River of God - Costa Rica †††

River of God - Costa Rica †††

Well, the team left in the wee hours of the morning around 12:20 am headed for Chicago. They made excellent time and ended up waiting awhile before they could check in their bags. I received a call just before they left Atlanta. They had met up with the rest of the team there and were ready for their final leg into San Jose. They should be arriving around 2:20 this afternoon (12:20 San Jose time). Timothy & Kiery's oldest son Mark will be meeting them with the bus. I will send another update when I hear from them.

As I sit here during lunch on my 48th Birthday I was thinking about how good God is to me. I recently had my 6-month scan, actually back in July, and all is still clear. We had a little concern at first, when the CT scan showed some spots on my spine. However, the CT scan is inconclusive, so we did an MRI and found out that it was nothing to be concerned about. Our Lord is faithful and trustworthy! Praise His name!

Now I am looking at the opportunities before me to serve him in new ways. I am trying to look at how I may use my skills to serve the River of God mission and serve in my new role at work. I have been given an extension on this life and I know that I need to use it to share the Gospel message with people. I need all of my friends and family who are not committed to the Lord know that they have a decision to make that has eternal consequences.

Where will you spend eternity?
Heaven and Hell are real places! You cannot decide later where you will spend eternity. Choose now before it is too late! I beg you.

Please talk to me if you have questions.

Still Praising God!

Well, I went back to work on January 19th. I probably should have waited another week, but you know how it is. I had another doctor visit last week and the doctor said I am OK to resume most activities.

My Kidney is somewhere in Florida...

I donated the tissue to a research project that is studying these tumors, because they don't know what causes them. I did have a renal clear-cell carcinoma. The tumor was 11cm in diameter. (The kidney, tumor and fatty tissue around the kidney that was removed was all about the size of a football.) They tell me it was a major surgery. ;) At this point, there is no follow-up treatment required. (i.e. Radiation or Chemo) Thank you Jesus!

At this point I am just happy to be through the situation adn continue to pray that nothing else develops...your prayers will help, too! I want to thank everyone for the prayers and support. Chris and I have reflected on the entire event and it seems so sureal. We really had the strength of the Lord with us to carry us through. The Bible does not say it will be easy to follow Christ, but that he will always be with us.

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” — 1 Peter 1:6-9

With the love of Christ,
Blane & Chris