The Cancer Journey

The last 3 months have been a challenging journey with Mom's cancer diagnosis. We're learning lots about cancer, treatments, doctors, nurses, the Canadian medical system, ourselves and God. Mom's attitude is one of gratitude and simple trust - quite amazing! She has only words of praise for and to the caregivers at the Tom Baker Cancer Clinic in Calgary. I read to her Danny and Vera Kuranji's book about life in Serbia, and every week we pass the time together in the chemo ward, she speaks of how blessed we are in this country to have this available to us when 3/4 of the world does not. Each day she chooses to thank God for his goodness, faithfulness and grace and remind herself of his everlasting love for her and all of us. That's not to say that there are never tears. They come mostly at the thought of leaving Dad and her concern that he'll be OK, but they come rarely. When I'm in Calgary I'm part of their morning habit of after breafast reading the Word and praying. These are precious times, as we personalize God's promises for the day and pray for all our family - every child, inlaw and grandchild gets mentioned and also the needs of others, int'l workers and global needs, as well as churches in our District that have needs and any of my ministry concerns.
We're never sure of what a day will bring about in terms of Mom's health, but we're on the journey together, hand in hand with the Lord!

I was deeply blessed by the women's leaders of the Saskatoon network on Saturday. I was there for a day of training and at the end of the day, they gathered around me, laid hands on and prayed for me and for my parents. What encouraging words, what love and support - truly what I needed! God does indeed know our needs and is wonderfully able to meet them.