Dear Praying Friends,
Greetings from San Diego! Yes, for about a month we have been here in California. We heard via ham radio that Shari’s sister, Joleen Marino, had relapsed with leukemia. (She has Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and had been in remission for about a year.) We heard that her health was deteriorating quickly and that we should come home. We came home very quickly and, in fact, had only 1 day with Joleen before she was admitted to the hospital. Since that time she has been released and is continuing treatment as an outpatient.
Shari has been very involved in helping the family through cooking meals and housekeeping, which takes a big load off of her mom, who has some health problems as well. David has also been helping. He and Gene moved the family’s belongings from Miami to San Diego (another story in itself!) and David is also doing research of bone marrow transplants and checking into Medi-Cal for Joleen. Of course it has been a great blessing to be with the family during this hard time. Please pray for provision of funds to cover the round-trip travel (Estimated time of return to PNG is Jan. 94).
We have just returned from a visit to Saugus and Santa Barbara, where we got to visit with family and friends. We also took the opportunity to share about our ministry in the churches. We thank the Lord for providing a car to borrow for a month, which has been a real blessing and allowed us to make the trip north. Pray for a car for us to borrow for the next few months before returning to Papua New Guinea.
Previously, Shari had been identified as being an HLA-identical match with Joleen. It is possible that a bone marrow transplantation will be a part of Joleen’s future treatment of which Shari would be the bone marrow donor. At this time we are waiting to see how Joleen responds to her current treatment before proceeding on with something else. Please pray for wisdom, peace, unity and guidance for all of us and most of all that God would heal Joleen from this disease.
Love, David and Shari Ogg