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June 18, 2005
June 18, 9:00 am
we received some wonderful news yesterday. dr. ploger, one of asher's trauma doctors, came in and told us that he was going to write the orders for asher to be moved to an intermediate care room on another floor in the hospital. now we are waiting for a room in this unit to open up. it is hard for us to believe that asher has been in icu for 25 days, and that his overall condition has improved that much, and even though he is still not awake and he is still severely impaired due to his injuries, he is and will continue to get better. that, i am absolutely convinced of.
i received an email yesterday from a woman i have never met, becky barnes. she lives in texas and first contacted me just a few weeks before asher's accident. she has started a widows ministry called Highest Integrity and she contacted me through our Widows Harvest web site to let me know that she had found us. becky has now had 2 dreams about asher. the first one was several weeks ago. she saw a mountain lion in a tree about to attack a young man. when the mountain lion jumped down out of the tree it turned into a larger fierce lion. she said she had a squirt bottle filled with water and she squirted it on the lion and the lion immediately backed off. she was amazed at how easily he was repelled. she was convinced, later, that the young man was asher.
this was her second dream and she sent it to me in response to the vision she read about in yesterday's posting that carol marie had. i am just going to include her entire email to me.
" Dear Andy,
I read Asher's update and dream just now by the intercessor. Funny, that you can have a dream and not understand it completely, then the revelation comes later. I had another dream two days ago that I saw a man in a suit. He was blind-folded, his hands were tied by a simple rope in front of him, and he was bare foot. There was a thin layer of concrete about a half an inch thick around the base of his feet and toes. Another woman was near him and we saw him being picked up and dropped feet first into a triple deep pool. She dove in to rescue him. I knew that she couldn't do it alone, so I dove in as well. He had sunk very deep, but we were working fast to rescue him. She was pulling him up, while I was breaking the concrete off of his feet and toes. The concrete was just crumbling under my fingers. As we were moving upward the dream ended. I now believe that he was Asher.
What struck me about the dream is how simply that he was tied. And how shallow the depth of the concrete and how it crumbled with just a little effort. Almost as easy as breaking off hard mud. I believe that the Lord is showing the REALITY of his injuries and what the Lord is not going to allow. It is all simpler than it seems or looks.
It may be a blessing that he hasn't woken up yet. Then you will have to deal with his fear and his faith level. Although I know that you can't stand it.....
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and give you peace,
Not giving up!
Becky Barnes"
What has amazed me about this dream is the fact that the man in the dream is wearing a suit and asher loves to wear suits, or even a sports jacket with a tie, or just a tie. none of which have we ever bought for asher in his entire life, or have we required him to wear any of them.
after i had read becky's dream through several times i also was suddenly struck by the fact that every place that the man was bound is the place that asher's injuries are most evident. asher can't move his legs or hands and even though asher's eyes have been wide open for days, it is like he can't see us, even though i believe that he hears us. his toes, though, are the only place that we have seen any movement (which is probably only a reflex response at this point), which is the place in her dream where the man's feet are in concrete, but the concrete crumbled when she began to break it off. giving thanks to God!
I received another very interesting email yesterday from Mark Peoples. he and his wife jennifer were our neighbors for years before moving to South Carolina. mark and jennifer have 2 wonderful little girls, grayson and emma. grayson, the oldest (4) has been praying fervently for asher everyday since they told her about his accident. they have told her that when he wakes up they will bring her to see him, so that she can meet this stranger she has been praying for. this is what mark wrote to me yesterday.
" Hey Buddy. I know that this is "off the wall".. but after reading your post for today I had to write. See... Grayson got up early one morning and told us LAST week that Asher was going to "wake up" next Friday, and that she wanted to make sure to tell us so that we could plan to go and she could see him. So now get this... last night we're saying our prayers and she asks God to "wake Asher up tomorrow so I can see him". And I'm saying that this came OUT OF THE BLUE - without provocation. Wow. Anyhow, I hope the big event comes very soon. I just had to share that.
Love you guys! See you soon
Mark, Jen, Grace, and Em"
No, asher did not wake up yesterday, at least not in the sense of his being able to obey commands or to show visual recognition of us. grayson may have the friday right, just the wrong one (who knows). i don't know, but all week i have had the sense that something significant would happen on friday and the fact that asher received the orders to be moved to a less critical care unit was tremendous news after 25 days of being in intensive care. this mean, obviously, that his condition has improved in tremendous ways. it also means that we can be in the room with him, now throughout the day and night (even sleeping there). i am just more thankful, again, than i even know how to express.
Another overwhelming set of circumstances that i wanted to share with you this today is about an upcoming event that has been organized by the owner of the skate park in chattanooga (where asher has been skating and hanging out for years) along with a number of asher's amazing friends (who are also all skaters) that will take place at the chattown skate park on July 1 and 2. this event will be a skate board competition that is being promoted as a help to asher and the mendonsa's. i can't tell you how completely humbling this is for gloria, hadrienne and me to see these guys demonstrating such a deep and sincere love for both asher and us in this way, as well as so many other ways since asher was first injured.
if you want to find out more information about this benefit competition you can go to: www.chattownskatepark.com.
goodness, i think i really have to stop now. as i have been writing this i am just finding myself so completely overwhelmed by the countless ways that God is continuing to show us His amazing love through all of you that i just can't write anymore.
may the Lord bless all of you in the ways that He is blessing us,
in His immeasurable love,
andy mendonsa
| By Leda | 09:19 AM
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Comments
the most recent update brought thankful tears to my eyes. probably one of the reasons asher isn't completely awake yet is so countless numbers can be humbled before the Throne to praise HIM. He is also demonstrating to the whole world how HIS BODY works together "for HIS glory and our good."
Posted by: grace at June 18, 2005 09:51 AM
Hello, my name is Nicole, and I'm cousins with someone who knows Asher. Ever since I was told about what happened, I have been keeping Asher in my heart and praying for him. I feel very positive about this, and everything will go according to God's plan. I pray for the day that Asher wakes up and can be with his family again. I will be reading updates everyday to see his progress!
Posted by: Nicole at June 18, 2005 01:37 PM
As I read the updates on Asher, I can't help but humble myself before the presence of God and praise Him for what He continues to do. We continue to pray for Asher in Orlando, Florida. My church has him on our prayer list as well. God is faithful!
Posted by: Dinah Negron at June 18, 2005 09:03 PM
