First of all, I want to thank you for making the prayer page a success. I’ve gotten some great responses from this page, and I appreciate you taking the time to pray for these great people.
Second, I have a number of updates for you. There are new people who desperately need your prayers, and I also have updates on a number we’ve already been praying for.
I met a couple named John “Chad” Emerson and Jaime Emerson. Chad has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and was initially given a very short life expectancy. However, he has been undergoing an experimental treatment (so experimental that he is patient number one) that has thus far kept him alive and massively reduced the negative counts from his pancreas, though they do not know how long this will last. Let’s pray that Chad has a radical, miraculous healing and gets to spend many more years with his wife and two children. Also pray for peace over his wife and kids. The kids are still young, and Jaime is very strong but could definitely use a touch from God. They definitely need our help, and God’s.
Next, my dear friend Lauri told me about her son (Keith Hart) and daughter-in-law (Haley Hart) who are pregnant with their first child, Zoë Elizabeth. Zoë is only 22 weeks old, but at a recent Doctor’s appointment it was discovered that Haley’s cervix was not closed. This means that Zoë was in imminent danger of either being born much too early or being exposed to the outside world. In either case it would kill her. Haley had surgery recently that alleviated the worst of the danger, but she is now required to stay on bed rest for the next ten weeks in an effort to keep Zoë in long enough to survive when she is born. Let’s pray for protection over Haley and Zoë, and believe that God will keep Zoë from being born until she will survive on her own.
I also received updates from several people already on the list. Duane Green had his first hormone shot and will start radiation therapy in November to combat his prostate cancer. Duane is an amazing person, and when he is healed he is going to rock northern Washington. Let’s keep praying for him until that happens.
Bonnie will be starting a new cycle of chemo therapy shortly. The cancer keeps coming back for her. Her counts will go down for a while after chemo is finished, but then they will shoot right back up. She is a very selfless and spiritual woman, and she deserves to be healed by God and done with this. Let’s believe that for her.
Sally Jo Rehbok-Smiley had surgery to remove the ovarian cancer. She will be having testing shortly to see how the surgery did and to assess what the next steps will be.
My wonderful friend Mary requested that we add her son, James, to the prayer list. He needs to be healed of addictions, rejection, and self-hatred. He also needs to have a real experience with God, and to know how real God is. While this is not really the normal sort of request for this list, inner healing for people is just as important as physical healing. Please pray for James to get some.
Last and least, I am going to be heading up to Seattle for an autologous bone marrow transplant on October 9th. I will be there for three months while the transplant is taking place. Basically what will happen is they will take out my own stem cells, give me a lethal dose of chemo and radiation, and then put my own stem cells back in. It has a very high success rate, but obviously it’s quite an involved process. Furthermore, during this time I will not have a job and we will still have all of our normal bills as well as additional housing and living expenses in Seattle. I’m not very good about asking for prayer for myself, but I figured this was as good a place as any to do it.
Let’s also not forget to pray for Tanya, Jim and Wendy. I haven’t heard anything new about/from them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still need our intercession.
Thanks so much for your prayers, and for your faith towards these wonderful people. I appreciate it, and I know they do as well!
Image (c) Can Stock Photo