Proverbs 18:24 "A man who has friends must himself be friendly but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Here is "little brother" Cuinn who will soon be following "big brother" Cianan around step by step, wanting to do all the things he does. They'll make quite the team.

Praise the Lord that Cindy Fulton was able to come over to San Francisco and help me this week in order to give Zac and Krista a break. She arrived early Tuesday morning and has been taking me to all my appointments and ensuring that I take my medications. I will complete my second round of chemo on Friday morning and then we will head back to Modesto for the weekend. After a week off, I will start my next round of chemo in Modesto. Butch and Mary Lou, my brother-in-law and sister from Oregon, arrive in Modesto on Friday afternoon and will care for me until Tuesday morning when Zac and Krista will be back. Since Monday is a holiday, we will be back in San Francisco on Tuesday morning. Tuesday should start the last week of radiation treatment in San Francisco.

Challenges:

1) I had a very challenging circumstance last Sunday. In the late afternoon I experienced one of the most painful lower back aches of my life, a side effect of the chemo. Around 4pm, Zac convinced me to go to Memorial ER, since we were in Modesto. After several hours and three MRIs that showed no fractures, I was given 4 mgs of morphine. The effect of the morphine was quick after several hours of extreme pain. Spiritually, I was holding onto the verse where Jesus says "I will never leave you or forsake you". I had to hold onto that verse by faith since the pain was hiding His presence in any way I could feel. Thanks to Eric Britt for coming to the hospital and praying for me while I was waiting for the morphine. God's Word is true, whether I feel it or not.

I once read of a man who hung a toy airplane flying upside down from his living room ceiling. When a friend asked him why it was flying upside down, the man explained, "During the most perilous times in my life, I learned to trust God's Word and live my life in line with it, trusting in His instrument readings, rather than relying on my physical or emotional take on the matter. The only place of peace and safely is trusting in His Word."

2) The doctors are still trying to treat a blood clot in my right calf (another lovely side effect of the chemo). I am being treated for it but my right foot and calf are quite swollen.

3) The doctors have decided to radiate my right clavicle directly and have started a five day radiation treatment that started last Wednesday. They are hopeful that they can curtail the growth of the tumor and allow the bone to repair itself as much as possible.

Please pray that God will:

a) Be glorified in my life

b) Accomplish every purpose He has in this trial

c) Heal everything in my body that will bring honor to His name

d) Bless everyone who follows His prompting to pray

e) Give the doctors, nurses and technicians wisdom beyond their own abilities

f) Give me joy in His Word and in His presence

Thank you so much for your prayers. Prayer is a great gift and the power of it is simply unknown to us.

In John Ross McDuff's "The Bow in the Cloud or Words of Comfort for Hours of Sorrow (1880)", he prays, "Have mercy on the whole family of the afflicted. When one member suffers, all the members suffer. May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, bind up every bleeding heart. Forbid that they should have the cloud without the bow - that they should experience Your chastening hand without the promised consolations - and instead of exercising unmurmuring submission, harbor suspicions of Your faithfulness. May they see You seated by every furnace, tempering the fury of the flames; may they come forth purified as gold."

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in every circumstance.

Love to you and those you cherish,

Jane

PS The coleus on my last blog is actually "Grape Expectations" rather than "Grapes of Wrath". This correction actually appears to be an improvement to me.