Prayers for the Week – Memorial Day

Correction: This is actually Isaiah 60:20, not 60:18.

“Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.” ~ Isaiah 60:20 NIV.

To all of my fellow countrymen and women that serve or have served in our armed forces, I thank you.  To all of your families that have sacrificed just as much as our soldiers have so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do as Americans, I thank you.  For all of you that have lost loved ones in their service to our country, my heart breaks for you for all the pain, grief, and sorrow that you went through, and I lift my prayers up to God today for all of you.  On this Memorial Day weekend, I remember that it is because of all of you that have served our country that my family is safe and has the freedoms that it enjoys to this day.  That dedication is not forgotten by my family, nor will it ever be.  Thank You.  Now, please lift up our prayer requests and praises.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

• My friend Amanda has an update on her husband Daniel and his cancer treatments. Here is what she wrote:Are you all tired of the updates yet?! This has been a long week but we are trudging forward. School has ended for the year, softball season is over and we’ve passed another checkpoint in our journey towards Daniel’s liver resection. Now, hopefully, we can have time to take a deep breath and reset!Daniel was able to have the embolization on Friday. YAY! It went well and the radiologist was happy with the embolization he was able to get. We started cycle 2 of chemo this past Monday. It was rough but not as rough as the first round. Daniel is very tired and it seems he gets chemo hiccups as one of the lovely side effects. For those that have never heard of chemo hiccups, they are caused by the steriods they give the patients prior to administration of the chemo regimen. He will have them off and on (mostly on) for the second through fourth days of the cycle and they are not a nice calm hiccup but a move your whole body hiccup. The chemo nurses are working to get them under control for next round. Otherwise, he had limited vomiting but still had nausea and the fatigue that comes with treatment. He will get fluids Friday through Tuesday to help with dehydration and neupogen shots on Friday and Tuesday to try to keep that white blood cell count up. Since we only have 4 cycles, the oncologist is kind of throwing everything at him to help get that healthy liver to grow.As for the resection, we will re-image in the next 6 weeks or so (the 4th of July holiday will affect the scheduling) to see if the healthy liver has grown and the tumor has shrunk enough to move forward with the resection. There needs to be enough healthy liver for the surgeon to take the tumor and good margins and him still have 20-25% liver left. If we have the results we want, the resection will be scheduled for 2-3 weeks after the imaging so mid- July to early August. If we don’t have the results we want, we will likely have more chemo and work with the doctors on next steps.So specific prayers, beyond total healing, is that the embolization and chemo work together successfully to get us enough healthy liver to move forward with the resection this summer (I’m praying for at least 45% healthly liver but that’s just a number I came up with – not medical guidance), that Daniel continue to have the strength to fight the fight he needs and that we can continue to support each other and keep perspective.Once again, thank you for all the love, support and prayers! We love our prayer warriors and pray for each of you daily! If you have anything specific need us to pray for, please let me know!

  Also, several people have asked if there is something they can send Daniel for encouragement. Before I go into this idea, please do not feel any obligation! In my frantic and scattered state, I can’t remember who has asked so I have to include it here. As one of the side effects of chemo, Daniel’s hair is thinning and he must always where a hat. He mentioned he won’t wear any of his ball caps he is currently wearing after the chemo has stopped because of the chemical smell and general emotional stress. So if you would like you, feel free to send a baseball cap. He doesn’t like the fitted or elastic banded caps because it hurts his hair follicles and the trucker hats don’t protect his scalp from the sun so just your general run of the mill baseball cap would be perfect. Again, no obligation!

• Please pray for my friend Linda. She is having the first of two eye surgeries on Wednesday, May 28, 2014, to repair cataracts. The second surgery is scheduled for the following week. Please pray for her doctors as they repair her eyes, for her strength, peace, and comfort during this time, and for a quick turnaround on her healing.
• I want to give a big praise for my sister Robin and her husband Jim.  Today is their 29th Wedding Anniversary!  Happy Anniversary you two!  It has been an honor to see you two grow in your love together and to watch you raise your children to be fantastic adults!  I love you both!
• Lastly, I want to give a big praise to God for all of you that so readily pray for all of these requests week in and week out.  It means a lot to me, and I know that it means a lot to those that we are praying for.  Thank you for doing so, and may God Bless each and every one of you for doing this for those that we’ve never even met.

Do you have any prayer requests that you want to share with us?  If you do, please leave them in the comments, and we’ll pray for you!  Until next week, let’s close like we always do by praying the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our Daily Bread,
And forgive us our Trespasses,
as we forgive those who Trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.