Praises
First of all I want to say “thank-you” for praying for Allison and Linda. They are doing OK. Allison’s EMG and nerve conduction test was not as bad as she expected. The electrical impulses were sent through electrodes and not through the needles. The needle part was to test the function of the muscle. The tests came back normal which was a bit confusing. The doctor does not know what else to do. Allison will be starting a new type of physical therapy on Monday morning. Thank you for your continued prayers.
The Lord helped my cousin’s wife, Linda, as well. She came through her second surgery OK and has a recovery period of about 6 weeks now. The tumors were removed from her liver, and she had liver resection surgery. The liver is expected to regenerate itself within 6 to 8 weeks. Following her recovery period, Linda will begin chemo. Thank you for continuing to pray for her.
Baby Caleb was born to my cousin’s wife earlier this week. Soon after his birth he was experiencing trouble breathing and was airlifted to Charlotte. One of his lungs began to close up, and the doctors had to do a couple of risky procedures. God sustained Caleb’s parents through this, though he is expected to be in the ICU for about a month. Please pray for his speedy recovery and for continued strength and grace for his dad and mom and siblings.
Also, please be in prayer for another cousin and his family. Jeremy and Esther Lockhart are missionaries to Brazil. Esther has suffered off and on with ulcerative colitis. For a while she seemed to be doing well, but now is having a difficult time with this as well as with sores on her legs. The doctors at first thought that these sores were bacterial, some kind of tropical ulcer. However, they would not heal up with treatment. They now believe that they are an autoimmune disease. Basically her body is attacking itself. Esther is in excruciating pain and is on painkillers for this.
To get an idea of the extent of these sores, I will quote here from Jeremy’s update, “The doctor gave her more local anesthesia and cleaned out the largest ulcer and then the next largest one as well. As he broke the skin on the new one, he showed me how deep it had gone. I could see down into the tendons and such on her leg.” New sores keep cropping up, and Jeremy and Esther will have to wait until Monday for the biopsy report to be sure it this is not being caused by a type of bacteria. Please pray for grace for them and that the sores will not grow rapidly over the weekend.
Also, please pray for Jeremy as he cares for Esther. In the lates update, he said, “If you happen to be up pray we can get some sleep -- no one except Judah (their youngest child) has slept a wink yet tonight. And I feel like I have the flu coming on -- been taking exedrin all day to deal with the body aches.”
You can read more about the Lockhart’s ministry at http://lockhartlifeinbrazil.blogspot.com/
“1O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth… 4For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” (Isaiah 25:1,4)