Wayfaring Stranger

I just got to Yekaterinburg Sunday morning at 1am ... and all is going well. We even got all four of our checked bags!! What a praise that is. We had a brief scare when the ATM at the airport refused Jerry's card (he is my only NBC teammate until Chris and Holly get here). But when we got up Sunday morning after breakfast we went across the street to a bank ATM and we got some rubbles. So God is answering prayers already .... just like He does every year we come to Ekat.

We will be posting Ekat news on our NBC 2 Ekat. Click this for more Ekat Talk the Talk updates.

This is the first time I've been on the internet and I went straight to my email to check on Robbie's surgery status. I am forwarding the details to you all, please keep praying.

Surgery (email from my Dad):

Just a short update on Robbie's surgery. I left home this morning at 3 am so that I could spend some time with Rhonda and Robbie before the surgery. We had a tearful prayer time together before surgery, but what precious moments these are as we just bare our hearts and souls before God. Robbie was taken to surgery at 7:15 am, but the actual surgery did not begin until 8:45 am and lasted until about 2:45 pm. The surgery went very well with minimal lose of blood, no complications, and they took the left kidney along with the right adrenal gland. This was a great surprise to us as they had said that they would take both the right and left adrenal glands as they assured us that there would be cancer cells in both glands.

The surgeon was quite sure that the right gland looked to be cancerous, but the left gland which had been hidden in the scans by the tumor looked good and they were able to peal it (ed. the right gland) off and keep it (ed. the left gland). That will certainly simplify having to regulate his blood pressure and hormones by medicine. They will now have to wait for one week to get the results of the pathology reports, and then Robbie goes back to the surgeon in two weeks.

Following that visit he will be referred to an oncologist who will make the determination as to whether he will have to take an experimental chemo regimine to try to lower the chances of a re-occurance.

Please continue to pray for Robbie that he will have a speedy recovery, and the miracle of no cancer re-occurance. By the way there is a possibility that Robbie will be able to come home tomorrow evening, and he is more than ready to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

Post Surgery Update:

Robbie is home!!!! He just came home this evening (Sat.) as the surgeon said that it would be easier traveling today than it would tomorrow. He said that he would be in alot more pain by tomorrow. His bowels have not started working as yet so he is on a liquid diet, and it to avoid any protein for several more days. He will go back in two weeks to find out the results of the pathology tests. The surgeon said because he was in such great shape everything went much easier for him. So when he said that I told him that I thought they should get a discount for him not having to cut through all those layers of fat! He just kind of smiled and looked at me like I was some kind of hick from the sticks, with a sick sense of humor.... What is that saying, Better to keep you mouth shut and be thought a hick(fool), than to open it and remove all doubt (ed. this is my Dad talking ... not me :-). We are still praying for a miracle in all of this as they say that this cancer is bad for re-occurance in three to six months, but we are praying that God will give a miracle and that there will be no re-occurance.

It is so good to see him home and moving around like he is because when we took the kids back about supper time, and by the way when we got there Robbie was standing on the front porch. The Doctor told him that he should be up walking alot as that would help with the soreness, but when he got home it was less than 24 hours after major surgery. To me he is doing incredibly well, but he is in really good shape physically. Plus alot of people are praying as well.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 6:22 AM | 3 Comments »   

My brother-in-law Robbie is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sept. 28th ... that is the very day I leave for Ekaterinburg Russia. This is an involved surgery that lasts about 7 hours.

Robbie has been diagnosed with kidney cancer and it has spread to his adrenals. The doctors will be removing the infected kidney and the infected adrenal gland(s).

What little good news we have is that his second kidney is clear and his lungs, bones, and brain are also clear! Praise GOD!

Our family covets your prayers very much.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:38 PM | 1 Comments »   

I got an update on Robbie's tests from this morning. Good news, his lungs are clear. I don't know when his surgery will be, but I'm sure it will be ASAP.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 1:18 PM | 0 Comments »   

I know not everyone who reads my blog is a Believer, but please pray for or "lift up" this request in anyway you know how!

My brother-in-law Robbie got some bad news this weekend. He was passing so much blood that the doctors said it had to be kidney cancer related and they needed to run tests. They were hoping it was contained in just the one kidney.

Well I just got word that it is cancer and has at least spread into the adrenal glands. Plus there is a "spot" on the other kidney. They will be running tests on his lungs, the next logical place the cancer invades.

Surgery is imminent, there is no way around it. Right now the best possible outcome is the removal of one kidney and not a lung. Although I do not know what they will do about the cancer in the adrenals. I understand this cancer cannot be treated via chemo. So surgery is about the only recourse.

Robbie has four beautiful children with one on the way. Friday he was a healthy man and today ... Today he is a man with a future with one kidney. I won't contemplate anything less. Please remember him in your prayers.

Labels: praryer

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:15 PM | 0 Comments »   

I emailed this to some of my blog readers already, so this may be a duplicate.

I wanted to share some information about the Russia Talk the Talk classes this year. The minister of foreign missions got a me a few other people together last Sunday to talk about this year's trip. We are going to go to Russia on September 28th. He said that the trip planning was so late because his family had "a hard summer". He didn't elaborate, so I didn't ask for any details.

But the good news is we are going! So I need you to mark September 28th-October 14th in your calendars to pray for our team. I would have liked to send out my normal support letter with the cute little pre-stamped envelopes, but there just isn't time. Due to the late start, there isn't any deadlines for financial support. So if you wish to support me in that way, you can do so whenever you have means in the upcoming months.

I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my thoughts about this year's trip. I know God is a light unto our paths, but He rarely illuminates more than one step in front of us. The fact that this year's trip is happening at all is proof of that! But I do feel Him leading me away from Russia. I have been to Russia four times starting when the English classes were in their "infancy". Some of my first year students are graduating this year, and going back next year w/o seeing them would be hard. These trips have not been about seeing old friends, that has just been God blessing His work and workers. But what I am sensing is that I have been there for "a season" and that the graduation of my first year students is a kind of closure on that season. I cannot be certain that my work there is complete, just thinking of not going back pulls at my heart strings. I guess I really have fallen in love with Russia.

Not returning on the Talk the Talk trip does not mean that I won't be going somewhere. One of my best friends at church is moving to Kazakhstan fulltime to run a Celebrate Recovery (a God centered AA) program. Since that ministry will be in its "infancy" too, that may be an opportunity. I work with pre-schoolers at church and our India mission works with kids as does our Guatemala mission. There's too much to be done to be idle. So please say a prayer for me that God will shove me in the right direction. :))

Thank you and God bless.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 7:01 PM | 0 Comments »