Missions trip


	>> Health update / Prayer need

December 7, 2008

Dear friends & family,

More than 3 months have passed since I last mailed a letter ,though some receive our E mail updates.

After two months of travel and preaching right round the world I began to feel quite ill in the Philippines. A CT scan when I returned home a month ago, showed that Lymphoma had invaded my body to a degree greater than before my stem cell transplant 20 months ago. The oncologist said I was one month away from being bedridden ,and from there a short step to the rag & bone factory. We elected to try extreme measures.

Every day this week I have been hooked up to massive doses of chemo and allready the tumours are shrinking. Of course without Gods miraculous touch this is only a temporary solution. In two more weeks I will be reassessed and they may recommend two more sessions of treatment. For those who have been through this you will know how much it knocks the body around. My legs are like rubber and thats a highlight!.

The past twenty months have been amazing, on numerous trips overseas and here in NZ ,folk have received Christ ,some healed. God's ways are not ours, as Kathryn Kuhlman used to say " the first question I will ask God is Why were they not all healed".

This year we celebrated 41 years of marriage and even more years of full time service in 44 countries. Our youngest son Jason is happily established in a loving group home and has allready blossomed with his new independence.

This morning the elders and others in our Church annointed me with oil and prayed the prayer of faith, with a remarkable result and fresh flow of energy. So many others have written to say you are standing with us again ,Thankyou all.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that pain & suffering are not only normal but perhaps needfull. As it helps us to refocus on our true values, which are obviously not temporal but eternal. WE WILL LIVE FOREVER BUT NOT ON THIS PLANET.

Some who read this are facing other challenges as world economies crumble ,jobs are lost and livliehoods destroyed. May I encourage you to "never " lose sight of our God who said "I will never leave you or forsake you" Heb 13 :5 .

In His great love David & Darlene.