It was evening, when the tumor specialists stopped by to fill us in on the results of the biopsy. We had been pleading with God all week long for non cancerous results, but still we were almost afraid to hear what would come out of the doctors mouth. The last eight days had been reeling with question after question and scenario after scenario of what would happen to our little son Moses. “Would God possibly take our child so that we will be able to better understand and identify with the painsand sufferings of the Dao people we are ministering to? After all, it wasn’t long ago that He had seen fit to take some of our best Dao friends and evangelists children also as they tried to carry His word to new places.” – this was a specific question that came to mind often this past week. “Even beyond that, if God for His own glory and the ultimate good of His elect not only stood by and watched as his own perfect Son was tortured and crucified, but even planned it from the foundation of the world, why would he not also for His glory and the spiritual growth of His elect in Dao purpose the death of our only son as well?”  

We didn’t know what God would decide to do with our son, but we did know that He is a good Father, He understands our feeling as parents, and that He would do what is best. We were bracing ourselves for whatever news awaited us. After sitting down with the Tumor specialist and also one of the hand surgeons and his wife (believing doctors that after finding out we were missionaries, purposely have taken us in to their own home this past week and ministered to us as we waited) to hear the news. The Tumor specialist looked up at us and as a smile stretched across his face said “Well, for once my job is a bit easier than usual because this evening I get to deliver good news, which is not often the case. Moses tumor is cancer free.”Jennie and I could have jumped up and run laps around the room we were so happy. “Praise God….Praise God….Praise God” was all we could think of to say over and over again while the tears welled up in our eyes. It felt like a thousand pounds of bricks was being lifted off our shoulders. 
 
The surgeon and tumor specialist went on to explain however that “although the tumor isn’t shown to be cancerous, it cannot be removed from his hand without doing significant damage to his hand and somewhat deforming it.” They had told us before that unless the part of the hand with the tumor in it was amputed completely, the tumor would most likely grow back even if they did try to remove it. They say that the type of tumor he has is very very rare, in fact there is said to have only been 250 cases of it ever documented worldwide. In the cases that have been documented it has been shown to continually grow for a period of time and then usually begin to shrink again and disappear on its own in before the child is ten years of age.
 
So the bottom line is this – Moses will have to learn to live with this Tumor until God sees fit to heal him and take it away. According to the doctors, If the Tumor runs its normal natural course it may not regress and disappear for another 2 to 10 years. If the tumor continues to grow or does not digress on its own sooner rather than later it could cause permanent damage to his hand as it has already begun to impair some of the bones in one of his fingers. And from now on We will have to pay special attention to the tumor on a daily basis and try to make sure it doesn’t begin bleeding or get lacerated. Moses will likewise need to learn to be careful (quite a task for a toddler right?) and we will need to have occasional checkups to make sure things are okay. So we all just have to keep praying that God will take away the Tumor and heal Moses sooner rather than later so that not two much more damage is done to the bones in his finger.

This whole trial has been quite the experience for our family and God has been teaching us a lot through it all. I think an old college buddy of mine summed it up best in an email I received earlier this morning. He wrote; “It takes a long time for people to be mature enough to realize the nature of how God uses temporary pain for our long term pleasure. It's like how a soft, warm blanket feels so amazing on a cold night; if there never would have been a cold night, there would never have been the desire for a warm blanket. I think that he allows us to experience hardships so that we might later experience the pleasure of how He fulfills the need for relief that arises from it.” I think my college buddy is right on. I think God has been good even in giving us this trial because through it we have been able to experience the warmth of his undeserved mercy and love.
 
Now that the results of the biopsy are in we will begin making our way back towards the jungles of Indonesia. We don’t see any reason why we can’t continue serving even in the midst of this concern and we will continue praying for God’s healing of Moses hand as we continue to serve our King, working alongside the Dao people. We will this week begin making our way from Singapore to Java, then on to Papua and back into the Dao jungles so that we can continue on teaching and translating there. (Top left picture shows one of our students –Oseyaa, writing down notes in one of the recent Romans classes. Top right picture shows Onepadeo-one of Jennie’s main Dao friends that works along side her daily to put new portions of God’s word into the Dao language Top center pictures shows Moses chillin with some of the Dao guys.)
 

We would ask that you together with us Praise God for the non-cancerous results of the Biopsy! Please also continually pray with us though for Moses complete recovery and healing so that His hand is not permanently impaired by the Tumor. Pray also for our family as we begin traveling back from Singapore to Dao, and as we along the way gather up supplies for the next few months, pick up newly printed books and scripture portions for the Dao people, sign new visas in the city so we can continue to serve in Indonesia, and then head back interior. Thanks so much for all of the encouraging letters you have sent to us specifically in the past couple weeks and for all the prayers you have prayed on our son Moses' behalf. We thank God for every single one of you, you have all been an immense blessing to us!