Sunday, May 25, 2008
Dear Praying Family,
It's hard to believe that we have not posted anything since February :( First we want to ask you to pray for our daughter Barbara who has been fighting cancer for a year and a half now. About six weeks ago her doctor was thinking of taking her off of chemo as she has in his words been in remission for nearly 9 months. Before he did that he ran a in-depth CAT/PET scan and one small lesion was "glowing" meaning there was some kind of activity. He had been wanting to refer her to a surgeon for several months so after this report he sent her to the surgeon who said that 14 of the 20 previous lesions had completely disappeared and of the six remaining, including the one glowing, were located in one section of the liver and he was recommending surgery to totally remove those lesions. Her oncologist agreed. She is scheduled for this surgery at Ceder Sinai in Hollywood this coming Wednesday May 28th. Joan leaves Calgary tomorrow to be with Barb for nearly three weeks. I (Dave) go down on the 29th for six days. In her pre-op check up for the surgery she asked her primary care Dr. to go ahead and run her normal blood cancer count test, which they did, and the good news is that even though she has been off all chemo for over five weeks the test came back that she was in the normal range. Do pray for her during this operation which is scheduled to take 4 hours and has a recovery time of 4+ weeks. Also pray for Erik Barb's husband and for their five kids, Kiayah, Clare, Elise, Robert and Vivianne who is 1 1/2 years old.You can learn more by going on Barb's personal site www.caringbridge.org go to visit and type in 4barbararouth.
Joan & I were gone from April 13-May 12 to Asia where we spent 10 days with our daughter and family who are in a large Asian country with an agency that teaches English as a second language. 8 days were on our way to 2 1/2 weeks of meetings in another Asian country for our Wycliffe triennial Convention and 2+days on our way back through Jon and Amy's country of service. It was wonderful being with them and getting to see our 4 grand kids Jeremiah, Alenna, Sydney and Maddie who just turned 1 on March 25th. Joan was delighted that she got to spend Mother's Day with Amy in Asia.
We were back in the office here in Calgary on the 14th just in time to do final preparation for the Wycliffe Canada Board Meetings. Those meetings ended yesterday May 23rd. They were good meetings and we got to share with the Board lots of good things that are happening in Wycliffe Canada and around the world as reported on during the International Convention.
Tim and his wife Naomi who live in Portland, OR are expecting their third child in October and we are all excited about that. This little one will make grand child # 12. Their two girls Shalom and Renatah are excited about being joined by another new brother or sister. Tim travels a lot with Noritsu a Japanese photo-chemical company that he works for. He has made several trips to Alaska over the last few months as well as to several states in the Pacific Northwest.
Daughter Ruth is teaching Jr. High math, ESL and ceramics in Norwalk, CA. She has just completed a calculus course and has one more math course to finish which will complete her needed courses and update/upgrade her teaching credential for math.
After my return to Calgary on the 3rd of June I will hold director's meetings on the 4th and then on the 9th of June I'll fly to Toronto for 2 1/2 days of meetings and then on to Nova Scotia for the official dedication of our Atlantic Canada Training Center. This property of 62 acres and training facility was donated to us a number of months ago. Joan returns to Calgary on June 13th and I return on the 16th. On the 15 th of June our dear friends David & Muriel Standing who we shared an apartment with for three years in Manila will come from England for a month long visit and we are really looking forward to time with them.
Well I think that covers most of the major events in our lives over the past two months and on into the future for 6 weeks. We are grateful for all of your prayers, especially for Barb. God is good and has done good things for us as a family and for Wycliffe Canada and the whole of Wycliffe around the world. Your prayers are a vital part of our lives and ministry and we thank God for each of you.
It's hard to believe that we have not posted anything since February :( First we want to ask you to pray for our daughter Barbara who has been fighting cancer for a year and a half now. About six weeks ago her doctor was thinking of taking her off of chemo as she has in his words been in remission for nearly 9 months. Before he did that he ran a in-depth CAT/PET scan and one small lesion was "glowing" meaning there was some kind of activity. He had been wanting to refer her to a surgeon for several months so after this report he sent her to the surgeon who said that 14 of the 20 previous lesions had completely disappeared and of the six remaining, including the one glowing, were located in one section of the liver and he was recommending surgery to totally remove those lesions. Her oncologist agreed. She is scheduled for this surgery at Ceder Sinai in Hollywood this coming Wednesday May 28th. Joan leaves Calgary tomorrow to be with Barb for nearly three weeks. I (Dave) go down on the 29th for six days. In her pre-op check up for the surgery she asked her primary care Dr. to go ahead and run her normal blood cancer count test, which they did, and the good news is that even though she has been off all chemo for over five weeks the test came back that she was in the normal range. Do pray for her during this operation which is scheduled to take 4 hours and has a recovery time of 4+ weeks. Also pray for Erik Barb's husband and for their five kids, Kiayah, Clare, Elise, Robert and Vivianne who is 1 1/2 years old.You can learn more by going on Barb's personal site www.caringbridge.org go to visit and type in 4barbararouth.
Joan & I were gone from April 13-May 12 to Asia where we spent 10 days with our daughter and family who are in a large Asian country with an agency that teaches English as a second language. 8 days were on our way to 2 1/2 weeks of meetings in another Asian country for our Wycliffe triennial Convention and 2+days on our way back through Jon and Amy's country of service. It was wonderful being with them and getting to see our 4 grand kids Jeremiah, Alenna, Sydney and Maddie who just turned 1 on March 25th. Joan was delighted that she got to spend Mother's Day with Amy in Asia.
We were back in the office here in Calgary on the 14th just in time to do final preparation for the Wycliffe Canada Board Meetings. Those meetings ended yesterday May 23rd. They were good meetings and we got to share with the Board lots of good things that are happening in Wycliffe Canada and around the world as reported on during the International Convention.
Tim and his wife Naomi who live in Portland, OR are expecting their third child in October and we are all excited about that. This little one will make grand child # 12. Their two girls Shalom and Renatah are excited about being joined by another new brother or sister. Tim travels a lot with Noritsu a Japanese photo-chemical company that he works for. He has made several trips to Alaska over the last few months as well as to several states in the Pacific Northwest.
Daughter Ruth is teaching Jr. High math, ESL and ceramics in Norwalk, CA. She has just completed a calculus course and has one more math course to finish which will complete her needed courses and update/upgrade her teaching credential for math.
After my return to Calgary on the 3rd of June I will hold director's meetings on the 4th and then on the 9th of June I'll fly to Toronto for 2 1/2 days of meetings and then on to Nova Scotia for the official dedication of our Atlantic Canada Training Center. This property of 62 acres and training facility was donated to us a number of months ago. Joan returns to Calgary on June 13th and I return on the 16th. On the 15 th of June our dear friends David & Muriel Standing who we shared an apartment with for three years in Manila will come from England for a month long visit and we are really looking forward to time with them.
Well I think that covers most of the major events in our lives over the past two months and on into the future for 6 weeks. We are grateful for all of your prayers, especially for Barb. God is good and has done good things for us as a family and for Wycliffe Canada and the whole of Wycliffe around the world. Your prayers are a vital part of our lives and ministry and we thank God for each of you.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Dear Praying Friends,
Wanted to do a brief update specifically on our daughter Barbara. She continues under treatment and continues to do well as she battles colon cancer. The Dr. says she is in remission and always reminds her she is a miracle, not normal terminology for a Dr. especially one like him who is so convinced that the only treatment for illness is chemicals. He does not seem to have any kind of definite plan for Barb other than to keep treating her with the two chemos that she is currently taking and possibly further surgery at some point in time. You can check Barb's blog at www.caringbridge.org
Just type in 4barbararouth in the space indicating whose site you want to visit.
She and Erik need lots of wisdom from the Lord as they seek His perfect will in the days ahead as they personally manage Barb's ongoing treatment that includes more than just chemicals, such as diet, faith and all of your prayers.
I am attaching some pictures from Christmas
12 1/2 month Renatah at Christmas 07
Ruth enjoying her complete set of Calvin and Hobbes
Kaiyah, Claire and Elise looking pretty in matching outfits!
Barb and her Mom enjoying a wonderful Christmas morning!
Barb and the kids enjoying another Christmas!
Love & Prayers
Dave & Joan
Wanted to do a brief update specifically on our daughter Barbara. She continues under treatment and continues to do well as she battles colon cancer. The Dr. says she is in remission and always reminds her she is a miracle, not normal terminology for a Dr. especially one like him who is so convinced that the only treatment for illness is chemicals. He does not seem to have any kind of definite plan for Barb other than to keep treating her with the two chemos that she is currently taking and possibly further surgery at some point in time. You can check Barb's blog at www.caringbridge.org
Just type in 4barbararouth in the space indicating whose site you want to visit.
She and Erik need lots of wisdom from the Lord as they seek His perfect will in the days ahead as they personally manage Barb's ongoing treatment that includes more than just chemicals, such as diet, faith and all of your prayers.
I am attaching some pictures from Christmas
12 1/2 month Renatah at Christmas 07
Ruth enjoying her complete set of Calvin and Hobbes
Kaiyah, Claire and Elise looking pretty in matching outfits!
Barb and her Mom enjoying a wonderful Christmas morning!
Barb and the kids enjoying another Christmas!Love & Prayers
Dave & Joan
Saturday, February 2, 2008
February 2008 post
Dear Friends,
It's hard to believe how long it has been since we have put a posting on this blog :(
The past few months have been extremely busy with work, travel and just keeping up with life.
First we want to give an update on Barbara who has and continues to battle cancer. The news is good. In December the Dr. took her off the strongest of the three chemo drugs that she was on. This has allowed her to recover nearly all the feeling in her hands because of the nerve damage this particular drug does. Her blood cancer counts continue to be in the normal range. A couple of weeks ago the Dr. ordered a more intensive CAT-PET scan. He was gone to Hawaii on vacation for a time and he called this last Tuesday and when Barbara asked him how is vacation was he replied: "It was terrific and so was you scan." He will give her more details when she sees him on Tuesday February 5th. She is still on the other two drugs, one is oral and the other by infusion but this infusion only takes about 30 minutes whereas the other stronger chemo infusion took up to five hours.
She has been working full time since the end of August and has had ample energy to handle a classroom of severely handicapped kids which she teaches as part of the LA Unified School District. She and Erik and 5 kids are enjoying living in Erik's family house where he grew up. Erik's dad, Bob, died in early December so that has been an adjustment for them as a family. Erik is in charge of handling his dad's will so that is a big added responsibility. He decided to take a semester off of school in order to do this, continue working, helping at the church and also helping Barbara more.
Barbara continues on a rigid alkaline diet which we believe is at least partially responsible for how well she is doing. Most of all we believe that the prayers of hundreds of folks like yourself have had and will continue to have a powerful effect in Barbara's life, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are all deeply grateful to the Lord for what He has done. It really is miraculous.
Joan stopped making regular trips to LA to be with Barbara when she had her chemo treatments after the Dr. took her off the strongest drug. She is able to cope quite well with the two lesser drugs. Her older sister Ruth has been coming over most times for a day to help with the kids on Saturdays after Barbara gets home from the infusion treatment on Friday nights.
We spent Christmas in both Portland/Vancouver and LA. We drove from Calgary which is an 1800 mile trip each way. We stopped in Portland/Vancouver on the way down and on the way back. We were together in LA for Christmas with Ruth, Barb & family and Tim and family. We sure missed Amy, Jon and kids who remained in Asia ministering with their mission agency. We hope to visit them sometime in April as we will be in that part of the world.
Work in Wycliffe Canada is going well with lots of exciting things happening but we are never without challenges in today's complex world. We have two more years here and will then need to return to the US in December because of visa restrictions.
We are grateful for each of you and for the part you play in our lives and ministry.
It's hard to believe how long it has been since we have put a posting on this blog :(
The past few months have been extremely busy with work, travel and just keeping up with life.
First we want to give an update on Barbara who has and continues to battle cancer. The news is good. In December the Dr. took her off the strongest of the three chemo drugs that she was on. This has allowed her to recover nearly all the feeling in her hands because of the nerve damage this particular drug does. Her blood cancer counts continue to be in the normal range. A couple of weeks ago the Dr. ordered a more intensive CAT-PET scan. He was gone to Hawaii on vacation for a time and he called this last Tuesday and when Barbara asked him how is vacation was he replied: "It was terrific and so was you scan." He will give her more details when she sees him on Tuesday February 5th. She is still on the other two drugs, one is oral and the other by infusion but this infusion only takes about 30 minutes whereas the other stronger chemo infusion took up to five hours.
She has been working full time since the end of August and has had ample energy to handle a classroom of severely handicapped kids which she teaches as part of the LA Unified School District. She and Erik and 5 kids are enjoying living in Erik's family house where he grew up. Erik's dad, Bob, died in early December so that has been an adjustment for them as a family. Erik is in charge of handling his dad's will so that is a big added responsibility. He decided to take a semester off of school in order to do this, continue working, helping at the church and also helping Barbara more.
Barbara continues on a rigid alkaline diet which we believe is at least partially responsible for how well she is doing. Most of all we believe that the prayers of hundreds of folks like yourself have had and will continue to have a powerful effect in Barbara's life, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are all deeply grateful to the Lord for what He has done. It really is miraculous.
Joan stopped making regular trips to LA to be with Barbara when she had her chemo treatments after the Dr. took her off the strongest drug. She is able to cope quite well with the two lesser drugs. Her older sister Ruth has been coming over most times for a day to help with the kids on Saturdays after Barbara gets home from the infusion treatment on Friday nights.
We spent Christmas in both Portland/Vancouver and LA. We drove from Calgary which is an 1800 mile trip each way. We stopped in Portland/Vancouver on the way down and on the way back. We were together in LA for Christmas with Ruth, Barb & family and Tim and family. We sure missed Amy, Jon and kids who remained in Asia ministering with their mission agency. We hope to visit them sometime in April as we will be in that part of the world.
Work in Wycliffe Canada is going well with lots of exciting things happening but we are never without challenges in today's complex world. We have two more years here and will then need to return to the US in December because of visa restrictions.
We are grateful for each of you and for the part you play in our lives and ministry.
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