Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Stage 1!

By Katie

Yesterday we talked to the pathologist who studied Matt's tumor. She told us that the cancer was only in stage 1 and very likely did not spread to any other part of his body. She said he has an excellent prognosis. Praise the Lord!

Today we'll meet with the doctors who operated on Matt. They'll give us their advice for a treatment plan. Also, yesterday I got three emails from people saying that there are three oncologists from the States who are all willing to look at Matt's pathology report and CT scan and give their opinions too. We're going to take them all up on it.

Matt's been doing better and better after the surgery, but certainly not 100% yet. That will take a while.

Please continue to pray for us. We will have a big decision to make in the next few days about when, where, how and whether to do treatments. Also, we've been holding up pretty well, but the stress of all this is certainly something we are contending with. Pray that God's hand is strong to hold us up and guide us. We can certainly feel God's presence and thank you for your prayers so far.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Update

By Katie

Matt had his surgery today as planned and it turned out well and almost exactly as the doctors had predicted it would. They removed the tumor, which had grown a little bit since Thursday, but had not spread to any other part of his body, so it was a relatively simple surgery. The pathologist determined that the tumor was malignant, and the type of cancer was seminoma. On Monday we'll have another appointment with the oncologist to find out the extended results of the biopsy. From there we'll know whether chemo or radiation will be best. Chemo or radiation won't start for another two to three weeks, so that buys us some time to figure out where to do the treatments and if they happen in the States, how to find a solution for our insurance because our insurance doesn't work in the US.

We've been holding up quite well, thanks to your prayers. God is certainly using the people who are here in Honduras to care for us. I had a little crowd of folks to sit with during the surgery and we've had some nice distractions over the last few days too with going out to the movies with friends and eating good meals together. The phone has been ringing off the hook with folks we work with here, church people and folks from the communities.

Thank you so much for your prayers for the surgery. Now we begin the road to recovery and treatments, and we'll still need your prayers. God is good!

Answers to Prayer

By Matt

We know a lot of people in the U.S., Canada, and Honduras are praying for us right now. We have already seen answers to those prayers. On saturday God provided us with some very experienced and trustworthy doctors.
Last night Katie and I read from the Bible and a daily devotional that we follow. The verse was Isaiah 43:1-7,

"But now, this is what the LORD says-
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'
and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth-
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."

As I read these words I felt that God was in the room saying these things directly to me, to us. Tears streamed down our faces as we were comforted by God's presence in a very tangible way. Thank you for praying for us. We trust that God will take care of us and bring us through this.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Medical Update

By Katie

It's been quite a different few days for us. Last Wednesday we traveled to Tegucigalpa to start a series of doctors appointments and tests for Matt. After a battery of tests and shopping for just the right doctor, Matt is scheduled to have a testicular tumor removed tomorrow (Monday) at 2pm. During the surgery we'll find out whether or not it is cancer, and what kind of cancer it is if the tumor is malignant. Matt's CT scan and blood tests point to a positive prognosis, so we are hoping that with just the removal of the tumor the problem will be solved. Chemotherapy or radiation are likely, however.

We've been staying with friends in Tegucigalpa, Leanne and Caspar Geisterfer of CRWRC and CR World Missions. Caspar recently went to the same hospital for back surgery, so it's been very valuable to have them to help guide us through this foreign medical system. In the end we settled on a pair of experienced doctors that we trust and are very willing to teach us what we need to know. Doctors from the Luke Society Clinic near Catacamas set us up with these doctors and we have a lot of trust in them. We've been getting a ton of help from the doctors at the Luke Society Clinic too. It's been quite a web of folks here to help us! Praise the Lord for all of these wonderful people!

Thanks so much for your prayers in this. Already we've seen how he's been working through the situations we've been presented with. God provides all that we need, and he's doing that. Keep up your prayers that all goes well and that Matt is healed.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Lots of Gardens

By Matt

In June we distributed seed and fencing material to the groups we have in the seven communities where we work. We also had trained the community facilitators in how to plant the seeds and on some natural pesticide recipes that they could use. The idea is to get people into the habit of growing food in their own yard. Gardens are actually quite uncommon here in these communities. It seems to me that it is because it is hard to buy very small amounts of seed, and becuse everyone's chickens are out roaming around. I experienced this the first time I tried to grow a garden in my back yard. I don't have chickens, but my neighbors do, and they would come and scratch in my garden until almost everything was dead. So, I put up a small fence of chicken wire about 2feet tall. It works well.
At first the people in the communities didn't believe that the chickens would stay out of such a short fence, but now they have the experince too that it actually does work. Here are some women in a village called El Encinal, where the soil is very rocky and infertile. We taught them to bring in rich soil from degraded cow manure and plant in small trenches. We are really impressed with the care they have given to their gardens.


Sheep on the other hand are another story! In the village of El Coyolar there are some naughty sheep that like to leap and eat cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, and peppers. The gardens look really good, in fact we have already been given salad in the community! This is amazing because I have NEVER never been given salad in any of these places. Here is Dulce showing off her veggies.

People rarely eat salad in Honduras, especially in the countryside where there is no refrigeration. It was a great salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and radishes with lime and salt, very refreshing. Here is my co-worker David giving his approval.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Go Dogs, Go AWAY!

By Katie

My classroom management skills have had to extend to a new species recently. A pack of dogs has been coming to the after school classes at our house. Princess, Blossom and Tail follow their owners to class and then attract a few other strays from the neighborhood. They get a little territorial and growl at each other or try to get a piece of the shade by entering the front porch. The running joke with the kids is that the dogs want to come to learn to read and do math too. But, the rule is: NO DOGS ALLOWED! 15+ kids on a 10 x 10 porch is enough, so I have to send the owners of the dogs home so their dogs will follow them and hopefully not return.

On a similar note, this happens at Luz y Verdad too. Stray dogs wander into the classrooms during class looking for food. Sometimes even chickens wander in through the open doors. Chickens are pretty skittish though, so the they only come in during recess when the kids aren't in the room.

I wonder if I can add a line on my resume that says, "Effectively manages any living species that wanders in to the classroom."?