Bible School 2014

Here is a great picture of the men who gathered for Bible School in December. Pastor Dominic is in the orange shirt on the right side. A home missionary named Austin helped teach- he is kneeling, in a navy collared shirt. We praise God for this training that lay leaders and pastors are able to receive to help them lead their churches in many places in the Western Province.

Jesus is our Anchor

We have great news from the pathology report- even though the masses came back positive for cancer, my margins are clear, which means that all the cancer was removed from my body at the time the masses were taken out. All of the 116 lymph nodes that were removed were also free of cancer.

YEAH!!! We are so very thankful to God for this incredible news!! I stand amazed that God in His mercy allowed this cancer to be caught at this early stage before it got any worse and spread. ALL THANKS to GOD for this miracle!!

Truly we have seen God’s hand of provision over and over and over again throughout this entire journey. And not only did He provide for me, but He has provided for our whole family. He got us to Lusaka where I was able to get some medical treatment for the initial awful pain, He got us to Johannesburg to get a glimpse of the first mass, and He got us to Kansas to get the cancer removed. And He did all of this in about 6 weeks.

We have more medical appointments ahead of us as we wait for a follow up appointment with Dr. Porter on January 23^rd. Dr. Porter is the GI Surgeon who performed my surgery. We have lots of questions for him such as what stage was the cancer and what further treatment is he recommending.

Thank you all for standing alongside us in prayer and support. So many of you have emailed with words of encouragement and I can’t thank you enough for this!!

I have been reading in Hebrews lately, one of my favorites, because it talks about how Jesus is our Prophet, our Priest, and our King. And He is an anchor for our soul. My soul has been clinging to Him, who is worthy to be praised whatever the outcome. 

…it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…Hebrews 6:18b-19a

Praying Jesus is your anchor too!!!

thank you for praying

Thank you all for praying for us this last month- it's been a crazy journey- since the day after Thanksgiving life has been a whirlwind. We went to Lusaka for the week of Thanksgiving and while there Melynda had terrible abdominal pain. That resulted in a weekend long stay in the hospital and a CT scan which indicated something wrong with Melynda's colon. Following that information we flew to Johannesburg for further testing, which revealed Melynda had a large mass in her colon. Following that shocking news we flew to KS. Since then Melynda has had surgery - two large masses and two feet of her colon were removed. Melynda is recuperating well in El Dorado and waiting to hear if the masses are benign or malignant. She is so thankful to the Lord that the whole family has been with her throughout this adventure!

Through all of this we have had the overwhelming sense of peace what we know comes from Jesus. At every step of the journey we have seen the Lord's hand providing for us and keeping us safe. Family, friends, and church family have rallied around us, reminding us of the love and care of the Father. Mark has been doing a great job taking care of Melynda and the kids, with help from family during and after the surgery. Madylanne loves being around cousins and extended family so much. Matthew is hanging in there and beginning to get the hang of things- having cousins and family has helped him adjust. Micah is growing by leaps and bounds and laughing!

Please pray for the Baptist Mission of Sesheke Church, Pastor Dominic, Bo Teresa, and everyone there in Sesheke. This is shocking for them too and we are praying for them to trust the Lord to see to their every need.

We were certainly not planning this trip to the US and we don't know how long we'll be here- it all depends on what we find out from the pathology report coming this week. And we know ultimately it's in the hands of the Lord.

The Lord is good! He is mighty to save. He is with me. He loves me. He created me. He put me together and He knows how to help me. These are the things that have been holding up my heart.

We love all of you so much!
Melynda, Mark, Madylanne, Matthew, and Micah