Cold Showers

One of the greatest joys when waking up each morning is pulling myself out of bed and stepping into a steaming hot shower. The hotter, the better. Today, that is simply a memory from days before chemo. The drugs I am taking are causing my skin to break down. As a result, I can no longer take hot showers. It's lukewarm to cold water that greets my body each morning. Even drying off after the shower has changed. No more rubbing the towel here and there to dry away every little drop of water. Now, its patting here and patting there. A simple shower seems to take ten time longer than before.

So, is it worth it? Absolutely! While I'm being a little more careful about how I care for myself, my chemo drugs are busy hunting down and killing any of those pesky little cancer cells that may remain in my body. Cancer Free! I'm declaring it. I'm believing it. And I'm doing everything I can to make it happen. Thanks for your continue prayers for a complete deliverance from cancer.

Pray For Kristy Dykes

Please join us in prayer for Kristy Dykes. She was diagnosed with brain cancer several months ago. She has undergone surgery and will start radiation therapy on Monday at 3:00pm (est). Her husband is asking prayer warriors around the world to join together at that time. Please join with us and pray for a miracle for Kristy. Also, be sure to check out her blog and read how our Lord is taking here through this challenge. She and Milton are posting updates nearly daily. The bolg can be found at http://christianlovestories.blogspot.com/.

Two Urgent Prayer Requests

I need to ask our awesome group of prayer warriors to come together in prayer for our family once again. We have two pressing needs.

1. Rebecca had surgery today. It should have been very minor outpatient surgery. However, as frequently happens with Rebecca, minor things quickly turn into something more exciting. Her sodium level dropped and she has been unable to keep down any food. Either of these things would have keep her in the hospital. With both, the doctors have decided to keep her overnight. Please pray that her sodium level will quickly return to normal and that she will be able to keep down her food so she can come home tomorrow morning or as soon as possible. Also, pray for a quick and complete recovery from this surgery.


2. I have been nearly unable to walk for the past ten days. During the last few days that I was in Russia I started to have problems with my hands and feet. It turns out I have had a toxic reaction to the oral chemo that I am on. My hands are not too bad, mostly just ugly to look at. However, my feet are causing me great pain. The folks at the cancer center have given me some things to do and stuff to take to help correct the problem. However, it may take several weeks before I'm back to normal. And, there could be some long-term damage to my hands and feet. Please join with me in prayer for immediate relief from the pain and for our Lord, the greatest physician anywhere, to touch my body and restore everything to perfect health. Pray that there will be no further complications from this chemotherapy.

The Brown Family - Video Update

We have just completed our first video update. It is a short video that describes what we have been doing in the first half of our first term of missionary service.

Wayne's Coffee

You knew it had to happen; that my frustration with bad coffee in Russia would finally tip me over the edge. Well, I went ahead and did something about it today. I opened my own coffee shop.

Actually, I found this sign while walking along Arbot Street with Oleg and Irene. Yes, it is as cold as it looks. However, I am nice and warm thanks to a donated jacket and gloves from a friend at Victory Church in sunny and warm Lakeland, Florida.

Chemo-Light

Wow! What a crazy season this has been. My cancer surgery in August went very well. However, as my cancer doctor was reviewing scans of my body that he had taken following the surgery, he found spots on both of my lungs. That required lots more tests and a biopsy that took six samples of my lung tissue. And after all that, it turns out that the spots were not new cancer, and not an infection, but were simply old scar tissue from a prior infection. Praise the Lord!!!

Now my life enters a new season. For the next year I will be doing what you could call chemo-light. It's not the full blown medical-port in the chest, sick for days, type of chemo that most people think of. My chemo is simply two different drugs that I can take orally, twice each day. My doctors are even allowing me to resume international travel while I'm taking the chemo. God is good!!!

I would appreciate your continued prayers for my health. This may be chemo-light, but it still has some serious side effects that are possible. I could lose my hair, but that's not likely. More likely, I will get sick to my stomach, I will lose my appetite, I may have serious problems with my blood pressure, and there may be problems with my skin. Please join with me in prayer for the Lord's protection against any of these side effects.

Exploited

Although this story appears in our newsletter, I believe the subject to be too important to lock it in a temporary PDF document. It is being presented here so that a broader audience can understand the need and can join us in finding a solution.

This month's newsletter was truly difficult for me to write. I have just returned from a four-day research trip to Haiti. In addition to my role as the director of The GodMan ministry at Book of Hope, I am also responsible for directing the ministry work in Haiti. That includes both books and The GodMan. While this research trip was very productive, it was also very heartbreaking.

In my time in Haiti, I was able to interview government officials, school directors and staff, and church and community leaders. I also had an opportunity to talk with some schoolchildren about their life experiences. Some of the meetings were one-one-one with leading officials. The other meetings were focus groups with multiple participants. My goal was to identify the leading social issues affecting Haitian children and youth and to determine the significant heartfelt needs for these children and young people.

As the meetings progressed, a few themes began to emerge. Poverty in Haiti is extreme. This extreme poverty causes people to resort to desperate measures to satisfy their basic needs. In the face of this economic situation, a very desperate social situation coexists: children and youth in Haiti are sometimes seen more as property than as family. At a frequency too high to comprehend, parents are making a decision to give away or sell their children to other Haitian families. Their belief is that their children will have better opportunities to receive an education and a better life with families of greater means. However, in many cases, these children are simply exploited for free labor and then abandoned to the streets when they reach the age of 15. As a result, these young people are being turned into virtual slaves. They must live a life of forced service to others, denied the opportunity for education and skills training. They are living a life absent of any hope for their future.

As bad as this forced labor situation may be, its impact pales in comparison to the other reoccurring theme, the sexual exploitation of young girls. Government, school, and church leaders all repeated stories of how young girls are being forced to exchange their bodies for the smallest of financial or material gain. They described this as the most significant issue affecting youth in Haiti today. Some of these girls are slave labor outcasts. Once they turn 15, they have legal protection as workers; however, younger than 15 and there is no one protecting them. As a result, at the age of 15, those who were simply being exploited are forced to the streets with no other skills. Believing that there is no hope, these girls feel compelled to continue selling their young bodies. Then there were the stories of families who would force their young daughters to prostitute themselves or sell their daughters to pimps or brothels in order to bring in the money they needed to survive for another day.

My heart is breaking for these children. I had to fight back a mix of tears and anger as I listened to these stories and recalled the nearly 20 years that we poured love and hope into the lives of children. How could anyone treat a child in such a way? However, that raised the question; what could I do to address this problem? God has clearly called our family to bring the gospel message to the children and youth of Haiti and that is what we will do. We will ensure that our presentation of the gospel in Haiti touches the lives of these children and their families. Nevertheless, so much more is needed. God has specifically called someone to rescue these young girls from this desperation and to minister true love and hope to their parents. Please join us in prayer for Haiti. Pray that God’s specific call for laborers will be magnified a thousand times over so that the ones He is calling to Haiti will hear him today. Pray that those who hear His call will have the courage to respond immediately.

Fall 2007 Newsletter - Exploited, A Haitian Tragedy

Our Fall newsletter has been posted to our website. Click here to read the latest news update. This focus for month's newsletter is on Wayne's recent trip to Haiti.

And Then She Cried

Sunday afternoon marked a new milestone in our family's health recovery process. Wayne was able to leave the country and head to Brazil, via Peru. This is his first trip since recovering from cancer surgery and his first trip since Tammy's knee surgery. His leaving means that he is sufficiently healed to follow the ministry work the Lord has directed him to do and that Tammy is sufficiently healed to take care of Rebecca while Wayne is away. Given all the health issues the family has been dealing with this summer, this was a blessing and a major milestone.

But something strange also happened on Sunday. Rebecca knew that she and her mom would be taking Wayne to the airport. However, she was surprisingly giggly about the trip. For a short while, Wayne was actually getting a little down feeling that Rebecca might be happy to see him go. However, that feeling was going to be quickly corrected.

As the day rolled from morning to afternoon, Wayne loaded his one bag and his backpack into the back of the van. Rebecca was placed into her wheelchair and loaded into the van. Rebecca and mom were ready to take dad to the airport and drop him off for his trip. Or, so we thought. It takes about 50 minutes on a good day to get from our house to the airport. As we drew every closer to the airport, Rebecca giggled and laughed more and more. Tammy asked Wayne if she thought she was going. "Of course not, she saw me put my bag in the car and I've told her a dozen times this week that I was going" was Wayne's reply.

Rebecca obviously had other thoughts. When the car stopped and Wayne stepped into the back of the van to give his beautiful daughter a goodbye kiss, she erupted into tears and cries. It was clear that she wanted to go along with me. I explained to her that I needed her to stay with mommy and help her this week. Still she cried. Then I told her that when God is ready, He will provide for another opportunity for Rebecca to travel with me. With that, she pushed a brief smile on her face and worked hard to choke back the remaining tears.

What an amazing testimony of love and trust. Clearly, Rebecca had a desire to go with me to Brazil. There was no mistaking it that her heart was set on traveling once again. However, when it didn't happen, when she was reminded that our call is about waiting on God's timing, not our own, then the smile came back, the tears dried up, and the joy returned in her life. Maybe there is something in Rebecca's reaction that we can all learn from.

Life Back To Normal - Kind'a

Sorry for the delay in posting an update. Everyone is doing much better now. I am back to full strength and working a full schedule. I leave on Sunday for Brazil, and then to Haiti the week following. No time to relax as there is much work to be done. When I get back from Haiti I will be started my post-surgery treatment plan. It is actually part of a clinical trial, as there is currently no formal program for treating kidney cancer. Thankfully, the sponsors of the program are going to pay most of the cost. Keep this in your prayers as it is supposed to reduce the chance of reoccurrence by at least 25%.

Tammy is also recovering well from her surgery. She is walking unassisted and is participating in physical therapy three times per week. Likewise, Ryan is recovering well in Nashville from his hip surgery. He is back to a full schedule at work

Rebecca has been awesome through all of this. She is healthy and happy. She really enjoyed going to the football game a few weeks ago. More about that in a future post.

Keep praying for our family. We are ready to put these attacks behind us and move full speed ahead with our ministry. We have an exciting close of the year planned, as well as a great 2008.