On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:38 PM, Bob Dolores Schuring <bob_schuring@ntm.org> wrote:

Below is from Reuben.. I am forwarding so you can get the photograph.  Reuben had not yet received the bulletin yesterday that said, Luiz’ surgery yesterday was disappointing as the cancerous tumor in his intestines had already burst.  That bulletin said Luiz cancer is in the final stages, and he would be given chemotherapy only to give him a bit of relief.  Dolores.


Urgent Prayer Update

We found out that our co-worker, Luis, was just diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago.  It started in his colon, and has already mestasized and taken over his liver.  They were going to remove part of his colon last week, and then start him on chemo to give him several more years. 
As you can imagine, this has been a tremendous shock to all of us.  Luis and his wife, Cleide, worked with us for 11 years. They have two young kids.  Mateus is 9 and Larissa is 5. Last year they moved to a nearby town.  Just recently they finished building their house, and were making plans to begin work with another group of Ka’apor.  As soon as they found out they left, and are with Cleide’s family and their home church.

Please pray with us for him and his family.  We know our God is greater than any disease and has the almighty power to heal.  We are asking Him to heal him so he can be there for his young family.  We also know God may have greater things in store for him than healing.  Pray for grace and peace for each day as they go through this trial.

To many special people,
We have much to thank the Lord for! 
Benjamin was well enough from his cold that we were able to do the biopsy on Monday afternoon. 
The procedure was quite fast (about 15-20 minutes).  Benjamin was taken into the room and had general anesthesia through a gas mask.  The doctor used the ultrasound to see right where the nodules were and inserted his needle and was able to extract some of the tissue.  He found the nodule on the first attempt, Praise the Lord.  The doctor quickly took the slide with the tissue on it to the pathologist to see if he had gotten enough tissue to examine.  It was enough, Praise the Lord, so he didn’t have to insert the needle a second time. 
We are awaiting the report from the analysis of the tissue.  We should get that either today or Thursday. 
We still plan to leave for Cuiabá on Friday morning!!  It will be good to be home! 

Special blessings from the Lord:
—After we did the check-in at the hospital, they took us up to a room to wait for the surgery.  (We were told that Benjamin would need to stay 24 hours for observation after the biopsy).  The simple apartments (rooms) were all full, so they put us in a suite for the same price as an apartment.  Wow!  What a room.  There was the room that Benjamin was in: couch, nice bed, a balcony with two chairs and a little table, TV, little refrigerator, and bathroom attached.  Well, that’s not all...another room was attached—the visiting room, they told us!  That had its own bathroom, a big couch, chairs, TV and fridge.
Thankfully we didn’t need the room for that long, because the Doctor told us we could leave early, since Benjamin was doing so well. 

—As we were waiting for Benjamin to be called in for his biopsy, an older lady came and sat near me.  I was feeling very emotional and concerned for my little baby.  The lady looked at me said, “God is tremendous and powerful!!” I needed that reminder and I often wonder if she wasn’t an angel sent to encourage me! 

—Benjamin continues to be a smiley, happy boy.  During the times that I was worried or even crying, he would look up at me and smile and start to “coo”.  That will remove any sadness from anyone!!!  Thank you Lord!! 

—We have gotten e-mails from so many people—even from people we don’t know saying that they are praying for us and for little Benjamin.  What a blessing to be a part of the family of God!  Thanks again to all of you for praying and for passing this request on to other people.  I can’t wait until Benjamin is old enough to understand when I tell him how many people cared for him and prayed for him!!

—————————————————————————————————————-
This is a verse that my dad shared with me that meant a lot to me.
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, an dhe will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
I know my God is more than able to heal Benjamin completely, but if He choses not to, I will still trust him!!

Many blessings to each of you today!!!
-Cristy, Erik, and Benjamin

Dear friends,
The Lord is hearing your prayers and has been so good to us!!  We really feel blessed!!  Praise the Lord!!
Cullen Rast (a retired missionary from Cuiabá) picked us up at the airport and brought us to his house.  He said they were glad to have us stay with them.  He even is willing to take us around to the hospital and other places.  Praise the Lord for that! 

Short version:
The doctor saw Benjamin this morning and looked at all his test results and didn’t really know what the problem was. 
She asked for more blood and urine tests to be done. 
We will probably do an MRI or some kind of test to see the nodules on his liver this week.
We are scheduled to return to see her again next Tuesday. 
We don’t know yet if/when they will do a biopsy.

Long version:
We got up at 5 this morning in order to leave at 6 for the hospital.  (Cullen drove us there.  He knows São Paulo really well and didn’t get lost at all getting to the hospital—even though he had never been there before!) It took us about an hour and a half to get there. 
The hospital is a beautiful place—even has vallet parking.  Everyone was so nice and helpful. 
We went to the floor where the pediatric liver specialists were.  There were many other parents with little children and babies in the waiting room.  One man asked if Benjamin had a certain liver disease that required a liver transplant—that got me a little woried. 
We were called in to see the doctor pretty soon.  She asked us many questions about Benjamin and our family medical history.  She was happy that Benjamin is a healthy baby otherwise...is very alert, eats well, sleeps well, etc.  She said that his liver felt good.  She asked us to do about 15 different blood exams and a urine test (culture).  Then she kept the ultrasound of his liver (that showed the nodules) and was going to talk it over with some other doctors.  She asked us to come back to see her next Tuesday. 
She had wanted to see the color of his poop, but when she checked his diaper it was only wet.  So, later on, he filled his diaper, and I took it to her to see the color.  She looked at it and said, “É lindo (it’s beautiful)!”
She does want an MRI or another test of that kind on his liver, but we are waiting to find out when that can be scheduled—hopefully this week. 
We imagine that they will want to do a biopsy of the nodules, but we are not sure yet if that is for sure and when that will be.

Another praise:
We found out that we can apply for Benjamin’s US passport here in São Paulo.  We have all the documents with us for that.  We got his pictures taken, so we are going to try to make an appointment for tomorrow.

We feel so blessed by the many, many people praying!!! Thankyou so much!!!!  God is so good!!!

With love,
Erik, Cristy and Benjamin

Copied from Cristy:

Dear praying friends,
We thank you so much for your prayers and concern for Benjamin.  Thankyou for your e-mails of encouragement! 
We continue to need prayers.  The latest blood work (alpha fetoprotein) was way higher than the normal.  The last ultrasound showed 5 small nodules on his liver.  So, the doctors here in Cuiabá have recommended that we go to São Paulo (southern Brasil, 1300 miles from here) to get a biopsy on his liver.  (That will involve a general anesthesia and then getting a piece of the nodule with a needle—that is my non medical way of explaining it!
Our plan is to get tickets tomorrow morning and leave Monday by plane.  We have an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday morning. 
It looks like we will be at a Jewish hospital and from what the doctor said here we will not have to pay anything there. That sounds almost too good to be true!  There is even a house that we can stay in near the hospital (but we just found out that they don’t have room for us to stay until the end of next week).  We are praying that we can find a place to stay that is close to the hospital.  São Paulo traffic is TERRIBLE so we want to avoid that and be as close as we can.

My parents are postponing their return to the US until we know a little better what is going on with Benjamin.  Hopefully my mom can come down with us to São Paulo. 

We know that we are in a spiritual battle—the enemy wants to postpone our trip to the access town to work with the Star people.  Next week Erik was going to go along with the Bible school to visit some villages for evangelism.  Interestingly enough, it “happened” to be the group that speaks a language that’s related to the Star language.  So the plan was to also find out more about language compatility!  Now that won’t be possible—not at this time! 

Please pray with us that this attempt of the evil one will not discourage us from going where the Lord has called us! 

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world!” 1 John 4:4

Thankyou so very much!!
-Erik & Cristy and little Benjamin