It’s been almost 4 years since Mark was first diagnosed and I can’t begin to tell you the amount of times that people tell us that they don’t know how we do it or that they couldn’t do it, etc.
I was sharing was someone recently that truly it has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God providing a way for us to walk thru the storm with Him as our guide. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately because we’ve had our share of storms these past couple of months.
I can testify that God knows exactly when to send a blessing that reaches to our core and tells us that He is still right here with us and loves us and seeks the very best for us. Our blessings have come in SO many forms that is would be hard to list. I can nearly always share a fresh blessing – I don’t have to do back to 09 or to six months ago – it amazes me how the blessings continue to come and even more when the storms get rough.
Our blessings come in a text from an old friend who felt led to pray and asked what we needed prayer for (and what he didn’t know when he texted was how utterly full of despair we felt at that moment), an email with a word of encouragement, dinner with friends, a phone call from someone just checking up on us, a verse from the Bible that jumped off the page specifically for us on that very day we needed it, a message from one of our kids encouraging us, a picture of our precious granddaughter sent just at the right time. Blessings have come in way of checks that have blown us away and brought us to tears not understanding why someone would do that for us. Help around our house from friends and family and many, many offers of more help from people we know we be there and all we have to do is pick up the phone. A testimony of prayer specifically for us. So many prayers for us it makes our head spin! So many times we’ve had people surround us and pray over us. Flowers showing up randomly to brighten our day. ( I even received flowers from a lady I’ve only met once). As I’m sitting here writing this Mark got a text message with a verse of encouragement and shared it with me – how awesome is that? Another huge blessing is my company changing my position somewhat and making it possible for me to work from home most of the time – this has been a huge help to us!
What we’ve learned is that these blessings don’t make the storm go away but they help us to get thru it.
I don’t understand why God has allowed Mark to suffer nightly without much relief – we get sick and tired of it all and it isn’t fun but God didn’t promise that we wouldn’t have storms in our life but He did provide a way to get thru them – we just have to keep our eyes on Him because just like Peter walking to Him in the storm the second we take our eyes off him we get submerged in the storm.
Mark finished up his 28 rounds of radiation and oral chemo on Monday. He will feel sick with the effects of it for the next few weeks. Our oncologist recommends chemo again but we are praying as to what path we should take. Our natural doctor continues to treat him with supplements to build his system back up and has been doing research for us as he is recommending that we stay on the protocol Mark is currently on and go with another form of chemo that they will administer at his office call IPT low dose chemotherapy – he said they are having some really great results with it and thinks it would be very good for Mark. He wants to start this next week – Mark would only have to go in once a week for about a 3 hour session. We are checking with our insurance to see if they would cover this type of chemo – my gut says they won’t which would mean it would all be out of pocket.
Prayer requests:
1. Mark to feel better and get rest at night –
2. To know which route to go
3. If we go with low dose chemo that insurance will cover it
4. God to remove all cancer cells from Mark’s body – we know He can do it if He wills!
Thank you for being our blessings and for being the hands and feet of Jesus to us!
Mark and Lee
Psalm 73:25-26
Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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