Medical, Missions & Family

It is amazing to me that it has been two and a half months since I posted an update!  It has sped by at a record rate.   Between missions, medical and family, we have hardly had time to realize that the summer was here!

Medical
First of all, upon the advice of our longtime friend, doctor and IMS board member, Dr. Rebecca Kuhn, we did go to Trilife Health Care in Fort Collins, Colorado for Leon to receive alternative treatments and consultation for a week.  It was a wonderful experience in every way.  We were so blessed by the professional expertise, kindness and treatments received by their entire staff.  We anticipate that Leon will be continuing with some similar treatments here in San Diego and he is on a dietary and supplement regiment directed by Dr. Becky and Dr. Roger Billica from Trilife.

The above regiment is adjunct therapy to the next phase of Leon's medical treatment.  As of yesterday, after much consultation, thought and prayer, Leon began chemotherapy.  We wanted to advise everyone before he started, but due to medical scheduling, it happened a little faster than we thought. But we are happy to report that as of this moment, he has done very well and has experienced no side effects yet.  He will receive the treatments every three weeks for three to six months, depending on how effectively it seems to be working.  We will greatly appreciate your prayers for him.  As many of you who know us well can imagine, it has been a very significant decision, but it is time and we feel the Lord's guidance in it.  

Missions
Just two days after we returned from Trilife, we were blessed to have Cynthia Alexander from Chennai, India, visit us.  We had such a wonderful time with her and are so proud of this young woman of God that we have known since she was a tiny girl.  As this was Cynthia's first trip to the U.S., we tried to maximize the time between the fun of sight seeing in SoCal, spending hours in conversation about ministry and spiritual matters, sharing at Living Waters and  just being together.  We had to burn a little midnight oil and we all agreed that we wished there was more time, but we packed as much in as we could and loved every minute of it!  
Cynthia gave a wonderful presentation and a brief, but powerful message at Living Waters, the church that has supported her family for over twenty-five years, and the congregation was very welcoming and responsive to her.  It was a sweet time!

Cynthia at Coronado Beach

Cynthia with Pastor Gary and Penny and Teresa at Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado

With Leon & Teresa at Living Waters, Coronado

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We had tentatively planned a missions trip to Roca Blanca Ministry in Oaxaca, Mexico in late September, but due to Leon's treatment, we will reschedule it.  We also had anticipated a trip to see our dear friends at Rozel Christian Fellowship in Rozel, Ks. this fall but we will proceed with this only as his health allows.  

We have trips scheduled to Puerto Penasco, Mexico in January and Mazatlan, Mexico in February and our prayer is that he will be done with chemo and well enough to complete those.  

Family
We are amazed at the Lord's goodness to continue to increase our family!  While we started this wonderful state of being grandparents relatively late in life, (Rosalie, our first grandchild is only 3 1/2), the Lord is multiplying them pretty quickly for us!  We were blessed with #2 in November when Coral Mae was born.  In January, when Leah and Roarke were married, we inherited two more in Roarke's son, Dean, age 6,  and daughter, Natalya, age 10.  Now we are totally excited to announce that Leah is expecting number 5 somewhere around the first of next year!  What a joy to have all these little ones in our lives!  The Lord is SO Good! 

(More) Praise Reports

• We are so thankful to the Lord for His guidance in this journey of Leon's health and for the support system He has given us in our family, our friends, doctors and all those who have prayed for us and encouraged us.  
• We are so thankful for His care for our dear friend, Pastor Stan Tedrow, who just went through by-pass surgery in Oklahoma and is coming home today!  All reports say that he is doing very well.  Thank you, Lord!
• ​We are also very, very thankful for prayers being answered in regards to a young couple that we have known and worked with in Bangkok, Thailand, for quite some time now.  John is from Bangladesh, we met in Malaysia and God knit our hearts together.  He has been on a most amazing journey and we have asked for prayer from you numerous times in his behalf.  A couple of years back, he married a lovely young woman, Rebecca, from Canada and they have been living and ministering in Thailand and trying to get his visa to Canada.  We were beyond thrilled last week when they informed us in a Skype call that Canada has granted his visa and they will be moving there in the fall!  We look forward to seeing all that the Lord is going to do with this precious couple as they step into this next phase of their life in Him.  

John and Rebecca shared this photo on their Facebook to let their friends know they were saying "goodbye" to Asia and "hello" to Canada!