"24!" by Mary

Twice lately when asked my age by a medical professional I’ve answered (without hesitation I might add), “Twenty-four.” And they’ve bought it. 

Now, I might also want to put in for my defense here that both times I’ve answered in utmost honesty. Which is to say, I was having a most glorious and apparently advantageous “senior moment.” Such that when I’ve said, “Twenty-four,” I’ve answered truthfully--and then I realize what I’ve said and how they’ve swallowed the information whole, and I laugh out loud in their presence and tell them I’m really 49.

At this juncture, it might also be helpful to fully disclose that both of these occurrences have been in dreams! 

I suppose it’s obvious that this recurrent dream is the frantic effort of my subconscious to eke out as much of my remaining 40s as possible before they give up the ghost in October to the next decade.

Oh, for crying out loud, “I AM going to be 50???” That age is for other people, not me! HA!

Yet,  as much as I recall these dreams and laugh I also am drawn in all reverence to THE WORD on the subject of the essence of who we are. I Corinthians 4:16 “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  AMEN! 

Passing through this “cancer affliction” with Geoff, there have been a few times over the past months in which his appearance and frame have shown the signs of wear. (He is finally gaining his weight back and is only one pound from the weight he’s weighed for the past 25 years!)  However, in tandem with glimpses caught of his frailty are glimpses of the strength and never-ending source of deliverance and glory of the LORD God.

And as I catch glimpses of the aging process each morning in the mirror, I am anchored by Psalm 34 and believe it to be one of the great insulators against “ugly aging.” Ugly aging? That is aging brought on by an intense focus on the created in the mirror rather than the Creator who gives Real life--and a far more eternal weight of glory!

Psalm 34 says much to how we secure our rest and contentment in Him; which I believe brings true peace, joy, strength and perhaps even fewer wrinkles to life.  

“I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all me fears. They looked to Him and were radiant. And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. They young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. They righteous cry out, and LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”

So, praising Him, calling out to Him, trusting Him, and choosing to live according to His ways in all circumstances brings an audience with the Almighty God and subsequent deliverance from condemnation and an abundance from which to draw each breath! “Seek peace and pursue it.” Ultimately, seek peace with the One who created you and who sustains you.

“Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.”  Isaiah 46:4

Praise the LORD!!!

I share this random picture from earlier this year because I love that it speaks of God's detailed involvement in our lives. We were blessed to attend the HIM conference in Honolulu in March and we met so many amazing people, including Poet Shawn Welcome, pictured here. Geoff was dealing with intense pain from the cancer at this point, even though we didn't know yet that it was cancer. God kept him going and continues to sustain him even now!

Walk Of Faith

WOW! What a few days it has been.  Friday we received the call from the doctor with my PET scan results. It was great to hear, “no sign of disease in your body”.   The words we all long to hear.  Woo Hoo!!! Then on Sunday I was able to minister from the pulpit and bring a message of encouragement and focus on God’s redeeming work in each one of us.  It felt good to be back in the pulpit after four months without public ministry.  Sunday evening culminated with a lovely walk by the bay and dinner out with my sweetheart.  Our 16th anniversary was 1 1/2 weeks ago and we had failed to celebrate due to the chemotherapy.  It was good to be out and enjoying time with just the two of us.  It felt very normal which is something I have missed lately.  And then Monday...back to the bag of poison!  Yes, despite the test results we just received, standard protocol says that two more rounds of treatment are given to be sure all last cancer cells are destroyed.  As before, we are walking through this by faith and will endure the suffering in order to walk this out completely.  One highlight from my visit to the Dr. on Monday was the Dr’s testimony.  As he sat down to talk things through he said, “It was so exciting to see the results. This is something that I never see. Normally we see progress and improvement but we rarely see total disease removal”.  WELL, PRAISE GOD!  Three months from a stage 3 cancer diagnosis to totally cancer free, that’s pretty amazing!  May God be glorified!  

Friday when we received the news that there was no sign of disease in my body, I was somehow not surprised. Truly it was what we were expecting.  We had prayed specifically that the scan would show my body had been rid of cancer and so many others were agreeing in prayer with us.  We knew deep down inside and had a very confident feeling of what was coming.  

God is faithful to hear and respond to our prayers.  But sometimes when we try to work our faith we are hoping for an outcome that we really aren’t sure is going to happen.  We hope that if we just pray more or can convince ourselves and maybe God that it should happen, then our prayers will be answered.  True faith flows out of a firm belief, being fully convinced that what you are praying for is going to happen.  Or being content that whether it happens or not it does not change my standing with God, and my belief that He is good and has a plan.  True faith trusts God through thick and thin and answers to prayer do not change our faith or who God is.

When I sit back and think about my walk of faith, I have seen many times when I was praying for something and it never happened.  Did I do something wrong?  Did I just not believe enough?  Or is there a greater plan that often I struggle to see?  True faith is trusting God through any circumstance, we make our petitions known and believe God for that outcome but ultimately we need to yield to God’s will.  Jesus demonstrated that in the garden of Gethsemene.  Today I can look back on the past three months and see how my family and I have grown and in many ways benefitted from this experience.  And I can think of how even some of you reading this have been impacted through this journey.  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.  Even the ministry to the Dr., for him to see God working and make a testimony to God’s greatness. Whether or not he knew he was declaring God’s glory and His miracle working power.  

Truly, pure faith is believing in something we cannot see, and a life of faith is trusting the God that leads us despite our not knowing what is coming next.  Today I found myself in the book of James and in chapter 4 he is reminding us that our lives are but vapors and we really don’t know what God has for us tomorrow.  Any such boasting that we “know” exactly what God has tomorrow is arrogance and James actually says it is evil.  God’s reminder for me today is that walking by faith is a daily practice, living in today and fulfilling His desires and using this precious time to bring glory to Him.  We can, with all our efforts, try to secure what tomorrow will look like, but ultimately we are in the hands of a great God who has an intricate plan for each and every one of us.  

I have to admit, Friday’s news did bring some relief where there was a sense of anxiousness.  No matter how strong my faith grows and how much I can trust God in the unknown, the human side of me finds comfort in knowing how things are going to be.  And I am sure this is not the last challenge we will face to test our ability to trust God.  My prayer is that His grace will continue to be poured out on me and my family so that as we walk by faith we can continue to see God’s goodness and His glory all around us. 

As things stand now we will be finishing up chemo and other medical procedures until the end of August and the first of September.  Then we have some vacation planned to rejoice in the journey we have passed through as well as some time with other family before we begin the push to get ready for returning to Uganda.  Our tickets are scheduled for October 12th.  We will keep you up to date with any changes or news that arrises.  Until then may God continue to be glorified in all we do and reveal His glory to each one of you in His unique ways.

Blessings to you in the name of our miracle working God!

Geoff

Hamburgers for all

Joy in the journey

SHOUT HIS PRAISE FROM THE ROOF TOPS! CANCER FREE :-)

Again I have to ask “How can I really say thank you?”  God is Great and greatly to be praised and yet my words fall short.  THANK YOU TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD.  He has faithfully carried us through this journey and brought us to this point of being cancer free.  The call today from the Dr. with the PET scan results was honestly just another victory in a long series of God showing me His goodness.  We had asked so many of you to pray and agree with us and along this journey so many of you have faithfully prayed for us, we knew that He was working. 

Today is exactly 3 months to the day that we received the diagnosis of cancer and today we received the report that I am cancer free.  It has been a wild ride!  It is hard to believe it has only been 3 months, actually feels like so much longer.  April 12th we got the call with the diagnosis which we had been chasing since February.  Today July 12th, we received the word that the cancer is gone and October 12th we will board a plane back to Uganda.  PRETTY COOL HUH!!!  12 is the number representing “divine government”, yes God has been in control of our lives and continues to reign as King!

We are sure God is still working and has many things He wants us to do here before we go back to Uganda.  Tonight we prayed with the kids that God would continue to use this situation, they are really getting a chance to walk out their faith and see HIm work.  I will undergo another 2 rounds of chemo, just for good measure, finishing up in late August.  I will then have the last 6 weeks to fully recover and get us ready for our return.    

That is all for now, but THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS, ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT.  We will to be a bit more creative with the next blog when I am not so tired.

Blessings!  

Happy 16th Anniversary to Us and 1st Birthday to Bela!

We celebrated our 16th anniversary Friday July 5th!

Friday was a busy day! We marked 16 years of marriage, Bela turned one year old and Jerry, Geoff's Dad, turned 77! (And Katy Yates turned 35??? Wow.) Did I miss anybody? Seems that there are many things to shout hallelujah about each year on July 5th!  But, this year was especially momentous with Bela reaching age one CANCER FREE!!!! YAY!

Bela received her "cancer survivor" medal and pin from Sherwood, a dear friend and fellow survivor!

Geoff's sister, Lisa, niece Mary and friend Michelle traveled south from Fresno on Friday to spend the weekend with us and to help with Bela's birthday extravaganza! With all the prep for the party and the party itself over at my mom's house, Geoff, who was not supposed to be around people due to low white cell counts, spent a lot of their visit alone at our house. So, on Sunday we decided to spend the morning at our house so that he could also enjoy visiting with Lisa, Mary and Michelle before they headed back to Fresno. It was a nice quiet morning and we are so thankful we were able to host them!

They left yesterday afternoon and we immediately took a nap! I guess we're not getting any younger!

Today the blood work at the oncologist's office shows Geoff back up in the normal range. Dr. Vora is scheduling the PET scan for THIS week! The third round of chemo starts Monday! Things are clipping along at a fantastic pace!

PLEASE PRAY WITH US for a clean PET scan! This PET scan will determine the length of required lymphoma treatment and thus the extent of our stay in the U.S. We are longing to return to Uganda and, in fact, have return tickets booked for October 12th. We would LOVE for that return date to remain firm and for Geoff to be declared cancer free!

Thank you for your prayers!!  And now, enjoy pictures from Bela's birthday celebration!

Our kids painted the front window to draw attention to the MAJOR PARTY going on!

Once the party got underway, I had a sweet opportunity to spend a LOT of time talking with dear friend Rona, Sherwood's wife. I certainly enjoyed laughing with her!

The party shenanigans extended out into the front yard as well with these local monkeys Ben, Kevin and Santi

Bela's dear friend from her hospital days came to celebrate with her.
It was a joy to watch them enjoy each other once again!

Ahhhhh . . . Bela loves her Kevy!

Toby met his 2nd cousin, Christopher, for the first time

Lisa and Bela

Mary, Santi, Kevin and Acacia with the little bunny they found in the neighborhood.  None of the neighbors claimed it so they spent a good portion of Saturday and part of Sunday visiting with it!  We finally gave it to a lonely neighbor who needed a new pet.

Toby and Michelle made the box that held the donations to the Cancer Foundation

YUM, YUMMY birthday cake!!!!!

Lana and Laura, lovely alliteration!

Bela's pretty mommy!

A pensive moment with cousin, Bailey

Bailey and Bela, "kissy, kissy"

 Once the results of the PET scan are available, we will let you know!!!!! Have a happy week!