Prayer Notice & Brief Update 2/28/2012

an email Lariate sent 2/28/2012

Hello Friends and Family,

We’ve been working through nearly six months (March 10^th will be 6 months) of our intense cancer therapy. Times are busy, but we desire to join in community once again to pray our way through this journey the Lord has us on. If you cannot make it please join us in prayer wherever you are.

Everyone is invited to come for a time of prayer for Lariate and the Wiegel family! We will be meeting at the Bentley’s house.

Date: Saturday, March 3rd
Time: 9:30am

Here is a brief UPDATE:

I had more blood work done last Wednesday and the results should be here this week for us to consult with our doctors soon. This Friday afternoon, I have an ultrasound…the first “picture” so to speak since beginning therapy nearly six months ago. This ultrasound will be the same one I had done in August that revealed the “staging” of my cancer. If you remember, it revealed a T3 penetration, meaning the cancer was into the colon wall but not yet penetrated thru (which would be a T4). Anyway this will be the first “picturing” we will have since starting therapy. Upon the results we receive Friday and consulting with our team of doctors, we will decide upon which subsequent picture would be most beneficial (whether a colonoscopy or perhaps a PET scan of the body) to track this cancer.

Overall I am feeling well physically… overwhelmed at times…always running behind on therapy demands…scattered with the complexities of managing my therapy needs, being a wife, mother of three little ones, home upkeep, desire for stillness, longing to be set free from this binding regiment, praying for healing, o’ the list goes on. This isn’t the happiest of seasons in our life but we are trusting in a mighty God.

With the “long-haul” of therapy setting in we are asking for Friday’s appointment to bring us encouragement. We ask that this picture would reveal encouraging progress. Please pray for this.

Dhondi and I are weary. We need respite. We have discussed and are now looking into hiring some aspects of our complex needs so that the tensions we have been bearing for nearly six months may be better managed and bring some peace and rest to our home and marriage…we still have a year and a half to go and want to bear thru this well and remain connected and purposeful together as a family rather than frazzled, disconnected and tired. Please pray for this as well. Specifically for wisdom, workers, financial provision and rest.

With Grace,

Lariate (& Dhondi)

A time for Cancer?

This year, I started reading through the book of Ecclesiastes and the Holy Spirit has been speaking in a Fatherly tone as I listen to the words of Solomon giving wisdom about living and enjoying life in all of it’s seasons.  Solomon says that there is a time for everything and each season of life has it’s purpose. 

Like many of you, there are seasons that I’m eager to quickly move past (AZ summers, diaper changing, the flu) and others that I wish I could float in for eternity (my wedding day, watching my son build with excitement, a good wine).  Solomon goes on to say that everything God has made is beautiful in its time and that “nothing is better then to rejoice and to do good in our lives.”  (Ecc 3:11ff). 

I have a confession for 2011.  I don’t like that my wife has cancer.  Cancer is an unwelcomed season in my home and in my marriage and in my family.  Before her diagnosis, it never dawned on me that cancer would become a part of our lives.  Once the diagnosis came, I was heartbroken that the world we lived in (the one where 35 year old women DON’T get cancer) was not the real world and that the real world was not as safe as I thought.  The truth is - right now - I don't particularly care for this season of life. 

As 2012 dawns, I’m finding encouragement from the words of Solomon to enjoy this season rather than ignoring the reality (and possibly the beauty) of what it means to live with cancer.  I’ll continue to share updates on the status of my wife’s health as well as personal reflections on our experience.

So, what does this season of cancer look like presently?  It’s a lot of busy routine.  The day begins at 7AM with coffee and ends at 7PM with a Green Juice.  Lariate is a trooper and is firmly committed to the demanding rigors of Gerson Therapy.  With the help of our support team, she is enjoying 12 daily juices, three square meals, and all the prep and planning that goes into making it happen.  We have been blessed to have such a great network of friends and family who have served in our home at all hours with everything from veggie washing to house cleaning.  We have also been blessed to have Sprouts Famer’s Market join Team Lariate by providing all of our organic produce in a convenient weekly pickup. 

We have had three visits with our Dr’s in Arizona and two phone consults with our Dr’s in Mexico.  So far, there is little or no change.  My wife still has cancer.  It does not seem to have grown or spread.  I suppose this is good news.

In the midst of the rigorous demands of Gerson, we are finding ways to enjoy time together.  Lariate and I attended the GTN vision banquet in October and the family headed up to Williams after Christmas to take a trip on the Polar Express. This was a fun memory maker for the boys and David still talks about Santa Claus with me each morning while I sit and read my bible.  The boys are doing well and have ample distractions with their recent Christmas booty.  I look forward to sharing more of this journey with you in 2012.  Please take some time and tell us about your season of life.  You can leave a comment below or send us an email.  We are greatly encouraged by such notes!

Dhondi

We're back in AZ.

Hi Everyone, we're back in Arizona.  Things have been a little crazy so I haven't had to a chance to put some new updates.  I'll try to back fill some of the updates later tonight.  Dhondi

Church in Tijuana

We just wrapped up a small church service here in Tijuana, Mexico.  Lariate and I hosted 10 of our new friends in the community space for a time of prayer and scripture reading.

We began by acknowledging the Sovereignty of God in every situation (Romans 8:28-39).  We acknowledged that we are not here by accident or fate, but because of the gracious and powerful hand of our God who has led us here.  We took some time to proclaim God’s sovereign control over our illnesses and praise Him for the ways in which He has shown Himself powerful and in-control over this past week. 

Next, I shared the account of Jesus healing the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12.  We noted how Jesus—sensitive to this man’s physical needs and able to heal him —addresses this man’s greatest need.  2,000 years later, the question that Jesus poses to the scribes finds it’s relevance in our lives:  “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'?” (v.9) 

Which is easier?  Physical healing?  Jesus Christ—who is God—can easily bring physical healing.  In this passage, He does it with a single verb;  “Rise!”  Oh, but how the shadow of the cross falls heavily upon our Savior as He considers the weightiness of saying “Your sins are forgiven.”  We praised God for the willingness of the Son to endure the road to Calvary, to suffer and die in our place, for our sins, as a willing substitute.  We praised God for salvation and acknowledged His ability to meet all of our needs—physical and spiritual.

We closed our time by praying for one another—for healing, comfort, strength, and joy.  Our God, who is faithful, has already begun to answer those prayers.  Rejoice with us!

On Mission in Mexico,
Dhondi & Lariate

The Power of Creativity

My mom sent me this video (see below) that shows how creativity is often the cure to hopeless circumstances.  We’ve found the same to be true here at the Gerson Clinic in Mexico.  After only one week , I can honestly say “I’m getting tired of the food.”  We’ve learned that the success of this therapy often depends on our willingness to be creative and experiment.  Each meal invites the possibility of combining vegetables, soups, and juices in new ways to make them more enjoyable.  If the Gerson Therapy is the cure to cancer, then creativity is the cure that makes Gerson enjoyable.

How to pray

We’ve had a few email requests for specific ways in which you—our friends—can be praying for us while we are here.  I wanted share some specific things you can be praying for:

• Please pray for our bodies as we adjust to this new regimen of fresh organic produce.  Yes, I said “our” bodies, I have to eat the same stuff as my wife.  =)
• Lariate is operating at about 70% of the full Gerson Therapy and is anxious to get on the full regimen.  Pray for patience for her and wisdom for the Doctors as they continually monitor her progress and response to the therapy.
• Pray that our time here will sharpen our awareness of how thoroughly God has already and always been at work in every detail of our life.
• Pray that our eyes will be open to the opportunities to serve others while we are down here.  Pray for creativity in this! 
• This weekend, we start planning for life at home.  Pray that we would have wisdom in how to arrange all these new activities into our already busy schedule with 3 small boys.
• Pray for God’s abundant provision of organic produce.
• Pray for peace and that we would continue to trust in Him.
• Pray for God’s miraculous healing of Lariate’s cancer.
• Lastly, pray that we would cherish Christ above all else and that our lives would be a testimony to the sufficiency of Christ in all things.

Thank you for your partnership in this trial.

Grace,
Dhondi

Peanut Butter & Jelly

There are many things in life that go well together:  Peanut Butter & Jelly, Chips and Salsa, beer and wings, etc. (If you think of others, leave them in the comment section below).  When it comes to healing the Gerson way, good nutrition and coffee enemas are two sides of the same coin.  Not only are coffee enemas good for a laugh ("With milk or sugar?"), but this bizarre-sounding treatment is very effective in stimulating the liver and expelling toxins from the body.

The enema has been called one of the oldest medical procedures still in use today.  Tribal women in Africa, and elsewhere, routinely use it on their children.  The earliest medical text in existence, the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, (1,500 B.C.) mentions it.  Millennia before, the Pharaoh had a "guardian of the anus," a special doctor one of whose purposes was to administer the royal enema.  (would that be considered a royal flush?)

There is hardly a region of the world where people did not discover or adapt the enema.  In pre-revolutionary France a daily enema after dinner was de rigueur.  It was not only considered indispensable for health but practiced for good complexion as well.  Louis XIV is said to have taken over 2,000 in his lifetime.

But why coffee? This bean has an interesting history. It was imported in Arabia in the early 1500's by the Sufi religious mystics, who used it to fight drowsiness while praying.  It was especially prized for its medicinal qualities, in both the Near East and Europe. No one knows when the first daring soul filled the enema bag with a quart of java.  What is known is that the coffee enema appeared at least as early as 1917 and was found in the prestigious Merck Manual until 1972.  In the 1920s German scientists found that a caffeine solution could stimulate the liver and gall bladder to discharge bile.

Dr. Max Gerson used this clinically as part of a general detoxification regimen, first for tuberculosis, then cancer. Gerson noted some remarkable effects of this procedure. For instance, patients could dispense with all pain-killers once on the enemas.  Many people have noted the paradoxical calming effect of coffee enemas. 

If you would like to learn more about coffee enemas, you can click here.  For now, it’s time for another “coffee break.”

Grace,
Dhondi