Prayer Update from Greg, May 22, 2015

May 22, 2015 Hello--Me Again! This is just a quick note to let you know I am done with the radiation treatments--five treatments on my sternum and five on my kidney bed. In spite of fatigue and some nausea, I tolerated them pretty well. I will not know the outcome of the radiation until mid-July when I get my next scans. CT scans, which were used to pin-point where the radiation would go, can locate a tumor but they cannot tell if the tumor is dead or alive. For that we have to wait. If the radiation killed the tumors they will be absorbed by the body or broken up and eliminated by the body. If they are still there in July, well, that means they are still alive. Some of you have asked about what kind of radiation I had. It's called by many names, much like facial tissues are called Kleenex even though there are many brands that do the same thing. The radiation itself is called Stereotactic Body Radiation (STBR). It's very exact, and because it hits the target and (hopefully) not anything else, it can deliver a very powerful dose. I feel good about the radiation and so does my radiologist, whom I like very well. So we wait and see....and pray. (I wrote an article about my radiation experience for the Life Discovery Newsletter a couple weeks ago. For those of you who don't receive our ministry Enews, I've reprinted it below.) Taking It By Faith Most of you know I have been having radiation treatments these past couple weeks. It's been quite an experience, to say the least. After the technicians have settled me in on the see-through table top and positioned me in my very own body mold (no kidding!) they leave the room and close the heavy, 12-inch, radiation-proof door. Clunk. I'm alone. It feels kind of like being locked up in a bank vault--except there are no cops & robbers. Then, unannounced, large flat panels rise up from the sides of the table while what looks like flying saucers with mirrors and lights start to twirl this way and that--over, under, sideways and down. The clear, hard table I'm lying on moves and adjusts during the whole process too. My job is to lay perfectly still while the space-age machines whirl and beep and blip and chirp all around me. What are they doing? Yikes. As I lay on the table last Monday, accompanied by R2D2 and C3PO (you Star Wars fans know what I'm talking about), I thought to myself: How do I know something is really going on here? I'm just trusting the doctor when he says that my tumors are being zapped with radiation. Sure, there's a lot of movement and noise, but I can't see the radiation and I can't feel it. In fact, I don't feel a thing. I just have to believe that something is happening inside of me because the doctor said so. In other words, I really have to take it by faith. It occurred to me that it isn't so very different from what happens with God. I have to take his word by faith as well, even when I can't see it or feel it. It's like, when people pray for me they sometimes lay hands on me, or pray loudly, or read Scripture, or sing or dance, but I don't feel it physically at all. And I don't get to see the rays of God's healing power going through me either. Still, I know and believe, by faith, that something is happening inside me and that prayer changes things--because he says so. "Now faith is....the conviction of things not seen."  Hebrews 11:1 It's funny how so many people can believe a radiation machine is doing its job and working, but find it so hard to believe God's power is at work to heal them also. Every day as we sit in our homes we have all sorts of 'invisible' things going on around us: microwaves, signals from cell phone towers, TV and radio waves. They are all working while we don't see them. But turn your TV on and we see the results. It seems to me that if we so readily put our faith in a machine and a doctor--who is just a man, after all-- how much more can we put our faith in the man called Jesus, the Son of the Living God, who tells us in his word that by his stripes we are healed. The doctor is backed by science and technology; God is backed by his word, his long "his-story," the testimony of his people and my experience of his faithfulness in my life. I received a beautiful card the other day. It quoted Jeremiah 32:27 where God says to Jeremiah, "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" We take it by faith, friends. Is anything too hard for him? I believe not. I will report back to you later in July when I get the results of my tests. I thank you again for your prayers on my behalf. Have a blessed Memorial Weekend! Greg