My beautiful wife of 33 years, Carrie-Anne, and I are in Houston today for cancer surgery and two weeks of follow-up and recovery. Carrie-Anne was diagnosed with a stage-zero, non-invasive, grade three carcinoma in her right breast on October 28 and tomorrow’s surgery has been scheduled for about a month now. And the words that keep coming to mind when we’re asked how we’re doing are confident and grateful.

They found the cancer super early – C-A is diligent about such matters. We’re treating it aggressively, getting rid of any possibility of this thing ever returning. M. D. Anderson is by far the best place in Texas for cancer surgery and treatment and we’re in – the surgeons and doctors have been so kind and helpful and reassuring. Carrie-Anne is surrounded by two or three really tight circles of friends in Midland who are supporting her and caring for her – we can’t imagine any other place or any other people we’d rather be with right now than our church family at GCR. And our Lord has promised to never leave us. We’re confident. And grateful.

Obviously, this is not a journey anyone chooses for herself. We never would have picked this on our own. But our Father has decided this is good – at the very least, he has guaranteed us that he will use this for good – so Carrie-Anne and I are going into this with two overriding mindsets.

One, we’re going to walk through this together faithfully. How our God gets Carrie-Anne through this and how  we respond and behave during this crisis will be a testimony to his goodness. We want to bring him glory through this thing. We want to pay attention to how he’s at work in our own lives, we want to hear what he’s saying to us, we want to see what he needs to show us, we want our antenna up and our radar on. We’re committed to our behavior witnessing to others about our God’s faithfulness and transforming us more into his glorious image.

Two, we want to be a blessing to others. We’re going to run into people at M.D. Anderson, in this medical apartment complex, and throughout this city we never would have met otherwise. Our Lord is putting us right in front of brand new people and we want to show them his love and grace. We want to be bearers of God’s glory to everybody we talk to in Houston – the greeters at M.D.Anderson and the Bellaire Wal-Mart, the Texas Tech and Ole Miss fans at Papasito’s and the plastic surgeon’s P.A. in Sugarland, the guy making my Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich at the hospital cafeteria, and the lady taking our money at the parking garage. We are going to reflect the joy and the peace we have from God in Christ Jesus to everybody who sees us.

Thank you so much for the kindness and generosity you are showing to Carrie-Anne and me. The surgery is  scheduled for 9:00 tomorrow morning and should last about four hours. She’ll be released  on Friday and we’ll be here in this furnished apartment graciously provided by the Kingwood Church of Christ until probably Wednesday January 11.

I’ll try to post updates in this space often. Probably not tomorrow. The next update will come after we are released from the hospital late Friday. And it’ll be good news. We are confident in our Lord. And very grateful for you.

Peace,

Allan