Thank You for Your Servant Heart

Thank You to everyone who...
....brought food
....helped set up
....transported food to the reception hall
....worked in the kitchen
....helped clean up
....and just loved on Melinda and Christine!

The Celebration of Bob Salliby's life was amazing today!!!  As the pews filled up, it was evident that Bob touched many, many lives! There were young and old alike in attendance at his funeral.  Those who traveled one mile and those who traveled a 100 miles.   Many of Bob and Melinda's friends and family traveled from RI, including a bus full of friends from their old church.

Pastor Mark, Pastor Dave and Pastor Harv did a wonderful job officiating the celebration.  These men were not just Bob's co-workers, but his friends!   Caitlin signed "I Can Only Imagine" in honor of her best friend's daddy and Bob's brother, Chick, spoke so eloquently about his brother's life and his ministry.

However, most would agree that the playing of Bob's evangelism CD "Amazing Love" was the best part of this celebration.  One last time for Bob to preach the salvation message and give an opportunity for family and friends to come to the Lord and receive the gift of eternal life in Heaven. Many gave their lives to the Lord today!!! Praise God! 

We want to thank everyone who helped make this day a truly day of celebration for Melinda, Christine and Bob's entire family.  We couln't have done it without all your help! 

With Great Appreciation...
We remain In Line With the Word

Reception

What a week! It's been a whirlwind! Lot's has been
happening in making funeral service, burial and reception
plans.The last blog posting gives you the Calling hours
and Funeral information.

Bob Salliby will be buried at Forest Hill Cemetery at
115 Mt. Elam Rd. in Fitchburg, MA.The reception will
be held at the Twin City Baptist School , in the Larsen
(Larson) Family Center, to the left and rear of the school.
Twin City is located at 194 Electric Ave. in Lunenburg, MA.

We expect between 400-500 people so we've asked our
church members and local friends to bring food for the
buffet lunch. We are having a couple of hot dishes provided
by a local caterer . We need donations of finger sandwiches,
assorted salads and assorted desserts (cookies,bar cookies).
We will provide coffee and punch! The food can be
delivered directly to Twin City starting at about11:00am
before the funeral or at the Leominster Assembly of God
Church Office entrance. We have volunteers ready to fill up
their cars and transport the food to the reception for you.

If you are local and would like to contribute food for the
buffet, please call me at 978-582-9375 or send an
e-mail to sallydyer1@verizon.net.

So many of you have offered help to Melinda in your notes,
e-mails, blog comments and telephone calls.This is a wonderful
way to help as we honor Bob for his many years of service
to the Lord and the church!

Thank you so much!

The In Line With The Word Team

Preparations

Some plans have been finalized, as we prepare to say

"Good-bye" to Bob!

The Calling Hours will be held this Friday, Jan.29 from 6:00-8:00pm
at the Brandon Funeral Home

located at 305 Wanoosnoc Rd. Fitchburg, MA.

 The Funeral will be held Saturday, Jan. 30 at the

Leominster Assembly of God

located at 834 Main St. Leominster, MA.

   There will be a 'Viewing' time before the funeral starting at 11:00am.

The funeral will begin at 12:00noon.

Plans for the reception after the services have not been finalized

so please check back again.

The In Line With The Word team!

Heaven Bound

Pastor Bob Salliby went home to be with the Lord this morning at 12:16 am. 

He is the happiest he has ever been!!!

As many of you know, Pastor Bob fell two weeks ago and sustained a severe head injury resulting in a blood clot.  He had emergency brain surgery and remained in critical condition for two weeks.  His prognisis was not favorable.  Then Sunday night, Bob took a turn for the worse.  Yesterday he was surrounded by Melinda and Christine and many extended family and friends. The day was filled with prayers, reading of God's Word and singing praises!!!   We rejoice for our friend is spending today in Heaven in the presence of the Most Holy One.   He has heard His Father say "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

Many of you have emailed or called wanting to know how you can help.  We will be contacting you soon to let you know.  Thank you for loving Bob, Melinda and Christine!

Until we see Bob again.....

We remain In Line With the Word

Sunday Visitors

Bob had lots of company today! He is still critical but so many friends and members of his extended family wanted to have a chance to drop in to see him. Please continue to pray as we watch God's plan unfold for Bob!
Melinda and Christine are doing well , though tired. We place our trust in the Lord!

We remain In Line With the Word!

Friday Night Breather!

Today's visit with Bob was a tough one and his prognosis not encouraging. I'll give you more details in upcoming postings but Melinda needed to have a break and girlfriend time, so we got together for a spontaneous Friday 'game night'.

 We played a few rounds of UNO ! It was new to me but pretty easy to play.

Can you tell that Melinda and Laurie are the best of friends?

 We are thrilled that D.J. is recovering from his broken leg, and that he was willing to join us for some fun!

Thanks Kim for pulling this together so quickly! It was just the 'breather' that we all needed!

Melinda has some tough decisions to make in the days ahead, so please continue to pray, pray, pray!

Baby Steps are Still Steps!!!

Praise God!!!  Bob woke up a bit more today. His progress is really slow, but any progress is encouraging.  This afternoon during Melinda's visit with Bob, he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her!!!  He also patted her hand in response to her.  He squeezed Christine's hand and his brother's hand as well.  He even moved his mouth a bit.

Melinda, Christine, Bob's brother, and Laurie met with the neurologist today to discuss the results of the brain stem MRI.  The doctor did a great job explaining the anatomy of the brain and brain stem in easy to understand terms. He said it does not take a big injury in someone Bob's age to cause a bleed in the brain. As you grow older your brain shrinks and a space is created between the brain and the skull.  The blood vessels are stretched.  If there is a injury to the head, it is easy for one of the blood vessels to tear and bleed and the blood accumulates in the space.  This is what happened to Bob.

In his case,  the bleed was large enough to cause his brain to shift to one side.  This caused the brain stem to be stretched on one side and compressed on the other. Now that the clot is gone and the bleeding diminished,  Bob's brain has moved back where it belongs. They had expected to see significant damage to the stem but the MRI showed that there is NO extensive damage to the brain stem.  Again...Praise God!!! There is some bruising to the brain stem and only time can heal that.

So the question of the day is "Why isn't Bob waking up?"  The neurologist explained  there were several factors that played a part :1) the design of Bob's brain and how it grew as a child,2) the fact that he has had hydrocephaly (water on the brain) since he was a little boy,3) because he has had a recent brain injury and bleed, and 4) his age. Put all these factors together and it will probably take longer for Bob to wake up. He said it could take weeks or months! He can't give a time frame.  It will only be after he wakes up that doctors can assess his abilities.  The doctor gave no guarantee to Melinda.  We are grateful that we serve Miracle-Working, Mountain-Moving, Awe-Inspiring, Gasp-Giving God! He knows exactly what is going to happen..and when! 

You're probably asking..."Now What?" or "What Can I Do?"  And the response is pray! Pray! Pray! Pray!   We are asking everyone to join together to pray and fast over the next 3 days. Some difficult decisions will need to be made by the end of the weekend.  This journey is emotionally and physically exhausting for both Melinda and Christine.  They need prayer warriors to come alongside during this time. 

The Meals Ministry at LAOG is providing meals for them ,so if you want to help with meals please contact the church.  Our small group is taking care of cleaning her house and doing laundry for now.  We may reach out to some ladies in the church as time passes.  Please feel free to send and/or post notes of encouragement to Melinda and Christine. As other needs arise, we will post them on this blog or contact people individually. 

Until then....we are remaining
In Line With The Word

The Day After the Election!

Last night as our home team was wrapping up our study and waiting for the Scott Brown election results, we received an update from Melinda.  Some things with Bob remain the same and there is new news too. He remains critical and still has an infection and fever.  His doctors have ruled out the heart as the source of his infection, so it looks like they will continue to work to locate and treat it. While his left hand and arm are still swollen, his doctors have ruled out a blood clot but they still are unsure what is the cause of the swelling.  His doctors have moved his central line and he remains on the ventilator. No word yet on when they might remove it and replace it with a tracheotomy.

Sometime today, he will have a brain stem MRI! Please continue to keep Bob, Melinda and Christine in prayer!

Answer Provided!

 Yesterday, Kim and I picked up Melinda (M) and Christine (C) and headed into Worcester to visit Bob!  Kim and I were thrilled to have our very first chance to visit and see Bob for ourselves. Until yesterday, we had remained in the waiting room while M & C went in to visit with him. Since he can only have 2 visitors at a time, I went in with Melinda and then I traded places with Kim and she had the chance to go in for a visit. I'll fill you in with details about his condition shortly, but we wanted you to know that God answered our prayers and honored our fasting by giving Melinda the answer she needed.  Let me explain a bit further. Bob has been on a ventilator, even though he's breathing on his own. His doctors have been considering removing the ventilator and giving Bob a tracheotomy instead. It's a safety measure , just in case he went into cardiac arrest but the tracheotomy would make him much more comfortable. Here's where answered prayer comes in. Melinda had been wrestling with the decision, wondering whether Bob would want it or not. She prayed and slept on it and decided to allow it. She is at peace. Thank you for your prayers and fasting.

When M and I went in to say 'Hi', Bob opened his eyes and looked at M. It was an exciting moment but we couldn't tell if he recognized her and don't know if it meant anything. It only lasted for a few brief moments but it was a hopeful sign. Sometimes he responds to loud verbal commands or pain stimulous and some times he doesn't. He moved his right hand quite a bit but his left hand and arm were very swollen and getting worse so they planned on doing some tests to make sure that there is no new blood clot. As we were leaving the medical team was preparing to move his main IV line from the left side of his chest to the right because the entry point on his left was looking red and uncomfortable.

Pray that today his team can determine the cause of the infection running through his blood stream. They plan on doing a TEE test which allows them to do an ultrasound of his heart to see if that is the source of his infection. Once they determine it's source , they can treat it with the correct anti-biotic.

Laurie has been going into Worcester with Melinda too , so don't be surprised if you see an occasional post from her.

Thanks for your continued prays and notes of encouragement to Melinda and Christine!

We strive to live In Line With The Word.
Sally

Prayers for Bob

Many of you know and love Bob Salliby! Melinda and Christine have asked that our blogspot be the place to provide updates about his health situation for the forseeable future. We welcome you, particularly if you are a new visitor. We'll do our best to update daily. For a bit of background about how we arrived at this place, check out our Archived post from a few days ago entitled 'Praying for One of Our Own'.
 

Today is Sunday, January 17th, 2010 and Bob's condition is still critical. I'll do my best , in lay terms, to explain how he is doing. He has diminished mental capacity, though his brain is awake . That means that in the last few days, he's lost some ground and he's no longer following commands. He still has the ventilator in to maintain his airway but he has been breathing on his own. He has developed a  fever and an infection, perhaps in his heart involving his heart valves, and he is on antibiotics. He had experienced some seizures but since being on a seizure med, those have stopped. His doctors have cut off the shunt which had been inserted a few weeks ago, which helped to remove water on the brain. That was no longer working.

Our home team members plan on fasting and praying tomorrow. We will pray for Melinda who is asking God for wisdom concerning the decisions and choices that lie ahead. Please join us in fasting and praying. Feel free to post a comment!

We strive always to be In Line With the Word!

Sally and the ILWTW home team!

Aloha Doug

Kim and Chip's oldest son, Doug, completed his second tour in Afghanistan!  He arrived back in Hawaii ahead of his battalion because he had some medical issues. He had to be airlifted to Germany for medical care.  He spent a couple months with Wounded Warriors but is now back with his battalion.  Praise God, he has no long lasting medical problems and won't be deployed again.

Here  is Doug welcoming back his buddies.  He has formed great friendships with these young men.  Many of these soldiers were blessed with boxes from our small group.

Going out to eat with the family and shopping for new clothes were a couple things they enjoyed in Hawaii....

BUT ...

for Doug the best part of the visit was....buying a new truck!!! The only thing that would have made it better was if dad signed on the bottom line.

Doug flew home to Massachusetts for Christmas with the family.  He got to spend great quality time with mom, dad and DJ during the holidays. Of course there was lots of adventure with his visit home (posting to come).  It was nice to see him at church. Of course we made him pose for pictures with our small group...will have to post those later.

 

We are thankful for Doug's service to our country. He felt all the prayers that were said for him and his buddies.  Please continue to pray for all the men and women serving our country!

 

Until next time...

We remain...

In Line With the Word

Praying for one of our own

Melinda's husband Bob is currently in ICU after having a blood clot removed during emergency surgery early Sunday morning. Bob is well known to some of you who 'visit' us from time to time, so I hope that you'll pray for him, Melinda and their daughter Christine.

Bob has had a series of health issues over the years which plagued him and lead to his retirement a couple years ago.  This past fall, he went into a facility to help him with physical and occupational therapy.

Bob, Melinda and Christine enjoyed Christmas in the rehab facility but he made his way home on New Years Day. He took a couple of falls within the last few days. He hit his head and developed a life threatening blood clot on the brain which lead to his emergency surgery.As a home team, we are stepping in to help however and where ever we can. You can help too by praying.

2010's Snowy Start !

Happy New Year! It's wintry and white in my yard here in the NE! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Line With the Word's ,
Sally