Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my
shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my
song I give thanks to him.
The past few weeks Greg hasn’t felt very
well. We have wondered if it was a reaction to his treatment, or if it was new
tumor growth. Today he had the first MRI since his surgery in October and his new treatment started.
God has been leading me to this story over
this past few weeks, and I have read it, over and over and over. It has truly
spoken to me in a way no story really has. Bear with me!
The complete story is
found in Joshua 5:13- 6:21
In
Joshua there is a story where the Israelites had just been wandering in the
desert for 40 years and they had come to the eastern banks of the Jordan and in
order to enter into the Promised Land, they first had to conquer the walled
city of Jericho. This was no easy task seeing as the wall was 11 feet high and
14 feet wide. (it had other specifications, but I don’t think they are
important for this example) God gave instructions to Joshua on how he could
conquer this wall. He told him to have his people march silently around the
wall for 6 days and then 7 times on the 7th day and then, shout. So,
this may have seemed like a stupid plan to Joshua, but he followed the plan to
the letter and on the 7th day after the people marched around the
wall 7 times, Joshua commanded them to shout, and they did. The entire wall
crumbled and they overtook the city. (With exception of one woman and her
family, read the story!)
So, I love this story for many reasons.
First, it took a lot of faith on the part of all of the people to just do what
was told of them without knowing much of the plan. I looked into it a bit and
found that it is believed that the people were only given part of the plan.
They were told to march in silence every day, I don’t believe they knew how
many times they had to march before this plan would hopefully unfold. They just
got up each day and marched. The marched without knowing if or when this wall
would fall. But they were obedient and marched in silence, no less. I have to
think that they were beginning to wonder on the 7th time on the 7th
day, “What are we doing?
Now, to Greg’s big ole noggin. We were told
from the beginning of this new treatment that the first MRI wouldn’t look good.
However, our oncologist, who we dearly love, saw his MRI and felt it looked a
bit worse than what she was hoping to see. Not uncommon for Greg. He really
reacts differently to most things. He isn’t “The norm!” I say it is because his
brain is so big and it just doesn’t know how to cope with all this extra stuff
inside it. So, I will try and explain as best as I can.
Greg has swelling on
the brain. This is somewhat normal due to his therapy attacking the cancer
cells in his brain. It is not normal for it to be swelling as much as it is.
Again…. Not the norm. SO.. Dr. Sumrall gave him a different drug today, (she
had to suspend his normal treatment for this week) that will hopefully,
prayerfully, shrink all brain swelling and stop any new tumor growth. She
suspects there is new tumor but we aren't sure due to all the swelling. So… our prayer request
for all of you is for you to PLEASE ask God to shrink all swelling, that there
be NO tumor once shrinking is gone, and that he can continue on with his
treatment next week.
So, going with the story above, we are
going to look at this as if we are going through these days of treatment not
knowing which treatment will heal Greg’s cancer, but knowing that one day, HE
will cure Greg from this awful disease. We will obey, walk in faith and trust God has a plan! We know our God is able and can crumble 11 feet walls with a shout and He can cure Greg's cancer with a simple touch. We are praying He will do that! We thank each one of you for your
prayers, encouraging words, and support as we walk this very long road.
We love you! Greg, Missy, Jerod, Alex and
Annie
