September 16, 2005
Dear Friends,
We received some good news a couple of days ago. Mike had two
scans to evaluate the treatment of his lymphoma, and they found
that the tumor is responding. It has regressed significantly in
size and the tumor activity, evidenced by the PET scan, is also
greatly diminished and limited to a single area that could even
reflect inflammation rather than true tumor activity. Mike received
his fifth course of chemo after the scans and will have a sixth
course at the end of September. A couple of weeks following this,
more scans will be done to evaluate the benefit of those two courses
and future therapy, which could consist of two further courses
followed by radiation therapy or going directly then to the radiation
therapy. It was particularly good to have good news after a tough
few days when Mike had to be admitted in isolation due to fever
caused by a severely low white blood count, which had allowed
an intestinal parasite he carried from Congo to become active.
Ah! Those gifts from Congo that just keep on giving. We cannot
as of yet know the time for our return to Congo, as it depends
yet upon the number of courses of chemo and some immediate follow-up
of treatment, but we are confident now in our ability to return
early next year. God be praised!
In our time together (which is pretty much 24/7), we have found
ourselves relating our experiences to those of our friends in
Congo. As much as we would like to be able to imagine ourselves
in someone else’s shoes, it is not really possible. We cannot
know hunger when we haven’t really wondered where our next
meal would come from nor appreciate what it means to be truly
lost with no hope when we live in a world surrounded with opportunity.
We don’t mean by this that people don’t know the meaning
of suffering in our land, but there are great differences. Even
though we may feel lost here and can’t see the opportunities
available, they are still available. In Congo, it just isn’t
that way.
When I spoke about facing the possibility of dying, Nancy and
I discussed some of the nitty-gritty details both of the dying
process and her future. It was sad and difficult. Those we leave
behind suffer and mourn our loss. Mourning starts from the beginning
with the reception of the news of a potentially deadly disease.
Here, we have treatment and hope. There (Congo), they have only
the reality of impending death, as there is no treatment and no
hope. We pray with them and ask God for His mercy. This is right
and good, but in a world that we inherited filled with His bounty,
why is there such inequality? All that these brothers and sisters
of ours have is their difficult lives. Their hope is one of day-to-day
survival. It helps explain why it is so difficult for a Congolese
doctor to tell a patient of a terminal illness. To do so is to
take away all hope and replace hope with the knowledge that the
suffering they came to be treated for will only increase. Now
they know that they will suffer until they die and have no medicines
to ease their suffering short of Tylenol. The nausea, the anorexia,
the vomiting, the swelling, the bloating, the diarrhea or constipation,
and the extreme pain will be the reality of their ending months,
weeks, or days. There is relief neither for the sick nor for their
loved ones. There is no hospice care to help. There is only suffering,
death, helplessness, and mourning.
The mourning is the same in Congo, but what about those left
behind? Here we can assess our finances, making sure the surviving
spouse has a clear understanding of them, including assets and
debts. There, the marriage is a bond between families that sustains
the whole family. The death of a husband leaves a widow, normally
with lots of children, and no means of economic support. Life
is a daily struggle to find food, to maintain the structure of
the hut they have built, to carry water, to deal with the sicknesses
that are ever present. When a man dies, his family may come and
claim all of the property. The woman has no property rights. The
dowry was paid from her family to his, and they make that claim.
Whatever little money there may be will be exhausted with the
funeral and the wife will now be destitute. She will return to
her family, increasing their burden.
We are so grateful to have had our experience with this cancer.
It has given us the time to reflect not only upon our own lives
and marriage but upon the lives of those with whom we live and
serve. We are anxious to return and do what we can to reduce the
terrible toll of suffering and death with a new appreciation for
those processes that will allow us to be more compassionate in
our service.
We reflect upon this question. Why are there people so poor with
so little hope and what is our responsibility? In Deuteronomy
15: 4-5, God tells us, “However, there should be no poor
among you. If only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful
to follow all these commandments I am giving you today.”
We are so glad to be American and to have the possibilities that
our rich and powerful nation provides yet ringing so clear is
another of God’s teachings to us: “What profit a man
who gains the world and loses his soul?”
Our love,
Mike and Nancy
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
318
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