Our God is the God of Hope

We want to thank everyone who came on Saturday to celebrate with us God's faithfulness to our family and Chris being finished with his chemotherapy treatment. It was so humbling to us the number of people who came to celebrate with us. We thank also those who could not come, but have supported our family. You have all blessed us in an amazing way.

John really wanted to share from his heart that day, but the large numbers of people made it impossible to do so. Therefore we want to share here what he wanted to share on Saturday.

We thank all of your for the support, prayers, help, encouragement and faith.
We thank God for carrying us through this time of testing.
We thank God for Chris' perseverance,
which came from a special provision of God's grace
as He carried us through this stuff.

Some wonder why it's happening, to sum it up in 3 words
"we don't know"

What we do know is that God is taking excellent care of us.
He takes trials and testing and brings good from it.

I (John) thank God continuously for delivering
Chris from this cancer.
But I also know that God's plan for each of us is long term.
In fact it is Eternal.
We all die eventually, some sooner than later,
but the good news is that Jesus defeated death already.
God's plans for us goes way beyond our earthly lives.

We don't know the reason for the testing,
but we do know the outcome.
God is using us all in ways that we can't fully understand,
but we can see it in hindsight.

God has used this year to build up incredible
inner strength in Chris.
Because of this,
Chris will go on and do great things with his life.
Things that he may not have been able to do
had he not gone through the trials.

One scripture of blessing for all our family and friends that have gone through this with us - And I emphasize that all of us have done this together as a family with God

May the God of hope fill you joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Our God is a God of Hope,
no matter the circumstances
Joy and peace are the outcome of trusting in Him,
no matter the circumstances

Because of our God, we continue to overflow with hope
that comes from the Spirit of God,
no matter what the circumstances are,
but because of Who our God is.

Everything

This is one of the most powerful skits I have seen done. I wept as I watched it.

Last Week !!!!!

Wow, it is hard to believe but this is the last week of Chris' treatment. It has been almost a year since we began this journey. Even though it has without a doubt been the most difficult year, we have seen the goodness of our awesome God. He has sustained Chris and our family in ways we never knew possible.

We rejoice that Chris will be done by Friday, and we are having a celebration party on Saturday. We really want to give God all the glory for His healing over Chris, and to thank our wonderful friends and Oaks family for their tireless support. We have no doubt that it has been the prayers of many that has battle for our family in heaven, and defeated the enemies purposes to bring defeat. God is victorious!!

We do not know all the people who see this post, but if you are in the Bakersfield area we invite you to join us on Saturday, August 25 from 4:00 on at our house. If you need the address e-mail us at mail@championclan.com and we can send you the address.

Blessing to you in the name of Christ.

To God be the Glory

Once again we see the mighty hand of our amazing God. John had his scans today and they showed that the tumor area is drastically further reduced and that what is left is a very small wisp of hazy area. God's truth in the spiritual is becoming evident in the physical, and that is that He has already accomplished John's complete and total healing. Our God is truly awesome!!!

"I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your words, O God, are holy. What God is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the people." Psalm 77:12-14

What more can we say...except Thank You Lord.

What was ment for evil was redeemed

As many of you may remember two Christian men were recently brutally murdered by extremists in Turkey. What is amazing about this terrible tragedy is that what the enemy thought would defeat the Christians, our awesome God has turned around and brought a nationwide audience to hear of HIS Glory. In Turkey the funeral of these men was broadcast over the TV and as you watch you can see that the people are worshiping God and the name of Jesus is being proclaimed in a very bold way. Our God truly does turn bad things into good for His name.

Swimming with the Dolphins

We went to Discovery Cove in Orlando as part of the LIFE 2007 Conference. It was so much fun and here are some pictures from our swim.

Quote from Mark

"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you"


If I am in a place where the grace of God will not protect me, than I probably got there on my own without Gods guidance.


If I choose a path where I can feel Gods grace peeling away from me, uncovering me slowly as I walk, I probably am going down a path that is not of his choosing.

Clear Scans

As I write this I cry. I am so grateful to our awesome God for His love of us. He is the great healer and is the one who is bringing complete healing to Chris. Today Chris had his 6 month follow up of scans and Chris just called to say they were clear. God how can I thank you enough, how can I love you enough.

God your love is so abundant. Thank you for your unfailing love, for your unfailing faithfulness. I want to personally be reaching out to the God of the Universe. I want to pursue Him with a passion. To get who He really is and have no doubt about how awesome He really is.

Life 2007

Where do you begin with such an amazing week with 18 great teenagers and adults. We just got back from a week in Orlando at a conference with over 7200 students from around the US and world. I can't begin to recap the week but would encourage you to check out http://www.journeyhsm.blogspot.com/. It is wonderful summary by some of the students as to what they experienced.

Personally, I found the week challenging. We began with defining Vintage, which means being authentic. We were challenged to search our view of God and line it up with what the bible says, not what the church teaches.

I spent a lot of time in the "sacred place" a wonderful place to sit at the feet of Jesus. I so needed that personal time with my creator. I was able to journal many of my fears and lay them down at the cross.

How Great is our God

We have had an amazing week of spending time with our awesome God. Our church decided to take a week to really press into God and sanctify ourselves. It began each day for me and John when he felt well at 6am with prayer at the church outside. What a wonderful way to start a day. We ended with communion and worship each evening. I can honestly now understand churches that do this 24/7. God met with us every time, both in the morning and in the evening. There were such powerful times of deep intimacy with God. Truly a wonderful time. I can honestly say that I hate to see it end.

I have this music video for you to enjoy.

How time goes by

It has been such a busy couple of weeks that I totally forgot to put anything up on our blog. Lets see where to begin.

All has been going well. Each day we surrender to God and thank Him for His provision. He is so good to us. Chris is finishing his two week stint at CBCC. He is doing well. We just pray that He is feeling awesome next week for our trip to Florida for the Life conference.

Speaking of Life, we are very excited to be going with some of the youth from our youth group to a huge conference in Florida. There will be thousands of Youth from around the USA and world. We went 3 years ago in Arizona, and it was a blast. John and I get the chance to pretend we are youth again. So we leave on Monday the 2nd and return on the 10th. If you can pray for the trip, and especially that the youth would have a life changing encounter with God.

John and Chris will have just finished a round of treatment, but we are trusting God to bring health and that they will feel really great for the trip. The enemy will not discourage us! We will be doing a couple of extra activities also like Sea World, Universal Studios and Discovery Cove which is swimming with dolphins. So it will be fun week, we are really looking forward to just having fun.

Campaign for Real Beauty

I was "surfing the net" when I came across this clip from Dove. I encourage you to take a minute to watch it. It is sad how we, women, have been convinced of what beauty is by the world and not by God. God makes no mistakes and I have to give a big thanks to Dove for breaking ranks and making the push for real beauty which is God's beauty.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com

click the Evolution Film to watch the "evolution' Let me know what you think.

~ Dawn

Chris in the News

If you were not able to catch this on the news here is a clip of a report they ran on Chris. Chris walked into Stockdale High to get his diploma and a news team had asked if they could do a report on him after seeing the students give him a standing ovation when he received his diploma. As you can tell, he was very tired. But God was glorified as he was able to share a bit of his faith.

http://championclan.com/files/grad.mpg

Well we got through the last week with Chris and John having Chemotherapy. It was a rough week for Chris, but praise God, He is feeling pretty good today. John is teaching tomorrow at our church. We are excited to see how God takes what He has put on John's heart and brings His revelation to His people. He will be teaching from Acts 12 and believing God.

Graduation

It is hard to believe but we no longer have any High School students. Mihaela and Chris graduated last night. It was a wonderful ceremony. There were 551 students who graduated. We are so proud of Mihaela and Chris, it was such a wonderful moment as they stepped across and recieved their diplomas. Two of the highlights were when Lily gave her speech, it was funny and well Lily, bigger than life and louder than loud. The other was when the entire graduation class stood up and cheered when Chris walked across to get his diploma. It was a moment that was so beautiful, just seeing the love and heart of these students for Chris. It felt like the Lord was smiling down and using these students to share His heart, His love, in abundance.

I hope these students know just how unique they are and how much they have blessed our family. It is memory that will never be forgotten.

Our Graduate Mihaela

With all that has been going on in our family we wanted to honor Mihaela in a special way. We hope you enjoy this tribute to her and how proud we are of her. This is published on our local paper website and will possibly be published in the paper.

Mihaela, we love you and are very proud of you.

Mom and Dad

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/ViewPost/22598

Exercising and The Walton's

So a few weeks ago we finally had an elliptical striding machine delivered. With all that has been going on we decided that it would be best to just get a low impact piece of equipment to do at home. I have been trying to use it in the mornings, which has turned out to be an amazing time of revelation from the Lord.

You are probably going to laugh but while I am using the machine I have been watching the old serial program The Waltons, and sometime Little House on the Praire. This morning as I watched The Walton's it actually made me cry. When you think of these programs today most people would say they were cheesy, but I have seen how our culture used to embrace things of God. As I look back I realize that these shows where God's way of introducing himself to me.

Let me explain. Today most sociologist would say that media reflects the moral values of a culture, sometime to the extreme, but they are a reflection of our values and often are in advance of those values changing. Today the most popular show is Grey's Anatomy, which in my opinion is a very sad reflection of our changing morals when it comes to relationships, sex, commitment, marriage and just about everything we used to value as pure. We are entertained by the immorality.

As I watch The Waltons, I am struck with how this show which I remember watching as a teenager, reflects a time when family was of highest value, a father was the head of the home, a wife was respected and she nurtured her children. I know that not every family was like this, but at least media reflected that this was something to desire and strive for. The show hits on some tough moral and cultural dilemmas, like racism, and the begins of WWII, the depression. alcoholism etc.. but in the midst is faith. No matter the crisis, they know to pray and they know to love.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to showing Christ to Muslims is that they see America as a reflection of who Christians are and what they value. They do not differentiate between entertainment and our culture. When they see the shows we watch, they rightfully wonder "What do these Christians value?" The truth of what the enemy has stolen is reflected by the opinion of those looking in. When I compare these two shows I realize the enemy has stolen a lot and we need to claim it back.

"Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your homes." Nehemiah 4;14

Walking

Ok, so today John is having his chemotherapy. After getting him settled I had to come back home to pick up something that belongs to CBCC, I decided to stop on the way back to get John some bagels and Jamba Juice. All was going well until I went to park the car (mommy car van) for the Jamba Juice, suddenly the car would not steer. Dead steering. I had just had the steering fixed so that made no sense. I shut the car off and restarted thinking maybe it would change it's mind and would work. Nope, nada. Well I was stuck, what to do? I called John and announced "we have a problem", then I tried to call a couple of friends to see if they could come and take me home to get the other car, the one that works, the one that always works because it is a much nicer car. No bitterness. Anyway of course no one was home. So off I started walking, it is a long way from the Market Place to my house. But I did have some observations along the way.
1. I am really out of shape.
2. I do not know enough people, otherwise I could have found a ride.
3. I do not know enough people, otherwise I would have seen someone I know while walking who could have given me a ride.
4. There are great shade trees along Ming, I needed them, it was getting hot
5. It is a long way from the Market Place to my house.
6. There are shoes good for walking, I did not have them on.
7. Seven Oaks golf course is very pretty
8. Purses full of junk get heavy, mine was killing my shoulder.

After I got home and got the car that never would think of breaking down, it is far to sophisticated for that. I decided to time the trip. It took me an hour to walk to my house and 8 minutes to drive back to the Market Place. You know what? It is a long ways from the Market Place to my house when you are walking.

RFL & The Prom

Relay for Life

Yesterday we went to the opening ceremony for the Relay for Life, it was the most humbling experience. They have all the survivors do a lap around the grounds. Everyone who is a survivor wears a purple t-shirt, and before they began they released butterflies into the air. It was very moving as a couple thousand survivors walked around with family and friends cheering them on.

We met another young lady who had osteosarcoma also. she looked great,and was 3 years out from the treatment. Such an encouragement to see her.

John and I returned last night to see luminaries lit, people could purchase them in memory or in honor of someone. They lined the entire lap area on both sides, they turned the light out and just the luminaries were lite. It was a sober moment.

Ok now for Prom, here are some before pictures, and If I do say so they all looked stunning, Mihaela looked like a princess and Chris was very handsome.

Chris and Emily

Mihaela and Chris

Mihaela and MJ


First of course we had to take photo's, then Chris and Emily were picked up by a stretch Excursion which was rented with some friends, it was the longest thing I had ever seen.

Miheala and MJ went out to dinner separately. They had a great time, the highlight was when Chris was crowned Prom King. He had no idea that he was nominated. When they called for cheers for each nominee, the whole place cheered for him and chanted "Champion". He wasn't able to do the traditional King and Queen dance, sorry to Katherine Haddad. What a blessing for Chris, just to be shown so much support. He came home with his crown, yes they give a velvet crown, and showed it to us. Next year he has to go to the prom to crown the next king. Should be lots of fun.

Bakersfield Californian

Here is the link to an article about Chris and John published in the Bakersfield Californian. Thank you Mr Price for taking the time to write the article.

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/134017.html

Thank you Lord

One of the greatest feelings is to see the reality of God's word come to pass. Today John went down to LA to have the scans on his head. It was the first scans since he started the new type of Chemotherapy. The scans were excellent, it is hard to even put into words how much joy it gives to trust God and to see Him come through in such an awesome way. Thanks you Lord, may Your name be glorified!!

Chris is almost finished with his two weeks of treatment. He is doing well, it always makes him tired, but he is sustained through our amazing creator. He was interviewed for an article in the Bakersfield Californian today. We think the article may be in Fridays paper, if so I will put a link to it.

Saturday is Relay for Life, thanks to everyone who has given so generously in support. Saturday is also Prom for Chris and Miheala, Photo's to follow of course.