Tuesday

“I’m a mess.

I’m nothing and have nothing; make something of me.

You [God] can do it; you’ve got what it takes.”

~Psalm 40:17 The Message~

Two messages from Haiti this morning telling out local team hopes to return today. Be praying!

Good morning from Haiti. We will be remaining here in the compound again today. This trip did not go as planned but the Lord has been faithful to bless in so many ways. Our original plans to return home tomorrow evening are still in place. The city is showing some signs of normalcy. Please pray for our flight to leave on time and for the process of leaving the country to be smooth and timely.

My Parents and other family will be trying to travel to the Airport early tomorrow morning… 35 people in 2 ten Passenger vans… it will be a long day for them… please pray for safety as they travel home!!!!!

Update on Buddy Morris

Journal entry by Ellen VandeVuss — 5 hours ago

Two weeks… it has almost been two weeks since we heard the words cancer. Two weeks is how long it took us to find the doctors that we liked to treat this rare and aggressive cancer. Two weeks is the time from diagnosis to start of treatment. Two weeks that were filled with countless tests. It seems like it has been an eternity. These two weeks had highs and many lows. We met many wonderful people who showed us kindness, patience, and compassion. There were others we encountered that didn’t have these qualities, and those were the days with many emotions and tears. We saw 4 different doctors, 2 of them were not the right doctor for us, and the other two will be a team and work together. Daddy will be seeing Dr. Carinder at St. Tammany Hospital and Dr. Ramirez with Oschner in New Orleans. Dr. Carinder is a general oncologist that has practiced oncology for many years, and Dr. Ramirez specializes in Neuroendocrine Tumors. Today we saw Dr. Ramirez and got the results from all of the many tests. It is hard to believe that all of these tests in the past two weeks were condensed into one appointment that lasted about an hour.

What we learned today… We learned that the cancer has spread. We knew that it was in some lymph nodes, but we learned today there are a few spots on his bones. This is not uncommon for this type of cancer. It is very rarely diagnosed and not spread to some extent at the time of diagnosis. We are thankful that it has NOT spread to other organs. His liver, lungs, and brain did NOT have any signs of cancer.

The plan… Dr. Carrinder and Dr. Ramirez agreed on the same treatment, which is chemotherapy. Tomorrow, Daddy will get his port, and Wednesday he will start the first round of chemo. He will have three days of chemo and three weeks in between rounds. He will have two rounds and then have another scan to see how he is responding to chemo. After the two rounds of chemo and another scan he will go back to Dr. Ramirez to determine the next steps of treatment. During this time he will also have appointments with Dr. Carrinder to monitor the progress. We are thankful that he will be able to do the chemo in Covington, and we will not have to drive to New Orleans each time.

Prayers and Praises… We are so thankful to have found these doctors. It was a huge burden lifted once this decision was made, and we felt at complete peace in choosing this team of doctors. Please pray that Daddy responds to the chemo. We have been told these tumors respond well to chemo, and he will feel better after the first round. We are so thankful for everyone that has called, texted, and visited in the last two weeks. Thank you to everyone that has been there as a listening ear. It means so much to us. Most of all thank you for your prayers, we have surely felt them and are very grateful for all of the prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf.

Let us keep running the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1b
Let us approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
When all seemed hopeless… Abraham believed God and continued hoping. Romans 4:18

Linda (and Robert) Callihan will be spending a couple of days in Houston to get biopsy results and a treatment plan. Keep praying for Linda’s health and strong faith.

Please continue to pray for our children and adult helpers who are at camp this week. I heard yesterday that the children were having a great time. I trust the adults were too!

Read the Bible

Neh. 4-5
Job 27
2 Cor. 12

Prayer Meeting and Children’s Missions tomorrow night at 6 P.M. at FBC, Kentwood.

I will be working on Operation Christmas Child at church tomorrow. You can choose your own hours. If anyone would like to help, please let me know today.

I am in need of lots of bars of hotel soaps of a special project I’ve been working on. If you have some to share with OCC, please let me know. If you have shampoo and conditioner, I will put it with the items we are sending to the Friendship House in September. Thanks for helping. I am also using lots of yarn, so if you have any scrap yarn or purchase some new yarn, please give it to me or leave in the church office.

Shoeboxes are available so you can pack them yourself. I have painted the inside on some boxes, so if you are going to pack a box for a young boy, you will have a racetrack ready to go with your hot wheel type cars. I’m going to be working on painting some boxes for other groups too. What do you want for your packing?

Another item I am using now for mission projects is rocks. I need rocks 2″ x 4″ or slightly smaller or larger and rather flat. What do you have? These will not go in the shoeboxes! Stay tuned and see the latest mission project….

Thank you for supporting our friends in prayer and for supporting the missions involvement of our church!

Anna Lee