Well, blogs are great...when you have something that you want to say.  But what about when your thoughts are so muddled that they still need some time to be sorted out?  That’s about the way we feel right now with the news about Oksana and our abrupt change in plans.  When the doctor called, there were immediately a hundred terrifying thoughts.  Tickets had to be canceled.  Something had to be done about boxes of our things en route to Ukraine.  Suitcases are still lying around half packed.  But most difficult were the terrifying thoughts.  

  We know that God is still God.  And we have sensed His love through the friends that have come to our home and prayed with us, called us to voice their support, shared flowers and notes of encouragement, and told others of our need so that many can be in prayer.  We thank God for our family and for you, our friends.  

  Now is a time for us to live what we have preached.  And do you know what is most wonderful of all?  We are experiencing what we have preached.  The peace of God that passes all understanding is able to overcome every fear that comes our way.  It’s not that the fears never come - they do.  But God’s peace and the knowledge that He is sovereign and in-control are realities more powerful than any adversity that we have to face.

  Perhaps it is because I was reading in 1 Samuel 17 today, but I think that if David were facing the giant of cancer, he might just have said, “Satan, you come at me with sickness, fears, and despair, but I face you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied.  This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will be victorious...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  Then all people shall know that the LORD does not save us only in the time of health and prosperity; for the battle is the LORD’S, and He will give you into our hands...

  And though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear.  For God is with us.”