Milestones

This week has been marked by a couple of milestones. First there was the great news about Tony’s health. After 39 straight days of radiotherapy (not counting weekends), he finished the prescribed course that was designed to blast every molecule of prostate cancer. This earned him the right to “ring the bell” under the sign that says, “I’ve conquered this moment”. If you follow my Facebook page, maybe you saw the Grand Event in living color. Afterwards, one of the nurses called him back into a room where she told him with a long face, “Now, your side effects will probably linger for another week or two, so you just have to be patient.” Tony was genuinely surprised, and asked, “What side effects?” whereupon she listed the dozen or so maladies, from mildly uncomfortable to downright dangerous. “But I haven’t had any of those,” Tony insisted. “All I can say is, a lot of folks have been praying for me!” Three cheers for God, and Big Thanks to all of you!

Saying goodbye was a bittersweet experience, owing to the fact that we had become quite close to lot of cancer patients who were on the same schedule as Tony’s. A lot of them are counting the days until they too can ring that bell. But there’s quite a few folks there who don’t have a lot to cheer about. These are the ones dealing with returned cancer, or those type of cancer where the radiation is more or less a last ditch effort. It brought huge lumps in our throats to walk out of the hospital, remembering these new precious friends, and wondering how they will fare with all that’s still headed their way. We took every opportunity to share God’s love with them, and gave them every reason to hope. Pray with us, will you? Pray that they and all who are facing such challenges will discover God’s love and some Real Healing in mind and body. 

As we left the treatment area, we wanted to go straight to the diagnostic room and get a scan that would confirm everything we’re hoping for, but the doctor told us to wait three months, since Tony’s insides are reportedly needing to recover before they can get a real look.   So, we’ll wait, praising  God for His healing power, and for wonderful friends like you. It’s encouraging to know that both we and the doctor expect him to be clear of cancer.  

And then there was the passing of Ravi Zacharias, that gifted Christian apologist who has blessed so many, us included, with his simple yet incredibly deep message of salvation for so many years. Tony has accepted the news like the good man of God he is, but confesses to feeling a bit … disappointed? that God would heal him, and yet take Ravi home, a man who was doing so much the Kingdom.  Perhaps there’s a bit of ‘survivor syndrome’ at work, with us feeling encouraged and yet with so many of our friends still struggling.  

I guess there are really no words to express our feelings.  Why?  Why does someone so ‘helpful’ to the Cause of Christ have to go so soon?  Perhaps someday we’ll understand, but I can’t help but feel that one day we’ll understand.    

But on a lighter note, you may have heard that our book, “Weaving Sunlight” is now out on Kindle, suitable for downloading onto your smart phone. It’s a LOT cheaper than the hardcopy, and more convenient to read for all of you techies out there. Please do buy it if you want to have a nice uncomplicated read about some folks whom God has blessed.

We’ve had a nice weekend. They’ve released some travel restrictions, all the while raising the petrol prices back up, but at least now we can get to both kids.   We’ve also been able to enjoy several departures from the strict diet, but intend to get back to being serious as we find that we feel better.  It’s a relief, however, to know that sugar and bacon still tastes like the stuff of life!

Till next week, I’ll leave you with the verse that brought Ravi Zacharias to Christianity after attempting to commit suicide when he was 17.  Years and years later he found this same verse on his grandmother’s grave.  You’ll remember I told you about her a few weeks ago, how she became a Christian during a Cholera outbreak.  Here’s the verse: John 14:19, "Because I live, ye shall also live”

And so with God’s grace and according to his plan, we live to see another day.  Let’s make it count! 

Marsha 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell to a Friend

Good morning,   Many of you know that we have a place in our house where we hang pictures of selected men and women. We call it our ‘Wall of Witnesses”, and it’s based on Paul’s mention of his Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, those who have gone before us and encourage us to run the race with perseverance.  We started our wall many years ago and now have 9 couples who we believe to have helped make us who we are. Of course you’ll see our parents there, a loving and Godly grandmother, but the other people we’ve picked up along the way, all greatly impacting our lives. Unfortunately for us, only a few of these people remain with us today, and it certainly hurt (selfishly) to hear this morning that yet another one has gone to be with the Lord.  But the good news is that he was ready. In his 90’s, now free of pain and rejoicing with his wife…… only having been separated from her for two years. His name was Howard Kroese, but he preferred to be called by his grandki...
Read more

Surprises in the Snow

 Last week I talked about three great men who impacted our lives for the good: Steve Metcalf, Eric Liddell and David Hayman. This morning, just for a break, I’d like to tell you, as that late great news commentator Paul Harvey used to say, ‘The Rest of the Story’ about Steve. Tony and I had heard this story a number of times back when we knew and often worked together with the Metcalfs, but we still shake our heads in wonder. After being released from the POW camp in China and being reunited briefly with his family, Steve went to Japan in 1952 to be a missionary.  This was to the people he had hated so much from his wartime internment camp, but thanks to his friend and fellow prisoner Eric Liddell, had learned how to forgive.  He was single, and so attacked Japanese language school with a fervor given to those who were not encumbered with family.  I look back on my own language school experience, and it still makes me tired!  We had a family, and we found that l...
Read more

A Different Kind of Tour

  Recently in Wales, we took TWO £200 tours. Luckily we've budgeted for this, so even though that's expensive (about $300 each), we were OK Both were very enlightening.  The first one took us around to several castles and into the national park of the mountains of Snowdonia.  One of the castles, called Carnarvon, is where Prince Charles became the "Prince of Wales" a few years ago (now he's the King).  I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis must have seen this castle and used it as inspiration for “Cair Paravel”, the legendary gathering place for Aslan (read “Jesus”) in his “Lion, Witch and Wardrobe” series. We also found out that the town of Llandudno (in the Welsh language and pronounced something like “Clendendno or something) was one of the selected cities where thousands of English children were sent to be safe in WWII.  Again, right out of the C.S. Lewis series, although in his book, Lewis didn’t mention that it was only children of royal and very wealthy families w...
Read more