ON THIS DAY 3 YEARS AGO TODAY............

As I awake on this Saturday morning August 25, 2012;  in Phoenix, Arizona my memory immediately goes back to this date and this city, three years ago today, when at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, just a few miles from where I sit blogging at this moment, I underwent a Kidney Transplant.  Thanks to the generosity of my living donor Victor Herrera, and the outstanding skills of the Mayo Clinic Transplant Team, I received a strong and vitally functioning kidney that restored my organ function and renewed the viability of my life.  My words can but begin to express the depth and debt of gratitude I have for the many persons who have been, and who are, a presence me through both the plight and the progress of the past five and a half years  and indeed, the past decade of my life and vocation.  For your affirmation and understanding of my commitment and resolve to push forward, in carrying out my priestly and pastoral ministry, even as others take a less enlightened or encouraging view.  As I journey forth from this week's 3rd annual evaluation and the fourth year of my life as a transplant recipient, I earnestly and fervantly pray and hope, that by the time I return to Phoenix one year from now, every obstacle and obstruction has been dissolved to being back in full time parish ministry as a Priest of Jesus Christ in and for the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento............Fr.  Troy David Powers