WEST ALBANY No. 1

This past Saturday the West Albany Bulldogs took the Oregon State High School 5A State Championship Title! This is awesome as their QB is a real WINNER!! His mom and I went to high school together, his dad's family are our family friends and it is so awesome to see how Reese and his family has made it through a VERY difficult time. This article was in the Tuesday Oregonian Newspaper. Get your hankies!! You will need them. I needed the ENTIRE box!! Unfortunately the title was misnamed as it should have been titled HIS BIGGEST FAN!!!

One for his biggest fan
With a win over Glencoe, quarterback Reese Miller led West Albany to the Class 5A title last week, a victory that was made all the more poignant by the loss last spring of the man who got him there
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
LINDSAY SCHNELL
The Oregonian
For Reese Miller, big wins are the hardest.

The West Albany quarterback has had his share of big wins this season, too, none bigger than Saturday's Class 5A state football championship, a 34-7 victory over Glencoe. Reese wanted to hug his dad more than anything after that win but couldn't because seven months ago Greg Miller died.

The junior led the No. 1 Bulldogs to a state title in his first year playing quarterback, but he'll tell you that wasn't the hard part. How can leading your team to a few wins be tough when you've watched someone you love die of cancer, when you lose one of your best friends, your biggest fan and your dad all at once? No, this football stuff, this is easy.

Don't fumble. Just focus and do not fumble. Already up 6-0 on Pendleton, so no pressure. Deep breath and go! Red 12, three-step drop, there's Elliott on the right side, running a fade. Deep breath again, arm back, let go and . . . perfect 33-yard reception. Just threw your first completion as a quarterback, now relax.

Stage 4 lung cancer, the doctor told Greg Miller in August 2005, with three to six months to live. The news shocked Greg, his wife, Sheri, and their boys, Reese and Garrett. Greg had never so much as smoked a cigarette. Right away, he told his sons that one thing wouldn't change: "We need to have a normal relationship."

At the time, Reese, a star shortstop and pitcher, was in the middle of baseball. The news hit him and his brother hard, but he tried to not let it show in front of other people. Instead, he spent countless nights crying himself to sleep, asking God, "Why my dad?"

"Right away I decided I was going to play hard for my dad," Reese said. "Everything was for him."

Despite radiation, chemotherapy and experimental drugs, Greg's support didn't waver. A former West Albany High School athlete, he had watched his boys in every sport, and cancer wouldn't stop him. In 21 months, he missed one game, an away baseball contest that conflicted with his chemo treatment. And before he went, he made sure it was OK with Reese that he was absent.

Before his sons were born, Greg knew they would be Bulldogs. When Sheri started looking for a house, Greg told her she could look only in the West Albany school district. No, she couldn't check her hometown of Lebanon; his kids were going to wear blue and gold. When Sheri was first pregnant, Greg rubbed her belly and said: "That's Reese John Miller in there, and he's going to be a Bulldog."

"Don't say that!" Sheri shrieked. "What if it's a girl?"

Greg shook his head. His kids were going to be boys, and they were going to West Albany, just like he had. They were going to wrestle and play football and baseball, just like him. Greg was only 5-foot-5 and 130 pounds, but he was as competitive as they come. He settled every argument with the same question: "You wanna wrestle for it?"

"When we were in high school, Corvallis was our nemesis and Greg hated Corvallis," said West Albany coach Randy Nyquist, who played football with Greg in high school and remained one of his best friends. "He just despised Corvallis. Last year, when we lost the (5A championship) game in triple overtime . . . he was crying and said, 'I wanted to beat those guys so bad.' "

Reese inherited his father's competitive spirit -- and his mom's height. He grew to 6-foot-2, starting on defense for the Bulldogs in 2006 and playing wide receiver. West Albany was set at quarterback, so Reese took only a few snaps as the sophomore backup, most of which he fumbled.

When Nyquist told Reese he would be their No. 1 in 2007, Sheri worried. Not Greg.

"My dad always told me growing up I had the characteristics of a leader," Reese said.

"If the quarterback position comes around, I'm confident you can do it," Reese remembers Greg saying. "Show guys the way."

OK, big game against Corvallis, reigning 5A champs. We owe them and you got this. Take the snap and . . . go! Running the option and, yep, no one's got you, right into the end zone. Touchdown, Bulldogs! Final score: West Albany 33, Corvallis 14. Too bad Dad's not around. He'd be going crazy in the stands.

There's an unspoken rule in sports that when something happens to a teammate, you rally around him. Greg had always tried to tell Sheri that sports was its own community, an extra family, of sorts. Sheri started to understand that when news of Greg's cancer began to spread.

Susie Orsborn, the principal at West Albany, organized a fundraiser that brought in more than $30,000 for the Millers. Nyquist did aqua jogging with Greg in the mornings, and the two talked about their children, their wives, their faith and everything in between. Reese's teammates were there whenever he needed them, especially Tyler George, his best friend since the sixth grade.

"I had to be there for Reese," George, the Bulldogs' kicker, said. "We're pretty much brothers."

Greg depended on George, too. In the spring, when George tore up his knee and missed the baseball season, Greg stopped by his house one day.

"Take care of everything for me," he told George. "Make sure the boys are in shape and don't mess around."

Even if he was going to be gone, Greg Miller was going to be sure of one thing: His boys weren't going to get beat. Greg couldn't stand to lose, didn't know how to quit. Want proof? He fought the cancer for 18 months, defying doctors who told him he probably wouldn't live more than six.

Greg didn't let anyone get too nostalgic around him, or worry about how they wouldn't be able to go on without him.

"You'll be fine," he assured Sheri and the boys. One day though, he confessed to Sheri, "I want to see my boys become fathers. I'm going to miss that."

Yeah, you like this, this is Bulldog weather. This rain and mud and freezing cold, this is what got you here. Mountain View, No. 2 in state, and you know if it comes down to the run, you're going to win. Gotta score first, gotta score first and then the pressure's off. Just two minutes into the game, take the snap and right up the side for an 11-yard run and score. Final: West Albany 46, Mountain View, 0. Headed to a second straight championship game. Get it this time, for Dad.

After Greg's death in May, Reese pulled away from everyone at first. He didn't want to play sports, just wanted to be alone, wanted to be angry at God. Slowly, his teammates and coaches coaxed him out of it, with Nyquist at the forefront.

"Coach has been like a dad to me," Reese said.

Nyquist himself lost a parent in high school and has an idea of what Reese feels.

"I don't think I walked exactly the same path as him, but I think we've been on the same trail," Nyquist said. "I don't know why things happen in life, but maybe I was put here to do whatever I can to help him."

And in the wake of the tragedy, when he could have retreated, Reese became someone who helped others, someone to depend on.

It happened almost overnight, Sheri said, when she walked into his room one night, shrugged her shoulders and simply said, "I miss your dad so much." Reese held her as she cried and said, "Mom, it's going to be OK."

The next day, Reese was up early walking the dog. He started to help around the house more, cleaning the garage and doing the yard work. Everything Greg had done, Reese started doing, too.

When Garrett started to struggle in school after Greg's death, Reese went to his teachers -- unbeknownst to Sheri -- and devised a plan so his brother wouldn't fall behind. He took more responsibility on the field, taking the blame for mistakes and passing credit to his teammates.

"He's been the heart and soul of our team," Nyquist said.

Days before Greg's death, Nyquist was with the family at the hospital when he asked Greg if he could get him anything. "Yeah," Greg said. "I want that state trophy next year."

Saturday morning before the championship, Nyquist stopped by the house to talk with Reese and Garrett, to tell them how proud Greg was of them. He also wanted them to know that after football, he wasn't going anywhere.

"You and me, this is forever," Nyquist told the boys. "I'm in this for the long haul."

Sheri returned home to find all three kneeling in prayer, more proof that Greg was right about this whole "sports is a family" thing.

It's going to happen. You're going to win it. Down 7-3 at half, and you're going to win it anyway, after that heartbreaker last year, after an undefeated season, after a shaky first half and a 31-0 second half, after a career-high 151 passing yards and two touchdowns.

There's Will Murphy, picking you up, pounding your helmet and whooping. There's Coach, wrapping you in a hug and whispering in your ear, "Your dad is so proud of you. He's smiling down on you right now. I love you." Fourteen seconds to go, and there's Garrett slipping his hand in yours on the sideline, and there's Mom, wearing Dad's old No. 24 jersey. And then the three of you are hugging and crying and saying you love each other. Wish Dad were here, wish you could hug him. West Albany as state champs, man, he would love this. He's got the best seat in the house, though. This one was for him. Hope he liked the show.

Thankfulness . . .

We should always reflect how thankful we are no matter what time of year, but at this time of year it is always more "sensationalized" if you will. We all have so many things to be thankful for but overlook those things. Today, it was brought back into perspective for me. I ran across a blog spot through a friend of a friend's blog. These are missionaries in Uganda. They are in the midst of an EBOLA outbreak!! Now if you don't know what EBOLA is, it is not something you want!!! I found this family's blog extremely rivoting . . . I guess because I am in the medical field and love to read about missionaries. But, my heart breaks for the people of this village and for those around that have this virus. My heart swells with gratitude for this couple and their kids for being missionaries to these beautiful people. My heart breaks as they loose friends and people they have grown to love. My heart swells agin with gratitude at their braveness for staying, but again breaks when they send their children off because they (the parents) may have been exposed. Please spend some time reading this blog http://paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/ and praying for this village and these missionaries. And DO NOT FORGET ALL we have to be thankful for! Praise Jesus for ALL you have to be thankful for I know we will be!!

Bethany Dillon, Sanctus Real, and STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN

A lady from our church won tickets on the radio to this great concert in Portland last night. I was not going to go because I am fighting this stupid cold, but I am SOO glad I did!! We had a great time! We had great seats only 4 rows back and a little to the right, but WOW!! I did realize one thing. . . I am getting old because it was LOUD!!!! My kids would've loved it!!! I thought about them all night long, in fact, called them twice on my cell phone to let them listen, but they said it did not come through very well! Oh, well! Maybe next time we can all go!! We have seen SCC before and he puts on a great concert, and last nights was just as awesome as the previous ones.

Thank you Cynthia!! I really enjoyed myself and worshing the Lord with these wonderful people!

East Linn Christian Academy Christmas Cards

East Linn Christian Academy is selling Christmas cards for $15.00 for 12 cards, 2 of each design. Please follow this link to view the cards http://eastlinnchristian.com/home/Fundraising+&+Donors/Christmas+Cards/View+Christmas+cards

Last spring the Fine Arts Department had a contest and the cards were voted on and these are the winning 6 cards. They are done by students of varying grades. They all did a FABULOUS job, don't you think?? The cards are not blank inside, but I don't know what each one says, I have not been able to find that out as of yet, sorry.

If you are interested please email me or get ahold of me and let me know. If you don't have my personal information just leave a post here and I will get back with you.

All proceeds go to support the Fine Arts Department of East Linn Christian Academy.

Thank you for your support of our school!

God Bless You!

Twister in Lebanon, Oregon????

Well apparently it is true. There was a twister go through Lebanon yesterday afternoon. I know the sky was sure black but it was about 8 miles from us, only about 1-1/2 miles from my folks home. Good thing Dad was out at our house! :) Anyway, here is the story and the picture from the Albany Democrat Herald Newspaper today.

LEBANON - A funnel cloud touched down late Friday afternoon at Bob Cate’s home on Tennessee School Road, tearing off sections of roof from his seed and vehicle warehouses and scattering debris half a mile away.

Neighbors gathered to help Cate clean up and to move thousands of pounds of grass seed into a more protected corner of his damaged barn.

It’s the first tornado Cate and his wife, Alene, have experienced in their 58 years in Lebanon.

Cate was outside shortly before 5 p.m. when it started to hail. He went inside and the funnel cloud touched down shortly afterward.

He heard only what sounded like “a big fan,” but his neighbor Dan Roth said the noise was more like a freight train.

“I was in my shop working and I heard it,” Roth said. “I went and looked out the window and I saw a big funnel cloud. ... It looked like a tornado. There was no doubt about it.”

The tornado blew the doors off all the barns and shops on the property and ripped sections of roof from every building but the Cate home.

It also took down four trees on the Cate property and two on the Roth place and left a twisted ribbon of metal inches from the Cate front porch. “What saved the house was those three redwoods,” Cate said, nodding at the trees standing around his home, the historic S.C. Myers House, built in 1888.

Two cedars, a walnut and a fir weren’t so lucky. The uprooted cedars fell on his garage, knocking a few shingles off the home’s roof. The other trees fell in the yard, littering the ground with leaves and snapped branches.

Pacific Power employees spent the evening repairing downed lines on Cate’s property. Officials with the Linn County Road Department surveyed the area and reported a debris path from Tennessee School Road over neighboring KGAL Drive.

Roth and other neighbors talked about the storm as they removed the damaged, 15-foot corrugated metal doors from the Cate seed warehouse and fired up a John Deere loader to push some 150,000 pounds of fescue seed away from the open roof.

Gary Crossan saw the cloud from about two miles away.

“We could see that thing just swirling,” he said. “You could see it develop a little funnel, go back up ... all of a sudden it looked like it went through a burnt field, because it all went black.”

“It went down, picked up a bunch of stuff and just started throwing it everywhere,” said Mike Hayes, another neighbor about two miles away. “Crazy. Totally crazy.”

“It was just amazing,” Roth said. “I can understand why people in the Midwest head for the basement.”

No one officially recorded Lebanon’s tornado Friday, but conditions were perfect for one to occur.

David Elson, a meteorologist with the Portland office of the National Weather Service, said radar data indicated thunderstorms and a rotating storm pattern.

Funnel clouds are likely in the mid-valley during a “cold core low,” an upper-atmosphere phenomenon in which a low-pressure storm moves over the area with very cold air near its center. The clouds become tornados if they touch the ground.

State Climatologist George Taylor wasn’t surprised that a tornado formed. “With the cold low over us, we were speculating today there might be funnel clouds,” he said.

Meteorologists calculate a tornado’s wind speed from the damage it causes. About Friday’s, Elson guessed in the neighborhood of 75 miles per hour.

“That’s a shot in the dark,” he said.

Thunderstorms in the mid-valley were expected to end Friday night and no hazardous weather — unless rain counts — is predicted for the next few days. Temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid 60s with showers likely most of next week.

Missionary Friends Latest Newsletter

The following letter is from friends of ours, Keith and Kristin Chapman. They are aborad the Africa Mercy which is now docked in Monrovia Liberia. I just thought it would be fun to post their latest letter to show what God is doing in their lives and through them. Keith is a dentist and helps run the dental clinic. Kristin is a former teacher who is working as assistant to the new Mental Health Program director.

In our line of work, perhaps we’re a bit anxious to use the word and tend to throw it around a bit too loosely. I think once in three and a half years isn’t too loose, although I’m about to make it three times. Miracle. If you still think I use it too loosely, I’ll take this part of its definition in the dictionary, which actually does sell the word a bit short but, nonetheless, it is something that excites admiring awe.

The dental team has seen some serious stuff in the past few months, even weeks. It would seem that the West African rainy season ( Liberia is the wettest of its nations) takes its toll on the health of its people. This is just a theory, but as we began to see waves of patients who suffer from infections far beyond even the abnormally severe problems that already plague Liberia , the other dentists and doctors can’t help but agree.

A picture runs in my mind of a family of five or six, living in a one room house not much bigger than my kitchen with dirt floors, an aluminum roof with holes, and a tarpaulin over that to unsuccessfully help keep the place dry. The mattress, if they have one, is wet. Their clothes are wet. The ground is wet, if not from the leaky roof, from water running from the outside in. The family hasn’t eaten much in a while. Maybe work has been slim for the father; we’ll say he’s a mason. While fortunate to even have a line of work, he is maybe working less than half of his normal hours due to the rain. This means less food, less nutrition. Add this problem to a constantly wet, cold body and you’ve got yourself a very low immune system.

The result—a tooth infection takes the opportunity to cause some trouble. The body can no longer suppress the infection that’s been brewing for years and years. In just a few short days, the patient’s throat is starting to swell. The patient can’t swallow anything, even water, making them even weaker and more malnourished and dehydrated. They can’t even lie down, as their airway begins to close and they begin coughing and are forced to sit up. So not much sleep or rest, either.

This last paragraph describes Grace, who developed most of these problems even after her infected tooth was already removed. Several days later, she sat in my dental chair and with no other alternative, I decided to drain her infection under local anesthetic. Not fun for either of us, but mission accomplished. Unfortunately, things were not over for Grace.

Our dental coordinator, Joseph, took her back to the ship for an x-ray to make sure there was no other unseen problem causing the infection. The x-ray never happened, but Grace being on the ship would turn out to be more than a blessing. Grace collapsed on the ship and began to have a febrile seizure. When her temperature was taken, it was 41.8°C (106°F). Her systolic blood pressure was only in the 60s.

Grace was admitted to the ship’s Intensive Care Unit, which a few weeks before received its first few patients, also from the dental clinic. Her blood was very anemic due to the severity of the infection, but Grace could not receive a transfusion because of antibodies in her blood. It was not looking good. That night she was intubated to maintain her airway and the anesthesiologist (anaesthetist) that tubed her stated he did not feel she would make it through the night.

The four doctors on the ship discussed what the plans would be or even whether or not the patient could be resuscitated should the need arise during the night. The anesthetist commented, “We already are resuscitating here.” They had done all that they could do and not much else could bring her back if she slipped away.

Thankfully, with a lot of prayer from the ship’s crew and the ICU nurses, against all odds, Grace started to turn around drastically in the middle of the night. I didn’t even want to go down there the next morning. I saw the anaesthetist on the outside deck early that morning. He gave me the good news that Grace was still with us. After over a week recovering on the ward, she went home yesterday thanking God for saving her life. Earlier that week, while she still couldn’t talk, I remember how she would continuously point to the sky when I would say how much she was improving. One day, she pointed at us. The nurse that was there said, “It was God, not us. There wasn’t much we could do.” She then pointed at the sky, then at us, and then back at herself. “Don’t make me cry, Grace,” I told her.


#2—Some of you may remember the story we told last year of a boy we called Jay; Kenneth Jayswen. His story’s here:
http://www.geocities.com/chapmanmercyships/Newsletter_Mar_06_Web.pdf

but here’s the Cliff Notes—Jay had been abandoned at Redemption Hospital where the Mercy Ships’ dental clinic operated. His father had burned his face in a fire and he also had scars from cuts on his chest. Kristin was able to approach the father, who signed away rights so Jay could be adopted and not have to return to an abusive situation. He has been in Acres of Hope, Samuel’s old orphanage, ever since.
Well, I got a call from Patty just a few nights ago, and Jay’s adoptive parents, Alan and Lori, are in Liberia to finalize the process! So where’s the miracle, you’re asking…

I was speechless when Patty told me, “His new dad has scars on his face.” Not only that, but Alan’s father was named Kenneth and his brother….Jay. Unbelievable. A miracle. Patty said the new proud father stated, “I knew he was my boy.” We had the privilege of meeting them and seeing Jay for one last time just before they all flew out to the U.S. How great it was not only to wave good-bye to them, but to see Jay driving off to his new life and new family. Alan said to Kristin before leaving, “Thanks for loving him before we could.”

As far as our family, things are going well with us here on the new ship. Samuel just turned 3, Lauren 7 just yesterday, and Taylor will be 9 in November. They have all started school and have great teachers once again. Samuel was required to be potty trained before he started preschool, so that gave us the motivation we needed to stop prolonging the inevitable. He’s finally into big boy underwear and really loves his Wiggles and Lightning McQueen undies. Wiggles underpants. Boy, you know your music career has hit the heights when you have a caricature of your face on a 3 year old’s backside. Enough about underwear…

Kristin has taken on part time work again as the assistant for the director of the Mental Health Program, a new program on the ship that trains local pastors to be able to identify mental health issues so that they can obtain proper care for the person. It also includes an addiction program, something unheard of here; a real answer to my prayer for this part of the world, where alcoholism lingers unrecognized and untreated and the church tends to look down its nose at the victims of the disease.

We’ll be back in the United States for about four months from the beginning of December. We plan to make the usual stops; San Antonio , Nashville , and Ponca City , plus a few along the way. We are trying to raise funding for the dental clinic we’re establishing in Liberia . The goal is to raise monthly or yearly support covering all that the clinic needs for its yearly operation, about $40-50,000 after producing an estimated $20-25,000 from the small fees we plan on charging. If you have any type of group for which we might be able present and raise awareness and support for the clinic, please let us know.

The truth shall make you free. . .
I want to just end by telling a story of a patient who was recently treated on the ship. I am always looking for a way to explain how our work here is always so much more than the specific jobs we do. I believe one such way, in general, is bringing the truth. With low education comes more belief in superstition and, therefore, as I see it, living life in unnecessary fear. Jesus said, “For this I have been born [to be a king], and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” And of course he said that if we live in His word, we will know the truth and the truth will make us free.

Bendu’s village did not know the truth. Not only were they living in fear, but spreading that fear to Bendu and nearly causing her daughter, Sah, who was born both deaf and blind to miss out on a wonderful blessing that God had for him. Members of Bendu’s village told her not to take Sah to the ship because we would take out her eyes and sail away with both of them as slaves. But fortunately, Bendu had faith in the truth.

She made the trek to the ship and our eye surgeons were able to give sight to both of Sah’s eyes. What a testimony to their village of the truth of God’s goodness when she returned. The fear will start to dissipate. The lies will lose their sting. The truth will set them free.



keith and kristin ><>

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. 1 Samuel 2:8
www.trinitydental.org www.geocities.com/chapmanmercyships

Oregon State Fair

Well, we spent the last 11 days of summer at the Oregon State Fair. It was provided us with sore feet, greuling hours, and the whole reason we were there, business! We did well this year, praise the Lord! We also got to have some fun!! The kids went to a couple of concerts, Joe Nichols and Craig Morgan, actually I got to see Craig Morgan too. Well, in all honesty Shawn and I were blessed enough to be able to get backstage and meet the fella!! He signed a t-shirt for us to auction off at a benefit we are planning in May 2008 and spent a few minutes visiting with us. What a great guy! He has such a sense of humor!!

It is back to school today and it has been quiet. Shawn and my dad are up at the Fair grounds tearing down the booth and hope to be done tonight, but may have to go back tomorrow! The kids would go and watch the hypnosis act every day, sometimes twice a day because they found it so funny! Shelby worked every day of the fair at a booth that sells leather purses and wallets and she made a bunch of money. She was so responsible!! I know she was beat, but she really took the bull by the horns and finished out what she said she would do. We are very proud of her. The boys took a friend to the fair and ran into an old friend so they had a ball playing around and attempting to pick up on the girls. . . not sure how I feel about that one! : ) At least there were 4 Christian boys together and the could hold each other accountable so I am comfortable with that.

That is it for now!