Blessings and Appointments...

Hello Dear Ones!

The Lord, our Omnipotent Savior has tenderly blessed us at every turn. It seems like I can hardly keep up in response to His goodness. The last week has been a whirlwind, and it looks like the next two will be more intense. We take comfort knowing that our Lord is perfectly orchestrating these events for our good and that even our faith to trust Him is His gift to us.

Some of the highlights of this week include:

• Having sweet "farewell" fellowship with (our Sunday school pastor) Carey and Pam Hardy before they drive to their new home and ministry in Winston Salem, NC. This was a great time recounting the last ten years of ministry together, expressing our love for one another. God was so good to allow us that time.
  
  
• Enjoying the opportunity to take Jody to church Sunday was so wonderful - the teaching and worship was incredible and the fellowship with many of our Grace missionaries (who are in town) was so amazing.
  
  
• Answered prayer in that we have begun a new drug for Jody with a complete consensus from our diverse medical team - no small task! Jody literally asked the Lord for a "candy-gram" regarding our decision, and He provided it in the form of an unexpected consensus that "now is the time to go forward" with this molecularly targeted drug. We are beseeching the Lord to use it mightily for His glory and her benefit.
  
  
• Jody has begun physical therapy for her "frozen shoulder" problem under the direction of a great Orthopedic surgeon. We are now enrolled 3x a week with a terrific therapist. Getting started on this was a huge relief.
  

• We humbly thank the Lord for providing for us this week in such a personal, special way through the generosity of His people. God continues to meet our specific needs right on time, and only He could know what those needs are. Praise the Lord!

We ask you to pray for Jody's strength for the next couple of weeks as she has many scans, follow-up appointments, procedures etc. almost every single day. We have tried to consolidate them as best we can but there is no avoiding these important dates. All of them must fit into an already "fully engaged battle plan". God knows, and we trust in Him alone!

Tomorrow we will have another thoracentesis for Jody's lung. We pray that the benefit of this procedure will go smoothly and last longer.

Thank you for your labor in prayer! Words fail to describe how thankful we are to those who intercede for us. May you be blessed beyond what you can ask or think!

2Pet. 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

It's time for a blog diversion!

To undertand this series of photographs is to truly have an insight
into the mind of my beloved uber-creative songstress!

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"Dream Come True" 

Prayer Requests 7-20

Greetings to all of you dear friends that read this blog!

Jody and I continue to be amazed at God's love poured out through all of you! Our prayers have been answered again and again. God proves Himself faithful in our lives every day. We are pursuing Him by His grace, which is all sufficient.

Since Jody's procedure she has been breathing better when we go on our walks. I'm grateful for every bit of normalcy we enjoy. Her shoulder and arm are a source of aches and pain - and our dear No. 5 gave her a shot for it - but unfortunately it didn't help. We are going to see another specialist for that problem today, as well as a follow up meeting with No. 5. We will be discussing many topics at that time and ask for God's wisdom and peace!

Our prayer requests at this time:

• We pray Christ would be represented well as we interact with all these new people we come in contact with...
• That the shoulder/arm pain would be treated correctly and effectively...
• Please pray for wisdom concerning the decision to start a molecularly targeted drug that holds significant promise for Jody. After praying, waiting, and listening we believe the time has come to move forward on this. There are some side effects that may or may not present themselves - please pray with us that it works "exquisitely" for Jody as one doctor said it might - if she is genetically disposed.
  
• Praise God with us that No. 5 is turning out to be a tremendous help. By this I mean that he is truly listening to Jody and working with us. He has brought Jody's case before peer review to get the opinions of colleagues; he offered to contact the doctor that we are pursuing for ablation and it appears he is willing to let us get it done - even though it is not the norm. What a blessing and huge surprise that was!
• Pray that there is good information derived from Jody's recent lab work.
• Pray that Jody and I can worshipfully endure the rigors of the current protocols we are practicing. It is constantly getting more efficient - but no easier to maintain.
• Pray that our communion with the Lord would only continue to get deeper, richer, and sweeter as we pursue Christ-likeness in this trial.

Again, a heartfelt, humble thank you to all who pray. We thrive on your sweet sacrificial service of worship to God as you remember us.

Psa. 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

An Open Letter to Our Dear Nephew...

...Danny, twenty-one years old - who I learned today is facing sudden surgery for a type of male cancer. We covet your prayers for him!

[The "visitor illustration" is largely borrowed from my Sunday school pastor Jonathan Rourke. It has ministered to me greatly.]

...I love you Danny! This too will pass and you will be blessed in every way.

Aunt Jody and I see now that God sent "Mr. Trial" to visit us. When he arrived, he said he'd be moving in for a while. But - he brought gifts in abundance. So many gifts that he had to transport them in a separate truck! All the gifts were from the Lord himself. Gifts of grace, peace, mercy, tenderness, healing and blessing. He has visited us at God's request so that we might fellowship with our sweet Jesus in a way we would have never sought or attained *any other way* - but OH how glorious are these gifts. Indescribable. We would not trade them, or this deeper relationship with our Savior Jesus for *anything*.

As it appears God has sent you this same visitor, we will pray constantly that His peace will be your peace and perseverance. The Lord does all things well, even when he dispenses hardships. But He never does so without a greater purpose in mind - Christlikeness - and He never makes mistakes, and He is about to do the remarkable in *your* life as He grows you as a man of God.

All of that said, I pray He would relent from you having to endure any unwanted circumstance, sweet nephew.

I love you Danny.

Uncle Scott

Textbook...

Nah. 1:7 The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.

We prayed on the way to the hospital that the procedure would be "textbook".

When the doctor finished the procedure - that's literally what came out of his mouth... "That was a textbook procedure." God has blessed us today with a good outcome!

Jody is home now, and encouraged to go about her "normal" business tomorrow. We are very grateful and hope that in the next day or two Jody will experience the tangible benefit of breathing deeper and easier.

Psa. 73:28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Thy works.

This Just In...

When the Lord wants something done... it gets done!

Psa. 138:8 The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Thy lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting...

Our doctor (affectionately referred to as "No. 5") called today, and after reviewing Jody's x-ray from yesterday, has fast-tracked a procedure that will relieve some fluid around Jody's lung. This is an answer to prayer! We have wanted to relieve Jody's main symptom - shortness of breath that occurs during exercise - but were unsure about going forward because of conflicting opinions from previous doctors.

"No. 5" has made it much more clear to us that this is the time. Thank you Lord!

His first choice for the specialist to do the procedure goes on vacation next week - so No. 5 set it up for tomorrow (Friday)! I praise God for this mercy! It's a huge blessing for us.

Please pray that this routine procedure (thoracentesis) goes without a complication... and that Jody can be home to rest in her own bed tomorrow night!

Thank you dear prayer warriors!