More Prayers Needed and an Update

I really appreciate those of you who keep reading my blog.  If you've stuck with me this long, you must love Jesus tremendously.  And I hope you do, 'cause I have more prayer requests.

Sadly, tragedy has struck again in our area.  A family we know lost their 9 year old son last week in a tractor accident.  I won't go into the details, they aren't important.  What is important is that parents have lost a son.  Two sets of grandparents have lost a grandson.  Where there were three brothers, now there are two.  This family is devastated.  I wonder why on earth this happened, and there is no answer.  The funeral was yesterday.  Please lift the Rush family before the throne of grace.  They need comfort and they need peace.  The entire community is heartbroken.  

A lady in our community lost her battle with breast cancer last week.  Her funeral was this morning.  She was 62 years old.  I don't know her well.  I hope she knew Jesus.  Please keep the Horton family in your prayers as they need comfort.  No matter how old you are, losing a parent is hard.

Speaking of parents, I'll update you on my mom.  After having really a pretty great week last week, Saturday morning we took her to the emergency room with severe stomach pain.  The ER physician ran all sorts of blood tests and everything came back normal (praise the Lord)!    But knowing her diagnosis he wanted to do a CT scan of her abdomen just to make certain there wasn't something there that would have caused such sharp pain.  He came into the room after the scan and said "Good news, the CT scan didn't show any abnormalities in her abdomen.  And by the way, those tumors in her liver, THEY ARE SMALLER!"  The chemotherapy (she has taken 7 of 12 treatments) IS WORKING AND SHRINKING THE TUMORS!!!!  So while we still have no idea why her stomach was hurting (she has felt fine ever since!!!) and I have no idea why God wanted us to spend HOURS at the emergency room on Saturday, WE ARE PRAISING THE LORD THAT THE TUMORS ARE SMALLER!!!!!

We are heading to MD Anderson in Houston tomorrow.  Mom has blood work and a CT scan on Wednesday, and we meet with her oncologist Thursday morning to hear the results of the scan and see where we go from here.  If you recall, they are hoping the chemo has shrunk the tumors to the point they can operate and remove the part of the liver where the tumors are located.  THAT IS OUR PRAYER.  If the tumors are small enough, they we meet with the surgeon Friday morning to discuss the details of surgery.  If surgery isn't an option, then we are praying there are other treatments available that can help.

If you're still with me after another pretty heavy post, then I ask that you agree with me in prayer for God's perfect will for my mom.  We are asking for healing and we are believing for healing in Jesus name.  We know that God is a loving God and I don't believe He brings sickness upon His children.  But we also know that we live in a sinful, fallen world.  And bad things happen to good people every single day.  We believe that God has allowed this to come into her life, and my family's life, and we want Him to use this for His glory.  We want others to see Jesus in us.  This is not an easy path to walk.  As I've said before, we want this "cup" to pass over us.  But in the meantime we want to serve Him and ask that He uses us.  We want to be His light shining in Houston, Texas 'cause nobody is at MD Anderson because they have a sore throat.  It is full of people with a very serious disease.  They all need Jesus.  Praying that we can be His hands and His feet and His voice while we are there.

Thank you thank you thank you for your prayers.  We feel them.   We ask for safe travels down there and back, and a good report. We ask for strength to walk down this road in peace.

Please remember the Rush family and the Horton family.  They need prayers.

Keeping my eyes on Jesus.  I hope you do the same.

He is the only way.