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Herbert E. Douglass, Th.D. |
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Special Prayer Request: Death notice: NUPC website Cancer Journal thru 24 Oct 2008 14 Apr 2006 - Awful news! Jere is an old family friend. We must add our sadness to our prayers for his recovery.
From: Jere Patzer Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 12:15 PM Subject: A message for our friends Last Friday afternoon, April 7, Sue and I were visiting family in Spokane and I stopped by my former family practice doctor's office to pick up an antibiotic for a persistent little cough I had picked up in Bolivia. Five hours later with x-rays, CT scans, blood work, etc. we left to face our kids with the news that I had lymphoma. Since then we have had additional tests here in Portland and we have received the almost conclusive diagnosis that I have a rare, aggressive stage four mantle cell lymphoma. Currently we are networking and looking at treatment locations and will hopefully be able to finalize that in the next few hours. It will, I understand, be a very strong and aggressive treatment that I will be receiving. So where does that leave Sue and me and our family? Fully dependent on the Lord and we have indeed recommitted our lives to Him. Having lived a rather charmed life this was not on my radar screen and certainly not on my agenda. We can already see little signs that God is with us and this is obviously reassuring. As you know, we just returned from Bolivia where we did another public television and satellite series for South and Inter America. I preached on the topic of the great controversy between good and evil, specifically suffering. One of my points was that tragedy is no respecter of persons and down through history most of God's special saints have lived through times of suffering. We don't come close to qualifying as a special saints but conversely neither do we deserve better treatment than they. We'll take this a day at a time. We are strongly convinced that this is a spiritual battle as much as a physical one. I never aspired to have "cancer survivor" on my resume but now I desperately want to become one. With our strong family support, the prayers of so many like you, the best medical treatment that can be procured, if it's God's will, we plan to make that a reality. Admittedly I still feel quite well and at this point we are not spending our energies on "asking why." We know that the Devil is an equal opportunity destroyer. However, at one point I did say to Sue, "Assuming I survive what could we possibly do different with practicing our healthy lifestyle, (and in her words, being an obsessive compulsive fitness practitioner)?" So when I asked the oncologist, "How did I get this he said it is a white male disease that is currently on the rise and very possibly environmentally activated." So for now we'll leave it at that. I'm very sorry to add to your burdens but in times like these we are in desperate need of the prayer support of our family and friends. So thank you for keeping us on your daily prayer list. Jere D. Patzer |
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