OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Since we cannot respond to each of you personally as we would like, Ouida and I will use this means to thank you for the many letters, cards, and calls that came from all over the country in reference to my recent surgery. We are persuaded that the good will and prayers on the part of so many made a difference. At this writing (29 January) I am feeling well, have regained much of my strength, and am back to work several hours a day. In another month I will return to Houston for another round of tests that we hope will confirm that I am now free of cancer. The surgery was apparently successful, with the surgeon “90 percent plus certain” that he removed all the cancer when he removed my prostate gland. He told us the tumor was small and confined to the prostate. We hope the tests next month will confirm this and show that I have need of no further treatment, such as radiation. It is now almost certain that I went to Houston with cancer and returned without it, and that is a great blessing. We were both impressed with the magnificence of the Texas Medical Center and felt that we were in the hands of real pros. I was in Methodist Hospital, which is one of the 17 institutions making up the Center and a teaching facility for the Baylor School of Medicine. I would sometimes have five or six doctors around my bed atone time —the top surgeon, residence surgeons, and student doctors. It is also a research hospital, so I became part of a nation-wide study. A lot of research is going on in urological surgery, especially in reference to early detection of prostate cancer, which presently is the second highest cause of death in older men. Ouida was with me all the way. She stayed at the elegant Marriott across the street from the hospital, which is joined by a second floor walkway. It was like being in the same building. Ouida had one tense moment. The surgeon, who is a handsome Italian and renowned as a specialist in prostate cancer, told her he would first remove my lymph nodes and send them to pathology and that the surgical team would wait for them to be tested for cancer. If the report was positive they would not continue the surgery, for that would mean the cancer had spread and there would be no need to continue, and that would be bad news. After awhile (I was in surgery four and a half hours) he sent word to her that the nodes tested negative and that they were continuing. We had an amusing moment in this long ordeal. Once the surgery was over Ouida couldn’t locate me —not in the recovery room, not in intensive care. I did so well that, after a brief stay in recovery, they returned me to my room. When she finally found me, she says I said to her, “It was a fine time to leave me, Lucille!,” but I don’t remember. Once we got into the thick of this thing and saw how serious it was, Ouida was pleased that she was with me, and it meant everything to me to have her there. On the Sunday we were there, friends called on Ouida and took her with them to the Bering Drive Church of Christ, one of our great congregations and one that was praying for me. One final note: several of you wrote that you or yours had had “prostate surgery,” supposing it is what I had. Probably not, for less than 1% of prostate surgery is a radical prostatectomy. When this first began I thought I would only have a transurethal remission (the “reeming out” job), which is not open surgery, but it turned out to be more serious than that. Ouida and I thank you for caring in your sweet, quiet way. We are ready to forget the whole thing and get on with our lives. In have a word of admonition from all this, it would be to make sure you have adequate insurance, which we do. To go to a hospital these days for major surgery, you can count on it costing at least $2,000 a day. If the surgery doesn’t do you in, the costs will!

One of our readers, Earl Edwards of Tulsa, is a retired dentist. He recently joined nine other dentists in a Medical Missions project to Mexico, which is sponsored by Churches of Christ. Each dentist paid his own way and took along his own supplies. They worked in the back country where there was no electricity, so they could only do cleaning and extractions. Working alongside physicians, they endured very hot, humid, rainy weather, sometimes standing in mud up to their ankles. They worked in areas where we have congregations among the Wasteco and Naweh Indians, who suffer from deep poverty. Their church buildings are made of sticks. Since they have no transportation each village has a church of 35 -50 members. Earl reports that he now has a greater appreciation of fellow Christians of another culture.

In his December “California Letter,” J. James Albert says some amazing things. After quoting Alexander Campbell to the effect that the Disciples of Christ were unique in that they required for fellowship only a confession of the “celestial proposition” that Jesus is the Son of God and obedience in baptism into his death. Albert charges that the heirs of the Campbell movement require more than Campbell did, for each sect imposes some doctrinal test of brotherhood. Today, however spiritual a person may be, he cannot enjoy fellowship with any party in the Church of Christ unless he subscribes to an unwritten creed. “No brother is welcome in the party in which I was raised, the one cup, no Sunday School group,” says Albert, “unless he agrees to the correctness of these doctrines. Even if he is willing to abide by the methodology of these practices, but questions their validity, he is not welcomed as Christ welcomed us.” He goes on to say that while he believes in using only one cup for Communion and not using classes, he does not believe they should be made tests of fellowship. He says he has been ostracized by his own folk for taking this position. He notes that all parties within the Church of Christ have departed from the Campbell position, requiring more than faith and baptism. You can get on Albert’s mailing list by writing him at Box 811, Corcoran, Ca. 93212.

The Nashville Tennessean reports that David Lipscomb College recently invited a local rabbi to speak to its students on Judaism. This is a change for the better, for officials of the same college once criticized the Vine Street Christian Church in the same city for doing the same thing.

Flavil Yeakley, an authority on church growth among Churches of Christ, is quoted by a mailout from Magnolia Bible College to the effect that the average tenure among ministers for Churches of Christ is only 18 months. Studies of growing churches indicate that growth starts in the 4th or 5th year of a preacher’s tenure.

The Watchtower, published by Jehovah’s Witnesses, tells how the Witnesses are taking their message to Japanese business people. They get permission from a company to talk to its employees during lunch break. Wearing a lapel button identifying them as Witnesses, they approach the workers and say, “Excuse me, I was given permission to talk to people here. Would you mind listening to me while you eat?” The report says each Witness uses good judgment and words seasoned with salt.