Unexpected News

Many of you have been praying for Julia, the wife of our ministry pastor, after reading in our newsletter about her possibly having cancer. 

This morning, Britt took Julia and Jorge to Guatemala City to the government cancer center to find out what her diagnosis was from her biopsy. 

Several pretty cool things happened while they were there. But first, let me back up and tell you what happened last week. Thursday, Jorge called and asked if he could come talk to Britt. This isn't unusual, he will drop by just to talk from time to time. But Thursday, he had news. I passed by during their conversation and Britt stopped me to say Jorge had news that I needed to hear. He looked happy, so I was hoping maybe somehow they'd heard early that Julia didn't have cancer. But instead, he shocked me with the news that they are expecting. I was so incredibly excited. So many things went through my mind and still I'm processing even now. 

Let me pause with a side note. Everyday, I'm still reeling from the fact that I'm pregnant and carrying a child I never planned, and that this baby has survived so many obstacles. God is amazing in every way. He is constantly surprising us and working so contrary to what we might want, think or imagine. For this, I am overwhelmed and honored to be called His child and be able to experience His wonders. So, can I ever relate to the feelings that Julia must have experienced upon finding out she's pregnant. 

My immediate impulse was to assume, upon hearing her news through Jorge, that if she was able to conceive, surely she doesn't have cancer. Because, how could that work? Well, after much searching, I could find nothing that either confirmed nor denied my assumption. 

So back to this morning...Apparently, as soon as they arrived for their appointment, they let the medical staff know they were expecting. So immediately, they did blood work to confirm this. It was confirmed. Then, they did more blood work to find out about the cancer, and they did another mammogram. She was able to see the doctor, but he did not have a diagnosis for her from the biopsy from two weeks ago. She will get that Wednesday when she returns. However, from the mammogram, they could tell  that the lump had shrunk. They reported that the doctor was very pleased to see both that the lump had shrunk and that she is pregnant. Maybe my suspicions are correct about the correlation between conceiving and cancer. Anyway, we will find out Wednesday. 

The other cool thing that happened was in the waiting room. While this godly couple were waiting, they decided to ask the head nurse if they could pray for the people in this room full of about 70 cancer patients. The nurse said that it would be great. So Jorge and Julia had the unexpected opportunity to pray with about 15 cancer patients, that they would never have had the opportunity to minister to had Julia never found this lump. They both returned to the car where Britt was waiting (only one person can go with a patient into medical facilities in this country) feeling quite pleased with the morning. 

I probably should have waited to write this post until Wednesday when we get the news we've all been waiting for. However, I couldn't contain my enthusiasm over this morning's events. So please continue to pray with us, and I'll let you know the results after Wednesday's diagnosis. And thank you so very much to all who sent Julia words and prayers of encouragement. We translated them and printed them off for her so she'd have them to remember this part of her journey for always.