Fear...

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

So, Jesus died on the cross, not only for our sins, but so that He could bring Heaven to Earth. He was bringing healing, peace, everything, so that we can experience LIFE! Because of Jesus' death on the cross, we are HEALED.

Last Thursday was like any other day. Mia went to Mother's Day Out, I got a few things finished around the house, and then got ready for my parents to come over for dinner. UNTIL, Jody's parents called and told him they were coming to town to visit someone in the hospital (Jody's dad is a pastor, so this is common.) Jody's sister and her husband were also in town working with Habitat for Humanity with their youth group. Jody's dad asked if they could come over when they got into town and talk with all of us. Jody tried to get his dad to tell him what they needed to talk to us about that they would drive 2 hours, but Randy wouldn't budge. The way he was somewhat lighthearted in his conversation made us think that they were probably moving, maybe they received an offer at another church. We had no clue. So, we waited for them to get to town. Of course, during our wait, many things flooded our minds with "what if."

So, Amy, Zach, Randy, and Becky all arrive to our house, and after we all sit down, Amy says, "so are yall moving or what?" Becky then tells us, "no, I wish." You see, Becky has been sick off and on for a very long time, nothing severe, just many, many, somewhat small things. She is a diabetic and has just had all sorts of other health issues. It’s kind of ridiculous. (She will tell you that too.) She recently had some skin patches pop up on different parts of her legs, so two weeks previously, she had seen a dermatologist who took samples from the patches and sent them to get tested. In the mean time, one patch became infected, so she saw her local Childress dr to get antibiotics. During her visit at the dr last Wednesday afternoon, her Childress dr decided to call the dermatologist to see if Becky's results were in yet. Well, they were, and the results were not good. The dr said the results came back as cancer. It is called T-cell Lymphoma. (I think that’s what it’s called.) We were all shocked with this news. This doesn't happen to people you know, much less people you love DEARLY, much less your family. Honestly, we all handled it pretty well. Some tears were shed, but we all seemed pretty peaceful. We all know that our God is the ultimate HEALER and he can heal Becky of this cancer. I can't imagine how we would have reacted if we didn't know this truth. Becky has remained so peaceful this past week. She has even been joking about it, especially about the way people react to her news. She could already write a book about peoples reactions to her cancer news. Its kind of funny, and I'm glad she is in such good spirits about it.

She went to the Oncologist Tuesday here in Amarillo for her first appointment, and we could not have received better news. The dr said he is familiar with this kind of cancer. It’s a cancer that usually stays on the skin, and will occasionally go internal, but it’s fairly rare. As long as it stays only on the skin, it can be treated with a topical steroid cream. People can live with this forever. He was not worried at all. He truly believes that it has not invaded her body, but she will have an MRI or CAT scan (I can't remember which) tomorrow to make sure its not internal. This was amazing news. Its amazing the burden that has lifted off each of us. I really thought we were all handling it so well, and we were, but it was weighing us each down emotionally and spiritually. We can each breathe a little better now. There will still be a fight ahead of us, but we can handle it. The Lord's strength is more than sufficient for this. We are over comers, Becky is an over comer! We praise the Lord for that! We would definitely appreciate each of your prayers during this time, and I will continue with updates. Blessings to each of you! Sarah

Becky when Eisley was born