To all our dear friends and supporters, here is a hard letter to write. You have been so faithful and supportive of us over these past months and especially in the crisis times when I was calling for help in prayer with James last week. So many wrote back and prayed us through that time.
On Friday the oncologist told us that James has less than four months to live. The cancer is more aggressive than the chemo and it is of no further help to him at this time. We as a family have all together decided that we want comfort and quality in these last months together and are hoping that James will be able to enjoy his remaining life.
On Friday night I had to go to the ER having had severe abdominal pains all day long, but wanted to be at the hospital with James so had been taking medicine and just kept going. Christopher our son actually forced me to go to the ER and Mandy our daughter in law took me and stayed with me. We found out in the early hours of Saturday morning that I had a perforation in my colon and if I had of waited for another 24 hours I would have been in bigger trouble and would have needed emergency surgery. As it was I was admitted to hospital right away and was there until this afternoon (Tuesday).I am on strong antibiotics and can have surgery at a later date when things have settled down.
It was a very surreal experience to have me in one hospital and James in another town and another hospital. It has been a very challenging time for our dear family here and away. And it was difficult for James and I to be apart especially when we had been told his days are short. But once again we would have to say that we have been knowing God’s amazing peace and grace and only He can give. What a wonderful God we belong to and O how He loves us.
Benjamin and Missy have decided to come home from Papua New Guinea and will be arriving on Saturday, March 31. Pray with us as we seek to find a place for them to stay preferably furnished already.
Isaac and Camille will be coming home and will be arriving Thursday, April 5 and will be here for nearly a month. It looks like we have accommodation sorted out for them using the empty apartment above us.
Martha and Bryan are planning their wedding and would of course love James to be here for that so their plans are changing as far as that goes planning on sooner with a smaller guest list. Pray for them as they have so many decisions to make of the next few weeks.
There isn’t much more to say except thank you again for being willing to uphold us all in prayer. We individually and as a family are trusting God with this and needing His amazing grace very much, and will need Him so very much in the days that lie ahead. I know you will pray especially for James as he lives out this journey on earth with this deadly disease. We have joined Hospice now who facilitate comfort over cure, which is our goal as well.
From the very start of this journey 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 has been a rock for us, we continue to repeat it often and are helped and strengthened and comforted.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Lisa for James too