Beloved Family and Friends, February 28, 2012
Since we last wrote, the Lord has continued to shower us with many blessings. Although mixed with somber moments and plenty of opportunities to trust in our great God rather than in our own flesh, those blessings continue to draw both of us closer to Jesus on a daily basis. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).” It is one thing to have the future hope and assurance of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus (by grace alone through faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice) but what about today? One day we will see our Lord face to face, and there will be “pleasures forevermore.” But our Lord also promises “fullness of joy” in his presence even now. It often seems impossible when we have stressors at work, when we disagree with one another, when we see injustice in the world, when we are humbled by the challenges of parenting, and when we are forced to look at our own sins and own up to them.
And yet, God loves us and wants to be a part of our daily lives. It is so much sweeter to walk the path of life as He leads us moment by moment. We both become distracted. When we look away from God and His leading and try to take matters into our own hands, there is no more joy because we have strayed from his presence. Those moments feel lonely, but then He reminds us that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8). When we stay in the presence of our God daily and submit ourselves to Him, we are learning that God truly is faithful and he showers us with “fullness of joy.”
Thank you for praying for Colby and his trip to Nicaragua. The week was very fruitful! Colby was able to use both his gifting and his training--in preaching/teaching and in healing. He enjoyed sharing his testimony and sharing from scripture with the local church. Then he also had the opportunity to use his hands to extract rotting teeth! What a comfort it was after months of waiting for surgical privileges for him to see that he still had reasonable technical skill. His team grew together over the course of the week to share a unified vision for ministry and many patients heard the gospel. Colby had the blessing of praying with several patients who wanted to begin a relationship with Jesus. There is joy in getting to use the gifts God has given us.
Soon after Colby’s return home, we learned that our sweet 7 year old friend, Katie-Mei, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Our families meet together with two other families from our church on a regular basis to study the Bible and to share our lives with one another. Katie-Mei is a great role model for Jireh and always does a good job of making Jireh feel loved when the other kids get tired of playing with the baby of our group. She is a fantastic artist, actress, avid book reader, and she loves the Lord. It seems strange that God would allow two families in the same small group to have to deal with cancer together. And yet, there is joy in sharing one another’s burdens.
We have also been learning more about each other and focusing on improving our marriage. This process has been much more intentional than in other attempts and has required more commitment, humility, honesty, forgiveness, and grace than we have ever extended towards one another. There is joy in sanctification.
Colby’s health continues to remain steady and good. He will have more blood tests this week to see if his body is tolerating the larger doses of chemotherapy. As far as we can tell, his side effects remain minimal. He is still exercising on a regular basis, and we enjoyed hiking in the Wichita Mountains this past weekend. There is joy in caring for the bodies God has given us and in knowing that our days are numbered by Him alone.
Sisi continues to be a blessing to our family. She is tremendously helpful with household chores when Emily is working. Jireh loves learning Chinese from Sisi every day and now spouts Chinese rhymes and poetry throughout the day. This week, we are rejoicing with Sisi as she has become a Christian! Many of you have been praying for her, and this is a true answer to prayer. She is planning to be baptized soon in a local Chinese church that has been lovingly ministering to her over the last few weeks. There is joy in conversion!
And as if this update were not too long already, we have another bit of exciting news to share...and ask for your prayer over. Just as we had to trust in God’s provision to begin our family with Jireh (hence her name, which is from Genesis 22:14 and means “provider”), we had decided to trust God to grow our family further through international adoption. We have been on a waiting list to adopt from Taiwan for over a year now. Well, we have received a referral! There is a little boy in an orphanage in Taiwan who turned 1 year old on October 31st, and we believe we will be his forever family! Yes, for a number of reasons it is not practical. However, we have been very open and up-front about Colby’s illness, and things have continued to move forward in ways that only God could orchestrate. Our last hurdle will be approval from the Taiwan government. We anticipate that our paperwork will be filed with the courts within the next 2-3 weeks. After that, we are hoping to be able to travel to pick up our son between April and June of this year. There is joy as God supplies us with abundantly good gifts.
Thank you for being so faithful to pray for us. We realize that were it not for your prayers and the groanings of the Holy Spirit, our lives would seem to have more chaos than peace. As many have asked what tangible things we may need, prayer ranks right at the top of that list!
Prayer Requests
- Praise God for sustaining Colby physically and spiritually on his mission trip to Nicaragua. Praise God for giving the team opportunities to share the gospel as well as to see lives changed because of the gospel.
- Praise God for leading us down the road of adoption and providing Jireh with a little brother (“Di Di” in Chinese).
- Praise God for changing Sisi’s life. We are excited to see what He has in store for her and are praying that she will be discipled in such a way that her faith will not fail her when trials come in the future.
- Pray for speedy and favorable rulings from the Taiwanese courts so we may be able to bring our son home soon
- Pray for wise use of time as we both need more time to study the Word. We know we are both going through a period of tremendous refining by God and need to grab hold of the opportunities to be still before God daily.
- Pray for wisdom as we consider which direction Colby’s medical career will move. So far, he still has not been able to gain surgical privileges where he works but has in recent days begun to see more patients in clinic. God is opening some new doors and closing some others. Pray that we would have wisdom and faith to know which doors to walk through.
- Pray for healing for Colby and Katie Mei. Though their treatments and prognoses are different, the struggles they face are similar. Pray that Emily and Katie Mei’s family will have wisdom to know how best to support them as they continue treatments.
- Pray for the Lord to lead Emily as she prepares to teach medical students from Tulsa and Oklahoma City during their women’s retreat on March 9-10.
Soli deo gloria,
Colby, Emily, and Jireh
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