Nearing the Finish Line

Nearing the Finish Line

    Goodness!  I can't believe it's been nearly a year and a half since my last update on Daniel's chemotherapy.  The good part is that it has meant that there hasn't been much "remarkable" about the past year. The less-than-good news is that it's still been a horrible experience to take your child through the nightmare/blessing of chemotherapy and the fact that it seems "unremarkable" is just testimony to what you can actually get used to - at least on some level.

    My post today is because we've come to a HUGE milestone for us!  Three years, one month and 18 days ago (that's Jan 6th, 2012 if I counted correctly), this difficult journey began when Daniel was diagnosed with A.L.L. leukemia.  One of the most difficult portions of the journey for Daniel has been the relentless stream of spinal tap / IT injection treatments along the way - 31 including today's.  But today, God willing, is the LAST ONE!  While the rest of his chemotherapy will continue through most of April, today may be the biggest milestone to which he's been looking forward. 

     Please keep us in your prayers today, that: A) nothing would go wrong this last time, B) that he will be able to keep his nerves under control (always an issue), and C) that it would truly be the LAST time he has to go through this. 

     THANK YOU to everyone who has been following, praying for us, and walking alongside us through this nightmare.  We thank the Lord for you all and for how very much your love and support has meant to us through these days.  Through you, He has loved, held, supported, and sustained us through places we would surely never have been able to persevere.  We've suffered a little, learned much, loved much, gained many new relationships, and lost some precious friends along this path.  The end is in sight.

     The first attached photo shows Daniel just a couple days into his treatment in January of 2012.  Standing with him are two of his best friends, Daniel A. on the right, and Joey K. on the left whom we lost just 10 months later to Medulloblastoma.  The rest are just a few highlights from along the way.

Thirty Days of Thankfulness for my Wife

For the past few years, many have undertaken, during the month of November, to post something new each day on Facebook for which they are thankful in the spirit of Thanksgiving later in the month.  This year, I want to post 30 things for which I am thankful in regard to one particular person around whom a great deal of my life revolves ... my wife, Andrea.

There are in fact far more than only 30 thing about my wonderful wife for which to be thankful, but I thought I'd pick the top 10 in 3 categories: Inside (her inward beauty), Actions (how that inner beauty expresses itself), and Outside (her outward beauty).  Other than the categories, they're in no particular order.

Inside:
1. Humor - This is one of the greatest things about Andrea.  She is fun, funny, and loves to laugh and joke.  From what I can tell, she always has.  Her relationships with her best friends is largely based on humor and fun.  Though health problems have dimmed the humor in our lives of late, it's always there ready for a good belly laugh or a quick jab or a practical joke.

2. Intelligence - Her intelligence is one of the first things that attracted me to her.  Well maybe not the very first, but it was up there.  Though I too often make fun of her for not getting all my jokes, she has always been amazingly bright.

3. Faith - From our very first "kinda-date" with a group from church, we hit it off with a common faith and a deep reverence for our Lord and His reign in our lives.  That faith has pulled us through innumerable storms over the past 24 years and through it all, she has remained steadfast, dedicated, and always growing in her faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

4. Wisdom - She has often been the voice of wisdom into my life and for our family.  Though she does not often speak up or against my course of action or decisions, when she does, it is almost always to bring needed balance, direction, and counsel ... in a word, wisdom.  I've watched her grow immensely in wisdom over the years and I hope she will find ways to share more of it with our younger female friends in the days and years to come.

5. Duty - Though she would quickly disagree if I said she had lots of self-discipline, I think the better word for what I see is a sense of duty.  Whether to family, friends, former employers, or simply to what she knows is right, she is always willing to DO what needs to be done - almost regardless of personal cost or pain.  She will likely be surprised to hear me say this, but she is one of the most inwardly strong persons I know. 

6. Honor - Where she gets this from, I don't actually know. :-)  But she has a strong and courageous sense of honor that always wins out over personal inconvenience, fear, pain, or the danger of damaged relationships.  She acts with integrity.

7. Devotion - Whether to God, me, Daniel, family and friends, country, employer, or others, she is a devoted woman to those whom she loves and serves ... often at great personal sacrifice and/or without thanks or repayment.  Once she has committed herself to you, her devotion is fierce.

8. Righteousness - Her moral compass is true and strong, powerfully indicating right and wrong.  Though I've watched her grow over the years in her understanding, or perhaps "application" would be more descript, she is powerfully dedicated to her sense of whatever is right and good and holy and just in whatever situation she finds herself.

9. Gregariousness - In this regard, she is often enigmatic, even paradoxical at times, but I discovered early-on in our marriage that, under the shyness and sometimes difficulty with which she makes friends, Andrea THRIVES on being around people - especially those closest to her, but almost any party will do in a pinch. haha.  While my own social tendencies come and go (mostly going as I grow older), she would almost always be "out" with a group of friends having fun, fellowshipping, or even studying or working ... as long as it's with those she loves.


10. Humility - Make no mistake, there's a temper under there and plenty of stubbornness to go with it.  But in the end, she has learned, continues to grow in, and frequently exercises amazing humility.  As she has further sensed and grown in God's calling upon her life, this has become all the more obvious and expressed in her life ... before God, before her husband, and before others.

Actions:
There are 1001 things that she does through the day, the week, and the years.  These may seem mundane, trivial, and ordinary, but they are the "little things" that make our family work - they are representative of the 1001 things that NEED to happen to keep our family and our lives moving.  And though they may seem small, I know they only seem so because they get done.  When they don't get done, they become very burdensome for me.  Thus, to me, each one is very important and her steadfastness and trustworthiness in getting them done is worthy of my great praise.

11. Homeschooling - While I help with overall direction and a few of the individual subjects, Andrea is the gearworks that makes this happen. She oversees the curriculum, the record keeping, and the day-to-day execution and administration of the Miller Academy of Excellence, and has done so faithfully for 6 years and counting.

12. Cooking - She has become an excellent cook and strives hard to keep things interesting, nutritious, well-stocked and readily available for our family

13. Dishes - Over the years, I've offered multiple times to install a dishwasher, but each time she has refused.  Mostly, this is due to lack of space, but ultimately, it's her willingness and faithfulness to get this job done without complaint that is one of those things that keeps our family going.

14. Shopping - Andrea faithfully keeps our refrigerators and pantry well-stocked, strictly budgets, and is ever mindful of the best deals and, increasingly, of the most healthy options for food as well as clothing and other household items.  While do a significant amount of this for household goods as well, she remains the primary shopper and almost exclusively so for our family's food.

15. Calendar - She largely manages the family calendar.  While I usually do the long-range and "recreational" planning, she's the one who knows "what's going on this weekend", who's birthdays are coming up, and more recently - what's on Daniel's calendar!

16. Banking - As a former assistant manager for several banks, she is good at this.  She knows the system and moves through it with ease.  On those occasions when we've had to change banks or shuffle around how our accounts are managed, she has managed this with ease and wisdom. 

17. Finances - Related to "banking", but different in my eyes, Andrea also manages the daily, monthly, and yearly finances of the household.  For several reasons which include what I wrote under "Banking" as well as various issues in her own family growing up, Andrea is conscientious, punctual, and almost obsessive about getting bills paid on time.  Early in our marriage, this was a rough subject for awhile until we devised a plan to split responsibilities, "personal spending money", and create a general budget plan we could both agree to and follow.  Now, I manage the "big picture" budget planning, and she manages the day-to-day execution.  Since setting this up, it has been a WONDERFUL system playing to both our strengths and (mostly) compensating for our weaknesses.  The time we spent struggling with finances before we worked out this system has taught me to greatly appreciate her abilities and attention to detail in handling the day-to-day execution.

18. Laundry - While I've never had a problem with doing my own laundry, and still help from time-to-time, this is another of those day-to-day activities that she does (mostly) without prompting and keeps our family running smoothly.

19. Medications - By God's grace, this is not something I've had to ever do much management of in my own life - so I'm not that good at it.  But Andrea's health problems over the years, and now with all that Daniel is going through and even our pets, the management of the rather LARGE cabinet of medications, supplements, and other drugs we possess and must take on strict schedules is somewhat staggering in size.  But Andrea has faithfully kept track of these details and managed it consistently and effectively.  By choice, I intentionally stay OUT of this field as I believe having two people involved only invites disaster.  I do my best to stay on top of the "big-picture" and take a VERY active role in general healthcare management and decisions for the family, but again, when it comes to the day-to-day management and execution of who takes what when and how much, Andrea does a fantastic job at it.

20. Cleaning - Unfortunately, both of us seem to have been born missing this gene, and it comes easily to neither of us.  And while I consider myself the "better" cleaner, I'm worse at keeping up with it or even keeping on a schedule despite my best attempts.  In recent years with the various health problems for both Andrea and Daniel, I've taken a far more active role in this than ever before, but it hasn't made it any easier and I'm really no more "regular" at it.  So once again, it is her day-to-day execution of many of these tasks that helps me immensely and is worthy of my grateful appreciation.


Outside:
Sorry folks.  What lies in this category is strictly for Andrea's eyes only.  Suffice it to say, she's a beautiful creature and my physical attraction to her has grown continually over the years.  The details of which are none of your business!  But rest assured, she'll be hearing exactly what I think in the version of this list that she gets.  The rest of you all can just go read Song of Solomon!   :-)

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Happy Thanksgiving  everyone.  Grace and peace to all.

- Tim -

A Long Overdue Update

Hi everyone.  This update on Daniel is horrendously overdue, I know.  But at least, in this case, no news is relatively good news.  Things have been largely uneventful for Daniel and his leukemia treatment (PTL!)

First, a HUGE thank you to everyone praying for Daniel, Andrea, and all of us.  You can't imagine how comforting it is to know that others are standing with us on his behalf through all that we've been through.

Daniel remains in the 5th / final stage of his chemotherapy called the "Maintenance" phase which consists of a monthly visit for IV chemo drugs and daily drugs in pill form at home.  If all goes as planned, we'll remain in this stage until spring of 2015.

In general, he's doing well and continuing to improve.  Life has largely gotten back to a sense of "normal", though we can never completely get away from the ever-present knowledge and effects of his cancer.  The things that continue to plague him are:

1. Effects of chemo drugs.  The primary culprit seems to be Vincristine which he gets IV once a month.  It is a particularly nasty drug and has potentially long-term or even permanent side effects.  He experiences pain in his muscles and joints, much like arthritis, which is particularly bad after his treatment each month.  Usually it goes away after a week or two, but seems to be lasting longer recently.  It comes and goes, but occasionally, all 3 of us are acting like we're all 70 years old.  It would be comical if it weren't for the reasons!

2. He still dreads his monthly hospital visits.  They have reduced the number of spinal tap procedures (for which he has to have a general anesthetic - which he HATES) to 1 in every 3 visits.  That's down from 2 in every 3, so that's been really good for him.  But even the ones where he only gets an IV are still traumatic for him - he gets himself all worked up about ANYTHING having to do with doctors, hospitals, or sickness.  I've been working with him on prayer and "taking every thought captive", etc. which has helped and is, I think, getting better.  But video games are still more effective. hahaha.

3. He still takes a handful of pills every evening (not including various vitamins & supplements) as part of his chemotherapy.  They often result in mild to moderate nausea as would be expected. 

4. His osteoporosis (which predated the leukemia) continues to improve.  The last bone density scan showed marked improvement and we continue to anticipate an eventual full recovery.  In the mean time, the fractures in his spine continue to result in fairly frequent backaches & headaches that I believe are the result of muscle tension from the misalignment.  I'm trying to get BOTH of us on an exercise schedule to improve his core strength and help make that alignment better again.  Heaven knows we both need it! haha.  Though his level of activity and strength are returning, he's still got quite a ways to go to get back to "normal" 11-12 year old activity levels and strength.  He's still largely sedentary which I think is partly from lack of energy (from all the above) and partly it's just become habit.  I very much believe that more exercise will improve a lot of this as well as to build self-confidence and help break him (and me!) out of the sedentary habits that have developed over the past few years.  Heading into winter makes this more challenging, but hopefully, we can keep each other motivated!

In general though, we are VERY pleased with his progress.  There have of course been no signs of the leukemia since we initially went into remission a surprising 2 weeks after starting chemo way back in Jan of 2012.  The unfortunate part of that is that there is currently no way to tell whether the cancer is truly gone or not at this point.  It is completely undetectable.  All of the chemo treatment that remains is being done in an attempt to assure that it doesn't return.  "Relapses" are horrible.  The treatment starts over again from the beginning and the cancer itself tends to be much harder to get into remission and more likely to come back.  The thought of a relapse is terrifying - and that's why we spend more than 3 years pumping him full of poisons to make absolutely, positively certain (as possible) that every trace of the cancer is gone.  Unfortunately, since nobody knows what causes it in the first place, it's a complete guessing game as to why, how, when it might come back - or not.

One really good piece of news from the past few months is that he seems to have returned to a normal growth & weight gain curve.  He's once again outgrowing his clothes for which we are abundantly happy!  There are two unfortunate parts about this (other than the normal clothing expenses of course!).  First, the additional weight has bumped him into a higher category for the chemo drugs.  Believe me, the LAST thing I want to see is increasing doses of the chemo/poisons being dumped into his body.  Obviously, we believe it's for the best (or I wouldn't be continuing the course), but that makes it no less difficult to watch it happen - especially when you know he just barely qualifies for the higher doses and already suffers side-effects from the lower doses.



The second aspect of the weight-gain is that it's not all "good" gain.  The fact is, he's becoming slightly overweight!  I haven't computed a BMI yet, but you can definitely see in his face, chin, chest, and waist that much of his weight is not healthy.  This, in a sense, puts him over the weight category line artificially, and adds its own stresses to his system at the same time.  So it underscores the need for exercise, better diet, and less being sedentary in general (for ALL of us!)  Let's hope / pray for a relatively mild winter that will allow more outdoor activities!

Andrea remains about the same.  One really good piece of news recently was that the doctor finally agreed to try reducing her daily dosage of the chemo drug.  As a reminder, Andrea was diagnosed with a slightly different form of Leukemia (C.M.L. as opposed to Daniel's A.L.L.).  Her's, while not cureable without a full (and hugely risky) bone marrow transplant, is treatable with a drug - a single pill, once a day.  And while that in itself is truly miraculous, it is still chemotherapy and comes with all the same (plus some additional) side-effects.  For her, the most troublesome are the horrible lack of energy and the constant muscle and joint pain.  She feels like she's just run a marathon 24/7 and just getting up enough motivation to get out of bed is a major challenge every single day.  So the news that we could reduce the dosage by 25% was a huge blessing.  The jury remains "out" as to whether there's been a noticeable, lasting reduction in side-effects, but there seems to be a least some reduction.  And we'll take anything we can get!

There was a brief discussion about reducing it to 1/2 dose, but the doctor is reluctant to do that - at least not yet.  She even brought up the idea of trying to go off it completely (recall the above details about relapses).  He's very resistant to that idea, but the statistics he quoted really surprised me.  He said that about 40% of people that go off it completely have it return.  That's actually MUCH smaller than I anticipated (I figured it'd be more like 90-95%).  So that's something we remain in prayer about seeking wisdom & direction.

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts & prayers.

- Tim -

Update on Andrea's Neck Pain

As many of you know from following us on Facebook yesterday, we had a little crisis with Andrea having really severe neck pain.  She had mentioned to me a day earlier that it was really stiff and she thought she'd "slept on it wrong", but apparently it was something that had been building for awhile unbeknownst to me.

Yesterday, it launched to crisis level when she woke up screaming in pain (literally, she tells me, though I was already gone to work).  She said she was glad Daniel had been staying at a cousin's house because she was screaming and crying all morning trying to get dressed, feed the dogs, and get a hold of me.  I'd already been at work a few hours by the time she let me know what was going on.  I left immediately and got home to her, applied heat, did some light massage to the neck and shoulders, and called her oncologist to get permission to give her some prescription pain reliever we had for Daniel.

Within an hour things were a bit better and we discussed options eventually settling on the ER at Hancock Regional (Greenfield) hospital - mostly because they're so much less crowded. Sure enough, there was no wait at all.

As a friend of mine predicted though, the ER did nothing but treat the symptoms and refer us back to our family doctor (which is another story, perhaps for another time).  As they treated her and discussed what they wanted to do, I was repeatedly reminding them about Andrea's chemotherapy medications and how she's extremely limited on what other meds she can take because of interactions with it.  Both the doctor and primary nurse were visibly annoyed with me (which is normal by the way), but at least twice, I saw them change what they were doing or planning because they'd forgotten to take that into account even though I'd already told them.  Very frustrating, but again - quite normal.  This is exactly why I annoy the heck out of them constantly bird-dogging them and insisting they tell me everything they're doing.

After giving her an injection of an anti-inflammatory drug, the doctor prescribed two high-strength pain relievers and a muscle relaxer - again - after my repeated warnings that they needed to closely evaluate interactions with her chemotherapy meds.  So as soon as I got Andrea back home, I called the oncologist to run these drugs by them and as I expected, 2 of the 3 prescriptions were rejected.  We ended up settling on a different set of meds which we hope will help a lot today - we'll see when she gets up and moving this morning.

I was able to get 6-1/2hrs in at work after all, but didn't get home till nearly 9:30. By then Andrea was doing pretty well though.  Unfortunately, we're kind of "between" family doctors right now, so we'll need to decide who to see about getting to a root cause with this.  For those who asked about a chiropractor, we almost certainly will not be going that route.  After a couple dozen years of combined experience between Andrea & I and a fair amount of my own research, I put very little faith in chiropractors any more.  Notice I did not say "no faith".  I'm convinced there's still a "baby" in all that "bath water" - and I remain open ... a little ... but the next time I hear the word "subluxation" or am told we'll need a full set of X-rays, I may actually scream! :-)

I know I owe everyone a major update on both Andrea and especially Daniel regarding the cancer and our recent trip to Orlando.  I promise, I'll get them out soon.

As always, we're extremely thankful to everyone for the prayers - by far the BEST treatment for any illness!

Grace and Peace to all;

- Tim -

America's Choice

America stands upon the brink of a decision this day with eternal consequences - whether she will openly embrace the sin of homosexuality and protect it with her laws, or whether she will hold to her Godly heritage.

But first let's be clear about a few things.  True Christians - those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ and follow His teachings - do not hate homosexuals, nor do they fear them.  True Christians hate homosexuality and fear the consequences to their society and nation.  There is an enormous difference between the sinner and the sin itself, for each of us are sinners by nature.  Christians hate homosexuality because God hates it.  This is ABUNDANTLY clear and easily shown from His Word throughout both Old and New Testaments.  God hates all sin, yet loves all sinners and desires deeply for us to come to Him in repentance and humility, but the choice is given to each individual.

Likewise, Christians recognize that marriage is an institution created and ordained by God - not Man!  From the very beginning of Creation this has been so.   It is specifically and explicitly designed to join one man and one woman in a life-long bond that produces offspring and, by its very nature reflects Who He is, who we are, and portrays deep spiritual truths about our relationship to God in ways which specifically require one man and one woman.   This too is affirmed throughout both Old and New Testament and in the words of Jesus Himself repeatedly.

Human history is littered with the wreckage of nations that have abandoned God's moral laws and, specifically, His design for marriage.   From the time before the Great Flood, to Sodom and Gomorrah, to Egypt, Greece, Rome, and so forth, one of ... perhaps THE primary trigger of the downfall of each of these empires was their abandonment of God's Laws - and homosexuality in particular.  More specifically though, it is not the just immorality in general that portends the destruction of a nation, for there is always sin present in every nation.   Rather it is the point at which the nation's leadership begins to publicly, officially, and even legally protect and promote such immorality.   For THIS is the point at which the nation's leadership has openly and officially defied God, His design, and His laws.

Such a nation cannot long endure, and history bears this out.

America was founded upon God's laws and rose to greatness because she proudly proclaimed the Lord as her Source, Protector, and Light.  Though children have been taught otherwise in public schools for decades now, even a cursory review of the actual writings of our Founding Fathers proves this in abundance.  Yet in recent decades, America has increasingly drifted from her roots and her God.   Her governing institutions have been systematically eradicating every public proclamation of her reliance upon God and set about erasing all traces of her historic roots in His Word (The Bible).  Steadily, America's populace has softened to, not just the presence of, but the "normalcy" of homosexuality and begun to openly embrace and even promote it.   I have watch with both sadness and horror, the percentages of the population opposed to open, legal, homosexual unions plummet. In many places, the majority opinion is no longer held by those who understand and respect God's design and Word.  Not long ago every state in the Union held laws against homosexual acts, and the very idea that the legal institution of marriage could be perverted to apply to homosexual "unions" was so unthinkable that virtually no such legal definitions were thought necessary.   But recent history has seen many states have to pass laws or constitutional amendments defining and protecting marriage as God designed it and requires.

Today however, even those states' efforts to protect the historical, Biblical definition and institution of marriage has come before the highest court in our land and are in imminent danger of being struck down permanently.  Today, having already slidden far down this slippery slope of immorality and defiance of God, America stands upon the last precipice ... her last opportunity to turn back, or at least postpone, an official, legal embrace of defiance against God's most sacred institution.  If America's government officially states that homosexuality is not only acceptable but protected and even promoted by law, we will have taken that last fatal step of defiantly slapping the face of God and daring Him to render judgment unto us as He did the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ... along with every other great nation in history in who's footsteps we now tread. I emphasize again that the downfall of Sodom was not simply the sin of homosexuality, but the open condoning of it by its leadership.

In the first chapter of Romans, the Holy Spirit, through Paul the Apostle, lays this out with precision and clarity:

"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.   And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ... who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." -- Rom 1:26-32 (emphasis mine)

That last line highlights the point here ... they not only do such things but also "approve of those who practice them".

And as George Mason¹ so aptly stated at the Federal Convention of 1787,
"As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."

This is it America. Before you lies the same choice that lay before the ancient Israelites 4 millennia ago:

"And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." -- Joshua 24:15

To paraphrase a line from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "You must choose.  For whereas the true cup will give you eternal life, the false cup will bring death."

Choose wisely America.  For Heaven's sake ... choose wisely.

- Tim -

---

^{1. [George Mason: Virginia delegate to Constitutional Convention, often regarded as "the father of the Bill of Rights"]↩}

Happy Palm Sunday!

A happy and blessed PALM SUNDAY to everyone!

Few Christians know the true significance of Palm Sunday in that it was Jesus' formal presentation of Himself as the Messiah to the leadership of the nation of Israel.  As He rode the donkey into Jerusalem, He fulfilled multiple prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and many of the Jewish people recognized it as such singing Messianic Psalms  (Ps 118, etc.) to the consternation of the Pharisees (Lk 19:39).

What even fewer Christians realize is that the exact day of this "Triumphal Entry" was given to the prophet Daniel by the Angel Gabriel more than 450 years earlier and recorded in one of the most amazing and precise prophecies of the Bible (Daniel 9:24-27).  In 1894, Sir Robert Anderson (Chief of Criminal Investigation Dept. of Scotland Yard - 1888-1896) published the book "The Coming Prince" in which he detailed the calendar, archaeology, and Biblical scholarship that shows that Gabriel's prophecy was fulfilled to the exact Day on April 6, 32 A.D.

Jesus Himself confirms this in Luke 19:41-44 where He holds the nation accountable for having missed this special day of days.  Even the Creation itself knew that "this [was] the Day the Lord has made..." (which is another prophecy concerning Palm Sunday, from Ps 118) as Jesus indicates that if His followers were silent, that "even the stones would cry out"  in praise of the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah (Lk 19:40).

Luke 19:41-44: "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Here, Jesus pronounces a national blindness ("now they are hidden") upon the Jewish people because they rejected Him on this day.  Yet God has promised that He is not finished with Israel.  For there will come a day, after the "fullness of the Gentiles has come in" when He will turn His face back to the nation of Israel. Paul emphasizes this heavily in Rom 9-11, but in particular verse 11:25-27 spells it out clearly:

Romans 11:25-27   "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;  For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

Our God has always been a God who makes and keeps His promises. He is eminently trustworthy and His timing is always perfect - even when we were expecting something different or miss it entirely.  Jesus is always right on time.

For more information on the 70 Week prophecy see this link:
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/552

Or hear Dr. Missler teach the subject personally here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PywcLTSCs60

Grace and peace to you all this Holy Week and Easter.

- Tim -

An Update From The Millers

Hi All;

It's been way too long since I've written anything here and folks have been asking how things are going.  Well, things are going - sometimes it seems way too fast.  Weeks and months roll by and at some point I sit up and wonder where it all went.  Some of it, I'm sure is just a by-product of my new senior citizen status. There are in fact way too many of those by-products in my life right now, but I'll not go any farther down that road.

ANDREA:
Andrea has been reasonably well.  Things are largely holding steady.  She continues to struggle with lack of energy and "gut problems" of all types. I'll spare both her and you any further details.  Her oncologist continues to blame the chemo therapy drug she takes daily.  However, we know that many of these problems preceded the cancer treatments and it's been extremely difficult to sort out what's what and what we might be able to "fix" vs. what we just need to learn to live with.  So we continue to try various things through our family doctor and on our own to improve what we can.  She's doing her best (and succeeding) to keep up with most of the housework and Daniel's school.  Her family is going through some real challenges right now and that's been stressful on all of us, but especially her.  It's been a difficult situation for many years, but it appears things are rapidly building to crisis level and we're trying hard to figure out the wisest form of involvement for us to have.

Lately, she's been busily trying to plan Daniel's trip through the Children's Wish Foundation (we recently found out it was NOT the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but apparently the exact same kind of thing.  Regardless, They provided Daniel with one "little wish" and one "big wish".  The little one was a (rather large)   Lego set early last year.  And for the big one, Daniel has chosen a trip to Disney World - which is, not surprisingly, a popular choice.  As he's getting much of his strength back now, we thought it would be a good time to try to get him down there.  So Andrea's trying to coordinate all the permissions and paper work and timing, etc.  It'll be fun to see how this all comes together.  But the stories we've heard form others who have done this are just phenomenal.  I think Andrea's more excited than Daniel! :-)  If all goes as planned, we'll be going in early May.

DANIEL:
Daniel is also doing well.  His hair is coming back in really full now and he's quite happy about that.  He's NOT been very happy about the fact that it's come in very curly.  Formerly, his hair was bright blond and very straight. Now it's a fairly dark brown and curly.  Despite a couple of dozen people assuring him that this is going to be a big hit with the girls one day soon, he remains skeptical.  We've also been glad to see him beginning to grow again in both height and weight.  He's behind the curves a bit, but moving the right direction and that's a HUGE relief to me.  I remain frustrated that we've never gotten any traction from the medical community as to why he was completely stunted in both height and weight gain for two to three years, but at this point, it appear we never will.  Unfortunately, much of his weight gain has been the result of gaining disproportionate pounds - probably as a result of ongoing steroid treatments.  Though both the dosage and frequency are greatly reduced in the current Maintenance phase, he's once again putting on quite a bit of weight.  Some of it is likely from simply being house-bound in the dead of winter.  I've been extremely cautious about letting either one of them out with as bad as the cold and flu season has been this year.  For awhile, it seemed EVERYONE was sick and I was terrified to let either of them out of the house. But by the grace of God, we've made it through largely unscathed to date ... well until today, but I'll come back to that.  Daniel has been slowly increasing his involvement again in both his weekly home school co-op and the church's AWANA program.  He's doing very well in (home) school and excels at Math.  Last weekend, we attended the Heroes Foundation Gala / fund raiser downtown where Daniel was invited to be a V.I.P. representative of Team Joey - a program that raises support for both cancer research and cancer patients.  The Team Joey component was created in honor of Joey Keller's legacy, our friend who lost his battle with brain cancer last November.  Daniel took the stage with Colts coach Chuck Pagano (who's fighting leukemia himself), radio personality and former pro football player Joe Staysniak, and Heroes Foundation founder Vince Todd during the evening and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  It was his first formal event and we had to get him a suit for the occasion.  He loved dressing up and proved himself a natural "schmoozer".  I was in awe!!  There must have been a dozen different women fawning over him afterward and telling him how special (and cute) he was.  As a V.I.P. he'll be delivering toys (mostly Legos) to other cancer patients on behalf of the foundation.

His chemotherapy is still a daily routine with a few different drugs he takes daily (along with various vitamins & supplements), but the clinic visits are down to once-a-month and will remain so until we're finished in the spring of 2015, God willing.  It's a 3-month repeating schedule where 2 of the 3 months include a spinal tap & injection at the clinic visit.  He hates those with a passion ... and so do his mother & I.  But this is the course we've chosen to follow and, right or wrong, it's the one I believe best.  I remain open and often searching for any word from the Lord that would release us from continuing down this road, but until it comes, we will stay the course we're on.  Yet it doesn't stop the almost daily heart-ache at having to put my son through all we've done and all that lies ahead.  We rely regularly on Romans 8:28!

ME:
For myself, things have remained busy.  VERY busy.  I'm down to the last couple of weeks in teaching my Systematic Theology class with Water-To-Wine.  It's been enjoyable, but actually much more work than I anticipated.  Things at work have continued at a fairly steady pace and the job itself remains enjoyable overall.  I'm extremely happy to be in a job at all, especially one with good health insurance.  The fact that it's also largely enjoyable has been a huge blessing.  Not having to deal with past stresses and simply dreading going into work every day in the midst of all we've gone through in the last couple years has been of immeasurable value.  I thank God regularly for that!

In the past couple weeks, we've finalized plans to start up another weekly Bible study that I'll be teaching at our friends the Rikker's house.  We did this for several years awhile back and it was a fantastic blessing.  We still count those folks among our closest friends and we're very much looking forward to getting most of the old group together again as well as some new faces.  I'll be teaching Genesis (which is actually where we left off when the group ended several years ago) which is always a favorite for me.  So despite the fact of having two studies going for a brief overlap coupled with a busy work schedule, trying to keep up with the house and some remodeling projects, and several family problems right now, the next few weeks are looking a bit challenging!

Right on cue, as we finalized plans for the new study over the weekend, I came down with what appears to be laryngitis.  It's like clockwork.  It was the same month in which I agreed to teach with Water-To-Wine that Daniel was diagnosed with Leukemia last year.  I was teaching Genesis as my first course in fact.  Before that, it was while teaching this same group at the Rikkers' house that I had an eye infection that had me out of work for the better part of 4 months and ended up with corneal replacement surgery.  When I got through that and eventually started teaching Genesis, the group disbanded.  It's always something - especially when teaching Genesis. The warfare that comes with any form of ministry is intense.  Teaching the Bible is obviously something our enemy hates vehemently ... and Genesis in particular for lots good of reasons!  I believe it was Martin Luther who said something to the effect that, "anyone who doesn't believe the devil exists need only try resisting him!"  Amen to that!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. So we could ALL use your continued prayers.  The road ahead remains challenging in lots of ways, but we're also very relieved that it seems the worst is behind us (famous last words, I know).

2. I would like to specifically ask for your prayers for myself in the next few weeks as I try to juggle a lot of plates and keep healthy.  Please pray for this throat infection in particular.

3. We could also use your prayers for several family members also going through some real difficulties right now - as well as wisdom on our part in how best to help them.

4. Lastly, I'd like to pass on a special prayer request for another family that a friend recently brought to my attention.  They are a Christian family who immigrated to Indiana from Iraq last year because of the intense persecution of Christians there.  Their son Lowees (Luis), who is 12, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer (Burkitt's Lymphoma) and is undergoing chemotherapy at Riley.  Having been in the states for only a very short time, they don't have a lot of connections yet much less having to adapt to a new culture.  Learning to navigate the medical system is challenging enough.  While learning a new language, culture, living situation, and all the rest at the same time is just unimaginable.  I was also informed that Lowees' father recently lost his job here and is struggling with depression.  They certainly need our prayers.  I'll pass on more info as it comes.

Thanks everyone for your ongoing love, support, and prayers.  You have been God's hands, feet, and voice to us more times than I can possibly count or even acknowledge.  And above all, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who's love, faithfulness, peace and comfort through these times has sustained us in every way.  To Him be the glory in all things.

Grace and peace,

- Tim, Andrea, & Daniel -