter. His balance and walking just isn’t up to that yet. Still improving though!
Peter’s balance problems stem from fractures of 2 bones in his skull (occipital and temporal) and problems in his ears (possibly including fractures of the tiny bones in the ear). Here are pictures of the skull bones and the ear for your reference. Click for a larger image.

The doctor he saw at NTUH and Dr. Zeng agree that Peter’s chance of full restoration of hearing and balance is about 90%. No time frame can be given for this… but it is great news.
His therapists have started making Peter step over objects placed in front of him. This requires him to stand on his own on one foot for a few moments and transfer his weight differently than just walking.
Peter and Claudia and Rick all attended the church in Yonghe last Sunday AM.
Claudia has been sick for about 10 days. She is feeling better now, but is thankful that Peter and Rick and others have been able to help her through this. She’s also grateful to Dr. Lin, our local doctor, for his care and concern for her.
Peter joined Craig and Jennifer for a team meeting this week. I’m not sure any of us would have guessed he’d be doing that less than 40 days after his accident.

Here’s the pictures I mentioned…

Peter riding the subway to his appointment at NTUH. The noise of the subway bothered his ears.

Peter working the bar at therapy. This is his first time working with the 2kg weight added… moving up from 1.5kg.

Peter is getting tired of playing with the blocks, but you wouldn’t know it by this picture. He is so full of joy.

Working with the therapist lifting some weights. Notice he is strapped in since he can’t stand up and work with the weight at the same time.

Peter is learning to walk again.

Peter with his friend Roming. Roming came to the hospital for a few hours every morning after the accident. Thanks to his employer and family for allowing him to come serve Peter and his family during this time.

Peter putting round pegs in round holes… and yes, I think that is a giraffe in his left hand.

Peter with his team leader, Craig Thompson. Although many people have been involved in many ways with Peter’s recovery, the heaviest burden was borne by Craig and his wife Karen. This was taken on the day Peter left the hospital.

Update #26 on Peter

2009-10-21T15:56:00.002+08:00

What do the following pictures have in common with Cardinal Tien Hospital in Yonghe, Taipei County, Taiwan?

PETER
BENNETT
IS NOT IN ANY OF THEM!

He did his PT this AM and is already checked out of the hospital… He moved to the Edwards’ apartment and recovery continues.

Tomorrow morning he has a very early appointment with a physical therapist who specializes in head trauma patients so it will be interesting to see what she thinks.

Thank you all for your ongoing role in Peter’s life.

Thoughts Over the Last Four Weeks

2009-10-20T08:54:00.000+08:00

I’m posting this at the precise minute of Peter’s accident 4 weeks ago.

Those present will probably remember it as the longest day of their lives. Sometime during the day… afternoon(?)… Jennifer Reynolds purchased a spiral notebook which could serve as a journal and record of Peter’s accident and recovery. We invited all visitors to write something themselves… either to Peter or his parents or perhaps a prayer.

As we celebrate Peter’s amazing recovery over these past 4 weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to share some selections from the notebook.

Here’s page 1.

And here is a later page. People have written in Chinese and English and many draw pictures.

“Peter, this will change you. This has changed us. It does not change our God’s love and redemption of the The Terrible…”

“We thank you for your help in leading the bible study…”

“God will help you to pass this mission… Don’t give up…”

“With all this positive loving energy I am so happy I’m able to be here with you.”

“I beseech You, O Lord God of Heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of Peter…”

“You talked! You said, ‘thanks’…”

“Peter, you are the most popular patient in the hospital…”

“Perhaps you’re with God and visiting heaven during this time. Hey! Do remember what God tells you as you could share with us.”

“Peter, we still have a couple of movies to watch together.”

“Peter, I just came from Bethany school. Everyone there seemed to know about your situation and had been praying.”

“Dear Brother Peter, Maybe I didn’t know you before, but as we are all family of God…”

“The ICU nurses said you were singing to them last night.”

“Your mom and Jen stayed with you the first night out of the ICU.”

“I told Rick and Claudia that you’ll teach me how to dance. So I’ll wait for it.”

“I’m so pleased to witness God’s healing power on you.”

“Peter: You are talking a lot.”

“You look great today.”

“… told Peter in a very special way that at no point during any of his care was he ever anything but respectful, kind, and loving. He never embarrassed our Lord, his parents, his family, or himself.”

“Peter has studied the Bible for the past 5 nights like a man drinking water after being thirsty. He was up until 1AM reading/studying.”

“Peter, I am honored to have met you. I lost my sister to a car accident 1.5 years ago. God is gracious in all ways. We must always honor God with the time we have.”

“Peter, I know you know this but God has big plans for you.”

“We came to see you and were surprised to find an empty room! So glad you were able to be out for a while!”

“You are back to your old self…”

“… we can ride bikes together soon.”

“Peter’s back ministering!”

Claudia to the ER doctor that received Peter: “Thank you for saving my son’s life.” The doctor’s reply was, “It was God not me.”

“The ICU nurses were thrilled to see how well Pete was doing. They brought him into the ICU and showed him his bed and what took place here.”

Back in the mid and late 1990’s, I watched my father-in-law put up a fierce fight against cancer. During the most difficult times of that battle, he would choose a verse or a passage of scripture to focus on and meditate on and draw strength from. One of those verses was Psalm 77:14. From the time of Peter’s accident until now, God has led me to Psalm 77 over and over again… to drink and drink from the living water of His Word.

If I had to pick 3 words to describe God’s grace to humanity, I might choose the words of Psalm 30:11…

“mourning into dancing…”

But if I could choose an entire Psalm to expound on those 3 words, I think it would be Psalm 77.

1 I cry out to God without holding back. Oh, that God would listen to me!

2 When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I pray, with hands lifted toward heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts.

3 I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.

4 You don't let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray!

5 I think of the good old days, long since ended,

6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and think about the difference now.

7 Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again show me favor?

8 Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed?

9 Has God forgotten to be kind? Has he slammed the door on his compassion?

10 And I said, "This is my fate, that the blessings of the Most High have changed to hatred."

11 I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

12 They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.

13 O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you?

14 You are the God of miracles and wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

15 You have redeemed your people by your strength, the descendants of Jacob and of Joseph by your might.

16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths.

17 The clouds poured down their rain; the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed.

18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook.

19 Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters – a pathway no one knew was there!

20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

(New Living Translation)

Update #25 on Peter

2009-10-19T23:04:00.000+08:00

I mentioned previously that I probably wouldn’t update every day now that Peter’s progress is so steady but I didn’t expect to go this long without a post. I’m planning a longer post for tomorrow to coincide with the passing of 4 weeks since Peter’s accident so this post should get you up to speed on most of the big things.

Peter’s mom and dad were able to get visas to stay in Taiwan until November 23 at which time they can renew them for an additional month if needed. Thank you for praying for the visa situation. Thank you to those who helped figure out who to talk to and which offices to visit to get this taken care of. It is another example of how people have stepped in with expertise at just the right time.

Peter continues to show improvement. His physical therapy is going well. Peter’s spirits and attitude remain positive.

Peter is scheduled to check out of the hospital on Wednesday morning and then stick around for physical therapy that afternoon. After physical therapy, the plan is to move Peter to Chad and Alicia Edwards’ apartment because it will be more convenient for his continuing care than to be at Peter’s own apartment in Banqiao. Chad and Alicia are currently in the USA and have graciously allowed Peter and his family to use their apartment in whatever way is needed.

On Thursday, Peter has an appointment with a rehab doctor at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) who specializes in neuroscience and has experience with traumatic brain injury.

Rick and I standing in front of the main doors to the hospital. If I recall correctly, this was the morning Rick arrived in Taipei and he came directly to the hospital.

Rick and Claudia with Dr. Peter and his wife Sarah. Angels.

Peter with one of his physical therapists working on walking.

Peter and Jen-Jen. Jen-Jen’s father’s funeral is this Saturday, October 24th.

This is a poor quality cell phone camera snap that I took when Peter was at physical therapy.

And this has nothing to do with Peter… as will be immediately obvious… but I *have* to share this with someone and you all are the biggest audience I’ve got. I took my daughter to school the other day and the dog and pig that live in a pen together at her school were hanging out. I give you two pictures of a dog sitting on a pig.

Update #24 on Peter

2009-10-13T14:03:00.001+08:00

I was able to take Peter to physical therapy yesterday. I didn't get the description of his activities quite right. He actually goes 2 hours a day now, from 2PM to 4PM. The first hour is primarily for his left arm and the 2nd is primarily for walking.

The horizontal bar with the slots is actually a metal stand with pegs on the vertical rails. The bar can have weight attached to it. Peter had 1 1/2 kg attached and told the therapist this was just the right amount... not too easy and not too difficult.

The activity with the rings and pegs is not described correctly, either. It isn’t a board with short pegs up on the wall, but a metal stand on the table with several (6 or 7?) long vertical skewers sticking up, all of different heights. The skewers start off with blocks on them. Peter takes off the blocks and stacks them on the table. Then he puts the blocks back on the skewers.

I wasn’t there for the walking therapy, but I got to see where it happens and there isn’t anything special to report about it.

Peter takes the physical therapy very seriously. He not only goes to PT for 2 hours a day, but he tries to do extra work in his bed and his room. He can get out of bed and squat or kneel on the floor. He can do some pushups from his knees. He can practice standing up out of his bed and sitting down again. He clasps his hands in front of his chest to do this.

Overall, Peter continues to improve. There are some physical limitations and his memory still causes a few problems… but balance and hearing are still the most noticeable issues and they are the ones that frustrate Peter the most. Overall, the progress is still evident.

One thing we would like to ask you to pray about at this time is visas for Claudia and Rick. They came to Taiwan as quickly as possible with no time to get a visa. It was more important to just get here to be with Peter. US citizens can stay in Taiwan for 30 days without a visa and that time is almost up. Some friends are working to get this taken care of starting yesterday and today. We’ll keep you posted.

After I started this post and before I finished it… Claudia sent me this picture that she took when I was leaving the hospital today while Peter was still at PT. You can see the device with the skewers and blocks in front of Peter and the left side of the picture captures one vertical rail on the device where Peter lifts the horizontal bar up and down. Peter and I may or may not be laughing about having to re-enact the goodbye for the camera.

Update #23 on Peter

2009-10-11T18:02:00.000+08:00

I have some more information about Peter’s physical therapy.

Peter goes to PT every day from 2PM to 3PM. To go to PT, he has to get in the wheelchair and go from 10th floor down to 1st floor and then out of one building, down a short alley, and then into another building. Then he goes up to 5th floor for PT.

Originally, he was to do 1/2 hour of movement with his left arm. And then 15 minutes of electrical stimulation and then 15 minutes of heat therapy. I’m not sure if they still follow this plan. I asked Peter what they had him do for his left arm. He mentioned 3 things:

Using both hands, Peter grabs a horizontal bar attached to a weight by a cord that runs through a pulley into a box. He pulls this bar towards him, lifting the weight.
Peter uses both hands to grab a different horizontal bar that is not attached to anything. He places this into some slots cut into wood in front of him. He then removes it and places it into slots up a little higher. He keeps removing the bar and placing it higher.
He takes rings in his left hand and places them on pegs on a board on the wall up above his head. Then he removes the rings.

Peter says there is a spot on his shoulder that *really* hurts if touched, but that his arm is more sore and weak than painful. He is already gaining strength and we are now almost 100% certain that the weakness is due to bruising in his shoulder and not because the brain is not sending the right instructions to the arm. This is good news as it means that it will most likely heal with time and more therapy.

I asked Peter about walking and balance therapy. He said they are teaching him to walk again. He stood between parallel bars and tried to take steps using his own arm strength for support. He also stands on a stationary treadmill and tries to stand straight without touching the supports. If he is successful, the therapists give little pushes to see if he can regain balance. If is doesn’t regain balance, Peter says they use the “wedgie technique” to keep him from falling… they grab the waist of his pants and hold him up.

A few days ago, Peter was able to use the walker to get across the room and back to his bed. This was not easy for him and he was very tired and very dizzy after the trip. Yesterday, Peter used his walker to go across his room, out the door, turn left, walk about 12 meters down the hall, turn right, walk about 12 meters past the nurses station, turn right, walk about 20 meters to the end of the hall to look out a window and see Taipei City, with Taipei 101 in view. Then he made the return trip. It does seem like Peter’s balance problem is related to his hearing problems so it will probably take some time until his balance is restored to normal. There is dried blood on Peter’s eardrums and this affects his hearing in addition to any other damage, if any. Apparently, it is not practical to try to clean this blood off so it another thing that is only helped by time.

It is easy to see Peter’s progress. Peter understands that he was in a serious accident and as a result, he will have to re-learn many things. He is working hard to re-learn them and has a great attitude so far. I wanted to know how Peter was feeling. I asked him, “Peter, do you feel happy? Are you sad? Are you worried or scared? How are you?” He said that he was very happy and that he felt fortunate to be alive and to know of so many people who care about him and his family. I don’t feel there is any reason to doubt that this accurately describes how he feels.

It is possible that Peter will leave the hospital soon. He will continue various kinds of therapy for some time. His family is working out the next steps for Peter when he leaves the hospital, but we do know for sure that he can’t fly for one month.

Through Peter’s accident, many people from all around the world have become a community of sorts… perhaps we all feel like we are a part of Peter’s extended family? I get this impression and I think it is a good thing. One person in this new extended family who was never far from Peter’s side during the first few days was our Taiwanese Christian sister Jen-Jen. Many who read these posts know Jen-Jen. It is with sadness that I share that her father passed away last Sunday. He had been in poor health for many years, but it does not lessen the pain of this loss for Jen-Jen or for her 4 brothers or her mother. She was able to visit Peter today for the first time in a week and she giggled with joy while telling me of her visit with Peter and about Peter’s improvement since she last saw him. Peter’s attitude, disposition, humility, determination and faith are able to bring joy even to one who is mourning the loss of her father.

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever!
– Psalm 30:11-12 (NLT)

Update #22 on Peter

2009-10-08T08:43:00.001+08:00

I missed a day yesterday. I probably won’t post every day now. There is still great progress, but the measured progress we see in Peter doesn’t lend itself to regular updates.

I wish to apologize for a couple more graphic lines in the last update. I understand that each reader will have a different threshold as to the level of detail they want to read or can read regarding Peter’s accident, injury, and recovery. I did not wish to even approach that threshold and certainly did not intend to cross it, but I did. Peter’s story is sensational on its own, it certainly doesn’t need to be sensationalized and I apologize. I edited out the lines in question.

I saw Peter walk with a walker on Tuesday night and he was gripping it HARD and adopted a “surfing” style… with one foot in front of the other the whole time. On Wednesday afternoon, I saw him again and he using a style more like regular walking most of the time. It is hard to use a regular walking style with a walker anyway… but in less than 24 hours he was already making progress. It is clear that the biggest problem Peter faces with mobility is not physical strength or communication with the brain, but balance. Peter’s balance is definitely a big issue right now, but he is getting better all the time. He now sits up without support for long times (20+ minutes). For those who visit Peter, we encourage you to try to help him take a walk across the room or to the bathroom about once an hour.

One way to look at Peter’s recovery is to compare his current status with his status right after the accident. According to this scale, it is easy to see improvement. There is so much improvement, that even the word ‘improvement’ doesn’t capture the scope of the improvement. Chris Sanford saw Peter last Friday and saw him again yesterday and the improvement was very easy to observe.

Another way to look at Peter’s recovery is to compare to “the old Peter”. Peter, if you are reading this, you are not old although you walk like an old man now! Using this scale , it is more difficult to assess Peter’s recovery, but I think it is still possible. When we consider Peter’s daily improvement in some task or skill and then imagine continued progress for a period of days or weeks, “the old Peter” comes readily to mind. For example, if Peter’s walking improves over the next 10 days at the same rate as it did over the first day he was walking, we probably won’t be worried about his walking any longer. I’ve seen nothing that causes me discouragement when looked at in this way. Even Peter’s hearing is improving each day in at least one ear.

So, no matter which way you look at Peter’s recovery, there is much to be happy about and to celebrate. Peter knows he is still in for a bit of a fight to regain all of his pre-accident abilities, but he has shown great determination to do what it takes to recover as quickly and as fully as possible.

I don’t have more info at this time, but do want to mention that Peter took his first trip to rehab yesterday afternoon. He went to the other building in the wheelchair and he was to start working on strength in his left arm and maybe some walking, too. I’ll try to let you know more about this in a later update.

Update #21 on Peter

2009-10-06T19:32:00.001+08:00

Two weeks ago today, all of the Team Expansion missionaries in Taipei met at 9AM at the Taiwan Christian Church Yonghe building for a presentation by our mission related to child safety.

It isn’t uncommon for Peter to be a little late for something, but usually we would hear from him if he was going to be late.

Craig called him, but Peter didn’t answer. We figured he was on his bike and didn’t hear the phone and would be there soon.

At about 9:20AM, our team was discussing whether or not it was realistic for missionaries to think that they had a right to expect special protection from bad things because they were serving God. I don’t think everyone spoke up, but those that did expressed that there was no such guarantee. Personally, I was shocked that anyone would believe such a thing, but apparently it is a common, if not prevalent, belief among missionaries.

During this discussion, Craig’s 17 year-old son called with news that Peter had been in an accident and that there was a police officer at their house waiting to talk to Craig. The police officer would not say more. Craig and I jumped on my scooter and drove to the apartment. The police officer still would not tell us any more about Peter, but only the hospital where Peter was taken. Unfortunately, he told us the wrong branch of the hospital and Craig and I spent many nervous minutes in traffic driving to the wrong hospital when we could have actually been at the correct hospital in about 3 minutes.

Fortunately, the church secretary, Joanna, had made some calls and figured out that Peter was actually at the closer hospital. She also found out that Peter had a major head injury. While Craig and I turned around to head back to the correct hospital, Casey and Allen came over to where Peter was taken and were the first to arrive. They were soon faced with the shock of seeing their friend and co-worker in agony. The only bit of good news was that Peter was moving his limbs. The rest of Peter’s co-workers arrived within minutes.

Craig and I were actually the last ones to arrive at the hospital. When we arrived, we immediately came into a room in the ER where doctors were looking at CT scans and X-rays of Peter’s head and upper body. The only life threatening injury they found was a large fracture on the back of Peter’s skull. We met Dr. Zeng and he suggested the intra-cranial pressure monitor. I then went in to see Peter. My wife, Angie, and I sang “Jesus Loves Me” although there may have been others there singing too.

Craig’s wife, Karen, had the important – but horrifying – task of notifying Peter’s mom and dad. During the next several minutes, many people were involved in things such as: the decision to put in the ICPM, the decision to move Peter to another hospital or remain here, recharging cell phone minutes, contacting Team Expansion’s prayer coordinator, etc. Each person shared the load.

But this story is about Peter and his God.

Right now, I’m sitting in Peter’s room listening to him speak fluently in English and Chinese to visitors. Yesterday, I said that his verbal abilities were about normal. I should clarify just a bit… his vocabulary is almost back to normal, but his rate of speech is probably about 80% of normal and occasional slurring of speech. This is not a concern, but just wanted to be clear about my previous statement.

In the last 3 hours, Peter has walked with a walker (he says he is like an 85 year old man) around the room and later used it to get to the bathroom. He took a ride in the wheelchair around to the other side of this floor where he could look out windows and see Taipei 101 and other buildings he would recognize. He stood with my help for about 10 minutes as I showed him some landmarks to help him get his bearings. I pointed to the intersection where the accident occurred. At this intersection is a Starbucks that Peter, Jen and Craig met at for weekly team meetings. He remembered these meetings and that he liked blueberry bagels from Starbucks. Seeing the city from the windows really helped him remember more of the city.

He is sitting up more and he is not so dizzy today. His balance is still a big problem, but that may improve with time and as he gets up and around more. He is concerned about his left arm because the shoulder bruise and pain. He can only lift it up about halfway but the right hand can go straight up. He was just showing this to Christy and Mimi and when he raised his left arm (halfway) he said, “Mr. McCain” and then he raised his right arm (all the way) and said “Yes we can”.

Peter is getting ready to eat some beef noodle soup for dinner. He’s teaching his dad how to eat it and encouraging his use of chopsticks.

I know there is still *much* room for improvement and still *much* uncertainty… but I can’t stop smiling right now thinking of Peter’s improvement and promising future. Tomorrow I may feel differently, but for now, I’m smiling.

Update #20 on Peter

2009-10-05T20:36:00.001+08:00

This is the evening of the 14th day since Peter’s accident. In about 12 1/2 hours, it will have been 2 full weeks. Those scary first few hours linger in our minds, but Peter is recovering well and the future is promising.

My wife, Angie, and I just got off the phone with Peter. It is amazing to talk with him. He knows who we are. Jen Reynolds is there with Peter (as is Peter’s mom, Claudia) and Jen called to give me some updates and we asked to talk with Peter. I thought it was nice that upon greeting Peter he asked, “How have you guys been doing?”

Verbally… Peter is almost completely fine. Amazing. He still says a few interesting things… but they are more like things that Peter would normally say. For example, Jen was telling Peter about how she has been showing his mom how to ride the MRT (subway) and Peter said, “Jen knows the MRT better than anyone. If anyone knows the MRT better than me, it is Jen.” This is exactly something Peter would normally say.

Peter’s memory is coming back, but he still has trouble recalling many things. The best news is that he is able to recall things from all stages of his life and all the places he has lived. We have good reason to believe that his memory will continue to improve. Another positive thing about Peter’s memory is that he seems to be able to make new memories now. For example, he has no original memory of being hit by the car, but he does know he was hit by a car based on the information people are giving him the last few days. It might be good to try to teach Peter something totally new right now just for the purpose of seeing if he can retain it.

Peter’s balance is the most obvious difficulty (unless you count the 27 total staples in his head). Peter knows his memory is still poor at times and is even more aware of his problems with balance. He now understands that he is neither 1) on a boat; or, 2) in a spinning building. Tonight he told Jen that his “balanceability” is not so good.

I’ll mention hearing here since there may be a connection between his hearing and his balance. Peter says his right ear doesn’t hear very well, but his left ear doesn’t hardly hear at all. The doctor’s test indicate the opposite is more likely. Peter is able to discern right from left and is pointing at the ears as he talks about them so we are all a bit confused about what his hearing is really like. We do know that he seems to hear certain frequencies of voices better than others. He still typically hears men better than women, but some men he hears better than others. He hears me fine at a normal conversation volume when I speak to him in English, but he can’t hear me at the same volume when I speak Chinese.

Hearing and balance centers are both located in the inner ear. Both ears have sustained damage. We’ve been told that the nerves are damaged, but not dead. If they were dead, the hearing loss would be permanent. Since they are damaged, Peter’s hearing should improve (it is unknown to what degree) over the next 3 to 6 months. Will his balance be affected that long too? We don’t know. It make sense that both are damaged, but we don’t know the correlation, if any, of healing between the two.

Jen was telling Peter about Mr. Lin, the driver of the car that hit Peter, and that Craig told Mr. Lin about Peter’s love for Jesus and Peter’s desire for Mr. Lin to know Jesus too. Peter was able to see the good in this and then he told Jen, “I’m not ready to tell God, ‘OK, God, bring on some more difficulties!’ but I am ready to say ‘God, I’m thankful that you can find ways to use the difficulty.’”

Physically, Peter is improving. His head wounds are healing well. His left leg/knee where he was initially hit by the car is painful. His left shoulder sustained massive bruising from hitting the pavement. That arm moves well from the elbow down, but shoulder movement is really painful and difficult for Peter. Jen told Peter that she could slap him from that side and he couldn’t stop her because he only has 1/2 half of his ninja skills. Peter replied, “I’m going to have to work hard to get my ninja skills back." He has been playing catch for a few days already. His writing is improving. He can use the TV remote. All of these things add up to good progress. Hopefully his balance will clear up soon to give him more time on his feet.

Peter says that he feels like an old farmer. What? He said it is like he has put stuff away somewhere and when he goes back later to get it, he can't find it. It is like these things he needs are locked in the barn.

Claudia emailed me these pictures to share. They are from a couple days ago. Peter looks even better now. Click to see larger images.

Peter looking out over Yonghe with help from Roming.

Peter playing catch with my son, Zachary

Peter in the wheelchair the first time. He wasn’t as out of it as he looks. He was getting tired of posing… lol. From L to R: Scott, Zach, Jen, and Allen

Update #19 on Peter

2009-10-04T17:45:00.001+08:00

I've had quite a day (unrelated to Peter's situation) so I'm going to rely on a recent update from Jen Reynolds and add a little at the end of her report since I just came back from seeing Peter.

FROM JEN:
Peter is starting to remember more things about the people who are visiting him, such as trips to the movies or out to ride bikes. I asked him why he was in Taiwan and he said 1) to study Chinese 2) to be a missionary. He remembered he lived on the blue line of the MRT but someone had to tell him what station was closest to his house. He gets frustrated because he can't remember names. He said it is like the names are locked in his brain and he has lost the keys.

When we asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom he said "I bet there's just people lining up to help with that job." It was nice to hear him use a little sarcasm.:-)

I was sitting by his bed working on a Bible study when he turned over and saw my Bible. He asked me what book I was reading so I told him it was my Bible and he could see it if he wanted. He took it and flipped through it and noticed Psalms. When I asked him what his favorite Psalm was he said "Psalm....2. No, Psalm 1." So I read it to him in English and Gary read it to him in Chinese. Then Gary showed him Psalm 23 and we asked him if he could read it. He tried but instead of saying it in English he kept trying to translate it into Chinese as he read. So Gary helped him read/translate it. After he was done he said "I like David's Psalms. They really encourage me."

When he ate supper he was able to feed himself with chopsticks using his left hand. I was surprised at how well he did. Tonight when Craig, Sam, and Jesse stopped by Peter knew who they all were and he knew that Peter Thompson was in America. He was telling them about the accident and he said "I got hit by some special sauce from a tornado or something." Then I told him it was actually a car, or maybe it was Craig. He said "Yeah, Craig probably hit me on purpose." Then he laughed and said it wasn't his suggestion that Craig hit him, it was mine. I asked him if he was trying to get me in trouble and he laughed again and said yes. It's so interesting because I feel like he knows me but doesn't remember me. Does that make sense? He knows how old I am and he said tonight that my Chinese is better than his, which is something he used to say before (which after hearing him speak this week might not be true!) and he knows I'm a missionary here but he doesn't remember that I'm his coworker. But at least he remembers my name now.

Today his friend Sally was there and when she would sit on his right side and talk in a normal voice Peter could hear her but when she would go to his left side he wouldn't be able to hear her. I think that's really strange/interesting because he can't hear most of us on his right side but he could hear her. It has to be some kind of frequency thing. And he was able to pop his jaw back into place this afternoon when he would get lock jaw. So that's helpful if we don't have to call the doctor every 10 minutes!:-)

FROM SCOTT:
Peter now knows that he was in an accident. He understands that there is a reason for everything he is experiencing... the head wounds, the pain in his shoulder, the hearing loss, the dizzyness, the memory problems, etc. Although Peter talks about being in an accident and he talks about things "before the accident" and "after the accident" he can't remember anything about the accident although I have personally told him upwards of 10 times in the past week. He does remember soccer practice, Chris McCain breaking her arm, being very tired, and what we ate for lunch at my house on Saturday before his accident on Tuesday morning. That was the last time I saw Peter before the accident. If any of Peter's coworkers or friends saw him between Saturday afternoon and the accident, maybe you can ask him about that time and see if he remembers. We are curious where his memory stops.

Almost all the funny things Peter says now are on purpose... telling jokes and kidding around.

It was interesting to be in the room when Sarah and Dr. Peter visited Peter this afternoon. These two men named Peter are now connected forever, but had not met face-to-face until today. When we told Peter how Dr. Peter helped him, Peter was gracious as always. He is getting an idea of the scope of his injuries and the great effort put forth by many people to help him through this time. He is grateful.

Peter asked for his computer today. I want Peter to read this blog and your comments in his own time, but considering his progress to this point, he could be reading about his story very soon.

I have some pictures to share, but will have to wait for another update.

If I could take a bit of liberty with Peter's blog here... Taiwan is currently awaiting the arrival of at least 1 and maybe 2 typhoons in the next couple days. Typhoon Morakot caused a tremendous amount of damage back in August. People are frightened by these impending storms. Please pray for safety and peace here in Taiwan. Thank you. Bless you.

Update #18 on Peter

2009-10-03T15:27:00.001+08:00

Today is a big holiday in Taiwan. It is the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. The church our family helps with is hosting a community BBQ and movies/cartoons and I need to head over to the party in just a few minutes. It will probably run late so I’ll take a few minutes now to give an update on Peter’s progress today.

He is speaking more clearly each day. Since he has been out of ICU, I believe he is improving by 50% to 75% each day over the day before. He is saying fewer unintentional funny things… but more intentionally funny things and that is great.

For example… while Peter’s dad and friend, Roming, were feeding Peter some breakfast, Roming was using chopsticks to feed Peter. Peter held up both hands and waved them around a little and said, “Bam! Look at this! I can feed myself with chopsticks without using my hands!”

When he looked at all the pillows on his bed, Peter said, “I must be the pillow king or something.”

Peter fed himself at lunch with a spoon with the tray in front of him. He held the spoon in his left hand which is great. He is left handed, but his left arm is *very* sore and not as coordinated as the right yet. He held the rice bowl to his lips with his right hand and shoveled the rice with the spoon in his left. Perfect form!

Peter sat in a chair and looked out the window and asked questions about where he was. He did ask if he was in Yonghe (he is).

Peter talked about his former roommate Derek and wondered what Derek has been up to lately. Derek, maybe you can email me with some things to tell him? He isn’t sure if you are in Taiwan or in America right now.

Peter is doing much better at verbalizing his needs… like when he has to go to the bathroom, when he is thirsty, when he is tired, when he is full, etc.

Peter remembers details of things that don’t seem very significant. For example, he remembered a set of chopsticks his friend Christy used today. She had forgotten them at Peter’s house for a while and he recognized them. Remembering these insignificant things, is actually a significant step in learning what he can recall from the past. You’d expect he would know important things, but maybe not things like the chopsticks.

He is now on some medicine that will hopefully help control Peter’s dizziness. He still asks if he is on a boat.

I have to run, but I’ll leave you with this… when Peter had to get to the bathroom with his IV attached (it isn’t attached all the time) it took 3 of us to help him get there. As we arrived at the toilet, Peter said, “Why would anyone go to the bathroom alone when you can go with 3 of your friends?”

Update #17 on Peter

2009-10-02T18:30:00.001+08:00

Back in the first 5 or 6 days after the accident, it was easy for all of us here with Peter to keep up with the latest news about his situation. Often, several of us from the churches and the mission team were at the hospital together praying and sharing. When the doctor gave us some news, many of us heard it first hand and then we each called everyone who wasn’t there to hear it. I’ve mentioned before that the news is coming more rapidly now and it just isn’t possible for all of us to know everything Peter is doing. It isn’t possible for *any* of us to know everything. So, in recent days, you’ve noticed the blog taking a more personal slant towards things that Peter does and says when I am with him. I’m only with him a few hours each day and there is more to his story than I can tell because of this. I am able to give a few snapshots that I hope can accurately portray Peter’s recovery, but I rely on others to fill me in on major things and share stories with me.

I was with Peter for a few hours this morning and have a few things to share from that time, but Allen and Jen were with Peter after I left and had much to report. To keep this chronological, I’ll write of my time with Peter first and then cut/paste from Allen’s report of what happened after I left.

When I arrived, Claudia (Peter’s mom) told me that Peter had dislocated his jaw earlier that morning. He has a habit of pulling his jaw to crack it or his neck or something… so I figured that he did that. Actually, he was just yawning. They called in a dentist and he came after about 30 minutes and quickly put the jaw back in place. Peter dislocated his jaw 2 more times while I was with him and one of the residents came right in to fix it each time. We don’t really know why this is happening, but Peter is more aware now that it happens when he yawns so he’s trying to keep his mouth from opening so much when yawning.

I asked Peter if he knew how old he was. He said 9 and 13 in the midst of a rambling answer, but I didn’t really think those were his answers. I had him look at my 11 year old son and guess how old he was. He said “Well, Zach was probably 7 when I met him so he’s probably 13 by now”. Not a bad guess, in my opinion. Then I asked Peter if he thought he was older or younger than Zach. He wasn’t sure but finally guessed that he was 19 years old. I told him he was 28 and he said “Wow! I’m getting really old!” I said, “I’m 38, so what does that make me?” He said that I was “an official old man”. When Claudia shared her age with Peter, he said, “You are old!”

When I asked him what year it was, he thought a while and answered 2004. I told him no and he guessed 2005. I said it was later than 2005 and he guessed 2000. When I told him it was 2009, he said, “Wow! Time is really flying by!”

Two days ago, Peter talked a lot about “millions of dollars”. Yesterday he talked a lot about “flavors”. Today’s topic is “Mexico”. He works Mexico into most conversations. He saw Japanese soccer players on TV and thought there were a lot of Mexicans playing soccer. When he saw all the nurses and doctors today, he expressed amazement that so many Mexicans could speak Mandarin.

This afternoon, Peter was to go to another building in the hospital for a hearing exam (more on that later). We were told we could try to put Peter in a wheelchair before then to test if he would be prohibitively dizzy when sitting up in the chair. If he wasn’t too dizzy, they could take him to the hearing test in the wheelchair, if he was dizzy they would have to take him on a bed. This was a wonderful experience. He did *great* in the wheelchair. He really enjoyed getting out of his room and seeing the hallway. When we passed the nurses station, they all waved at Peter and said hello to him. He responded with “li ho” which is “hello” in Taiwanese.

When we got to the end of the U-shaped floor (at a dead end) there was a window that looked out over Taipei. Taipei 101 was partly visible behind another building and low clouds. Peter was able to see 101 and he asked if the weather had been cloudy like this for a while. He asked how far we were from Los Angeles. He looked out over the city and waved his hand around and asked, “So this is not technically a part of Mexico?” Allen kept his poise, but I had to duck and run with laughter. After a few more comments about Mexico, we guessed that he was thinking of Tijuana instead of Taiwan.

Here’s the report from Allen…

Peter has been a bit confused about where he is and why he is here. He asked if he had been hit by a curve ball. When told he was hit by a car he responded, "that's really crazy." He has been having trouble distinguishing Chinese people from Mexicans. It is hard for him to figure out what language he needs to speak to whom. He'll say, "that's really throwing me off". He even greeted the nurses in Taiwanese. Evidently he has also been saying sentences in Latin. How many languages does he know?

He has asked to look at maps to help him figure out where he is. He sometimes asks if Taiwan is by Mexico. We showed him Google Earth which helped but it didn't seem to click for him until his mom drew a map of America and Taiwan on paper. His comment was, "Taiwan is a booger is the Asian ocean."

He had to go for an ear test today. On the way he saw himself in the elevator and noticed his head was shaved. He said, "oh, the hardcore Mexican look, essay," and then spoke bunch of Spanish slang that I didn't understand. When we got downstairs he looked at me and asked if he needed to speak Belgianese to me (because he remembered I was born in Belgium). Just as we arrived at the ear test room he got his jaw locked. He has been dislocating his mandible when he yawns and then has to wait for the doctor to set it back in. This causes quite a bit of discomfort for him. After a while he looked at us and with all seriousness asked with his locked jaw, "if you slap me really hard will it go back in?" At the ear test they were only able to test his right ear. He was so worn out just getting there that he kept falling asleep. He could hear 85 decibels but nothing quieter. His left ear has been hearing better than his right. We were told he won't have to test again until he is ready to leave the hospital

A physical therapist came to see Peter today. He was very encouraged by Peter's motor skills and dexterity. He said that in the case of head injuries, patients with this kind of mobility usually have a very good recovery. He said they cannot know how long it will take for his mind to clear up but that it happens slowly and at a different pace for everyone. It is encouraging to hear a hopeful outlook for recovery.

NOTE FROM SCOTT: In the hearing test on Peter’s right ear, Allen reported that Peter could hear nothing lower than 85dB. A telephone dial tone is 80dB. City traffic from inside a car is 85dB. Normal conversation is between 60-70dB. Peter’s left ear is much better than his right. I regularly sit or stand by his bed and speak in my normal speaking voice and rarely have to raise it for Peter to hear me. I do think he has some trouble with certain frequencies. He doesn’t seem to hear women as well as men. But, then again, most men seen to have trouble hearing women from time to time, right?

:-)

Update #16 on Peter

2009-10-02T08:31:00.001+08:00

I hope to post once a day, but I fell asleep on my couch last night and didn’t get one posted on Thursday.

Peter continues to improve. He is eating well. Maybe this is ‘Too Much Info’ for some of you, but Peter is also able to recognize he needs to go to the bathroom and *with help* can stand up out of bed and sit at a portable potty chair to urinate and have BMs. Then he needs help with clean up and back in bed. This is important for Peter in many ways. The point of impact on the back of his head is close to the area that controls the digestive system so it is great to know that it is working properly and his brain understands that he needs to get out of bed and get to the potty. This also helps Peter continue to practice sitting up and standing up and battle the dizziness he feels when doing so. It also stimulates Peter to verbalize some things about what is going on.

Peter’s bandages are off of his head wounds. They are drying nicely, but are very itchy. Peter is doing better at understanding why his head itches and why it feels like it does and we tell him he can lightly touch or pat the wound but can’t pick at it. The impact wound is closed up with 20 staples and is about 15cm long. The place in front where the pressure monitor was implanted has 7 staples and is about 5cm long.

Peter says some really funny things. We can’t help laughing at a lot of what he says. Sometimes it is relevant to the situation, sometimes not. But he seems to have moved beyond nonsense words and there is usually a point to his speech although it is not always immediately clear. It is entirely normal for people with head trauma to hear everything people say, understand what they say, know how to respond, and then respond verbally only to discover later that the words that came out were different from what the brain wanted the mouth to say. This seems to be Peter’s situation, too. It will take 1 to 3 weeks for the blood and extra fluid in the front of his brain to be absorbed so we should continue to see improvement with his speech in the coming days.

Here are some things Peter said or did today:

He often mentioned ice cubes, but I think it was almost always in Chinese… bing kuai (冰塊)

He expressed on a few occasions that he realized that his words weren’t making sense to those around him.

When someone talked with him about food, he said “you can’t defeat watermelon in a bite-for-bite competition”.

He talked *a lot* about flavors… fruity flavors, American and Taiwanese flavors, ice flavors. Best line of the day for me was this trilingual gem about (we think) ice cream “Zebra wei dao con nuts”. “wei dao” is “flavor” in Chinese and “con” is “with” in Spanish.

When I asked Peter “Who are you? Do you know who you are?” He said something like, “I think I must be a prince or a king or something that I’m usually not. Something that isn’t normal. I like it.” I guess being surrounded by maidens feeding you fruit and giving you foot massages will make you feel like a prince or a king.

When I told him that he was crossing the street and was hit by a car and that his head broke the window on the car he said “Wow! That is crazy!” and later “That’s pretty cool” about a few things related to the accident and his recovery.

He thought he was in America and that he was going to go to Taiwan.

He ate pineapple and watermelon in addition to his lunch of rice and veggies.

I’m taking a shift with Peter in about 30 minutes so I need to post this and get over to the hospital I’ll try to post another update tonight.

Update #15 on Peter

2009-09-30T23:14:00.001+08:00

I can’t post fast enough to keep up with Peter’s progress.

One story I forgot to tell you from yesterday… sometime in the evening, Dr. Zeng came in to see Peter. He stood at the end of Peter’s bed and told Peter something like “Peter! Wake up! There are pretty girls all around your bed!” Peter opened his eyes… looked around the bed… and although there were some pretty girls around him, it was far from surrounded. Peter scanned the room… and closed his eyes again. Was that a bit of a smirk some saw on Peter’s face?

This morning, Peter’s mom, Claudia, came in for the 7 – 11 shift with a bag from McDonalds. She sat beside Peter’s bed and opened her McMuffin (or something similar). After a couple minutes, Peter looked right at her and said, “You’re eating a McDonald’s hamburger!”

Before I continue, I should mention that just 24 hours before this, most of Peter’s words were unintelligible and he said very few sentences at all and didn’t verbally respond to much that he saw (or smelled) around him. Back to the story…

Claudia picked off a small piece of bread and gave it to Peter to eat. He wanted more and more. She gave him some ice cubes which he immediately crunched and swallowed the water and small bits of ice. Then, she gave Peter a bit of egg from the sandwich. BUT PETER HATES EGGS! I expected him to just eat the egg… but as soon as it touched his lips, Peter said, “That is eggs!” and then “I hate eggs!” He might have said a bit more, but I was hiding beside the bed so he wouldn’t see me laughing. When I stood up again, Peter said, “You are trying to trick me!” and then, “I can’t trust you any more.” Then he said, “I like chicken. Even if it costs one million dollars, I want some chicken.” Isn’t that awesome? He closed his lips to more bread at first, but opened them eventually and started to trust his mom again. We were so happy to see this reaction to people and food and his likes and dislikes. Later, he got his chicken, of course!

A few minutes after “The Egg Incident”, I had to grab Peter’s right hand because he was grabbing at his feeding tube or something… I was holding it tight and I was looking right at him telling him why I stopped him. He looked right back and said, “I’m mad. I’m mad at you. I’m so angry with you!” I told him that was OK and that I loved him anyway. Then he furrowed his brow a little and said to me, “I’m giving you ‘angry eyes’! I’m filled with rage at you! I’m filled with outrage!” I was really glad to see this little outburst and his new ability to communicate his emotions and feelings. On a related note, it was good to hear Peter talk about his pain today. We’ve *known* he was in pain, but it is important for Peter to be able to communicate it to us and he’s started doing that.

Peter’s catheter was tied off this morning to test if Peter would feel the pressure on his bladder and maybe try to communicate a need to urinate. I don’t know the details of this test (and I most likely wouldn’t write them here if I did) but I do know that Peter’s catheter is out.

With the addition of food and liquids in Peter’s mouth today, it was a possibility that the feeding tube would be removed. It was! The catheter and feeding tube caused Peter MUCH distress and those are both gone. I do believe that he was able to understand what we were telling him the last couple days about why those tubes were present and what he could do to speed their removal.

Before I left Peter at about noon, we were tossing one of the balls I mentioned in the previous update back and forth. I was at the foot of his bed and we were gently tossing the ball. He caught most of my throws. After I gave Peter a goodbye hug, high five, and fist bump… Dr. Peter’s wife, Sarah, took over playing catch with Peter.

Peter identified many of his visitors today and was engaged in conversations and answered some questions.

Oh… almost forgot! Peter stood up today! I don’t know the details and I can’t wait to hear the story from those who were there at the time, but apparently Peter just all of a sudden swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up! Today was the day to try that anyway, but apparently it happened very suddenly and surprised everyone. I don’t know how long he stood, but is another big sign of progress even if it was just for a second. I think he got up at least one other time later.

What a day! Although we have a great deal of good news to share… please remember to keep praying for recovery and healing as you give God praise and glory for what he has already allowed us to see him do in Peter. Bless you all.

Update #14 on Peter

2009-09-29T15:21:00.001+08:00

It has been one full week since the accident.

I’m finishing up 8 hours with Peter and I’ve seen much improvement during my time with him.

Probably the most fun today was when the Yankees and Royals were finishing up their game. The Yankees are *HUGE* here in Taiwan because Wang Chien-ming is from Taiwan. Peter’s dad, Rick, and I decided to turn on the TV for Peter this morning and I found the baseball game. Peter isn’t a big baseball fan, but he often looked at the TV. Right as the game was ending, Peter started talking about Pete Rose and sliding into 2nd base. He talked about the importance of sliding naturally and not forcing it too much. We had a somewhat disjointed conversation that was focused on sports. Peter has said a lot of other things today… some have made sense… some not so much. At one point, he said “Leonardo” a few times… maybe talking about Ninja Turtles? We weren’t sure. He also said, “Daddy’s boy” when looking at his dad. The ball game is being replayed on TV now so maybe he’ll talk more baseball later.

Last night, on a suggestion from Bev Skiles, I put a pen in Peter’s hand and gave him a pad of paper. He was immediately interested and knew what to do. He wrote his name phonetically in Chinese and wrote at least the “Pe” in his name. He later added the Chinese characters to the page along with a lot of marks that we can’t decipher.

I brought in 2 balls for Peter to play with today. One is smaller and fits in his hand. It is covered with little spikes. I hoped he would use it to exercise his left hand as it shows less strength than the right. He has used it in this way occasionally. The larger ball is also textured and we’ve kept it at his feet most of the time and he likes to kick it, roll it, and squeeze it at the end of the bed.

Peter has sat up on a few occasions today. He sometimes tries to do this himself without prompting, but he has allowed us to sit him up each time we’ve told him what we want and start lifting him. We need to sit him up to start learning if he gets dizzy. As long as he isn’t too dizzy, we may be able to stand him up. So far he has sat for almost 10 minutes at the longest, but gets pretty dizzy so he isn’t ready to stand yet.

The ear, nose and throat doctor stopped by earlier and gave him a few tests. She can’t tell a whole lot until Peter is more able to respond with precision about what he hears and doesn’t hear, but she took a large piece of dried blood out of Peter’s left ear and a smaller piece out of the right. That had to help his hearing.

When Christy left a couple hours ago, Peter waved. Craig stopped by for a short time and when Craig left, Peter gave a high five and a fist bump when Craig asked for them.

He gave a BIG smile once when he saw Jen-Jen’s camera.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to explain this new phase we are in… and I wonder if this will work: for the first week, Peter was taking slow but large steps on the road to recovery. Now we seem to be in a part of the journey where the steps are much smaller, but also are faster. These steps are all in the right direction at the moment.

Update #13 on Peter

2009-09-28T17:00:00.001+08:00

At about 1:30PM on Monday, September 28, Peter was moved from the ICU to a regular ward in the same hospital. It is a double room but Peter is the only patient in this room so it is nice to have the large room to put our stuff down and we can also move around a bit.

I haven't seen Peter for a couple days, but was here during the transfer and am typing this in his room although I'll need to go out of the hospital to find good internet access to post it. My impression? He's looking good and doing well so far. If you just walked into his room and saw him for the first time after the accident, you might think he is not doing so well. But to those of us who have been here since the first hour... the progress is clear and hope reigns.

He is down to the following tubes: a catheter, an IV in his femoral artery, a feeding tube in his nose, and oxygen in his nose as well. The bandages on his head look good. The wounds on the back of his head (the impact with the car windshield) and the front of his head where the ICPM was implanted are stapled and look as good as is possible. Just to Peter's left of the place where the ICPM was implanted is a wound with a few stitches where a shunt was used. Peter's fever went down last night so it seems that the infection is gone as well.

It is still VITAL that we protect Peter from infection, so the family and his immediate caregivers have decided to not allow any visitors for at least the next 48 hours with very few exceptions depending on Peter's condition. If you come to the hospital, it may be possible to get updates and chat with others, but please don't expect to see Peter until his condition improves.

As long as someone is holding his hand, it is possible for Peter's hand to be free. It is best for Peter if his hand is free to exercise except that he desperately wants to touch his wounds, take bandages off, and mess with the IV or other tubes. Someone needs to be in charge of that hand 100% of the time. To have both hands free, 2 people are needed... one for each hand.

Peter's foot is ticklish. There are many other small improvements or assurances like this.

Peter has some fluid coming out of his right ear and Dr. Zeng said that he would ask for another doctor to come and try to check his hearing.

Since the news is mostly very small increments these days and probably will remain so, I may have time to share a few pictures or other things about Peter on here, including a timeline of the day of the accident. I can’t promise, but I’ll try.

PETER HOLDING HIS MOTHER’S HAND

PETER’S MOM AND DAD WITH (FROM L-R) RENEE, JEN-JEN, A-WEI, AND JOANNA

DURING THE PRAYER TIME COMMUNION

PETER’S MOM TALKING WITH DR. PETER IN THE CHAPEL

Update #12 on Peter

2009-09-27T22:39:00.001+08:00

The praise and prayer time was great. There were about 50 people in and out between 2PM and 5PM with probably about 30 people present in the small Catholic chapel on the 12th floor where we took communion together and sang some impromptu songs in English and in Chinese. There were prayers of thanksgiving for the healing Peter has already experienced and prayers of petition for continued healing. People prayed for the driver of the car (Mr. Lin), for Dr. Zeng, for Peter’s nurses, for other patients in the ICU, for far away family and friends, and for Peter’s mom and dad. This was a special time for calling attention to the things God has already allowed us to see him do and a plea for strength and courage to walk in faith when and if he chooses not to reveal his ways or his reasons.

Some people at the prayer time took photos. If you send those to me, I can put some of them up here on the blog.

We are all riding the roller coaster now. You know Peter was to move out of ICU on Saturday but because of the small bleeding discovered that morning, he remained in ICU. We were told he would be in the ICU 1 or 2 more days. Later, Peter eased our disappointment about the bleeding by giving more signs of recovery. At the close of the prayer time today, we heard that Peter would move out of ICU on Monday morning. A couple hours later, we found out that Peter has a low grade fever indicating an infection of some kind. This may or may not affect him moving out of ICU. We don’t know any more about the infection at this time.

The infection could be from many things. Some are remedied more easily than others. We do know for sure that Peter still has abundant phlegm in his airways and needs to get that out. He is coughing a lot but probably needs to cough more. Have you ever had a headache and then coughed? You hated it, right? Imagine Peter’s headache and realize that he is coughing regularly and is being asked to cough more frequently. To aid the breakup of this phlegm, Peter is being turned side to side every hour and undergoing percussion on his back either from the nurses or a machine. Percussion involves repeatedly striking the back with a cupped hand in order to break up phlegm. Percussion is often used for this purpose (most parents probably have done it with sick kids) so it isn’t related to Peter’s injury, just the effects of being stationary and the tubes in his throat.

As a result of the infection, Peter is only allowed minimal visitors. His parents are able to visit almost anytime, but no other visitors are allowed except on rare occasions and only by doctor or nurses orders. Peter has to beat this infection.

Peter’s mom and dad are thankful for the love expressed by all of Peter’s friends (and friends of friends) around the world. Please remember to pray for Claudia and Rick because they are dealing with a wide range of emotions and experiences. They are holding up well, but Dr. Peter did take time to remind them that they are not as helpful to Peter if they are too tired or become sick. Once again… Dr. Peter comes through with perfect advice, right?

Bless you all!

Praise and Prayer Time

2009-09-27T00:00:00.001+08:00

This is not going to be a formal event… there is no order of service… actually, there is no service.

It is more like and open house type event. Please feel free to stop by for a while, sign the guestbook, encourage one another, pray together, etc.

TIME: 2PM to 5PM

PLACE: Cardinal Tien Hospital Yonghe Branch 耕莘醫院永和分院

The hospital has 2 buildings. We will meet on the 12th floor of the building that is back off the main road.

ADDRESS: 台北縣永和市中興街80號 Yonghe City, Zhongxing Street, #80.

Update #11 on Peter

2009-09-26T21:47:00.003+08:00

In the last update we shared what might be a step back for Peter. The latest CT scan revealed some bleeding at the front of Peter’s brain. We now know that this bleeding is not a cause for great alarm, but it is disappointing and kept Peter from moving to a regular room which would have been a big (although mostly symbolic) step towards recovery. This discovery of new bleeding today is the only step back that I can think of during Peter’s recovery so far.

The bleeding was disappointing news, but Peter is providing other forms of encouragement: He has begun talking, saying some things that don't make sense but some things that do: “I can't hear you” (in English) and (in Chinese to his mother)「我在講中文。你聽不動。」 which means “I'm speaking Chinese. You don't understand.” He also smiled at his mom and dad, and hugged his mother.

So… we continue to be reminded that Peter is still in serious condition, but we also take heart as a result of obvious and rapid improvement in Peter, too.

Today, Peter was given some water on a q-tip to drink. He seemed to really enjoy this.

Dr. Peter gave a good summary of the issues Peter is facing and has already faced.

During the first 24 hours, the brain pressure and risk of hematomas were the most important issues to control. These were taken care of and are no longer a concern.
The blood discovered by the new CT image today is from an abrasion on the brain caused by impact and scraping of the brain on the rough surface on the inside of the skull. It is about 1 cm in size. It is not cause for alarm at this time. If the amount of blood continues to increase, there will be a surgery like the one Peter had on Tuesday night to remove the blood. For now we wait and see if it increases or is absorbed.
The accident caused bleeding from both of Peter’s ears. This bleeding could perhaps indicate linear fractures on the side of Peter’s skull. It is possible (perhaps likely) that one eardrum was ruptured. These are not small issues, but they are trumped by #2 above – the new bleeding. These are really not a concern at this time.
Sputum in Peter’s lungs. He is working hard to get this up and out. It’s presence raises the risk of infection. Although we hoped Peter would move out of ICU today, the truth is that the ICU is a better place for Peter to deal with this sputum.

Peter’s Intracranial Pressure Monitor has been removed. It is another risk of infection and now that Peter is awake, his activity will be enough of an indication as to any problems with pressure in his brain. That little device played a big role in saving Peter’s life on the day of the accident. Lord bless the hands of people who can make those things!

I’ll post about the Praise/Prayer time in a separate update in just a few minutes.

Update #10 on Peter

2009-09-26T12:52:00.001+08:00

This morning, we received word that Peter would have another CT scan and would await the results before going ahead with the plan to move Peter out of ICU and to a regular room.

This decision was proven to be made with wisdom as the scan did reveal some intracranial bleeding. This bleeding is different from the bleeding Peter experienced in the first couple days. The earlier bleeding was *outside* the brain. This bleeding is *inside* the brain. I wish I could tell you exactly what this means, but I just got the news and thought it best to get the news to you now than to wait for the exact details.

Obviously, the bleeding is not good news. But, this does not change all of the good news we were able to report in the last update EXCEPT that Peter will remain in ICU for 1 or 2 more days. It is good news that the doctor decided to take another CT scan and found this new bleeding. We definitely wouldn’t want Peter moved out of ICU but not know about this bleeding.

I’m headed to the hospital soon and if I find out anything relatively quickly, I’ll update this post. If it takes a while to learn anything new, I’ll post it in the next update.

Update #9 on Peter

2009-09-25T22:06:00.002+08:00

Big news today so I'll get right to it.

Peter will move out of ICU in the morning. We don't know what time. His condition has improved to the point where he needs out of the ICU in order to recover. The ICU is 24 hours a day of bright lights and activity. This is a great place to be when you are sedated and your life depends on the observations of nurses moving throughout the room. But when you are awake and alert and trying to regain your normal life, you need sunlight and daytime and nighttime.

We praise God that he has willed that Peter make rapid progress up to this point! Can I get an "Amen"?

This morning when Claudia and Rick visited Peter, they came out very discouraged because Peter was sedated and there was no opportunity to see any progress from yesterday. At lunchtime, the person now known as the "American Angel" showed up and took Peter's parents to lunch at Subway. The "American Angel " is named Alicia and she doesn't know Peter, but heard of his situation and is in Taipei so came by to lighten the load. After lunch, Peter's friend Roming took Peter's parents to Peter's apartment in Banqiao which was a tough thing for them to experience. Roming was hoping to take them out to see a little bit of the city to take their minds off of heavier things, but I never heard if this happened or where they went. They arrived back at the hospital this evening with discouraged spirits...

Those spirits would soon change!

At 7PM they went in to see Peter. Jen-Jen accompanied them as a translator. When 15 minutes passed, we all suspected something good was happening in there. Shortly Jen-Jen came out with eyes, face, and body *full* of JOY!

Peter's eyes were open.
Peter was looking around.
Peter was moving (and also controlling) his arms and legs.
Peter was trying to speak, but had a tube in his throat so there were no intelligible words.
Peter was blinking.
Peter's eyes were moving together and seemed to focus on and track faces.
Peter was responding to requests to cough.
Peter was annoyed by the tubes and seemed glad when we tried to explain what they were for.

During the visiting time, Peter had a tube in his throat. The tube somehow helps rid phlegm from Peter's airways. Before Claudia left his side, the nurses removed this tube. By this time, Peter was very tired and his throat was probably very sore from the tube so he didn't speak. We think he will tomorrow.

I previously mentioned that the nurses would give him liquids today. I saw this while I visited Peter's bedside tonight. They gave him milk in a syringe through a tube in his nose.

Peter's score on the coma scale is now 14. Remember that this scale is for people who have experienced head trauma. A perfect score is 15, but that doesn't mean that Peter is fully recovered... it just means that his trauma has been managed to a point where we can begin to learn the degree and extent of brain damage. Obviously, we hope and pray there is zero.

We will know more in the coming hours and days.

With Peter's improvement and moving to a regular room, I've been asked to share the following about visitation:

Please do - come to the hospital to gather with friends and family, show your support, share information, sign the guiestbook, and more.
Please do not - go directly to Peter's room. It is important that the number of visitors to Peter's bedside remain low for the time being. It is possible you might get to see Peter, but you should visit with the understanding that seeing him is unlikely at best. We must do what is best for Peter.
With Peter in the ICU, the gathering point has been an area to the left when you get off the elevator on the 8th floor. At least for Saturday, this will remain the gathering point. If you visit. Go to the 8th floor gathering point.

We are planning a praise and prayer time for friends in the Taipei area on Sunday from 2PM - 5PM. Although at the time of this posting, we don't really know what we mean by this! I'll give more details tomorrow when we know more. Keep the time in mind, though, if you are in the area.

There is a picture that Peter's mom wants me to share here on the blog. She posted it to her Facebook profile so it is possible that some of you have already seen it. It is a picture of Peter from the day she arrived. It is of Peter in his bed and you can clearly see the various tubes he is hooked up to. Personally, I support her decision to share the picture. I think it can help people process and understand. However, it occurred to me that some readers may not wish to see Peter like this. So I decided to post the picture at another website and link to it. You make the call. If you want to see it, click the link below. If you don't want to see it, you don't have to. The photo is not graphic in any way. It is sad to see Peter like this, but remember that he is *much* better tonight and most of the tubes you see are either already removed or will be removed in the morning.

click here to view the picture in a new window

Peter has been helping me coach soccer to kids 4 to 12 years old on Saturday mornings. We will all miss him tomorrow, kids included. Perhaps he'll be back on the pitch sooner, rather than later.

Your prayers are powerful and effective. The family thanks you.

Update #8 on Peter

2009-09-25T12:58:00.002+08:00

Peter and his family are so appreciative of your love and concern. The stat tracking for this blog kicked in last night and you won't believe the number of hits and the locations people are reading from. I'll share that in another update, though.

Many of your comments either here on the blog or on Facebook also address me or other of Peter's teammates. Often, your comments are to all of us. On behalf of the mission team here and Peter's mission organization, Team Expansion, we thank you for your concern and prayers and encouragement. We are all fortunate to work with such a stellar group of people with a broad array of spiritual gifts, aptitudes, abilities, and talents. The missionaries are here to help local believers plant churches and in over 15 years of purposeful church planting in Taipei, there are now many Taiwanese who are coming to visit us, meet Peter's parents, bring food, help with translation, etc. The list really goes on forever and there are more people who are willing to help than we have jobs for at this time. Some of these people know Peter, some just know of the loving community he is a part of and want to be close. Although the first 3 days were an adrenaline fueled sprint, we are now transitioning to a long term view and able to rest more and get back to some of our regular work as I personally was able to do this morning. Peter and his family remain our first priority.

I do have some updates about Peter's condition today.

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but on Wednesday night, Dr. Peter said he believed he saw a small epidural hematoma (on the CT scan) of the same type the emergency surgery addressed on Tuesday night. It was too small to be a big concern but was worth keeping an eye on. Turns out Dr. Peter was right and it technically is a hematoma because it is blood on Peter's brain. But, we have since found out that it is from a small sponge left inside Peter's skull for the purpose of absorbing small amounts of blood. It is doing its job and will dissolve over time. The sponge looks just like blood without a sponge on the CT scan.

For now, any further CT scans will only be ordered if there is a good reason based on Peter's vitals or behavior. It is better for Peter to be in one place than to be moved to get scans done. If there is some reason (vitals changing, brain pressure rising, etc), they will not hesitate to order scans.

The nurses will start (or perhaps have already begun) giving Peter liquids today. I'm going to try to find out more about how this works and the significance when I visit the hospital later. It could be as simple as putting water in his mouth... but I'm curious as to how it actually works.

The doctor and/or nurses have allowed Claudia and Rick to bring in some music to play near Peter.

Peter has so many friends and is part of so many communities here. In fact, he has so many visitors that we have decided (along with doctor's orders) that we will limit the visiting hours to his mom and dad--with others going in only as we evaluate the situation from visit to visit. This is to limit the chance of infection, and because if Peter is overstimulated, he needs to be sedated and then his parents can't have their time with him.

Thanks again for praying. As well as for Peter, please continue to pray for his mom and dad here and his family back in the States. You can pray, too, for Mr. Lin, who was driving the car that hit Peter. We told him that Peter loves Jesus and that he will someday want to tell him how much Jesus loves him, too. Mr. Lin has been very concerned and has come by to see Peter each day.

I am happy to serve Peter, his family, and our Lord Jesus by posting these updates, but I want to mention that I don't consider this "my" blog. I am merely compiling all the reports (from doctors, nurses, other visitors, teammates, internet research, etc) and putting them here. The previous 2 paragraphs are a direct cut/paste from Craig Thompson's latest email about Peter. Peter is standing alone on the front line of this battle, but all of us who care about him equally share the responsibility and privilege of encouraging him as he bravely fights.

Update #7 on Peter

2009-09-24T21:52:00.002+08:00

Thanks for your continued support and prayer. The family wants me to pass on their sincere thanks to all of you in this outpouring of concern and love for Peter.

I'm not going to make you wait. Peter is improving. This is fantastic news. I do need to stress that Peter's situation is still very critical. We are, however, cautiously optimistic that his life no longer hangs in the balance of each passing minute.

At tonight's visiting time, Peter was moving a bit, but not responding to visitors. At one point, the nurse asked the visitors to tell Peter to try to do various things. He was told to open his eyes, but he could not do this. He was told to grasp another person's hand with his right hand and he did. He did not do it a second time when asked. The nurse put her hand in Peter's right hand and he was told to squeeze and he squeezed hard and the nurse said "good!" She then moved to the left hand and he squeezed her hand with his left hand too. This is great to know that he can respond bilaterally and independently with each hand. The nurse asked Peter to try to nod his head or shake it (indicate yes or no) to several questions related to his pain and how he was feeling. This was very difficult for Peter, but he was able to try to respond and in some cases we feel like we understood his answer. He was told to cooperate with the nurses' requests. For example, he is still moving his legs too much. When they tell him to stop moving his legs, he needs to stop. He did stop moving his legs on command 2 times during this visit. We told Peter about some of the tubes around his face and explained that one tube was to help extract phlegm from his lungs but that he would get rid of that tube faster if he could cough on his own to bring it up.

I can't say for certain what he understood and didn't understand, but he is very much trying to respond to stimulus. This is absolutely great news.

Peter received too many visitors tonight. His vitals started rising and he needed to rest. More on this in a moment (below).

Dr. Peter told me that Dr. Zeng raised the score on the coma scale from 9 to 12 because Peter was verbal today. Personally, I felt more like it was 11 instead of 12, but I'm an accountant working as a missionary and Dr. Zeng is a neurosurgeon so I'll revise my score up to 12, too. Even small improvements can change this score dramatically.

Peter is breathing on his own. He could have done this before, but the machine was helping his body relax and focus on restoration of health.

Dr. Peter told me tonight that if Peter had significant brain damage, we would have remained in a coma even after stopping the sedative this morning. He did wake up and worked hard to show us what he can and can't do today. At this time it is impossible to know to what degree Peter will recover but Dr. Peter's observation is good news.

Although Peter's mom said she might sleep at the hospital, this is the first night no one from the mission team is there. Although now that I typed that I realized that it has only been 2 nights. Remember I mentioned the time warping in an earlier post? The important thing though, is that Peter's condition is stable enough that we probably won't have to make major decisions at night and can get rest at home.

I bit of logistics now...
I mentioned earlier that Peter had too many visitors today. I've been asked to share the following:

Now that Peter is out of a coma and is responding to visitors, too many visitors makes him much too tired. He is trying to communicate with people. But it is not in his best interest to do so with each visitor. In fact, tonight, Claudia and Rick graciously let others go visit Peter first and were saving their visit for last, but they didn't get to go in because Peter's blood pressure went up too much as a result of the stream of visitors. Obviously, this is a problem.
From this point forward, Peter's parents will go in first at visiting time. We hope they will take the entire 30 minute visiting time. If they come out before the 30 minutes is up, it is possible that others may have the opportunity to enter and see Peter. Other than family, those who visit Peter are asked to not touch him and to speak quietly unless instructed by a nurse to do otherwise.
Although it is now possible for just a few visitors to go in and see Peter, everyone is welcome to come to the hospital and join the constant fellowship, prayer, and sharing outside the ICU where we are always hanging out.
Dr. Peter's orders here. Please do not come if you are sick or are recently recovering from illness. Peter and all the ICU patients are at extremely high risk of infection. Even if you are feeling better, it just means that your body has successfully fought infection, you could still be carrying that infection with you. We should have been watching this more closely.

Peter is at Cardinal Tien Hospital Yonghe Branch 耕莘醫院永和分院
The address is: 台北縣永和市中興街80號
The hospital has 2 buildings. Peter is in the one off of the main road. In Chinese it is called 住院大樓. Peter is on the 8th floor - ICU.
The hospital website is http://www.cthyh.org.tw and there is some English available, but I have to warn you that the web designer likes the blink tag. If you don't know what the blink tag is... click that link and you'll learn quickly.

Update #6 on Peter

2009-09-24T12:11:00.003+08:00

I just got a call from my wife, Angie, who is at the hospital. Many were able to go see Peter during visiting time. He made some grunting noises with some visitors. The grunting alone is good news...

When Rick and Claudia went in a little later, Peter tried to speak! He tried to say something with an "L" sound. And then he said, "thanks".

I'm passing his message on to you. If you are praying, you are helping and Peter says, "thanks".

There is a long road ahead. This is another step. We celebrate it!

Update #5 on Peter

2009-09-24T10:52:00.003+08:00

Casey Bell and I met Peter's dad, Rick Bennett, at the airport this morning and took him to the hospital. We arrived at the same time as Jennifer Reynolds brought Claudia after she slept a little last night. We all went in together, but Rick and Claudia could not see Peter right away as the staff was changing shifts and then they were changing Peter's medicine.

I left the hospital about an hour ago. When I left, Rick and Claudia were both in at Peter's bedside. I'm so glad we live in a time where they could be here so quickly.

Speaking of time... those of us here with Peter are experiencing a very strange warping of time. The accident only happened about 50 hours ago, but we feel like it was at least several days ago. We routinely find ourselves trying to recall something or some event and we strain to remember it and then realize that it was only 8 or 12 hours ago. I don't share this to gain your sympathy, but just as a matter of information about what it is like to be a part of this.

Here's the latest that I know.
At 8:30AM Dr. Zeng stopped the sedative that was keeping Peter in a coma. He now has a chance to wake up. They don't do anything to help him wake up... they just stop the sedative and wait to see what happens. Obviously, this is very important. The best thing that could happen is that Peter will wake up, look around, and maybe want to talk. All of these things increase his coma score. The worst thing would probably be that he doesn't wake up. If he doesn't wake up, he'll get another CT scan and will try to figure out why he doesn't wake up. If he does wake up and is alert and maybe tries to speak... we enter a new phase of recovery where we can start to learn how badly damaged his brain is and how that damage affects Peter. Up to this point, all efforts have gone towards the first phase of head trauma treatment: to keep Peter alive, manage the trauma, and stabilize him enough to let him try to wake up.

As I mentioned above, when I left the hospital, Rick and Claudia were in with Peter. I have not heard any more about their time with Peter. It is possible that the sedative was wearing off while they were in there and maybe Peter started to wake up. Wouldn't that be awesome?! It is possible that Peter didn't move at all. I'm sorry that I don't know and I won't take time to find out now as any calls I make right now will interrupt visiting time, which is from 11:00AM to 11:30AM. Peter will entertain many guests during this 30 minute visiting time and perhaps he will be awake.

There is always more I could say... but I'll send this now so some of you who get a chance to read it can have time to pray during this visiting time as that could prove to be greatly stimulating to Peter and help him to wake up. I'm not even going to proofread so sorry if something is unclear.

Update #4 on Peter

2009-09-24T00:26:00.003+08:00

Thanks again to everyone for your encouraging words for Peter and those of us here who are trying to help him somehow.

Peter's mom, Claudia, arrived tonight from LA. We took her straight to the hospital. Before she went in to see Peter, she patiently hugged each person who was there in the waiting room and then listened to Dr. Peter (from update #2) explain Peter's condition for her. When she and Dr. Peter went into the ICU to see Peter, many of us left for home because we didn't know how long she would be there and there was nothing we could do. Jennifer Reynolds waited so she could take Claudia back to Chad & Alicia Edwards' apartment to get some sleep tonight. I don't know if they are there yet, but this was the plan when I left the hospital. Craig was going to sleep at the hospital in case he was needed. We try to have people there around the clock.

I only have 3 things to share about Peter's status.

Tonight I heard Dr. Peter say that Peter's skull fracture was 10cm long. This is a very large fracture and it sounds awful. It actually can be a blessing because such a large fracture means that the energy from the impact was largely absorbed and dissipated by the skull instead of by the brain. It also means that the impact was extremely harsh. We hope that the skull absorbed enough of the impact that the damage to Peter's brain is zero.
They took a routine CT scan this afternoon and the image shows that there is no blood on Peter's brain. This doesn't mean that there won't be in the future, but when the CT image is combined with the fact that Peter's brain pressure has remained low, it is a good indication that the doctor has successfully dealt with the initial trauma and that Peter is stable.
In part because of this positive CT scan, the doctor plans to go ahead with the original plan to stop (or lessen - I can't remember for sure) the sedative at 7:30AM on Thursday and allow Peter a chance to "wake up" on his own. Peter's response could tell us many things... or it could tell us almost nothing.

We'll keep you posted as best we can.

In the comments from the last update, someone asked for more info about Peter. It makes sense to share some because many people who have never met Peter or don't even know of him have found this blog and are now following his story and praying for him. Someone please correct me in the comments if I have any of this wrong.

Peter is from California, USA.
He is 28 years old.
He is not married, but as you can see in the picture, he is 100% hunk.
He loves mountain biking (or any biking actually).
He's like the energizer bunny... keeps going and going.
His mom and stepdad and his dad are all in California. Peter has 2 sisters and they are in New York.
He is a picky eater and has somehow turned this fact into an endearing character trait.
I'm not sure of the timing, but I want to say that Peter has lived in Taiwan for about 3 years. He knows so many people and works so well with everyone that it seems like it should be longer than that, but I think it is only about 3 years.
He is a hard worker and this has paid off already in learning Mandarin.
He is in a time of transition from language acquisition ministry to other ministries and seeking God's direction for the future.
I suppose Peter only has one "best" friend... but many would say that Peter is their "best" friend.
He lives in Banqiao.
He has the spiritual gift of encouragement (among others).
He is currently helping as a soccer coach for kids 4-12 years old on Saturday mornings.

Now I've lost control of my emotions again because I had not yet thought of how "Coach Peter" won't be on the pitch with us this Saturday. I'll end here as I need to go get some rest. Bless you all. Hug your kids. Hug your parents. Hug your friends.

Update #3 on Peter

2009-09-23T15:32:00.002+08:00

Thank you for praying for Peter. Thank you for your comments on the blog and on Facebook and via email letting us know that you are praying and that you find the updates helpful.

We are rapidly learning more than we ever wanted to learn about head trauma. We are learning most of the terms and protocols in English and Chinese at the same time since most of us have not dealt with a situation like Peter’s before. We will keep passing on to you as much of what we are learning as possible in order to help you pray for Peter.

In this update, I want to share about the Glasgow Coma Scale. This was a scale that I did not know about before yesterday afternoon. It has become important to us as one way to objectively evaluate Peter’s status and I’ll share with you how it works and where Peter is on the scale.

The scale runs from a low of 3 to a high of 15. It is comprised of 3 different categories with a score for each category and the sum of the 3 categories make up the score on the coma scale. The lower the score, the deeper the coma. The 3 categories are:

Eyes – this category score can range from 1 to 4
Verbal – this category score can range from 1 to 5
Motor – this category score can range from 1 to 6

Yesterday afternoon, we were told that Peter was at a 7. The category scores were as follows.

Eyes = 1 because Peter did not open his eyes
Verbal = 1 because Peter was not making any sounds
Motor = 5 because Peter showed purposeful movement to painful stimulus

In the previous update, I mentioned that Dr. Zeng told us that Peter had opened his eyes. He did not give us more information about this action at the time. He only said that he would lessen the sedative in hopes that Peter might respond to us during visiting time from 11:00AM to 11:30AM. At least 12 people went into the ICU to see Peter in shifts of 2 at a time. Those in first saw no response, but by the end of the visitation period, Peter was moving his legs and his eyes were partially open. He is still heavily sedated so keep that in mind, too. We were all a little disappointed that Peter’s eyes didn’t pop open when we starting sharing all of your names and comments you are leaving for him.

But just after visiting time was over, Dr. Zeng came with some very good news.

He told us more about Peter’s eyes opening that morning. He said that they asked him to open his eyes and he did. He was definitely responding to stimulus. Perhaps this seems like a small thing, but in fact, it is significant enough to vault Peter from 7 to 9 on the Glasgow Coma Scale! We celebrate this change!

We also celebrate that Peter’s brain pressure has remained at around 10 mmHg for over 14 hours now.

These 2 objective measurements are important to note and encourage us greatly. And yet, Peter’s condition is still very serious. We must rejoice when and where we can, but the big picture is still very cloudy at this time.

The latest info from Doctor Zeng is that they will take him off the sedatives at 7:30AM on September 24 and see if he wakes up on his own and how he responds.

We have a small group to go meet Peter’s mom at the airport tonight. I plan to see if we can go in and meet her at the plane and help her through immigration, baggage claim, and customs. It is an unusual request, but please pray we will be able to do this for her.

Most of the readers here are not in Taiwan. To keep it simple, I’m putting all the times as local times here in Taipei. I’ve added some clocks to the sidebar to help you convert if needed.

Update #2 on Peter

2009-09-23T09:49:00.002+08:00

Approximately 24 hours have passed since the accident.

Last night, I took a walk over to the intersection where it occurred. I did this to help me gain a better understanding of what happened. I also saw a picture that Craig Thompson took of the windshield of the car that struck Peter. We are gaining understanding of the timing of the actual accident. It is clear that Peter’s head impacted the windshield and the damage to the windshield is massive. These were sobering moments: to see the accident site and to see the picture of the windshield.

Peter’s mom is on a flight from California at the time of this posting. Her flight is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday night. Peter’s dad was able to get a passport and will, Lord willing, arrive in Taipei early Thursday morning. We plan to bring each of them directly from the airport to the hospital to see Peter.

Today we know a lot more about Peter’s situation than we did yesterday. Longtime friend Dr. Peter Ruan came to the hospital and he was able to speak with Peter’s doctor on a doctor-to-doctor level. Dr. Peter is a radiologist and was able to see Peter’s CT scans and other images first hand. Then Dr. Peter took a great deal of time to explain things to all of us. Actually, we were given so much information during that time, that I know I can’t reproduce all of it for you here. I will try to give you what I feel are the most helpful things for you to know as you pray.

Peter’s situation is still critical, although there have been some reasons for encouragement. He is still in the ICU.

When someone sustains a head injury, it is our understanding that bleeding is the most important issue to be aware of. The severity of the bleeding will display itself by a raise in pressure on the brain. We have learned that normal brain pressure is anywhere from 0 to 20 (measured in millimeters of mercury - mmHg). When standing, brain pressure is often negative (below zero). Although none of us realized it at the time, the decision to implant the Intra-cranial monitor (ICM) was the best first step that could have been taken. Just after implanting the monitor and throughout the afternoon and into the evening, Peter’s brain pressure was between 15 and 25. These numbers were OK. At about 7PM the pressure increased significantly. This increase in pressure indicated a large amount of blood on Peter’s brain. This was a very critical time. He was quickly taken for a CT scan, which revealed a large hematoma on the brain at the area of the skull fracture. Peter was given emergency surgery to deal with this hematoma. The neurosurgeon removed the fractured skull piece which gave access to the hematoma. They collected 70cc of blood which is a significant amount. The skull piece was replaced. There are more details but they won’t fit in this update. The important thing is that as a result of this procedure, Peter’s brain pressure was relieved from 50 to 60 mmHg all the way down to around 10 mmHg. This does not mean that Peter is fine, but if it stays this low (normal) it is a strong indication that the bleeding problem may be taken care of. It has remained near 10 mmHg for about 9 hours now.

Peter is stable and the doctor told us that his eyes are open. It is impossible to know at this time the significance of his eyes opening. It may not indicate improvement, but it certainly is not a bad thing. We will be able to go see Peter in a couple hours and at that time we can speak with him and try to stimulate a response with his eyes or maybe a verbal response.

To summarize key prayer points:

Brain pressure indicates bleeding. Pray for no more bleeding. The procedure last night might have resolved the bleeding. Time will tell. We probably won’t know much for 2 or 3 days.
Decisions made on Peter’s behalf. This weight is heavy. Craig Thompson is Peter’s team leader and bears much of the responsibility.
Peter’s parents’ travel to Taiwan.
Peter’s main doctor and surgeon is Dr. Zeng (曾醫師).
Praise for Dr. Peter Ruan being able to come over and help us last night.

Update #1 on Peter

2009-09-22T19:53:00.000+08:00

On September 22, 2009 at approximately 9AM Taiwan time, our teammate and friend, Peter Bennett, sustained a head injury when struck by a car as he was crossing the street in Yonghe, a suburb of the capital city of Taipei.

I'm sure each person learning of Peter's accident would like to know more about Peter, his condition, and the accident. Those of us who are here in Taipei still don't have a full understanding of what happened. At first, we thought he was on his bike... later we found out he was on foot. My point is that even our perspective is cloudy, but we will do the best we can to make this a place for people who care about Peter to come and learn what to pray about and encourage Peter, his family, friends, and co-workers. Please leave comments and we will make sure Peter's family sees each word.

First... the difficult basic facts of Peter's condition:

The injury is at the back of the head.
Peter's skull is fractured just to the right of center.
Peter's injury is serious.
He is in the Intensive Care Unit.
The next few days are very critical.
The biggest danger seems to be hemorrhaging (bleeding) of the brain.

Second... some of the positive things and encouraging signs:

Peter is moving his feet, legs, arms, and hands.
Peter could breathe on his own if needed but is on a machine to help him breathe for now just to give a little help.
Peter's circulatory system seems OK.
Although the car must have hit Peter's legs, his legs are not broken.
For now, the best news is that the pressure on his brain is under 20. 20 what? I don't know yet. When I know more, I'll share it here. But the important thing to know for now is that anything in the teens is good and over 20 can indicate brain hemorrhaging. This afternoon the monitor was usually between 16 and 18.
Although we can't be physically beside his bed at all times as we would prefer... we have a plan for someone to be at the hospital at all times (in shifts) to continue to serve, pray, learn, and be Peter's advocate.
I'm debating if this belongs in the positive news section, but I'm putting it here... At one point this afternoon, Peter broke the restraints on his wrists and tore the breathing tube out of his mouth. It is impossible to know how purposeful of an action that was, but I appreciate the fight in Peter! There will be times he needs to rest, but I was glad to see that fighting spirit and strong will.

Third... some other information of interest:

Peter had a procedure around noon to implant the intra-cranial pressure monitor. This procedure went normally and he was stable.
Peter's mother is scheduled to arrive in Taipei on Wednesday, September 23 at 8:30PM. His dad is trying to get a passport and make a trip soon.
Peter is an Ozark Christian College graduate. I spoke with Chris Dewelt at Ozark Christian College on Tuesday morning before his first class to ask the OCC family to pray for Peter during classes and chapel today.
We were quickly in touch with the Team Expansion home office and encouraged by their support and prayers.

I'm sorry I can't write more now. We will do our best to pass on relevant details of Peter's situation and progress here in the coming hours and days. We'll share more of the timeline in another post.