December 9, 2009
Dear Friends,
I’m still rejoicing in the good news from last week! Thank you so much for your prayers and encouraging words.
Christmas is so exciting this year. I finished my shopping before the time at Duke last week, just in case. So, we were able to enjoy the snow Saturday and not stress over any need to start shopping. My strength is really good now and I was able to sleigh ride and throw snowballs with Shayley and Charlie. We also listened to Christmas music and put up the tree Saturday as the snow was coming down!
The great thing about playing in the snow Saturday is I also felt no overwhelming urge to get pictures of us. We were able to enjoy it entirely in the moment without thoughts pressing on me about the need to capture it in case it were the last time.
Sunday morning our pastor had emailed that we should feel free to have service at home if we were worried in the least about the safety of getting out. He also said that if anyone in the house plays the piano, to ask them to play! SO, we decided to do that. Shayley thought I was making that part up about the piano, so I had to show it to her! So, she sounded out a couple hymns for us on the piano. She also caught us up on what her Sunday School class has been studying recently. They are studying Acts and had just finished reading about Stephen (Acts 6 and 7). What incredibly rich chapters! Stephen was a person of great faith in Christ, but people spread lies about him, saying that he had cursed God and Moses. In the end, they stoned him to death, based on the lies of others. Stephen’s final words were to God on behalf of the people murdering him with words and stones, asking that He “not blame them for this sin.” What incredible faith, what amazing grace.
We talked about how his words echoed Jesus’ words on the cross, both dying words from men probably bleeding to death. We also talked about how Stephen was a martyr that spurred the spreading of Good News. We talked about how it reminded us of Joseph and how his brothers lied about him, but he ended up rising up to help his brothers; and Joseph noted in the end that what other people intend for evil, God used for good.
Saul of Tarsus was watching on as Stephen was murdered. Saul was the master prosecutor of Christians. But he was struck down one day, and woke up with a different vision. Being knocked down was terrifying at first, I’m sure, but it changed his life forever as he came to know Christ himself. And he went on, now called Paul, to pen much of the New Testament.
It was a good study for us. We seldom understand why bad things happen, but we can trust that God can use it for good.
Yesterday I was back at Duke for the day so they could get two skin biopsies and 10 vials of blood for their research purposes for the clinical trial I just completed. Another patient and I are the last two in the study—done on 72 people at 5 cancer centers around the country. The doctor told me that they may not have final stats on the study for another year or two, but that it looks encouraging that the vaccines may delay cancer recurrences for some people. I was chatting with the phlebotomist who was drawing my blood and she mentioned that she had donated blood cells a while back for a clinical trial. She had to lay still for 4 hours as they withdraw her blood, she said. The more we talked, I began to realize that it was my clinical trial that she had donated blood for. It was a great moment, being face to face with the person who had voluntarily shed 4 hours of blood to help other people she didn’t even know.
It reminded me of Stephen, and, moreover, Jesus.
Christmas is so exciting.
Thank you all for your prayers.
Love,
Lydeana
