Reconfirmed

Well we stand in complete awe of our magnificent God, to Him be all the glory.

Today we got apples to apples confirmation of the healing in Chris's lungs. The original scan that showed something was a CT scan, a PET was done which showed all was clear but Chris's doctor, who we give thanks to the Lord for, wanted to make sure and redo the CT. Well God just used that scan to complete the confirmation of His work and healing - IT WAS CLEAR!!

We truly are in awe of such wonderful news.

As for John, well things are progressing well. We have been working hard on physical, speech and occupational therapy. On Monday both his physical and occupational therapist said they are seeing great improvement. We have been doing exercises in the pool which is a great place to build strength. Next week we will redo John's MRI and I am confident it will continue to show God's healing also.
Blessings ~ Dawn

We rejoice in God's goodness

First you have to read a portion Chris's blog, which was posted yesterday.

"I had the redo on the PET scan on Monday. Still waiting on results for that. A friend from Qatar came and prayed for me on Sunday, and through that this is what I got: Why am I always like "God will heal me when He wants to." That's dumb! God wants me healed. And I'm believing that. These scans are going to come back totally clear. I'm sure of it. And I'm not going to leave my place to retreat to (saying things like "God will heal me when He wants to") if they don't. Because they're going to come back good and it'll be awesome."

Today we saw the complete victory that Chris already believed for himself. The scans came back completely clear, no sign of anything in his lungs. We know without a doubt that there was stuff on his lungs and we also know this is a God miracle, as He healed Chris's lungs. We give Him all the praise and glory for this.

For anyone who reads this and does know if God truly heals or not, this is a irrefutable demonstration of the fact that God truly does heal and that He is good and loves us. We are also so grateful for Chris being able to believe in Gods provision before he saw the proof of it.

A dear friend sent this scripture to me.

"I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong." Ephesians 3:16-17

Cardboard Testamony

I was going to share the wonderful news of John's latest scan and God's wonderful provision, but I would like you to take the time to watch this video first, it is truly what it is all about. Our God truly is amazing and awesome. He can heal and restore us, He loves us so much.



Hopefully you watched and saw yourself either healed, restored or you realize the need for His great love to do so.

The Lord used the radiation treatments to truly Glorify His name in John's body. Yesterday the doctor said that the result could not have been better. The tumor was stopped, and had shrunk. No further advancement. We are so grateful, God has used many people and resources to bring this result and we know it is His hand. It is His love for us and we are overcome with just how much that is true.

Bracelets

A couple of weeks ago our church "The Way Fellowship" did something that really touches our hearts. They had bracelets made in support of praying for and standing together for victory for our family. The bracelets read "We are Champions" Phil 1:30." You're involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, ..." Which for our church was a declaration that they are joining us in our struggle and that we go through this struggle together as a fellowship. We feel so encouraged and so loved, and completely humble that God would care enough to give us such a loving fellowship of friends to walk this walk with us.

Expect the worst hope for the best!

This was the parting words of Chris's doctor in LA after learning on Wednesday following the 3 month check up that there is some suspicious things in Chris's lungs. I have been thinking about those words a lot and realize they are truly words of faithlessness. It takes no faith to believe in the worst. It takes no faith to even hope for the best, because in this context that hope is based upon a throw of the dice rather than the goodness of a good God. But it takes tremendous faith in our faithful God to believe Him for His best in light of "bad news". That despite bad news He will prevail because of who we believe God is.

"Surely he will never be shaken
A righteous person will be remembered forever
He will have no fear of bad news, his heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord
His heart is secure, he will have no fear, in the end he will look in triumph on his foes."
Psalm 112:6-8

Although sometimes it is hard to keep that steadfast heart...when we go back to what we know is true, God's peace again descends upon us and we are able to have no fear.

Our hope is on a loving God, we will believe this over the words of doctors or the pictures on a scan.

"But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD even as we put our hope in YOU!" Psalm 33:18-22

~ Dawn

Petra

Well we decided to get another dog, so we went to the SPCA and brought home "Petra". She is very sweet, active and happy. Unfortunately our other dog Shakespeare hates her. It is funny to watch, he actually goes out of his way to make a point of how much he dislikes her presence. Dogs are so much like people, so easily doubting and becoming insecure. Hopefully with time he see her as a companion and someone to play with.

We were probably crazy with everything going on to bring a puppy into the house, but her joyful spirit lifts our spirits, and so far she seems pretty smart and not to destructive.

Dan and Nisha

Dan and his girlfriend Nisha came to visit. It was really nice meeting her. We very much enjoyed her company, she was funny and very smart, but what was especially nice was that she was very accommodating to our hectic schedule with John doing radiation and Chris finishing Chemo. Dan and Nisha did get a chance to explore the SoCal beach area which is always very interesting, a whole different lifestyle then mainstream America. They were able to do the Ruby's on the pier lunch, always a must.

John finished the radiation. We now wait anticipating that God will use it for His purposes. Chris begins his internship with Oxy this week. We are excited for him as he is very excited. Oxy has been very gracious to work around Chris's treatment weeks. God really has been good to us.

New Treatment and a visit

This is an incredible busy week. Chris has a week of chemotherapy, never a fun time. Dan and his girlfriend Nisha have come to visit from Chicago and John begins the 5 days of Tomo Therapy at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. This is the second part of the new treatment plan that we believe the Lord has opened up to us.

John usually has claustrophobia in these machines, but he said that this time as he was listening to a CD of "Who Christ is", it gave him peace and it was also good because the technicians had to listen to it also as he had his treatment. Our prayer is always that God would be glorified no matter where we have to be in this process, so we gives thanks for even this small opportunity for the Lord's name and character to be lifted up.

In the midst of this Dan and Nisha have come to spend a few days with us. Originally we did not plan all of this chemo/radiation stuff to be going on while they were here, but even in that God has a plan. Dan and Nisha will have a chance to check out the beach scene and hopefully do some exploring while in Newport with John. Not perfect for them but thankfully they have been very flexible, and we are just glad to see them.

Relay for Life

Last Saturday, our church youth from The Way Fellowship participated in Relay for Life. Bakersfield sponsors the second largest relay in the entire nation. Very big event. Friends from our church stopped by our tent site through out the 24hours of the event, taking turns walking around the track, fellowshipping and of course eating. Several even spent the night and walked in the middle of the night. It was truly a wonderful day being loved on and just watching everyone enjoying each other. Duke was the king of BBQ, he even went to another site and took up cooking for them.

We want to especially thank John Mitchell and his wife Sally. They organized this event with the youth and God used them in a mighty way to not only bring support to the cause of cancer but to bring our newly forming church family together, where we could feel even more connected to each other. You are so wonderful John M. and true friend. Thanks again and again for all you did.
One of the more moving events is the light of the Illuminaria's. They represent people who are currently cancer free, fighting cancer or are in memory of someone. All the light are turned off and they line the track. It is a very powerful time. We pray for God's victory over this disease. He is our God who heals us.

Passing the Crown

Chris and his friend Emily went to the Stockdale Prom last night. If you remember Chris was crowned Prom King last year so he went this year to pass the crown to the new prom king. He and Emily made a smart pair. Emily was very beautiful and Chris was of course very handsome, even with a bald head. He wears it well.

So, what do you want to do?

So, what do you want to do? That was the question from John's Kaiser Neuro Oncologist. He basically was out of options of what John should do next. The tumor continues to grow and we have apparently exhausted all the usual protocols for this type of cancer. Which put everything into an interesting perspective. Surprisingly we are not worried about it. We believe that our God is always faithful and that if this door is closed, then we will trust He has already opened a new avenue.

As we have shared we are in a new direction and the attitude of the Kaiser doctor further confirms we are the right track. The Kaiser guy did not have a clue about the treatments we were exploring through Hoag Hospital and was unsupportive, which with his general "don't really care attitude" gave us peace that it was the right path.

On another note, Chris does not have a staph infection, but another type that came from being in our hot tub, his low immune system caused him to be susceptible. So that was good news, however the bad news is that the infection delays his treatment. Groan. The delay puts him having treatment while Dan is visiting and when John will be having his new radiation treatments. It is alway something.

A New Direction

Today John had the gamma knife procedure. This procedure was to stop the advance of the tumor. The area where the tumor is heading is radiated to stop it. The process went well, we started at 6am and got back to his dad's house about 2pm. The actual procedure only took 30 minutes, but all the prep took lots longer. The machine that does it is really amazing.

Part of the prep was to do a detailed MRI of John's brain which showed that the tumor was still spreading, the latest treatment was ineffective. The doctor we have met at Hoag Hospital, Dr Christopher Duma is really wonderful, seems to really care and gives a sense of peace with the new direction we believe God is opening. He suggests high dose radiation for the rest of the tumor, it is quite large now, and then follow up with surgery to remove what we hope will be a dead tumor.

As we know, it is all in our Lord's hands, we thank Him for the wonderful doctors He brings into our lives to care and treat John.
~ Blessings, Dawn

To our Lord be the glory

Tomorrow, April 28 we are heading for Newport Beach Hoag Hospital. Through John's dad we consulted with a doctor there who had a treatment called Gamma Knife Prefexion. It sound like it has promise to be used of God to treat the tumor. The procedure will be on Wed morning. We are praying for God's provision and that this treatment will be used of Him to bring us the victory we have been contending and believing God for.

We once again thank you for the prayers. John's health has deteriorated dramatically over the last couple weeks, and even the last few days. His mobility and speech are very limited. We just wait in expectation, knowing that no matter what, God truly is good and He will turn all to His glory.

Blessings ~ Dawn

A fair bit worse

Well that was how John put it after his brain scan today. I suppose we were not surprised, he has been having some physical symptoms that would indicate this is so. However, this just what we see physically, we are not going to be discouraged.

I was convicted today, through the voice of my hair dresser of all things, that we (our family at least) need to be proclaiming God's word verbally over our family every day. Proclaiming "in Christ" scriptures and not giving ground to the enemy and his attempts to defy the promises of God.

The next step medically from what I understand is for John not to do chemotherapy, but to take some sort of new treatment that is a blocker, which should not make him feel sick. So we will join that treatment with a new battle plan, the active, spoken, powerful word of God.

Relay for Life

Our family is participating in Relay for Life with our church The Way. The youth of The Way have formed a team in honor of John and Chris. We are very blessed by their desire to support our family through this event, which is scheduled for May 3rd in Bakersfield.

If you would like to help support John and Chris through Relay for Life you can do so through the link below.

Youth of the Way Relay for Life

Chris and John each have their own page you can go to also linked in the roster list of The Way team page.

Our Faith

"Our faith will never be stronger than the God we perceive"

I am redoing a study I did last year with the ladies of our church plant. The study "Believing God" was very profound for me last year and as I look over my study book, I am reminded of just how much God spoke to me during it. It also makes me realize how easy it is to have revelation and then with time for the strength of that revelation to fade. The conviction of what I discovered being overshadowed with the weight of the day to day struggles of earthly circumstances.

A couple of key points for me were:
1. All attempts to define God cannot help but minimize Him. God is just to big, awesome, magnificent, majestic...for us to define.
2. God entrusts greater supernatural empowerment to those who believe He is who He says He is.

Lord light that fire of uncompromising faith!!

Prayer in a Square

A dear friend from the Middle East days and I reconnected this week. It is funny how when you hear from someone you haven't seen in a while it just gives you such a sense of family - that knowing that no matter how long its been since you talked it just doesn't matter, you just begin where you are now.

She has a picture on her website that when I saw it I was totally captivated by it, it was exactly how I feel. So I just wanted to share it - people often ask how are you, this picture is how I am. Totally dependant upon prayer, boxed in by His love and yearning to hear from our God, submitted (or at least I try to be) to hearing from Him. I am sure if I move out of the box of His protection I will be overwhelmed.

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever"
Psalm 73:25-26

It is well with Chris

Just heard from Chris, he had an appointment with the surgeon who as Chris says "messed up my leg". Praise You Lord, the report was very good. Everything was healing very well, even some of the concerns about mobility - Chris is having trouble with getting some of the muscles to work properly - was not a concern. They will be completely restored by the power of our God. We will rest in that truth. But it is always wonderful to have man confirm what we believe God has already accomplished.

Thank you Lord for Your blessings and mercy to us ~ Dawn

It Is Well With My Soul

Two Must Reads

A girl I knew from many years ago sent me an e-mail and recommended this book, I must say it is amazing. I highly recommend it.

The Shack by William F Young





Susan Sakka, a friend of mine was on a rabbit trail on the internet and came across the original text of this book written in 1859. It was in old english and difficult to read so she found out it was rewritten in modern english a couple years ago. The vision of this young girl is truly amazing. If you want to get excited about Heaven, and want a fire lite for saving the lost, this book will inspire you.

Nine Days in Heaven by Dennis and Nolene Prince