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Update on Gertrudes health. The neurosurgeon decided that Gertrude has had enough time to show improvement. Lacking any tangible improvement calls for surgery. To late in the day to schedule anything. We will be heading to Seattle's Swedish Medical Center to take advantage of their Bloodless Surgery paractice first thing tomorrow morning.

A pioneer and dear friend, lost her daughter in a brutal murder. I curled up with her in her bed as she sobbed. We know how to offer comfort to the world but, how do we comfort a JW? Yes, it "should" be the same but, it's not. We know why God allows suffering, until it happens to us. Feeling helpless, wanting this wickedness to end.

RE: Gertrude 8/9/18 It hs been a rough day. As many noted from my firs t post of the day, the operation was succesful, the Doctor spoke toLelie and I, and was very pleased with Gertie's resilence and even went so far as to say "If she maintains this rate of recouperating she might be released as early as tomorrow afternoon. We just need to get her from recovery and up the to ICU so you can visit her. Expect about 40 minutes before she is settled into ICU." That is when I sent out the happy notices. 15 minutes later he returned to the lobby where we were and said "I am sorry, but your wife is showing symptoms that something is not right, she is loosing function of here right side.We are taking her back to the operating room. It looks like she has started bleeding just beyound the incision area. That is when I posted that things were not good. To add to the worry, they post on a monitor that shows where the surgery paitients are at any given time. It looks much like the monitors at airports that show arrivals and gate locations. We are sitting on the edge of our seats when Gertrude asigned number dissapears form the monitor. We waited an hour, her number stayed gone. Dave Benbrook had come up to lend moral support and he was in tears as the clocked ticked away. Leslie wasn't doing much better. I kept thinking that her last picture might be the one I poster with her great grand daughter. This does not look good. Leslie went over to surgery registation to find where her Mom was. The women at the desk said she went back into surgery so we gave her new number, it has been posted for an hour. "Thanks peoples for not telling us." Another thirty minutes went by before the surgeon came back "So sorry to put you through this, but Gertrude is doing fine and as soon as she is transferred to ICU, she can have visitors." (I think we heard this once before.) THE REST OF THE STORY The second operation was succesful. He decided to remove a little more of the crainium than he prefered, but felt the need to get all of the potential leakers cauterized' As of 6:30 t his eveningshe was wide awake, though drugged. All vitals in the green, taking liguids including chicken soup, which is the hospitals last ditch to cure anything. Both our sons came to see her, the DFd one we hadn't seen in five years. The three of us left Seattle for Leslies house at 7:00 PM. I had been up since 3:30 AM. We started for the hospital at 6:00 AM this morning, a very long day, but all's well that ends well. Again I thank all for their concern and prayers. YB Jerry

Gertie is home to Leslies house for a week to ten days or so of recouperation. Then I can bring her home. Her scars about 8 Inches and 3inches, They gave her a Vince Tayback hat to wear while things heal. (See TV show "Alice") Thanks to all who shared their concern.

Me and Bob, @Dismal_Bliss today at the convention

Update to "Gertrude is still..." Dear Friends, Thank you for you interest and support. The last two days have been more than a little nerve racking. For those that didn’t see my prior description of what my we have been going through I am providing a brief summary: In early April Gertrude came down with the shingles. It ended up that most of the irritation was internal involving her left leg. It was a little difficult to get a diagnosis. She was sent to the neurology facility to investigate the extreme neuralgia pain that persisted when other symptoms had disappeared. While being examined the attending asked a Neurosurgeon to take a look at her. The Neurosurgeon was not concerned about Gertrude’s leg symptoms, but noticed her eyes weren’t tracking correctly. Had she banged her head lately? She had taken a tumble and banged her head on a doorjamb in April, but didn’t even get a headache from it. The Doctor scheduled a series of brain scans as well at MRI of the damaged leg. The brain scan revealed a subdural hematoma, likely caused by her fall. If it showed no increase in size surgery might be avoided, it still required monitoring on a two week basis. If it was shown to be increasing in size surgery would be indicated. Over six weeks of monitoring by brain scans it appeared to be stable, which was good news. The brain scans are done locally with a follow up appointment with the Neurosurgeon later in the week. The DRs appointment is a little difficult as she is located an hour and a half inland, and is almost always delayed by an hour or so. Back to last Monday, as usual we went to the local Newport hospital for the scan, easy peasy. We were leaving and almost to the parking lot when the technician came running after us and said the radiologist wanted to talk to us ASAP. The radiologist was very concerned and showed us the latest scan. The hematoma had increased by a third in size and fresh bleeding was clearly visible. We told her that we had an appointment with the Neurosurgeon scheduled for Wednesday. The radiologist said she would give the Neurology a heads-up phone call. Before we got home, about 20 minutes, there was a phone call from Neurology saying Gertrude’s appointment was now bumped up by 24 hours to Tuesday. We let the family know that the bleed had restarted. I called Swedish Hospital Bloodless Surgery in Seattle (Blood Management is the official program name) Seattle to see if they could fit Gertrude’s potential surgery into this week if needed. I was informed it would not be a problem. Note: there are two closer hospitals that use bloodless procedures, OHU and Legacy both in Portland, but Gertrude had volunteered for many years with the program at Swedish, plus all our adult children live in the Seattle area. There were phone calls and text messages flying back and forth all evening. We had a sleepless night hampered further by a medical emergency next door. Fire engines and emergency vehicles with their flashing lights and motors idling right beside our bedroom window. 3:30 AM was the end of sleep for the night. It was my idea to throw a minimum of overnight things into a bag just incase we had to drive to Seattle after our up-scheduled visit to the Neurosurgeon. The blood issue had not been discussed specifically with her. They do have our ‘Advanced Medical Directives’ on file, but my experience is doctors seldom look that deep into our files and have to be reminded for any procedure. After all the nerve racking, sleep defying previous 24 hours the doctor was a little ho-hum about the whole thing. “Yes, continued bleeding would require surgery, but lets continue monitoring.” “Did you have a fall, or over exert yourself this last week?” Gertrude, “Yes I helped Jerry move a king size mattress Saturday.” Doctor: “That probably upped your blood pressure enough to restart the bleeding, I should have warned you not to do anything more strenuous than walking until this thing is cleared up.” (Now she tells us!) We are now back to square 1-1/2. Monitoring is now every week and I still need help to unload the old mattresses. Thank you all for your concerns and prayers, who is to say that the prayers didn't work? Not me. (Sorry this was so long.) YB Jerry

Its been known that we have the number 1 religious/spiritual website in the world, but there is a lot to be said about being ranked 300 of all websites globally (out of hundreds of millions of websites in the world) and in the top 250 in the US. Featuring our website like we do in our ministry has made a huge difference, and shows that the brothers have a really strong handle on how to get it out there. Also, we can attribute some its popularity to our opposition, as it generates other interests that we many have been unable to generate. https://www.similarweb.com/website/jw.org

This is by no means me saying that others should do the same. Everyone's circumstances are unique and it's something that has personally benefitted me. If I see benefit and less risk in replugging, I might do so. Also I am on Skype and discord, but I'll get into that in a bit So the main thing I unplugged from was Facebook. For me, Facebook made it way too easy to find association with people in the world. I hate to say, but I dated an unbeliever and then talked to others regularly. Pretty much all were people I met or were contacted by on Facebook. When I decided to put my worldly association behind me, I decided the best thing was to eliminate my Facebook profile once and for all. Instagram was a different situation. It wasn't so much affecting my association negatively so much as it was affecting my self esteem. Idk how it is with others, but for me, it's difficult to not compare myself negatively to other people when faced with situations like that. Now I did watch the "be social network smart" video and I recall it touching on that. But when I see things, it's sometimes hard to see that it's not the whole reality. Maybe some of the single ones can give their thoughts on ig too, because I find it's also a lot of images that, while not bad in themselves might make me feel more jealous of people in relationship and how much fun they seem to be having, than I would otherwise be, because all that's shown is the dates, and the flowers and the gifts and not the mundane things or the arguments etc. I mean, it's understandable but it's easy to get a warped view of reality that way. I was never much involved with Twitter and Pinterest often drives me mad. It's just too much muchness. So what are y'all's thoughts on social media? Anyone else felt many of the negative effects of it or have learned to master it like the video taught us XD

Gertrude is still ill and it is looking like brain surgery, we will know tomorrow. Today she is resting and I whipped up a batch of short cake. It is in he oven at this moment. I have prepared a couple of cups of blue berries partial crushed and sugared. I will suprise her when she awakens. If she soesn't want blue berries I have cup of rasberries, her choice.

https://www.postandcourier.com/features/faith_and_values/ministering-to-the-deaf-and-blind-how-religious-groups-accommodate/article_a67f84b6-8b6f-11e8-831a-0f7d169dfe4e.html Good article on how we prioritize reaching the deaf and blind with the good news.

Beware Richard/Tortuga

I'm quite new here, but I am already feeling very nice and warm because of help, love and encourage that are so abundant in here. Although I'm like, an ocean or two away from most of you guys, I'm looking forward to enjoying every post here, at least until Armageddon comes! (Which will destroy any server this website belongs to)

Hay hay hay Baled 5 wagons worth of hay today...

You can imagine how the celibate felt when they discovered celebrate had been misspelled... Just kidding...

Gertrude is scheduled for a Craniotomy in the Bloodless Surgery Program at Swedish Medical Center, Seattle WA Thursday 9:00 AM. The words 'blood tranfusion' did not enter the conversation, which were among the first words uttered by her previous surgeon. Fom here on it is just OLD preaching, pay no attention. (I fail to see why such a small portion of our brothers take advantige of the many Bloodless Medicine facilities, instead accepting their local surgeons word when they say "I won't give you blood," Which promise goes out the window when complications set in. Then your family realizes what the surgeon actually meant was "no blood? OK, I will let you die." This often places a burden on family members not in the Truth, and on the HLC who get a midnite call to fight for you on an issue that could have been resolved by a little more forsight and perhaps traveling just a little further to support these hospitals that serve our brothers.) Thanks again for all the kind thought and prayers you have expressed in our behalf The Lytles

I liked that one. It was just some guy in the late middle ages. In the Resurrection he'll probably be like "people thought I was Jesus? "

My Wife and I and my Daughter and her Husband are here! We were able to talk to Brother Lett for a few minutes yesterday. Service day was my personal highlight so far. I worked with a Brother that spoke no engligh and I speak no Georgian but we will be friends for life. He talked to a few people on the street and made a couple of his RVs. I could tell he was a VERY good teacher. Had dinner last night with 22 people we just met. Unless you are part of Jehovah's family that would seem strange. I'll post some pictures later.

Feds: 4 attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses churches linked; $25,000 reward offered Three arson attacks and one shooting at Kingdom Halls in Thurston County, Washington are linked, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person(s) responsible. Local authorities are calling the attacks "hate crimes", and some members of the general community are publicly offering their support to our brothers:

Carr fire in Redding about 2 hours from us... Already, two people have died in the Carr Fire, one a private bulldozer operator killed Thursday, the other a Redding city firefighter working in a canyon area in Redding’s northwest area, where much of the devastation occurred Thursday night. The fire already has destroyed dozens of homes, forced evacuation orders for more than 38,000 residents and is threatening nearly 5,000 homes. Fire officials say its erratic, unpredictable nature is a sign of how much peril tinder-dry California faces from wildfires. ...estimates at least 100 homes were destroyed overnight Thursday as the flames jumped the Sacramento River and raced into the outskirts of Redding. More than 37,000 residents have been evacuated.

Saturday I was hurrying through town to do a shift on the Congregation's Market Kiosk. The main pedestrianized street was packed with old restored vehicles for a Classic and Vintage Car and Bike Event. Further on I bumped into an 'old friend', a blue and cream coloured Leyland Titan double-decked bus - see photo. This bus, fleet number 169, entered service in 1958. After learning to drive on a similar bus, I drove No.169 and the rest of the fleet for a number of years in the 1970s. I wished there was time to ask if I could climb into the cab, but I needed to rush. Just time to take a couple of photos. I enjoyed driving these old buses and it made my day to meet this 'old friend'.

Brothers hve organized pre-convention activities (events) to introduce the cultural heritage to visiters. The concerts were held in some olaces, where Georgian brothers with traditional dancing outfits, danced, sang and presented lots of interesting things for visitors.