copy/pasted original email from my friend
Anyway, this man, Jon, has ran a restaurant they owned for 15 years, he'd run circles around the best of the best in cooks!!!! He'd run circles around anyone, I've never seen any more so fast constantly as I watched him move around the restaurant... The wisdom of this man if you talk to him is unbelievable!!!! He thinks, functions, and has worked like a normal man but just some major medical issues that knock him down for periods of time. He's gone through several back surgeries too.
Anyway, here's what I had wrote to my family and friends the day before Easter.
An Eye Opener to Me About Our Lives:
Hi Everyone,
I just need to share something with you for 2 reasons.
First, A very Dear Dear friend of mine named Foulla, and her family needs our continued prayers and I'm asking each of you to please pray for them as often as you can, and more than anything, please pray for courage, strength and wisdom for the family, as God has shown us that He intends to use the family as a witness to many people over so many years already!
Friday, yes, Good Friday, Foulla took Jon with her to Sam's Club and left him out in the vehicle while she ran in quick. She came out to him being, in her words, "Out and Gone", at first I thought she meant he had wondered off, but no, he was not with us anymore!!! She called 911, they came and tried and tried to resuscitate him - nothing was working, finally they used the paddles on him and shocked him over and over until they got him back. All this going on in Sam's Club parking lot. They ask him the usual questions, "What's your name, Sir? Do you know where you are?" He shook his head "No" not know either but the first words out of his mouth were "Thank You Dear Jesus for letting me share in your pain and suffering on this, such special day!!!!!" What an eye opener to me, about what shows - what's really in a person's heart, when they can come to and of anything that could come out of their mouth, AND not knowing who he was or where he was.... I'm just speechless in awe over Jon's witness of his relationship with Christ!!! May God bless this man and his family ever so wonderfully in Heaven! NOTE TO SOME: Jon's first health problems started at age 19 with a major brain surgery at Mayo Clinic - removing almost 1/2 of his brain!!! He's now over 50 and the problems have continued all these years!!! Yet their faith has shown on through it all....
Now as to the rest of the family, Foulla's oldest has MS and it has taken it's toll on him to the point of him having to go on disability from a great job with Harley Davidson security!! He's in and out of the hospital for 5-15 days at a time too. Foulla will go from work to the hospital to home to take care of Jon and her Mom. And her youngest is dealing with major life - health issues as well, he's been in Racine, Waukegan, IL and is now in Rockford, IL. Foulla has to drive that distance to visit him too. She takes her mother or Jon or her oldest child ever single week on her days off to doctors appointments!!!
People, I'm telling you this family needs our prayers!!! Again, for strength - both physical and MENTAL, courage, wisdom, peace - INNER peace!!! Please especially pray for Foulla, as she is the care taker of ALL of them and she's running weary, having her faith yet, of course, but as a human being, she's about at the end of her rope - feeling empty - thus the PRAYER REQUEST for her and her family....
And again keep in mind these health challenges have been continuous for years, from many major epileptic seizures, one heart attack after another, 2 brain surgeries at Mayo Clinic, major back surgeries at Mayo Clinic, surgery to put a plate in his arm from getting broken during a seizure, and more, besides this last one to surgically implant a morphine pump inside of Jon for the pain he deals with every hour of the day!
And from coming out of his first brain surgery, while in the recovery room at Mayo with tubes coming out of him everywhere, he signals to Foulla for a pad of paper and pencil and starts writing some of the most touching Christ centered poems I've read. He definitely reminds me in a since of the story of Job!!! And may God bless Jon for his faithfulness to Him...
If life looks bad for you or someone you know, please share this story with them, of someone whom has endured endless years, not days, weeks, or even months here, but years of suffering!!!!
Secondly, May We Learn From This Family....
NOW SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BIG BABY!!!
UPDATE ON JON: He is currently in the hospital. He's been there since Sunday by way of a 911 phone call. He was sitting outside when his paralysis hit, the seizure started, down he went, paralized from the waste down. Foulla & 1 son tried to get him in the house by dragging him across the porch. Seizure got so bad they couldn't stop him from thrashing around and cracking his head so hard against the wall Foulla though he broke his neck! Anyway, his current condition is pretty much sedated at the moment and has been since Sunday. He comes in and out of it and makes comments like, "Life's Good Foulla, Life's Good!" or When you asked in the past, "How are you Jon?" He responds with "Well, I must be doing pretty good!!! I'm looking down at grass and not up at dirt!!!" So please continue praying for Jon, Foulla and their family. Your prayers are greatly appreciated!!! Thank you! God Bless...
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