Friday, January 13, 2012

A Boy Named Daniel

I don’t normally post about someone’s personal life, just my own. 

But I’m making an exception. 

I asked.  They said it was OK.  And I am. 

Because this is important.

This may be one of my most important posts ever.

There is a boy and his name is Daniel.  I remember him vividly . . . as a baby.  My husband and I were in charge of Children’s Ministry at our church and poor Daniel got bit by another child. 

At the time, I was childless.  Only a dog owner. 

I once bit my sister but it happened when we weren’t at church.  This was at church.  And I was an overseer of the ministry. 

What to do!!!???

The incident passed.  Thankfully, Daniel’s parents didn’t hold it against the Engineer and I, though we weren’t the ones who bit Daniel.

I continued to bump into Daniel’s mom over the years.  She is now in my Young Living family.  I bought some birds from her this fall.  And chicken feet. 

Daniel’s mom and I email a lot.  We try to get together.  But we both are busy.  Now Daniel’s mom is really busy. 

Daniel was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. 

For this reason, I am asking you to pray.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

(James 5: 16b)

Today, Daniel and his folks were caught by surprise.  His Leukemia has decided to be a bit more generous than one would desire.  I’ll allow his dad to share,

When Daniel was first diagnosed with Leukemia, the doctors thought it was AML, a type that is more difficult to treat and has only a 60% success rate.  By that evening however, we were ecstatic to learn that it was in fact ALL which has a much higher 90-95% success rate.  The exact details though would be dependent on a final set of lab results that would be a few days.  So we've been waiting on those final results all week.  They would tell us whether certain genetic markers were present in the cancer cells that would move him from the “High Risk” category to the “Very High Risk”.  This would affect the treatment.  Well this morning we got the news that he does have these fairly rare markers and is in fact in the “Very High Risk” category.  What we were not aware of was that this also significantly reduces the chances of success for his treatment.  In fact, it puts us all the way back down to the same level as if he’d had AML to begin with … from 90-95% down to 60%.

I am asking you to pray.

When you eat.  When you rise. When you go to sleep.  When you walk.  When you pick up the phone.  When you do your dishes.  When you fold laundry.  When you throw a ball around this weekend.

Will you pray?

Imagine if this were your child.  Wouldn’t you want people to gather and pray?

Please let your church know . . . your prayer chains . . . you grandma who prays like crazy in the nursing home. 

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

(Matthew 18:20)

(By the way, Tim’s dad did say I could use any picture . . . and I like this photo. Andrea rocks.)

To learn more, you can read Daniel’s Caring Bridge page or follow his dad’s blog, Tim’s Thoughts. (Why don’t you put your mug shot up on his blog through Google Connect. . . let Tim know you showed up.)

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