Rejoicing In Hope

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Romans 12:12

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Please continue praying for Jerry's biopsy tomorrow at Duke. We probably will not have the results until Thursday or Friday. 

The Lord has been so good to us and we are so thankful for the prayers and the love from our family and friends.

Thankful for Family

We had a great Thanksgiving. Our oldest son, Scott, and Lisa came in for a visit. It was so great spending time with them. Of course we all ate too much.

Scott and Lisa

Neal and Scott

We have so much to be thankful for. The Lord has been so good to us and we are so thankful for the wonderful family He gave us.

We love you and Happy Thanksgiving.

Thankful for the Thorns

     I read a story the other day about a lady named Sandra who had went to a florist to get a Thanksgiving arrangement. The clerk had asked her the kind of arrangement she wanted, if she had wanted something festive or something to show that she was thankful for the season.  Sandra had been anything but thankful.

     Sandra had lost an unborn son in a car accident a few months earlier and all she could think of was the resentment she felt. She told the clerk that she wasn't sure what she wanted because the last 5 months had been so terrible and that everything that could go wrong had went wrong.

The clerk said I have just the bouquet for you.

     Before she could go get the bouquet, a customer came in to pick up their order. She said I've came for my "Thanksgiving Special." The clerk went back into the room and came back with a bouquet of long stems covered with thorns, but there were no flowers. The flowers had all been snipped off.

     The clerk put them in a box and the customer paid for their order and thanked the clerk and left. Sandra stood there in amazement. You mean that customer actually paid for that. The clerk said, "Yes, that's the special. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet."

  

     The clerk told Sandra that the customer that was just in there had been through a very rough time 3 years ago. She had lost her father to cancer, her son was into drugs, and she had just had major surgery. She felt she had nothing to be thankful for. The clerk said, "That same year, I also went through a hard time. I lost my husband and spent Thanksgiving alone with no family."

     And so I learned to be thankful for the thorns. It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I have always enjoyed the 'flowers' of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort. The thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don't resent the thorns.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Sandra said, "I'll take twelve long-stemmed thorns.

It's hard to thank God for our thorns. We thank Him all the time for the roses, but never for the thorns.

      Yesterday morning I went to church. It seemed like I was having a hard time being there without Jerry. While the choir was singing, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't want people to see me cry and so I fought them back. I think it was because I knew how much Jerry would have loved being at church yesterday. It's hard knowing how much he misses being at church and the fellowship.

     When I got home, he could tell I had been having a hard time and he asked me to sit down and talk with him. He started crying and told me that for the first time since he was diagnosed with the leukemia, he is able to  thank God for his disease. While I was at church, he had spent that time praying and reading his Bible.  He had been reading from several selections, including the Psalms, but Romans 8:29 hit home in that Jerry realized how special and privileged he was that God would use the cancer in his life in order to conform him into the image of His Son. He knows he hasn't arrived, but has realized that God is working in his life.

Romans 8:28-29.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

 to them who are the called according to his purpose.  

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed

 to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So this Thanksgiving 2011, we are praising God for our roses, and thanking Him for our thorns.

Family

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing."

With the holidays getting closer, we tend to think a lot about our family. We are so thankful for our family. They are always there for us, they love us no matter what, they laugh with us, weep with us, and they are such a part of our lives. We are also so thankful for our church family and the blessing they have been to us through Jerry's sickness.

Family

The holidays are approaching,

Excitement is everywhere.

Thanksgiving first, then Christmas,

And all the holiday cheer.

But best of all is family,

Coming together once again.

Laughing, sharing memories,

Not knowing where to begin.

There may be someone absent,

But their memory will stay

A part of us forever,

And throughout the coming days.

There may be someone new

Who we have welcomed in

To be a part of our clan,

To be loved and cherished within.

The holidays will end,

And we might drift apart.

But we’ll always be a family,

A part of each other’s heart.

-Patricia Rice

                               

 

We love you. Please continue praying for Jerry's treatments and the bone marrow biopsy on November 29 at Duke. If the biopsy looks good, they will be scheduling the physical for the bone marrow transplant. If not, then he will continue with more chemotherapy here in Greenville.

            

The Path

Psalm 17:5

Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

 

The picture on our blog is of Lincoln State Park in Lincoln City, Indiana.  Every fall, we had a tradition of going there and walking the leaf covered paths. We would go late in the afternoon when the park was empty and quiet and walk and just enjoy being together.

We are walking a different path this fall. It is not always a peaceful path. It can sometimes be a lonely path. Sometimes it's a scary path, not knowing what is ahead of us. But we know that God is walking that path with us preparing the way.

We want to give you an update on Jerry's progress. Last week he took his third round of vidaza chemotherapy.  It made his blood counts very low. Over the weekend he was very weak and shaky from his blood being so low. Monday, he had to receive a transfusion of 2 pints of blood. He is already scheduled next Monday for another transfusion if his counts are still low. His platelets are also very low. His white blood count is so low that he is considered neutropenic and is unable to be around crowds or be visited by anyone that has an infection or the flu.

November 29, he goes to Duke for another bone marrow biopsy. The biopsy will tell us for sure if the chemo is working or if Jerry has to have more rounds of chemo.

We will probably know the results on December 2.  If the results are good, Jerry has an appointment on December 5 with Duke Transplant Clinic for a complete physical to see if his body can handle a transplant. Then they will present their findings to our insurance company for them to agree that he would be a candidate for the transplant.  If he is, he will undergo another round of chemo here in Greenville in December and then after the first of the year, if everything is good, we'll be able to proceed with the transplant. This is our Greenville oncologist and the two oncologist from Duke conferring together on the treatment.

Please be praying about these things:

   That the biopsy will be favorable

   His physical will not show any other problems

   That Jerry will be able to have the transplant

We love you and appreciate the prayers.

Time

Newburgh, Indiana

Tonight is time change. We change all of our clocks back one hour.

I was thinking how our whole lives are measured by time. 

We have morning TIME - usually a busy time, getting ready for the day. I love getting up early. I can always get a lot done then, because I still have energy. It can also be a special time with God.

 Then there's meal TIME - A very important and favorite part of everyone's day.

And we go through our day and then there's night TIME, which sometimes can be a lonely time when you can't sleep and you think too much.

There's vacation TIME, graduation TIME, work TIME, play TIME, nap TIME, TIME-Out, and I could go on and on.

New Harmony, Indiana

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, God had a time for every purpose under Heaven.

A time to be born - We welcomed little Brylee Hope into the world this year.

A time to die - I had an aunt and a brother that passed away this year.

A time to weep and it seems we have done a lot of that lately.

A time to laugh - which we do whenever we can.

A time to love, a time to heal.......

I'm sure God had a time and a purpose for Jerry's sickness.  And we still have hope that He has a time already planned to heal. 

 

Beaufort, North Carolina



I'm so thankful that God is the Master of  Time.

A Mighty Hunter

Psalm 42:1

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

This week Jerry is having his third round of the Vidaza chemotherapy here in Greenville, It has been a little rough on him, especially with his blood counts being low and not being able to be around anyone. He is considered severely neutropenic right now and very susceptible to infections.

The chemo takes a lot out of him. I miss seeing that sparkle in his eye, but he works hard at keeping his spirit up.

He has really missed seeing the grand kids. They always brighten him up. Also as you know it's deer season. Next to me and his family and preaching - his favorite thing to do is hunting. I keep telling him that next year the deer will just be bigger and have bigger antlers. But I know he misses it. From the opening day until the last day, whenever he got a chance, he would head out in his Ford Ranger more excited than a kid at Christmas. I miss hearing all of his big deer tales and about the one that was just in sight, and how good it made him feel just to be in a tree stand. I also miss taking pictures of all his trophy deer.

A few years ago, I wrote this poem for him.

A Mighty Hunter Is He

A great and mighty hunter is he

Or at least he wants to be.

Every year when the season starts

I know where lies my husband’s heart.

He rises early to dress like a tree

In hopes that the deer won’t be able to see.

I take a shower so I’ll have a good smell.

He takes a shower so he won’t have a smell.

And none of this really makes any sense.

Because then he sprays himself with scent.

And I hear the language about scrapes and grunt.

And about the poor deer who are in a rut.

And all of this I try to understand

And pray he doesn’t fall from his stand.

And whether it’s deer, rabbit, or dove.

I have to share my husband’s love.

But then the season will close at last.

And the camos are a thing of the past.

But watch out Thumper and Bambi too.

Because next season he’ll be a hunting you.

 Written by the wife of a true hunter

-Patricia Rice

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He knows right now, the most important thing is to get the treatment so he can get the transplant and have a lot more years of seeing grand kids, preaching, and hunting.



November 2003

Please continue praying! We love you!