Caleb’s ANC counts are at 6500 today. That is the high end for a normal child! That could be attributed to the injections he is taking, but we’ll take those high numbers. That means he is going home today and they are skipping chemo this week. Hopefully, that means Caleb will have a good Thanksgiving meal! I’m happy to skip any chemo we can at this point.
Sunday morning, I told my good friend and Caleb’s physician that Caleb was back in the hospital. He said he had heard that and had a theory for me he wanted to discuss when we got a chance. Well, I thought right that moment would be a good chance; he had my total attention! He asked if I was familiar with tumor fever. When I said no, he suggested I look it up and see for myself. Basically what it means that when a large amount of tissue dies in the body – such as a tumor dying suddenly – the body absorbs that and must deal with ridding the body of the leftovers. The result would be all the symptoms that Caleb had Friday night and Saturday morning including fever and low white blood cell counts. However, with white blood cell counts being low, the doctors have to treat it as though it is something worse since they have no way of verifying it and an infection in a chemo patient could have very bad effects. This treatment is precautionary, and I understand why. The good news is the tumor fever is just another confirmation of the fact that the power of the blood of Jesus annihilated that tumor this week! Everything we have seen this week in relation to the tumor has lined up with the healing we know we got this week.
Now my attention has turned to a different area. The very same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us, and it took this cancer off of Caleb because of the stripes Jesus took on his back (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). That same power can take away the side effects of chemo, as well. We are praying that direction. I also have a great burden for two very good friends of ours and their family. Those of you from New Hope know Anna Sophia’s story. For those who don’t, she is a 7 year old, beautiful little girl that had her life saved by a jellyfish sting this summer. When she had a severe reaction, they took her to the emergency room while on vacation in Jacksonville. There they found that she was severely diabetic and could have died within days if not for her providential visit to the ER. Thinking about what might have happened is not healthy for Christians, but we know that God worked this out in perfect timing to find what needed to be found in time. When we heard the news, we were in the process of making plans for one last quick weekend at the beach before school started back. Jacksonville was one of the places we were considering, and the fact that they were in the hospital there cemented that decision. We went to the beach and spent some time with their amazing family at the hospital. We talked about the attacks we were seeing on young people at our church and among friends and how our pastor said it was awakening a holy anger among our people at what the enemy was doing. According to what he told them, he felt a healing revival was heading our way for the children. This was a few weeks before we found the tumor in Caleb and before we learned that Bay Revival was coming to New Hope. We were already committed to fighting for this precious girl that God has huge plans for before we knew we would be fighting for Caleb, as well. Now that we have victory for our son, we are also turning our attention to her, as well as the family I mentioned in the last post who are dealing with diabetes. Please stand with us for Anna Sophia and for Colton.
One of the greatest lines I ever heard someone believing for healing say was said this past week at the revival. The evangelist felt impressed that there was a lady with cysts on her ovaries. He even said how many were there and that God was healing them right at that moment and she needed to go to the bathroom to check for herself. That lady came up right after Caleb’s testimony and verified all that Nathan had said. She said as she was going to check that the devil told her that she wasn’t healed; that God wouldn’t heal her. She said, “Devil you’re a liar. I’ve already been healed over 2,000 years ago when Jesus died for my sins!!” Man, I just got goose bumps again typing that! That is where we stood for Caleb, and that is where we are standing for these other precious children – God’s masterpieces! It has already been done. We are believing now for it to be manifest in their lives as it was for us. God is no respecter of persons. He will do the same for them. He WILL. Stand with us and call heir names out before the throne of God with us. He loves us. Oh, how He loves us!!
Today’s verse – “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10