7 February 2008
Houston, Texas

Sons in the wilderness

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday evening during the Ash Wednesday service at St. Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston, Everett, Cindy, and I walked to the front of the sanctuary to have ashes smeared on our foreheads, initiating for us the season of Lent, when we remember Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness prior to his public ministry. Everett was on crutches, his head had no hair, his eyebrows and eyelashes were almost gone, he was pale from anemia, and his finger nails bore stress-induced ridges chronicling the six cycles of heavy-duty chemotherapy he has received during the past four months as treatment for Ewing’s sarcoma of his left pelvis. His doctors want to give him two more cycles, roughly 40 more days of the toxic therapy, before they operate. They want to shrink his tumor as much as possible before they surgically remove the residual cancer. So for Everett, this Lenten season coincides with his experience in the wilderness of cancer treatment, and at the end of Lent he will pick up his own cross and bear a deliberate wound that is the only hope to be cleansed of this wretched disease.

The traditional Lenten discipline of self-denial could not be more evident in Everett’s life. After his diagnosis, he withdrew from college, where he was excelling academically, and moved with his parents to a small apartment in a different state where he had no friends. He has to go almost daily to the MD Anderson Cancer Center to give blood specimens and undergo other tests, if not to receive infusions of chemotherapy. He has to take medicines throughout the day to prevent treatment side effects, and he has to take his temperature four times a day to monitor for infection. Just below his right collar bone, is an intravenous catheter going into his chest that he has to flush with a heparin solution every night and cover with Press N’ Seal for protection every time he bathes. He must conscientiously protect his fragile hip by using a cane to go short distances in our apartment and crutches when he goes out. In this wilderness of cancer treatment, Everett has fully embraced the discipline of self-denial that is required for a successful outcome. Not once have I heard him complain.

But just as God sent angels to minister to his son Jesus in the wilderness, he has sent many angels to help Everett during his time of trial. My cousin in Tennessee gave him a Netflix subscription, so he has enjoyed watching old Law and Order episodes at lunchtime and Ingmar Bergman movies at night. Good friends in Colorado gave him an iPod that accompanies him on all his hospital visits. Local Presbyterian friends have gotten him tickets to a Houston Texans football game and several Houston Rockets basketball games. He munches continuously on goodies from friends, and not a day goes by without a card coming for him in the mail. All of these along with many more gestures of kindness have helped Everett maintain a good attitude and stick with the long, tedious discipline of cancer treatment.

Everett’s medical oncologist, Dr. Joseph Ludwig, has been pleased with Everett’s excellent response to chemotherapy, indicated by an impressive reduction in the size of the tumor. And it is because Everett has handled the chemotherapy so well that Dr. Ludwig feels comfortable continuing the treatment up to eight cycles before surgery. Just as the purpose of Lent is to prepare us for the gift of new life made possible in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the goal of Everett’s time of self-denial in the wilderness of cancer treatment is victory over his disease. Dr. Ludwig reminded us of that recently by reaffirming that we are aiming for a cure.

Lord, we know you will not forsake our son.

We are deeply grateful to all of you for your continued prayers and support.

Yours,

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 89