IN HONOR OF
Karen Ronning
"Keren LeKaren"

August 8, 1971 to  March 5, 2000

 A Gentle Heart

Building this website is painful for Karen's family and friends. The stories come slowly.  

When work here is finished, you can read Karen's story: a young woman, a social worker in Jerusalem, full of giving and love for people and nature, a gentle heart who touched many lives.

October 7, 1999

Karen falls into a coma.

Late November 1999

SHALOM FROM JERUSALEM
THIS IS AN URGENT REQUEST FOR ONGOING PRAYER:

Our precious 28 year old Karen has now been lying in a coma for nearly one and a half months at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. 

Please pray to our Heavenly Father, King of the Universe, that she be totally restored. 

She has been a social worker in Jerusalem, but with contacts throughout Israel to projects which serve both Jews and Arabs. Karen loved her work, the people she worked with and the people she sought to help. There is an evil intent that wants to destroy Karen's life and her ministry of love. We pray that she may be able soon to continue her blessed ministry to the poor in Jerusalem.

Eventually we may share more fully about the tragedy which caused the coma. Just now we prefer that all thought and prayer be concentrated on the present and future, on her healing and restoration. She suffered brain damage, which caused a total coma for one week. But as the coma let up a bit, the terrible seizures began, sometimes every minute. The entire body goes into a spasm. 

Now in mid-November, the neurologists are making an all out effort to stop the seizures. They are using the maximum dosages of Dantoin, Midazolam and Luminal. Karen has had several blessedly peaceful nights lately. She occasionally looks you in the eye, and even, on rare occasion, smiles. The coma is no longer total, and her ECG brain activity tests show a steady but ever so slight increase in activity in the cortex, the higher brain functions. 

Medically, all options are yet open -- from a continued near vegetative state, to degrees of retardation, to total recovery. 

Spiritually, tremendous prayer is going up for her total recovery. We plead that you join. Please pray also especially for Karen's inner peace and healing.

Because of the massive outpouring of love and support for Karen, these weeks have been somehow a most wondrous period in our family life as well as being the most terrible. We are experiencing the peace that passes understanding. Friends have flown in from States, Norway and England to sit at Karen's bedside. We talk and sing and read Scripture to her. 

MAY JESUS' KINGDOM BE ESTABLISHED MORE FIRMLY IN OUR LIVES:
- a kingdom of love and joy and peace,
- patience,
- kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- gentleness and self control.

In His Service
In anticipation of Victory,
Halvor and Mirja Ronning and family
BibleTranslators@JerusalemSchool.org

Early December 99

UPDATE ON KAREN RONNING:

For more than nine weeks Karen has lain in a coma at Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Over the last several weeks the team of neurologists has made an all out effort to stop her seizures. Using massive doses of a combination of anti-seizure medications, they are able to block the seizures totally at will. But the seizures remain in the background and revive any time the medications are stopped. 

The good news is that the amount of medications required to block the seizures is dropping steadily, so that we continue to hope and pray that the seizures will stop one day. Karen has been so doped out that no brain tests were made for some time, but a few days ago, they did another ECG and found more activity in the cortex than they had anticipated. The indications are slow but steady slight improvements.

We continue to be absolutely overwhelmed with the love that is being poured out on Karen and on us. From 11 a.m., after the doctors' visits, till 8 or 10 p.m. there are constantly one or two friends (and friends of friends) sitting at her bedside -- talking, reading, singing, or praying. What a blessing. What a witness...to us, to the staff, to each other. Her bedside is like a little sanctuary for soul searching as to what life is all about and what are priorities need to be. Besides the Scriptures and books about depression, there is a daily log of Karen's situation and treatment kept up by the friends.

 December 27, 1999

Dear Friends!

To all of you who have been sitting so faithfully by Karen's bedside these many weeks -- Peace and Joy!

This special time by her bed at Hadassah hospital is now soon coming to an end. Karen's corner has become a small sanctuary of prayer and blessing in some special way that we do not fully understand. Each of you probably have your own experience. 

If you wish you may write something in the book by the bed, or later in a letter -- even anonymously. All of this just shows how God changes evil to good (like in the Joseph story).

We, the family, have been deeply blessed by you and powerfully supported and upheld by your love and prayers. Our words do not succeed to express our thanks, so we just praise God for the love you have shown through your ability to give of yourselves, and the precious commodities of time and expenses.

This week is probably the last week that Karen will be at Hadassah in Jerusalem. After a lot of searching and praying, we have decided to move Karen initially to what appears to be the best facility in the country for rehabilitation, the Mercaz Refui Reut (Lichtenstadter) in Tel Aviv, near Yad Eliyahu.

We have been led to believe that their neurologist and physical therapists are tuned to active efforts at rehabilitation. We pray and hope that this will enable Karen to come out of the coma, and help her in the process of physical therapy. God have mercy and grant this prayer.

Making this decision has been difficult because of you, our friends in Jerusalem, who have been sitting by Karen and so continuously praying, reading, singing, stroking. This story is so beautiful that it deserves to be written -- how a loving community provides support in the midst of tragedy. 

The new place is about an hour's drive from the edge of Jerusalem. We are planning to make a car available on certain days of the week for those who want to visit Karen. Others can call for instructions .

The last report by the doctors was that her EEG was better than expected. There was a slight improvement over the previous test. Some of you have reported signs of recognition. We are happy that the doctors know to block the seizures so that Karen can sleep beautifully. We are happy that the amount of medication necessary to block the seizures is gradually less and less. We are praying that the seizures will stop completely because of healing so that no medication will be necessary. The Tel Aviv neurologist is committed to continue the Hadassah experiments with this goal.

There has been tremendous prayer support in Finland, USA and elsewhere. It seems that the Lord has put Karen in the hearts of so many intercessors, some of whom we don't even know. That is GRACE. 

The message from several of them has been: "Joy and peace. Karen is at peace now." 

But the further message has been: "the Lord is working on you, the family, and on others to achieve His deeper purposes in your life." May we all learn our lessons soon! 

We truly trust that the Lord is using this most difficult situation. He is doing the main work now in us. The most important is not whether we live or die, but what is our relationship to Him. If through Karen, the Lord is purifying, connecting and centering our life on the most essential.

These are times of deep pain and longing, but we know that we are in God's hands, and that He works in and through everything for the good of those that love Him. This is our basic comfort in all circumstances.

Dear Friends, we ask you to continue praying for Karen, and all of us for each other...esp. during the times that you used to visit her. It is such a comfort to know, that you continue to pray. We know that the Lord's host of angels continually surrounds Karen you and us and that none of us is alone in time of trouble.

We would like to invite all of you to a time of sharing and fellowship at 
an Open House for the Friends of Keren in Mevasseret Zion, on January 6, 2000, Thursday, 5pm - 9pm 
in the Home for Bible Translators.

Rides will be provided from Binyanei Ha-Uma at 4.45pm and 6 pm. 
For more precise instructions call the Home.
Egged bus no 154 leaves from Prophets Street (Anglican School)
to Mevasseret Zion.

Have a blessed New Year with Peace and Joy surrounding you!

Phil 4:4,5 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."


A mobile phone number for visits to Karen is available.

Mid January 2000 

Now in mid January 2000 Karen has already been in Tel Aviv at "Medical Center Companionship" for two weeks. In general, since Karen is now in an intensive care unit at this rehabilitation center, she getting much much better care than when she was lying in the regular neurology ward at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem at the edge of Jerusalem.

They seat her in a specially made wheelchair twice a day, sometimes for a couple hours. They are also training her to breathe without the breathing machine. They also give her physical therapy regularly. They even took her outside once already. 
She is still in coma and does not give signs of recognizing us, but she does occasionally look at us when talking to her, and most intently just yesterday, so she appears to be making some headway...as the doctor also confirms. Hallelujah for every step!

PLEASE PRAY THAT HER SEIZURES AND SPASMS STOP so that her teeth can be unwired and she can be taken permanently off the breathing machine....and she will come out of the coma....and ultimately be fully restored to her social work ministry wherever the Lord wants her.
Lord bless,

 "Thanks" for your interest and prayers and supportive love!

February 29, 2000 

KAREN UPDATE - February 29, 2000

Dear Friends,

On Oct. 7th, Karen went into a deep coma for lack of oxygen to her brain. She then spent nearly three months in the neurology department of Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. 

She opened her eyes after one week but then the seizures began, eventually every minute -- while she remained in the coma. At Hadassah, after about one month of waiting, the neurologists finally intervened and managed to stop her terrible seizures by using a powerful combination of medications.

Finally Karen began to wake from the coma, and she was transferred on December 29th to Reut (Lichtenstadter) Hospital in Tel Aviv. This hospital is rightfully famous for the level of their care and for their rehabilitation program. Within a month Karen was enabled to breathe without the breathing machine, though she occasionally gets some oxygen. She was moved out of the special intensive care for those on breathing machines and moved up into "intermediate intensive care". 

The last several weeks have been amazing to all -- even the medical staff. Karen recognizes us, understands simple requests in English, Hebrew and Finnish-- e.g. to look out of the window, to look at sister, or mother or father, or her bedside flowers. The speech therapist began last week to visit her -- several times a week, to challenge her eventually not just to mouth words, but to be able to form phrases and eventually sentences. She can mouth words, but without sound from the vocal chords, because she breathes through a tracheotomy tube, so because of it there is no air for her vocal chords yet. 

PLEASE PRAY WITH US THAT SHE GAIN THE ABILITY TO SPEAK.

Now that the seizures have stopped there is another problem. The muscle spasms have pulled her hands and feet into a rather tightly flexed position and arched her neck and back to the left. The limbs have gotten very stiff and can hardly be moved when the physical therapist gently works against this "spasticity" twice a day. She can already distinguish between right hand and left, and she can move her left hand ever so slightly.

PLEASE PRAY THAT THE LORD, OUR GOD, KING OF THE UNIVERSE, IN JESUS NAME WILL RESTORE TO KAREN THE USE OF HER LIMBS. MANY ARE PRAISING GOD WITH US FOR EVERY SLIGHT VICTORY IN PROGRESS!

Karen occasionally breaks into the most winsome broad smiles. How we praise God for that. I cannot imagine what it must be like as she begins to be conscious of how trapped she still is -- in a speechless and nearly immobile body. 

PLEASE PRAY MOST FERVENTLY FOR HER EMOTIONAL RECOVERY AND STAMINA TO SOMEHOW EXPERIENCE GOD'S GRACE IN THE MIRACLE THAT SHE IS STILL ALIVE AND IMPROVING. 

These have been the most horrible days of our lives. At the same time they have been the most wonderful days of our lives as such a tremendous outpouring of prayer and support and practical love has been expressed to Karen and to us!  

We want to most heartily thank all of you who have so faithfully stood beside us esp. folks, young and old, who have spent hours and days at Karen's bedside also during those months already when she was still in coma. Your talking, singing, praying, reading scriptures, playing violin, guitar and music cassettes has been an incredible inspiration to Karen, I'm sure, but also to our family, and to the hospital staff as well. May God bless you richly in return!

March 5, 2000 

Karen Goes Home.