Mother's Day

Dear Prayer Partners,

It's Sunday evening, and I just spent two days with Jan. Tomorrow she comes back again with Charlie and Rosie from Ames. Yes, we can spend a lot of time together and we don't play games. It's talking, praying and today read the book of Daniel together. It's good to have time at length in prayer. It's good to get slowed down so there is plenty of time for praying together.

I'm really doing well health wise. I've been here now six weeks and the guys are remarking how good I seem to be doing for having the type of cancer I have. There are three other Pancreatic cancer patients. Two have died and the third is very sick. I can only say I am blessed because of so many prayers. Other than losing a little weight I can't believe I have anything. I think the weight loss is from the chemo.

I have always heard people talk about fighting cancer and that really seemed strange to me. I thought, well, if you have cancer, you just have it, there isn't anything to do. Now I find out it is fighting. I fight to eat. Chemo on an empty stomach is a killer. The guys here have said it and I find it to be true. At first I didn't eat so much because I was trying to eat healthy. There is no healthy food here so that meant I ate very little and that's the wrong thing to do with Chemo. Now I fight cancer, by eating all I can get myself to eat. During treatment, everything tastes bitter. Even water tastes bitter. I don't get the metal taste, they give me medication before the chemo for that, but I taste bitter.

I fight cancer by keeping my attitude up. I used to not have to work very hard at that, but as my time gets shorter and I really want and expect a compassionate release, I have to work at staying positive. I have to work at practicing what I preach about waiting on the Lord and being satisfied in him. I think the wheels are turning too slowly here on that. This week I am going to approach the Warden in the lunch line, and I'm going to ask for some accountability from people who are supposed to be doing things. I would appreciate prayer on that. This week there was an article in the paper that last year there were 125 compassionate releases granted and 25 of them had died before the release was approved. The guys here say I am their poster boy of who should get the release. I am now only five months from having my sentence completed, and in Feb. was given 3 to 6 months to live. There shouldn't have to be a lot of meetings about this if there is any compassion at all.

We have the Speaker of the House for the state of Massachusetts here as an inmate and he says it's time to pull out all the stops on getting out.

I wanted to talk about Mothers Day since we are just one week away. The longer I'm married, and the longer I realize the blessings of being married to a well grounded biblically established wife, I know that for every man who is married well, and appreciates his wife, we really have two mothers we should honor. The first being our own mother, and the second honored for affecting our life even more than our own mother is our mother-in-law. As I marvel at Jan, what she means to me, how she serves and loves, I just see her mother in her so much, and although her mother Francis is with the Lord now, I thank God for her. She is the one who taught her daughters how to love their husbands and submit to them as their husbands submit to Christ. In all appreciation to my wife, Jan, I want to honor her mother Francis and all the godly mothers who knowingly and unknowingly have served God in their homes, always giving of themselves so unselfishly, never seeking honor or recognition for themselves. They have followed God's plan and we are so blessed. Guys, remember the woman who gave you your wife.

My other health situation is my sleep problem. I did have to exercise some assertiveness with the Psyche department here this week. I find if you wait patiently, you just don't get anything done. They did prescribe me something, not for sleeping but for anxiety. I find asking for sleeping pills does not work. They don't issue them. If you have anxiety or depression they have things for that, and they do help you sleep. They have me on half a pill and now I get 4 hours of sleep per night. I had been getting only an hour and a half a night and after a week of that it's hard to keep the attitude up. That's the other part of the attitude I talked about earlier. I think Monday the doctor will give me a whole pill so I should get a full seven or eight hour of sleep. I think the Chemo does that to me. I talked to a guy today who said that the chemo makes him sleep all the time. That's strange. Chemo keeps me awake. That's the way it is, you just don't know how it's going to affect you. I have another chemo treatment on Tuesday. Please pray for that as well. It has been going very good though, other than the sleep and the eating.

Thanks for praying,
Bob