He is Gone....

Please pray Andrew comes home in one piece both mentally and physically. A bonus would be having him back for Christmas...

Update on Bridget - Keep praying

Thank you all for your prayers. I know for a fact that Bridget and Steve have felt them and are so grateful for them!

Last week, they told Bridget they thought the cancer started in her lungs and gave her a month to live. After further tests, they discovered it is actually GI cancer and with chemo they have given her 6months. 6 months is blessing, because the baby has more time to grow and develop. The effects of chemo though, on the growing baby, are unknown. There have not been enough studies done to know how chemo effects an unborn baby. They started chemo this week. It will be done once week on Tuesdays, for 3 weeks. After every round they will see how the baby is doing and decide whether to keep giving her chemo. Their prayer is that God's hand of protection will be on the baby and that the chemo will work long enough for the baby to survive outside of Bridget.

The hospital has been amazing to them. They gave them a second room next door for their families to stay in. Both sets of parents and some siblings have come to be with them. They say that Grace is doing well, especially with all the family in town she is getting a lot of love, from a lot of people. They are hoping that Bridget will get to go home soon. She is in a lot of pain constantly and is not strong enough to be out bed, but being home is still more relaxing.

Bridget has told the Dr.'s and nurses that she is ready to die. She knows the Lord and trusts in Him. When Steve is asked how someone can help, he tells them first to get to know Jesus and start a relationship with Him! Sharing who God and Jesus are and why have a personal relationship with Him, is the most important thing to them both.

Please keep praying that their faith remains in Christ and that the Dr.'s and nurses are discerning and full of wisdom in treating Bridget! There are still 24-hr. prayer chains going on as well as a weekly prayer night for them at Park St. Church in Boston. I will try and keep updating as I know more.

PRAY!!!!!!!!

Tonight, Thursday May 8th, people all over the country are gathering to pray for my friends Steve and Bridget Slotemaker, their daughter Grace and their unborn baby! Bridget was diagnosed this week with Stage IV cancer on her liver and several other organs and they have given her weeks to live. They are hoping she will live long enough so that the baby will be able to survive outside of the womb. She is currently only 20weeks pregnant. Bridget and Steve are deep believers and know that God has them in this time!

People are gathering at Park Street Church in Boston, where we all used to attend together and will start praying at 7pm. Please join in and pray for them wherever you are! With God, all things are possible! Healing can and does take place all the time!!! God is bigger than cancer!

Thank you dear friends!

Tsunami risk on vacation

I have to admit my ignorance. I had no idea that Americans were at risk of Tsunami's.....How could I not know this? Anyway, here in Oregon it turns out that Tsunami's are a real risk!! So much so, there are signs warning people of them and they have just started practicing the warning signal. This signal is extremely loud and will be practiced once a month. (ie, the sound can be heard all over this town!) We were lucky enough to have just gotten to Brookings for the first practice round! Suddenly the ocean view and proximity that I thought was awesome, was a little unnerving.

Yurt Camping

Andrew and I are currently staying in this yurt. We are in Brookings, OR with his brother, Jeff and his girlfriend, Amanda. So far the weather has been amazing (ie, no rain and not too cold) and the company, of course, is awesome. More pictures and stories to come.

Small Pox....

One of the many joys and special things about being in the military is their "right" to inject whatever they want, whenever they want, into Andy. On Friday of this past week, he came home with multiple band-aides on both arms....I come to find out that he was injected with the Typhoid and Anthrax vaccination in one arm(the anthrax one takes multiple rounds and is very controversial over its effectiveness)and small pox in the other arm.

Because I am not a child of the 50's, 60's or 70's, I knew nothing about small pox or the vaccination. Turns out that they dip a 2-pronged needle into cow pox and then jam your arm with it 15 times!!!!!!!!! YUCK! YUCK! Then you are itchy and "contagious" for 21 days! Andy cannot have anyone touch near the bandage, cannot be around anyone pregnant and cannot, under any circumstances, scratch the area.

All this, just so he can go to war! (I know this is not a lot, 3 shots, but really there has been a lot more things to deal with than just the shots)