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Carolyn’s birthday is December 24. That was the day we received good news about her last needle biopsy. All the initial results from those came back negative for lymphoma or Hodgkin’s! That is truly a startling turn of events that we are ascribing to God’s gracious intervention through His people’s prayers. While Caro’s doctor may still ask her to have one of the nodes removed (a significant abdominal surgery), we are thanking the Lord at this point. Carolyn said she felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off her shoulders.
Last Friday, she had surgery again to remove more tissue around her breast from where they removed the first tumor. They injected her with dye that traced the lymph nodes connected to that area. They removed those and tested them for breast cancer to see if the invasive portions of the tumor had spread.
Today is my birthday. We got a call this evening while celebrating my birthday with family and old friends at Mimi’s Cafe in Little Rock. The results… again, negative. No sign of cancer in the removed nodes. Carolyn breathed a huge sigh of relief and says she can’t stop sighing.
Obviously, we’ll have some more consultations. She goes back next Monday morning to have the drain port removed. (We won’t go into that; it’s rather gross.) We are continuing to count on your and your church’s intercession for us. We thank you deeply for your participation in this hard journey with us.
I remarked to Caro the other night how different this time around is from the first bout with cancer in 1992. The outpouring of prayer and a sense of connectedness thanks to the blog world, Facebook, email and other forums has been astonishing. Literally, we’ve been aware of prayer and encouragement from all over the globe. Thank you.
And for those few of you who keep coming back to Notes waiting patiently for posts of church planting, tech, missional living, etc., please stay with me. I’ll get back to that in the near future.
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I would prefer not to receive catcalls and ecstatic derision from this admission: I’m a geek.
I love computers (well, real computers… Macs). I love the intricacies of web design. I can sit in front of my iMac for waaaay too long checking out new Web 2.0 technologies, lifestream services, etc.
In recent weeks, several old and new friends banded together to create an informal and ad hoc group called TGOM. The post title says it all: Twitter Geeks of Monticello. It started simply. I sent out a tweet one day around 11 a.m., asking if any TGOM wanted to meet for lunch. What resulted was a raucous gathering of unashamed geeks. Well, one of them is a closet geek, but the rest of us carry our mice proudly.
We’ve had more lunches and tweet wars since then, even trying to help each other with Twittiquette. We randomly appointed officers for the group with BCMguy as president, me as Sergeant-at-Arms, seearkaj as Secretary, and journeyjerm as Vice President. I think we even let larryanna12 be Treasurer even though she’s not been able to be a part of the meetings yet. Others are vying for power presumably as I tweet.
In spite of our general banter, today I experienced a very practical and ministry-oriented side to TGOM. I’m confident that any of my tweet buddies could have helped, but one was johnny-on-the-spot. Here’s the situation:
Carolyn and I woke at 4 a.m. today to make it to Little Rock for a 6:00 a.m. surgical procedure. You can see the why’s of that here. However, suffice it to say that we were both bushed - her more than I, of course, upon our return home at noon. I dropped her off to sleep while I ran several errands, including picking up prescriptions at Wal-Mart. While I was there, I was supposed to get some Diet Pepsi for her. In all the hubbub of a crowded Wal-Mart (and Sam and I goofing off), I forgot.
When Carolyn awoke and got hungry enough to eat, she requested her Diet Pepsi. I slapped my forehead in frustation. Aaaah. I had just laid down to rest (see the earlier comment about 4 a.m.). I was mustering up the energy to run to Wallyworld again when an idea stuck me… could it be…. TGOM to the rescue?
I hammered out a fast tweet: “Any TGOM folks at the store?”
Within a minute, I had several responses. arnievw and larryanna12 were apparently off-roading it in the Delta somewhere. shaneglass said his jeep was broke. BCMguy was rooting on Ole Miss at the Cotton Bowl. But seaarkaj said, “I’m at Wallyworld.”
A couple of private tweets and a few minutes later, and I had Diet Pepsi roadside delivery from a smiling friend.
That, folks, is one great way that Twitter can be extremely helpful and useful. I don’t care if I am a geek. Nyah, nyah. Live long and prosper.
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At the beginning of 2008, I never dreamed…
- I would walk the streets of Krakow, Poland.
- See Auschwitz.
- Baptize Taylor James.
- Preach in a Polish Baptist church.
- Get published in a book for childrens charity.
- Attend the Arkansas Baptist State Convention voluntarily.
- I’d own a flat screen TV.
- Carolyn would be diagnosed with breast cancer.
- My family would receive sooo much love and prayer support.
- Journey would gain so many new families and friends.
- Journey would also lose a few more folks.
- I’d reconnect with Tim Smith at Exponential in Orlando.
- Olympics in China!?
- Attend another Passion event in Dallas with Carolyn - and have to stay in the hotel with the flu.
- Help develop an informal church planters network in Arkansas
- See Sam go to his first week-long kids camp - by himself
- Teach a seminar on using the internet for godly influence at Glorieta, NM
- Watch Adelyn place first in just about every race she swam in.
- See the UAM BCM building begin construction!
- Attend the last worship service for the BCM in their old building (built in 1954).
- Meet Ed Stetzer.
- Become a Twaddict.
- Get beat in the first round of the fantasy football playoffs.
- Shop unsuccessfully for a Kia Rondo.
- Get a moped stolen from me and have money provided to purchase a new one.
- Fall more in love with my wife than ever.
- Resurrect the old joke about seeing the fortune teller (don’t ask; you have to present to fall for it.)
- See gas go over $4 and under $1.50 in one year. That’s retarded.
- Be prayed for consistently and dramatically and intensely by so many folks from all over the world. (That’s a blog post forthcoming in and of itself.)
- Witness “The Catch” in Superbowl 2008.
- Have some strong aversion to words like bailout, change, and pork.
- See such radical change in national leadership and history made at the same time.
- Live in our house without power for five days due to a hurricane
- Watch Carolyn get her own iPhone and become one of those users she used to lash out at.
- Witness a near-worship service on one of the last shows of American Idol ‘08.
- Get to play in foot-deep snow in the middle of March in Arkansas!
- Find a new home for Fancy the chihuahua, get a new dog… have a cat run over… and get a kitten for Christmas… whew. Pet Replacement Year.
- Learn so much about Christ, life and intimacy with God through hardship.
- Preach in Newark, Arkansas.
- See dozens of college students coming to our church.
- Marry one of my former students… (I was the officiating pastor… I’m not from Texas…)
- Admit that PCs are better than Macs… then I woke up in a cold sweat. What a nightmare.
What did you see happen that surprised you? Blog about it and leave a comment and a link!
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At the outset of this, I need to say that if you have voiced any sort of prayer on our behalf during Carolyn’s health trials, we are deeply grateful. I’d also like to request your continued intercession. It is only through the strength of prayers that we’ve been upheld and sustained in recent weeks.
However, we want to celebrate with you some significant news that Carolyn received from the doctor’s office on Christmas Eve. The needle biopsies that were taken on Monday all came back negative! There was no sign of lymphoma or Hodgkins. We were relieved and astonished.
This entire ordeal that began in early November has been based on some assumptions that the activity the PET scan showed would most likely come back positive. Of course, we didn’t anticipate encountering breast cancer, but we also didn’t expect to be receiving good news at this stage.
Carolyn’s doc still may suggest surgery to remove one of the nodes in her groin area to be 100% confident with the needle biopsies. However, at this point, we are counting this as Christ’s gracious work through His people.
We ask that you continue to pray. Her next surgery to remove more tissue in the breast is January 2.
We are supremely grateful for how Christ has revealed Himself through our intercessors.
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Two birthdays of good news
After a chaotic day of kitten hunting, cell phone struggling, drum playing, Mario Kart driving and entertainment system deconstructing, we’re pooped. The picture below describes it well. I thought I’d post our Christmas letter for this year as an easy blog entry…
Truly, best wishes for a wonderful, merry Christmas! May the joy of knowing Christ as the Savior of all humanity revive your heart and devotion.
Dear Family and Friends,
“Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.” Luke 2.14 (The Message)
Can one moment define a whole year? Or better asked, can a series of small moments obscure sight of the broader horizon? Only if you let them.
Such is our perspective this December as we try to communicate with you all the myriad wonderful, surreal, laughter-wrenching, tear-drenching moments of this year. 2008 has been such a wonderful journey for us; however our reflections are tainted right now by the circumstances we’re currently facing. May this exercise of looking back in review serve to encourage us all as we see the forest instead of the trees.
2008 included amazing new developments in our kids’ lives. Adelyn loves fourth grade and having the elementary school to herself now that Sam has moved up to the middle school. She made the All Star team in softball her first year. She also continued her swim team career, accumulating quite a collection of blue ribbons. She danced in December in Ballet Arkansas’ performance of the Nutcracker for her second year. Her music career continues in dramatic fashion behind the doors of her room and in the shower - usually at the top of her lungs. She’s been devastated twice this year with animal losses. We gave Fancy the chihuahua away after it bit another child; then our cat Smokey was run over one day while she was at school. Thankfully, some great friends who rescue dogs had the perfect dog for her and us - a beagle/lab mix that is loveably mellow, named Bailey. Adelyn was especially excited recently when Sam announced after the first middle school dance that he “has a girlfriend now.” She was dying to get all the details and help her brother out.
Sam played baseball again this year (when has he not?!) and then this fall returned to playing peewee football after a year hiatus. His team went undefeated. He and Jeff are playmates whether it’s outside throwing the football or inside on the Xbox. Jeff finally let him get his own Xbox Live membership in which he can play online against his friends. He participated in 4H shooting sports again this year and showed great improvement. He was especially glad to be able to use his own bow, which he got for Christmas last year. He has been deer hunting several times this fall with our friend Tim Chase, who we’re very thankful for. He also got to go hog hunting for the first time with our friend Ralph in Texas.
Jeff & Carolyn finally attended Passion again - a collegiate worship event - with the BCM at UAM. Carolyn loved it, though Jeff got sick and spent all day Saturday in his hotel room. Carolyn’s photo business has really become an extremely full-time job for her. In addition, she began working at a local gift shop this fall to make some extra money. She loves the folks up there and really enjoys being around people instead of behind a computer all the time. Over the summer she and the kids got to spend quite a bit of time in New Mexico and Texas in July and August. She has also enjoyed discipling one of the college gals at UAM who she’s become great friends with. She started a “cooking club” again so that she really only has to cook one night a week, while we enjoy home-cooked meals by someone else another two nights a week. Carolyn went in for a routine PET scan on November 3. The results were disconcerting. Three areas of activity were revealed. To make a long story short, we are currently facing known breast cancer and are still in the dark as to whether lymphoma is back.
Jeff was asked to be a judge at the district quiz bowl that was hosted here in Monticello. In April, he went to Orlando by himself to get away and attend the Exponential Conference for church planters. It was at a real low point after an extremely difficult 2007. Jeff was renewed and blessed but returned to face some hard decisions. One special event that happened this year occurred a few months after Jeff’s moped “Ghost” was stolen from our carport. The church, family and friends collaborated and raised enough money to buy him a new one; it’s black and was promptly named the “Batmoped.” Jeff and the BCM staff went to Glorieta together in August where he taught a seminar on Using the Internet for Influence. When school started, he agreed to serve as the “Top Dog” in the WATCH DOGS program at Adelyn’s school again. He was thrilled to travel to Poland on a church planters’ Discovery Trip in October, and he has already begun making plans to lead another team back as he seeks to help mobilize people for ministry in Central & Eastern Europe. He attended the Arkansas Baptist State Convention in November, he said “for the first time voluntarily” and enjoyed getting to meet some new church planters as he helped organize a lunch with author and leader Ed Stetzer, whom he met on the Poland trip.
Journey Church has had a great year, though not without some growth issues. The last two years of our lives have been extremely difficult to walk regarding ministry and relationships. Without going into details that might be hurtful to others, suffice it to say that we’ve learned more about people in the past two years than in the many before that. Journey aligned itself with the Southern Baptist Convention in January, and in March, we got to attend a wonderful marriage retreat hosted by the State Convention for free. In addition, late this fall we began receiving some supplemental income support from the state convention and the North American Mission Board which has allowed Jeff to essentially “shut the doors” on Noble Design. He’s been yearning to focus for so long. Journey will be six years old in 2009. We’re so grateful to have witnessed so many people forsaking religion and embracing a love relationship with Jesus Christ. Jeff and others in our church were privileged to baptize seven just in the past few months.
It’s really amazing to consider what has happened this year. Our calendar has been extremely full, but it’s what has been going on in our hearts that has taken up more room. From the stress and strain of trying to lead a growing church to new health issues that hurt the heart more than they affect the chest, it’s only on paper and through dragging our eyes back across a full calendar that we can see broader brush strokes. Right now, however, we are caught up in this very hour of struggle.
We simply choose to lift our eyes above this present darkness. We have met and fallen in love with Jesus Christ, and it is His birth that always catalyzes our reaching out through cards and year-end letters to share life, joys, and struggles. It is He that we are clinging to, and it is because of our great certainty and hope that hardship with Him is better than treasure without that we can honestly, fully, and joyfully wish you a very Merry Christmas indeed.
With love,
Jeff, Carolyn, Sam, Adelyn
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From the pine woods of south Arkansas, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.
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