Category: Prayer Requests

This past Friday, the Fellowship Baptist Church of Irving, Texas, experienced a fire that destroyed over half of their buildings. My good friend, Pastor Carl Carlson, told me that the whole Sunday school wing and nurseries were destroyed, and that there is smoke damage to the whole auditorium.

This is a hard blow to this small congregation. The damaged buildings will greatly hamper their ability to house their Sunday school until the damage is repaired. Fellowship Baptist Church is an aggressive soul winning church in the heart of Irving, Texas. Pastor Carlson and the congregation have for many years reached the poor of their city through the bus ministry. Though they have taken a major setback, Pastor Carlson is not discouraged at all. He relayed to me in a phone conversation that he completely understands that the LORD has a purpose for his church through this whole ordeal.

This church needs your prayers and help as there will be much expense in repairing the damage to the buildings. They meet with insurance adjusters in the next couple of days to determine what the insurance company will do. They still have a deductible that they will have to cover and other expenses that will not be covered by their insurance. Please pray for wisdom as they deal with the insurance company and contractors as they start the process of rebuilding. Pray that the LORD will provide them with the facilities to meet in during the reconstruction process. I also ask you to pray that God will soften the hearts of the community to the Gospel message because of this damage to one of their local churches. Already the mayor and her family have extended a helping hand to the church, which is a relationship this church has been trying to build for many months.

If you or your church would like to help this small congregation, you can donate through a GoFundMe account at http://www.gofundme.com/wuuwf4zg I appreciate your thoughtfulness and prayers for these dear people during their time of need.

Yesterday, Heather Cape went to have another WADA test procedure done to see if the doctors could perform the surgery to remove the seizure infected area from her brain. The same procedure was done about two months ago, but it was inconclusive because of her seizure activity that day.

The Cape’s have been praying for over 20 years for the LORD to intervene in Heather’s situation. Many prayers from her family, church and friends have been given to the LORD asking for His intervention. It seems as though God interceded yesterday. This is the text I received from the family this morning:

“SHE CAN TALK AND SING!!!!! Which means her speech has switched over to the right side of the brain!!!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!!!!! SHE IS A CANDIDATE FOR BRAIN SURGERY…by going through the artery in the neck they were able to get the medicine to the left side only, and she continued talking and she sang!!! She sang for the doctors, “Rejoice in the LORD, He makes no mistakes!!!” We are beside ourselves, GOD IS SO GOOD!!” When Heather began to count and sing, the doctor raised his fist in the air and said, “YES!!!”

The family wanted to stress the magnitude of this miracle. For 97% of people, speech is controlled by the left side of the brain…that’s where Heather’s was before. God made our brain with the left side controlling our speech, so a true miracle has happened for Heather! The left side of her brain is completely diseased, but He moved her speech to the opposite side of the brain, too wonderful to comprehend!

The next step is to meet with the brain surgeon. They are not sure yet when it will be, but we will keep everyone informed. If this surgery is successful, Heather will possibly have NO more seizures. As Heather’s sister put it, “God is too Good!” Heather, Bro. Cape, his wife, daughter and doctors still need much prayer over the next few weeks as big decisions will have to be made and the surgery date is set.

This morning I was contacted by Pastor Steve Cape with a request to pray for his daughter, Heather. Heather is about to have a WADA procedure done at Vanderbilt, where they will put one side of her brain to sleep while they do some tests and then the other side.  This procedure could be life changing as it will determine if Heather is eligible for brain surgery again to remove the seizure infected areas. If these areas can be removed, they believe that Heather will be able to live a somewhat normal life. He said that they covet your prayers!

Heather has had seizures for over 20 years. They have done multiple procedures on her to find the cause, and this is somewhat a last resort. It is common for her to have multiple seizures every day, up to 20 seizures a day. Please pray for this dear family that the LORD will intervene and give the doctors wisdom on how to deal with this.

Pastor Steve Cape has been a dear friend of this preacher for many years. He, his wife and family have not complained about this thorn in the flesh, but have been great examples of accepting God’s grace. I ask that you commit this to prayer. We will give an update on this as soon as the Cape’s get the doctor’s recommendation.

This past Thursday, Bro. Heidenreich had a surgical procedure performed to remove the mass that was resting behind the pancreas. They believed the mass to be a cyst, and the preliminary test shows the mass was benign. On Friday morning, he was experiencing extreme pain and his doctors told him to go to the emergency room to see if he was having a reaction to the pain medications. After several hours at the Longview Hospital, the staff suggested late Friday night that he be transferred to the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas. After the staff at ETMC studied the x-rays and cat scan, they determined that his right kidney was enlarged due to another blockage which was causing the extreme pain. They felt that if they removed the blockage it would relieve the kidney and stop the leakage.

This morning Bro. Heidenreich went into surgery around 11AM to have the blockage removed. Thankfully, they were able to remove several more large kidney stones which was blocking the kidney. He is recovering from surgery, and if all goes well he will be released from the hospital on Sunday.

We want to thank all those who have prayed, left kind messages and even tried to contact Bro. Heidenreich. Hopefully, this will be the last of the surgery’s and that he will be able to move forward with his ministry in reaching the lost around the world.

Please pray for the family of Pastor Robb Foreman in the unexpected home going of their daughter, Sadie. Earlier this week, Sadie and another young man, Jordan Ulicki, were riding a four wheeler when a large tree limb fell on them and instantly killed both of them. Sadie was a good young lady who had a heart for God. Her father sent me a copy of a page of her walk with God which shows that God was definitely preparing her for her home going.

The funeral will be next Tuesday, July 22, at 1 PM at the Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home, 3800 N. Big Spring St., Midland, TX. The viewing will be on Monday from 6-8 PM.

I have known this family for many years, and they are a godly family who have a desire to please God. Bro. Foreman pastors the Home Line Baptist Church in Midland, TX. Please pray for God’s comfort for the family and church during this difficult time.

Bro. Heidenreich had surgery on Thursday, and everything went very well. They can only do one kidney at a time because whichever one they work on shuts down while it’s going through the process. Treating one kidney keeps the other kidney functioning while the treated one is healing. They were able to get 5 stones that were causing blockage and blasted 5 more large stones.

In 2 weeks they will concentrate on the mass they found. They have only focused on getting the kidneys to function better the past few weeks as they felt they needed to get them functioning before they address the mass. The doctors will concentrate on the mass on, June 26^th.

In 3 weeks they will do another surgery on the other kidney. Once that surgery is done, they will know what they need to do next, whether more surgery is needed or if they have things under control.

They are trying to figure out what is causing the stone production. He’s been to natural doctors, tried all kinds of natural remedies, changed his diet, been to medical doctors, had stones analyzed and had his medication changed several times, etc., all of this to see if any of these things will help to stop his body from producing stones. Sadly, his body still produces them. Pray that we can get that figured out.

Just since he’s been home today, he’s been passing more stones. He’s in some pain but doing well!

Thank you for your continued prayers! We will keep you updated as to his condition.

Bro. Heidenreich has been home from the hospital since Tuesday night. He went back to the doctor this morning for a procedure and is doing better. He’s eating and has rested really well since he’s been home. He goes back to the doctor on June 9^th for prep for another surgery, then the actual surgery will be on June 12^th.  He will have more stones lasered at this time. They are predicting 6-8 weeks of treatment that will force him to go in and out of the hospital to have surgical procedures to his kidneys. He will be home bound during this time and has had to cancel all meetings during this time period. Please pray that God touches Bro. Heidenreich’s body and heals him, and that his finances will be provided to meet monthly obligations and medical bills.

We appreciate all of your love and concern. If you would like to contact Bro. Heidenreich, you may send a note through the contact page of the Old Paths Journal and we will be sure that he receives them. Thanks again for your prayers.

We are thankful for all the prayers, texts and emails that have been sent for Bro. Heidenreich. He went in for another surgery this morning. They felt the infection was gone and that they could try to laser the stones in the bladder and the 2 that were blocking the kidneys. They had put a tube in his back to try to get into his right kidney, but couldn’t get the stint in after they put in the tube. They decided they would try to drill at the biggest stone, which was 15 mm, and keep working at it to see if at some point they could crack it. They were able to get all the stones below the kidneys broken up so that he can pass them and will work on a plan for the ones in the kidneys. They said on a scale of 1-8, his kidneys are functioning at a 2 and hope the surgery will get them to at least a 5. They will never be back to normal. He’s in much pain, worn out from the 3 surgeries in 3 days, but very happy that they were able to get to several of the stones today. He’s struggled with his blood pressure, but they have changed his medication. As long as they keep the blood pressure under control, they will let him go home tomorrow.

Please continue to pray for his recovery. Once the recovery from the kidneys is complete, then they will begin to diagnose the mass on his artery. We will keep you updated his progress.

I kindly ask you to pray for my father-in-law, Missionary, Dr. Steve Heidenreich. Bro. Heidenreich for the past several weeks has been having health difficulties with his kidneys. This health issue caused him to recently cancel a foreign trip, and has caused him extreme pain.

Yesterday, he went to the doctor to find out what he could do to help with the problem, and they scheduled a CAT scan for next Tuesday. When he got home, the doctors office called him back and told him they wanted to get him in for a scan that day because they felt there was more going on than just trying to pass kidney stones. After coming home from the CAT scan, the doctor called and told him they wanted to immediately have surgery to remove several stones.

A urologist came in to the hospital for the sole purpose of seeing Bro. Heidenreich. We were told that he has several kidney stones, the two smallest are 8mm and 13mm. They said that he has several kidney stones that are twice that size, and that there are so many stones that they have been forced into his bladder. He also has an infection in the kidneys.

Today at 9am, he went into surgery to have 2 stints put in to help the kidney infection. Due to one kidney being blocked, they could not get the one stint in, which means he will go back into surgery later today to have a tube put into his back to drain the kidneys. Once the infection is gone, then they will go in and blast the kidney stones.

We were also informed that they discovered a mass on the main artery that goes from the heart to the leg. They won’t be able to work on that until the kidney infection is gone.

Please pray for Bro. Heidenreich that the kidney infection will dissipate and that the mass on the artery is not serious. The family appreciates the texts of concern we have already received. We will keep you updated as to his condition.

Pastor Larry Hobbs who pastors the Victory Baptist Church of Homestead, Florida, has requested prayer for his son, Silas. Silas was admitted to the hospital on Saturday and all the doctors are confused as to what is wrong. All the test came back normal which means it probably is not a virus, but rather a disease. His entire body is swollen and broken out in a rash. The doctors are concerned with this young boys health.

Please pray for the healing of this young boy. Pray that the LORD will give the doctors the wisdom to know how to determine what is wrong with the boy and how to treat him. Also, pray for the parents as they go through this difficult time.