Miller Update:

Hey all,

We are rushing off to our annual week away at my Mom and Dad’s place out in Western PA! Kristen is packing and the kids are trying (not) to go to sleep with visions of goats and sheep and chickens in their heads. Josh says, catch’em! catch’em! and chases any chicken that gets out into the yard. It seems as if we were just there which is where I will back up to (sorry Audrey to end on a prep). We the Millers and Mom and Dad Brauer stayed with my folks the last weekend of June to attend an annual conference on the Westminster Confession of Faith held at the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh where my Dad is adjunct professor of missions. The conference was on the first table of the law and my Dad had the last time slot on the fourth commandment.  The conference was entitled something like “Putting Christ into everyday practice”, though we found most of the first half of the lectures to be more academic and less practical than expected. All in all we were stimulated to a good deal of really beneficial conversation and fellowship amongst ourselves as families.  I always enjoy having both the Brauer and Miller sets of parents (now Mom Mom’s and Pop Pops’) together and am always reminded of what a blessing it is to have parents who are faithful to and trusting in the Lord.

The next weekend after getting back to Philly I went through what I thought was a terrible flu. I had body aches and a fever like I’ve never experienced.  After a identifiable rash showed up I knew pretty certainly that I had been infected with Lyme’s disease.  The doctor confirmed it and prescribed me four weeks of antibiotics.  The side effect of the antibiotic I was prescribed is intolerance to the sun.  And boy is that ever true.  I was just beginning an exterior job painting a church.  I couldn’t stand more than 15 or 20 minutes in direct sun light without getting burnt.  We went through a few weeks of heat waves where the heat index was over 100 degrees with high humidity. I had to wear a hat and long pants and sleeves to be able to keep protected as sunscreen didn’t help after sweating it off by mid morning. In all of this the Lord blessed me with focus on the job while I would often be in a fog at home. My sons were with me at work and did an excellent job! We had to work from a 60ft. boom for most of the job and didn’t have any accidents. We were able to complete the job ahead of schedule and begin another job which solved a schedule conflict I would have faced after coming back from this vacation. I wanted to pass this along to thank and praise the Lord for how he has blessed us through what has been a trying and difficult four weeks.  I always think sickness happens to someone else or I mull over how I could have been more careful to prevent something like a tick bite (which I was never aware of!) but the Lord brought quickly to my mind that he meant for me to get this sickness.  There is a sobering that comes from realizing how fragile we are and a joy in suffering when we can see God’s sustaining love at work in your life.  The doctor expects that I will be totally cured but I ask that you all would pray that the bacteria would be completely eradicated by the antibiotics and that I wouldn’t experience any reemerging symptoms down the road.