Mason Van Tassel's Blog

A New Heart – The Rest of The Story

admin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:08:31 +0000

Well, Tuesday morning started off just as I had anticipated. By 8 o’clock I knew what a plucked chicken felt like. They wheeled me into the OR and that’s all I remember till sometime in the afternoon when I heard a voice calling my name and telling me to breath. That seems like strange thing to say to someone with a tube down their throat, but they want to make sure you are able to breathe on your own so they can cut back on the machine that is helping and eventually take out the tube. That happened early Wednesday morning. From this point on everything progressed rapidly as that gave me more things to do for myself, got me up walking gradually removed tubes and needles and finally let me go home Sunday afternoon. It is now Friday morning and I am sitting here at the computer, just a slight discomfort in my chest, have my appetite back, expecting to be almost back to normal by the weekend. and planning on being in church Sunday morning.

What I didn’t know was that during the four hours I was in surgery, the surgery waiting room was almost overtaken by the “Van Tassel Party”. Not only was my family there waiting and praying but a number of friends from our church and from our daughter’s church (which is sort of like our second church).

What I did know, and had all along, was that God’s people, from South Florida to Nova Scotia had been and were praying for me and I had complete peace! It was awesome to think of God’s love flowing through people and churches that might not know me or of me, but still lifted their petitions on my behalf. As I lay in bed the other night putting these thoughts together in my head, as I got to this point I experienced something I can only describe as overwhelming. It was as if all of God’s love that had been accumulating was all of a sudden being poured over me in waves, wave after wave, and I just lay their weeping for 5 or 10 minutes. I serve an Awesome God.

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. 1 John 3:1

One side note to all this is the “Heart Pillow” they gave me when I Came out of surgery. One of the things they stress when you come out of surgery is to do deep coughing to keep your lungs clear as pneumonia can be a real problem if you are not careful. To do this they have you hold a[pillow or blanket to your chest, wrap your arms tightly around yourself and cough. It hurts, but the benefits outweigh the pain. Any way they gave me this decorated heart-shaped pillow for this purpose. There's a marker attached that everyone that cares for you or visits can use to sign the pillow. It' really pretty nets! Here's a picture of it:

My "Heart Pillow" from Trident Medical Center

A New Heart

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:21:04 +0000

Tomorrow’s the big day! I go to the hospital at 5:30AM for by-pass surgery at 8. This afternoon I spent six hours there getting “pre-admitted” and “pre-oped”.They took my blood, did an EKG, x-rayed my chest, did ultrasound on my carotid arteries and the inside of my legs, asked a lot of questions and told me what to expect (more or less). Then I came home and had to take a shower with some antibacterial soap and I’ll have to do it again in the morning before I leave. When I get there in the morning they’ll make me take off all my clothes and put on one of those hospital gowns – you know, the ones that are drafty in back. Then they’ll clip off all the hair on the front of my body from the neck to my toes, stick me with some needles and who knows what else, put me to sleep and I’ll wake up 5 or 6 hours later and I’ll be as good as new (at least that’s what the heart surgeon told me).

Now that I’ve said all that, let me tell you that I am not in the least bit worried about this whole procedure or the outcome. I expressed my confidence in my Lord and God in the last post and I have not wavered from that. “He will never leave [me] or forsake [me].” Not only that, there are so many people and whole churches praying for me that I don’t believe He would let them down.

That’s all for now. By this weekend I’ll be back with “the rest of the story.”

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20

Heart Surgery

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:28:57 +0000

I’m sitting here contemplating the fact that at his time next week I’ll be in ICU at Trident Hospital here in Summerville after having undergone successful heart bypass surgery. The surgeon will have attached new blood vessels to the Left Anterior Descending artery that has been blocked since May 6, 1981 (I can always remember the date as it is my son-in-law’s birthday – or do I remember his birthday because it was the date I had a major heart attack?) and to an adjoining artery that has had a stint in it for about 12 years.

You might think I appear overconfident, not at all! You see, God’s Word tells me,

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

There is still ministry out there that has been assigned to me. I don’t believe God is anywhere near done with me yet. Add to this the great number of Christians that are praying for me (most of whom don’t even know me) and I believe I have every right to be confident of the outcome.

My First Post!

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:14:48 +0000

For some time I’ve considered setting up a blog, but I couldn’t think of a good reason to start. I now have one.
I have had a desire to journal but could never get myself to sit down and write things down every day or so. For some reason it seems easier to do it on the computer and type in my thoughts. There will probably be several categories before I’m through, but the first will be the one labeled “Nova Scotia”.
After spending 10 days or so this past June prayer-walking the Halifax area and “Exploring” to get a feel for the people and the culture for the ultimate purpose of starting new churches, the Lord seems to have given me a burden for the whole of the province Nova Scotia. As a result, He has provided the means for my wife and I to spend the better part of June, July and August in the Northumberland region, more specifically the area including the towns of Pictou, New Glasgow and Antigonish.
Our task will be to coordinate the various missions teams that will be coming to the area. Of course our primary purpose is to reach the people of nova Scotia with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray, not just for our efforts, but that God may be glorified in all that we do.