Tom Hudson reported this note from David’s wife on his Facebook Page at about midnight EDST

From Annabel Robertson, Dundee, Scotland.

“David is still in Intensive care and still remains on ventilation tube with 50% oxygen. Yesterday was a hard day and a hard night. I felt overwhelmingly crushed to see David in such a hard place ( he wrote last night and told me it was so dark emotionally and spiritually and he had no strength to carry on), He struggles with the breathing and at times …becomes very distressed. It is very much as they told us – ups and downs. I am scared to update cos when things go good one day they’re seems to be setbacks the next. HE is making slow progress but he is still seriously ill. I often read the psalms to him at night. What a comfort the precious word of God is.

************************************

Orginial Story Below:

David was deeply moved today when we told him again of the hundreds of emails from all over the world (He seems to have little recollection of some discussions over the past 2 days). It’s so overwhelming – God shows his love and care to us through his people.

Many readers of The Aquila Report are familiar with David Robertson, either through the articles we have published which had written by him, or in some cases, through friendship at Twin Lakes Fellowship or other meetings he as attended in the States.

David has been in the hospital for nearly a week, and we asked the folks in Scotland to give us an update on his condition and some background about what he has been up to recently (which is considerable!!)

Tim Allyn, the Administrator for Solas – Centre for Public Christianity has provided us the following (more about Solas in the story). Those who would like to send messages of encouragement to David and his family may send them to [email protected]

*****************************************

David would have been in Athens Greece this week speaking if it weren’t for the recent acute gastritis.

David went through at least 2 surgeries to remove 2 – 3 stomach ulcers which had been the cause of some internal bleeding. He is in ICU and stable but on a ventilator, having suffered damage to his lungs as a result of the operations/blood transfusions. He is communicating through writing and gestures and being limited in this way is a source of agitation.

On Monday we held a prayer meeting for him at St Peter’s Church where over 40 people prayed and we have been contacted by folks around the world that have been praying as well.

I include the most recent update from Annabel his wife (taken from Facebook).

From Annabel Robertson:

David is showing signs of improvement today (19/10/11). He was agitated in the morning and disappointment that they didn’t remove the tube today. His lungs still need assistance and he is on 60% oxygen. The swelling in his body is reducing and he continues to write messages to us. There are moments when he is confused.. He thinks we were meant to be in Mexico City this week??

We’ve had a few funny moments..But that’s coming right. He is gone through a huge A4 Notebook with writing things. Thanks for all your prayers and kind words of encouragement. David was deeply moved today when we told him again of the hundreds of emails from all over the world (He seems to have little recollection of some discussions over the past 2 days). It’s so overwhelming – God shows his love and care to us through his people.

David is being encouraged by the many, many people reaching out to him and praying for him in this scary time.

Also a message from Alisdair I Macleod, Minister of St. Andrews Free Church written on 18/10/11:
I thought I should tell the folk at St Peter’s that I saw David last night. I gave my name to the nurse in charge and asked if I could perhaps see David for a minute and pray briefly at his bedside (I was assuming he would not be awake and didn’t want to disturb him). She asked who I was and I said I was David’s colleague and ‘sort of his minister’, perhaps a bit of pastoral licence. She said David had woken up but she would need to consult his nurse, and she walked over to his bed at the other side of the large ICU room. They presumably gave him my name and then I saw him lift his hand a few inches from the bed with a ‘thumbs-up’ sign.

He could open his eyes only a little and I spent just a few seconds telling him something of the widespread love and concern for him and how many people were praying. I asked him if he knew about a special prayer meeting for him and he shook his head but he seemed very moved at that news. I then prayed briefly.

As I got ready to leave, I said that he would need to take things easy for a good while when he got out of hospital and we would all want to help him do that. I turned away to thank the nurse for letting me see him and she said, ‘He’s shaking his head.’ I looked back and he had lifted his right hand, put his thumb and forefinger together and was pretending to write in the air. I said, ‘You’re going to spend your time writing as soon as you get out?’ and he nodded. So he’s already planning how he will fill his convalescence. He is incorrigible!

He then pointed weakly to me and to his chest and back to me. I was puzzled for a moment and then suddenly realised exactly what he was asking about. Without going into the details, it became clear he was enquiring after my health and an upcoming appointment. I thought it extraordinary that he should remember such a thing and be thinking of others in the midst of his own crisis.

I was only with him for two minutes. These brief moments made clear how ill he is, and how well he is being cared for, and also how much he is still the same David.

In Christ
Alasdair

From Tim

As director of Solas (Centre for Public Christianity), David speaks quite frequently to defend Christian belief at conferences, on the radio, and debates. He has a clear passion to evangelise using engaging ways, particularly through cafe evangelism. He was working on a leader’s manual to present at the Out of the Silent Church Conference entitled ‘Being Human’ which would train more Christians to start their own cafe evangelism.

He also was to be speaking on human sexuality from a Christian perspective as a follow up to the Solas Submission to the Scottish Government Consultation on Redefining Marriage that he and Gordon Wilson wrote. There has been a great amount of media coverage for this submission, a front page article on a few of the newspapers. The submission is on our website. [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

David is also minister of St. Peter’s Free Church, a growing congregation with many young families, students and older people. He began with the church from its beginning 19 years ago, with only 7 people. A video was made about 4 years ago and can be viewed here.

David has always had a desire to resist the intolerance of secularists and atheists and this led to his writing ‘The Dawkins Letters’ a response to Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion. He has also authored Awakening – The Life and Ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne as the church building of St Peter’s was the place where McCheyne preached.

Please pray for David to get good rest and recovery in the hospital and that his wife Annabel especially will sense the Lord’s peace about David. Annabel shares much in the ministry of the church as mentor and now needs prayers as she has been shaken by David’s condition. Andrew has been away from his ministry work with St. Catherine’s Argylle Church in Edinburgh to be with Annabel, though Becky lives with her husband in Australia and Emma-Jane is staying with her aunt and grandparents for some time. Pray that helpful conversations, verses and prayers will comfort as the Holy Spirit is working. St Peter’s has responded for their family needs and are providing meals and many prayers for the Robertson family just now. Pray for wisdom for the carers in hospital and for the children Andrew, Becky and Emma Jane. It has been estimated that it could take 3 months for David to recover from the illness.

Having begun only 18 months ago, I wanted to share what Solas (Centre for Public Christianity) is about:

The purpose of Solas is to bring the light and love of the Good News of Jesus Christ into the context of 21st Century European culture. In response to those that seek to exclude Christianity from the public arena with their all encompassing, negative and intolerant claims, we promote the positive teaching and example of Christ. To this end we will work with all Christians; training, equipping, proclaiming, serving and teaching to the glory of God, for the sake of all humanity and the environment in which we live.

Our belief is that Europe was founded upon and largely owes its culture and existence to Christianity but that there is a retreat from Christianity going on today. We believe that the rejection of Christianity into an ill-defined and untried secular humanism is at best a plunge into dangerous waters, and at worst, a return to the Dark Ages. Therefore we aim to enable people to reclaim their Christian heritage, embrace the renewing grace of God and exemplify Christ in all things.

We intend to do this by promoting vigorous public engagement on a number of fronts. Christianity is applicable to every area of modern life and through the development of differing focus areas we will seek to demonstrate how public engagement can happen. We will encourage Christians and churches to use the arts, philosophy, music, history, society, media, medicine, science, theology and the community of the Church, to express and teach the Christian faith, as given to us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We seek to represent Christ, his church and his word against all the misrepresentations that exist in much of our secular media. We will run conferences, training courses and develop high quality media resources that help all Christians. We will work in partnership with individual churches and Christian organisations to enable them to fulfil the Great Commission.
Soli Deo Gloria
www.solas-cpc.org