(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

We just got back from Dale and David Garratt's double 70th birthday celebration, and it was great. What a privilege!

Winkie has made some progress since last week, as commented on by both his speech therapist and our herbalist friend Noel Maxwell. A lot more of his long-term memory has come back (I thought all, but just in talking with him tonight realized that he still has a ways to go), and he is making regular improvement on his use of pronouns.

Winkie saw a lot of people he has known for 30 years or more at the party, and they seemed to be very happy to see him. We were so blessed to be able to witness the celebration. John Dawson (among others) shared a word or two, and Dad was able to connect with him. I made some new connections, and was able to catch up with others that I hadn't seen for a while. Mom had a great time. She was looking good. People commented that Winkie was looking good, too.

One thing that we don't understand, is a nasty cough that Winkie has been fighting. It seems to be getting worse, so that is definitely an area for prayer. But we plan to take him to the doctor again this coming week, and hopefully can see it resolved soon. Normally we would just use herbs on something like this, but the ones that we use and have access to usually contain natural blood thinners, which we can't give him. So I'm not sure what the best way is, to fight this. I suppose the doctor will probably prescribe some sort of antibiotic. It's scary for me, some nights, waking up to the sound of a hacking cough. You never like to see the ones you love in pain or sick. And this thing sounds bad. But not to alarm anyone, I just thought I'd mention it as an area for prayer. We need wisdom in helping him with this.

We saw some other ministry friends of ours over the last few days, some visiting, others we went to see. Julian Batchelor, a friend from days gone by came out and visited us. It was great to see him again. We also met up with Steve Goode, a tennis playing minister friend of ours who's known Dad for over 30 years. Dad remarked (and it shows how much of his long-term memory has come back) on Steve's ability to play tennis with either hand. I've played with Steve, and I didn't remember that fact! So praise God! Winkie is definitely remembering people and associations - he's even growing more proficiently conversational.

The Revival Bible is still a pertinent area of prayer right now. I know it weighs heavily on Winkie's mind. He should be resting, but 2 nights ago I heard him get up, and we talked till about 3:30AM about issues surrounding it's production. I can't disclose much, but just to say that if you think to, please pray that God's grace would be on and surrounding this project. It's so close to completion, but there are a couple of building blocks that need to be inserted before the roof can go on (to use a building metaphor).

Speaking of building, I have been working hard to try to help organize the renovation of our downstairs batch (beach flat). We have people from His Way helping us on it, and a friend from Australia plans to come out and help us more on it in March. It will serve as a place for me to stay while I am here in New Zealand, as well as a place for special guests, ministers and friends to stay while I am gone. Mom and Dad are kicking me out from upstairs, as it's a small, two-bedroom place, and my room is just next door to theirs.

Soon I must prepare for a trip to Adelaide, Australia, at the invitation of a dear friend of ours where I will be speaking a number of times. Please pray that God would help me to prepare for it in every way necessary. I really want to be personally ready, and be able to share those things that God wants to use to help these precious people. I haven't preached since 2007, and apart from the loving persistence of Dennis Slape (www.life-church.com.au/about/leadership-team) most likely would not be until my return to the States (planned mid-August).

Please continue to pray for our partners in the ministry–Ministry of Helps–as they continue to help us from the States. Making Winkie's printed, audio and video materials readily available is a huge task, and we need God's wisdom for the right way to make that happen.

Thank you to all praying for your godly prayers of faith!

God bless you,

William

(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

We were visited by YWAM founder Loren and Darlene Cunningham yesterday.

It was great for Winkie, going over some of the Revival Study Bible material with them. He and they went over a long list of people they knew from years gone by. So I'm sure that was good for Dad, not only for the fellowship, but in helping to re-spark his memory of people, places and days gone by. It was a real blessing to see them.

Winkie's started to play table-tennis again.
Today we took Winkie to some long-time friends of ours for lunch, and he played some table tennis there with me. This was recommend to us by Winkie's assigned occupational therapist (who he met with 2 days prior). At first, he was slow, but once he started to warm-up, it all started to come back to him. Amazing! So that was good. His energy levels are not what they used to be, and we stopped sooner than he normally would have, but it was really good for him. He got quite a few points off of me!

As far as memory, his long-term has been coming back, but it seems apparent now that the short-term word-associations he's been struggling with are going to be a major area of rehabilitation. We continue to trust God in this, and are still hopeful for full rehabilitation.

Some have commented that (normally) he just goes and goes and goes. It seems like these hospital visits and time-outs may be the only way of getting him to sleep and rest. So, I'm glad he's sleeping and resting, but I wish it wouldn't take a trip to hospital every time he needs it!

God has been providing for us.
Earlier today a neighbor friend of ours came over bearing gifts of fresh herbs and vegetables. So many have been good to us at this time. It seems like when we need food or help, an offer to help comes, or someone comes over, and at just the right time (most of the time). In this way, we are seeing God's provision for us daily.

Winkie is meeting with three different therapists now (starting this week).
He's meeting with an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, and will be meeting with a physiotherapist (starting this week). All three of these therapists are being provided for us under the New Zealand commonwealth social healthcare system. Had this happened in the States, I cannot imagine the amount it would cost to cover all of these expenses. Thank God we're in New Zealand at this time!

Revival Study Bible
Some of you have been asking what's happening with the Revival Study Bible. I am only in the loop, temporarily helping out and am not a part of the actual presentation team, so please bear that in mind as you read this.

The proposed launch date (I have on good authority) for the Revival Study Bible has been moved back to September (at least for Singapore), 2010. So those of you that have been promised 1st edition prints (limited number) should receive those before the end of the year. For everyone else, you may have to wait until the second printing (date?). Sorry! = ( And no, I have no idea when that might be. But for those privileged few that have already been added to the 1st edition list, you may receive your copy as soon as June/July. However, there are still some things that need to come into place before the RSB can even go to print. Sorry, to all of you that have been waiting for a copy of this much coveted after study Bible. Without going into detail, there have been quite a few "hick-ups" along the way, and if you think of it, this project could do with quite a bit of prayer, both for the general editors (pastor Steve Hill, Dr. Tamara Winslow, and Winkie) and the publishers (Amour Publishing Pte Ltd). Steve Hill, who Thomas Nelson had originally asked to do the project has been battling cancer. Many of you probably remember him from the Brownsville Assemblies of God revival, that literally touched over a million lives. Please pray for his full recovery. Dr. Tamara Winslow, the amazing Bible scholar/researcher and teacher that actually contributed the revival study-chain (over 300,000 words) to the RSB has recently lost some valuable ministry team (staff) members. As I understand it they were the ones helping her with the RSB project. Please pray for God's provision for her during this time in the area of new ministry team (staff) members.

Thanks again for your prayers for Winkie and for us. And thank you to all those that have been sending in encouraging emails.

Pray God would help us make Winkie's materials more readily available!
One other area of prayer (for those of you inquiring how you can pray) is for our Ministry of Helps (MOH) team. We need to see some breakthroughs in the area of making Winkie's materials (both written and in audio/video form) readily available. We have over 150 videos of Winkie teaching that need to be converted and put into useable format for modern viewers. This takes both time and man-power. We also have the desire to make available once again Winkie's books (as I understand it all of them are currently out of print). We would like to see them made available online, which also means time and man-power (scanning, uploading, etc.).

In order to do this, we either need extra, self-supported willing and able persons helping us who can commit to these projects, and see them through to their completion, or, for those who are already working with us, to be financially able to commit full-time to these projects. Simply working to pay the bills could be the greatest roadblock to completing projects such as these which would otherwise benefit hundreds of thousands of lives.

Dee, Dad's administrative assistant in particular needs prayer at this time. She has been facing enormous pressure on many different fronts - prayer for her and her family would be especially appreciated.

Alright, that's all I have to say for now. Thanks for taking the time to read.

William

(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

Okay, so much has happened since my last post!

On Saturday, a whole crew of about 14 people came out from His Way Church and helped us with the house and property - water blasting, vacuuming, cleaning, gardening, clearing out trash they were truly a force to be reckoned with! We haven't had the time to really clean the place up since we got back, and the His Way crew was just truly the Church in action.

Mom and I are still trying to work out ways to cut back on the work time in caring for Dad. We don't want to leave him at home alone, for one because if someone calls they probably for the most part won't understand him, and two, if anything bad should happen...so we're kind of wearing ourselves out a bit (I feel) by doing double-duty so to speak. Mom also hasn't felt confident driving on her own, which means every time she goes somewhere, we all have had to go. Money has been coming in (praise God!) and we were finally able to get some car insurance today. I've also bee helping Mom get back in the drivers seat, so hopefully she'll be confident enough to drive on her own (especially now that we have that insurance), giving me more down time and allowing us to divvy up the day better.

Also, Rob and Caroline Deluca (His Way), as well as others have been bringing/sending food over, so (praise God!) we haven't been in want - we've had an abundance, and I really see not only God's provision but Christ's Church in action towards us in this. We've had a super-abundance - God's not allowing us to be in want. In fact, we were even able to help a few others out a little from the abundance that we ourselves had received.

So what about Winkie?

Okay, so most of you probably just want to know, "How is Winkie doing?" He's doing alright. Not awesome. But alright. Sometimes it appears his progress is digressing. At other times it amazes us how in-tune he is with subject matter and conversation. He still struggles with getting the right words out trying to say what he wants to say. His long-term memory seems to be coming back alright. It's the everyday words like, "fork", "pencil" etc. that he really seems to struggle with. He's far from where he needs to be (in my opinion). But some good news is there will be both an occupational therapist and a speech therapist coming to see him here at home once a week. They are being sent from Middlemore hospital, and it's provided courtesy of the New Zealand government. The occupational therapist will (hopefully) help him to structure his day better, organizing things like getting up in the morning, having a shave and shower, getting dressed, making breakfast, etc. The speech therapist (who we met with yesterday) will be working with him on his speech. There's probably more to it than that (forgive me speech therapists!) but she'll basically be trying to help him effectively say what he wants to say.

I want to say again a loud THANK YOU for all the encouraging words, prayers of faith, and donations being sent in for us at this time.

We've still got a long way to go in terms of Winkie's recovery, but God can turn things around in an instant. Thanks for believing with us for Winkie's full recovery.

God bless, and thank you for your prayers.

William

(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

Not a lot to share on the update front at the moment. We've had a fairly steady stream of visitors - some friends came over this evening and made dinner for us. While they were here another friend from His Way came and visited for a while. She prayed for Mom and Dad before she left.

Winkie isn't doing very well. Don't get me wrong. He's not doing poorly, comparative to how he was earlier on in hospital. But he doesn't seem to have improved that much in the last 3 or 4 days. He doesn't seem to be making much progress, compared to the leaps and bounds he made earlier.

We took him over to see our friend Noel Maxwell, naturopath/nutritionist/herbalist the other day. He gave us a wonderful (herbal) copper/iron supplement, which, we are told supports arterial health by strengthening the artery walls. The idea is to strengthen the arteries so that they won't leak or hemorrhage further.

We also met with a local doctor. Winkie is under his care. He lessened some of the medication that Winkie's been prescribed, and we were thankful for that.

Soon (this week, apparently) Middlemore hospital should be sending out someone to work with Winkie on his speech (a speech therapist). Now, Winkie's speaking is not slurred, he articulates quite well. But the main way this stroke seems to have affected him is by hindering his ability to connect the word(s) he is searching for to the thought he's trying to communicate. His default word is still, "Computer." He'll be speaking a normal sentence and then suddenly he'll say, "computer" in the middle of it for the word that he can't think of.

It can be discouraging for me, sometimes. I want him to make progress, and quick, but he's definitely not acting like all the man I know him to be. Part of him has been lost. Part of him has died. And that part (that part of his brain or that part of his functioning) is what we need to see revived. The doctor said he would "never fully recover." And, from a medical standpoint, apart from some kind of miracle, he is right. But we believe in miracles... they're part of a realm that's outside of so-called medical expertise. "So-called" I say, because God alone is the Great Physician. He designed our bodies, knows them better than any, and can save and destroy, hurt and heal, put down and raise up, kill and make alive. We serve an awesome God, and I believe that He gets the last word, the final say...

One of the things Dad said today made us laugh, because he perfectly described what was going on concerning his own condition, but attributed it to Mom. They were completely true of him, but he said that those things were true of Mom. I don't know if this was a word association thing or what, but it was pretty funny, in an odd, sort of way.

It seems that part of his short-term memory may have been affected. He doesn't always remember what pills he has and hasn't taken. We can't ask him if he took some particular pills or not, because he always says that he took them, regardless of whether it was earlier that day or the day before. So we (Mom and I) have to ask each other in order to make sure he gets the meds he needs each day.

Some small financial donations have come in. Thanks, everybody for those! (= We appreciate the love and generosity being shown to Winkie and us his family at this time. It's been good also to hear from friends, both newly made and long-time loved.

Well, I had better sign off for now. It's late. BBFN.

(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

I'm writing this early Saturday morning (Jan. 2), but wanted to say that we had a good day yesterday. Every day, it seems, God provides for us in new ways. Yesterday Dwane and Jenny Newport (and their son) from His Way Church came, bringing my 94-year-old grandfather (who they have helped take care of for the past few years) with them. Jenny made lunch for us all, and after eating we all went for a walk to the beach (about 3 blocks down the road).

Winkie is sleeping a lot - I think its the medication. But it's probably good. Rest is the primary thing the doctors have prescribed. He isn't supposed play any tennis for a while. Each day he writes in notepads, trying to put the various peices of his affected memory back together again. Each day he asks questions, trying to sort through all the names and places he has forgotten.

I have received many emails from people mentioning the use of the hormone progesterone for Winkie's recovery, and am investigating possible product options in that field.

Again, thank you for your prayers. We can't say enough how grateful we are for all the saints of God rallying together to lift up this servant of the Lord that he might recover (fully), rise, and once again go out to bring light and truth to the nations.

Blessings,

William

(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son)

Hi everyone. I just thought I'd post something Winkie had written prior to Christmas, last year. It was written and given to me, so it is personal, but due to its rich content, I think some of you may be able to appreciate it as well, and see that the bulk of it could be used outside of the context in which it was originally given.

On the front, the card reads, ..."I must be about my Fathers business" Luke 2:49

(Inside)
To William my beloved son
One Day After Thirty -

He was thirty when he laid aside
The tools a fathers' trade had taught him
The chisels, saws and adzes
That caught the rough and un-hewn wood
To plane it straight and true
He was thirty when he put them up forever
Those things he learned to make the crooked good
Those disciplines to fashion something new

Ahead of him was time uncharted
Ahead of him were things unknown
He was thirty when He went into the wilderness
He was thirty when He left his home
I sometimes wonder what He thought then
If He would ever get to do
The things that others talked about Him
The things the Book brought into view

He gathered friends who likewise dreamed dreams
And left their little lives to pledge with Him
Their hearts, their honor and their sacred fortunes
To take a chance that came but once to save a world
To change it all for unseen crowds to come in time
To walk their steps and likewise love
The things His flag unfurled

His life, they say, was all too short
If only He had had more days!
What might He otherwise have wrought
With chairs and tables, useful things
The practical made beautiful, the ordinary made lovely
Why lay aside the hammer and the nails
When he could have changed the world
With what he knew and how he could
Work wonders when he cut the wood?

He left it all behind at thirty but in the not-far future
He would see it all come back one day to Him
When someone else would cut the wood He carried
And lay it straight and Him along its planed and naked length
Waiting for the hammer and the nails and the board
To finish the work and leave with the world forever
The mark of His hands and what we understand
Now will never be forgotten -
What He wrought with a tree
When the world knew that He
Had laid it aside.

From Dad: December 17, 2009