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July 30, 2005
July Lampinen Prayer Bulletin
Lampinen Prayer Bulletin
Dave & Karen Lampinen
Dear Prayer Team, July 29, 2005
Again you’ve had a long wait for news of us if you haven’t been to our website. We left Portland on June 14th , the day after my appointment with my oncologist. Even though the spots in the liver had doubled in size from the first CAT scan to the second, Dr. Panutich thought the best course of action was to continue on the hormone treatment for another two months, repeat the scans, and then decide how to proceed. He explained that the hormone treatment doesn’t work as quickly as chemotherapy, and there was still reason to hope that the estrogen inhibitor I’m taking would kick in and retard the growth of the spots. I too had been feeling that it was right to make a trip to the Midwest this summer, regardless of what the tests showed. I was glad to see that the way God was leading my thinking and the doctor’s was along the same path. However it means that once again all I can tell you is that I’m waiting to learn the results of the scans scheduled for August 18th when I see the doctor on the 23rd.
Our minivan served us very well as we drove more than 6,000 miles in a month! We traveled in comfort, enjoyed reunions with family and friends, supporting churches and prayer partners, and also enjoyed the beauty of our homeland. I kept thinking of the song, “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain; America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”
We returned to Portland the night of July 14th, just in time to get Wil’s clothes washed and repacked for him to go to Water Ski Camp with his high school youth group. He loved wakeboarding and tubing and eating and hanging out with friends. Even though it meant sleeping in a tent on the ground, he came home with only positive comments about the week. While he was away we worked on the house we will be moving to about August 15th. Contact DCC for our new address. It’s actually in the town of Damascus, but so far Damascus hasn’t it’s own post office. When we drove away from Wiese Road yesterday all the painting was completed, everything removed from inside the house including the toilets (!) in readiness for the men who will arrive on Monday to lay carpet and other flooring. We, and many others, put in a lot of time and effort to bring about the transformation. The area around the house has been mown and spruced up as well and the whole property looks much more inviting than it did six weeks ago.
The Lord has provided most of the furnishings we’ll need, either through leading us to good, reasonably priced stores to order things, or through gifts of furniture no longer needed by others. For the family room we even have an area rug with palm trees on it! And after some delay we now have the shipment of personal effects which came from Manila. So once we have flooring, we’ll quickly be able to move in and begin to unpack. It will be the first time in our married lives that all of our belongings are under one roof and not scattered around the globe! God is good and has gone before us step by step, so our faith in Him is strong even though we don’t know exactly how He will lead us once we are settled.
I’ve been asked to help lead a Precepts Bible study when the church calendar gets going in the autumn, and would like to try writing a book. The Lord gave me some chapter titles as we were traveling. Pray I’ll be disciplined in setting aside time for that once we’re unpacked. Dave and I met with seven Filipino pastors in the Portland area last month. He is hoping to have more time with them and to encourage them in mobilizing their churches for cross-cultural missions. Since PMA’s vision is to mobilize the global Filipino church, we will do all we can to that end from here in Portland!
We leave at 5 am tomorrow to drive to Salt Lake City, about a 13 hour trek, and then on to Littleton, CO the following day for an OMF Home Side Reunion. It’s easy to start feeling disconnected from OMF when we rarely see other members, so we’re grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with teammates from the Philippines as well as from other countries in SE Asia. This time there will be a special program for the children (known as MKs or missionary kids). Wil will be one of 11 boys there. The one girl participating is likely to feel quite outnumbered! We’d value your prayers for safety in travel and for an enriching time at our US headquarters. We plan to start back on Friday afternoon, and hopefully make it to Portland by late Saturday night, August 5th so that we only miss one Sunday.
Most of the time since we returned from Manila we’ve had very hot weather wherever we’ve been in the States. While others are drooping, or staying indoors with air con, we’re happily carrying on with activities. Guess that’s one more of the blessings of being used to temperatures in the 80s and 90s F. Just wish we’d had time to fit in a few more swims!
We’ve also purchased a Verizon mobile/ cell phone. We understand that this means no charge to talk to others who also have calling plans with Verizon here in the U.S. Call DCC for our new number @ 503-658-3179. There is no charge for weekend calls, so we can talk to any of you then!
Thank you for remembering to pray for us. Please also remember the PMA team who are in the process of moving to another office. Several close friends on staff have felt the Lord leading them in new directions and that means new people will be needed to replace them. Pray especially for Pastor Bob Lopez as he leads PMA. Pray too for Richard Schlitt, our OMF Philippines Director as he chairs Admin. Council meetings the first week of August. One item on the agenda is finding someone to fill the position we were to assume of Personnel Resource Manager. And pray for the country of the Philippines and for President Arroyo as she seeks to lead it forward in the midst of economic and political uncertainty.
We thank the Lord for each one of you!
Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 1:06 PM
July 27, 2005
Update from Portland
While Wil enjoyed wakeboarding and tubing, lots of food and good fellowship at Water Ski Camp, we worked on our ‘new’ home painting, cleaning, planning what we need to get, going to garage sales, etc. On Thursday morning we were finally able to get our shipment from the Philippines. We needed a pickup truck and a trailer, plus extra hands to manage the weight, but now everything is in the storage building at the new house. We opened the crate of paintings and spread them out around the house. It was a bitter-sweet experience to see them again! Sweet because they are familiar and part of ‘home’ for us, but bitter because it’s still hard to think of here rather than Manila as ‘home’.
Next week the flooring will be put into the house while we are away at the OMF Home Assignment Get-Together in Littleton, CO. Then when we get back we can start moving things into the house. We leave very early Saturday morning and hope to get there by early Sunday evening, spending the night in Salt Lake City with my college roommate Peggy. Since we won’t be there very many hours, I’m glad we got to see her and her daughter Karen here in Portland last week! Last Saturday afternoon we attended an OMF Northwest picnic her in Portland with several new workers who are planning to go out to Asia later this year and three other experienced missionary couples. It was great sharing and fellowshipping with them.
Dave’s left arm is complaining at all he has asked it to do these past two weeks. Pray it will cooperate until the painting is completed, hopefully today. I’ve learned how to paint with a roller, and in theory how to use a paint sprayer. Yesterday Wil spray painted the inside of a storage shed we will be able to use. He’d rather be playing with friends than working at the house. Pray we’ll find a balance of work/ play acceptable to all. I think that hanging up clothes and painting are strengthening my right arm! My second month blood test showed no change from the first. That’s good news according to the doctor. Slightly elevated numbers on some tests are probably because of the hormone medication I’m on. I’ll have another CAT scan in the middle of August so don’t expect to know anything more medically until I get the results from that. I feel good and am enjoying all the beautiful flowers and fruits and vegetables this land produces.
Posted by David at 12:18 AM
July 17, 2005
Back in Portland
How much we have to be thankful for! About 5,000 miles on the road without mishap. Many dead deer along the road and almost as many live ones that we didn’t hit. A very comfortable ride all the way, and enough space to bring all the belongings we wanted to back from the Midwest. And for me, it was the PEOPLE we were able to spend time with along the way that made the trip so very special. We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing. Wil wasn’t in the mood, and it was a low priority on days when the temperature outside the van was near or over 100 degrees F. ! But we did appreciate the variety of scenery and architecture along the way. To Wil, one river looked much like another. But I enjoyed counting how many times we crossed the Snake River, the Wisconsin River, the Mississippi, etc. Our drive from Boise, Idaho to Portland was the only one that involved driving after dark. And was it ever good to be ‘home’ again and in our own beds on Thursday night. The next morning we saw how much the tomato plants have grown, new things blooming in the hanging baskets, and new leaves on the tree out front.
Last weekend we were in Fargo, North Dakota. We arrived just as the US Navy Blue Angels swooped and buzzed over the city! We wondered whether the whole country was under air attack until we discovered that we were hearing the finale of an air show! The rest of our visit wasn’t as loud, but it sure was special to have time with old and new friends at Salem Evangelical Free Church. They were so supportive during the time Ben was ill, and this was the first time we’d been able to be with them since. We felt so loved, and welcome, and so much a part of the church. Wil had a great time with kids his age, and we hated having to leave on Tuesday morning!
We came via Boise to pray with a couple the Lord has used in a deliverance ministry. A friend in Switzerland had told us about the Thornbergs and they were willing to take time to pray with Dave and me to make sure that Satan has no remaining strongholds or even tiny finger grips in our lives. We look forward to walking in the freedom the Lord Jesus wants us all to experience.
A joy for me was being able to swim Thursday morning in Boise! We stayed at a motel with a pool and it was the first time I’d been able to swim since my surgery. My right arm wasn’t strong enough to do too many laps, but I could swim and now want to do more. I’ve had to pass up volleyball games and tennis these last weeks, but I’m very grateful that I can get back to swimming. I do have some pain, but it’s manageable. And apart from that I’m continuing to feel well and trying to get in lots of walking and healthy eating. Monthly blood tests will show whether my liver is continuing to function normally.
We had hoped to get our shipment of personal belongings from the dock on Friday, but that wasn’t possible. So early next week we will get the shipment and be able to move it out to a storage building next to the modular house where we’ll be living in a month or so. We went out to see the house and are very pleased with the new paint job on the inside. Flooring will be added this coming week and the rest of the painting completed. At least now we can lend a hand with the work. Lots of cleaning up around the outside makes the house look less abandoned and more welcoming. We know many people have invested many hours in the project already, and we are so touched by their concern.
Wil left at five this morning for Water Ski Camp with the rest of the senior high youth group from church. He was nervous and excited about going, nervous because he hasn’t yet managed to get up on water skis and because he’s afraid he might not get enough to eat (!), and excited because after a month away from friends here, he’ll be with them for a solid week. They had an eight hour drive to get to Dworshak State Park in Idaho and will be sleeping in tents on the ground. A new experience for Wil!
Posted by David at 6:14 AM
July 6, 2005
Back in Michigan
We’ve had lots of time with different branches of Dave’s family while we’ve been in the Copper Country (another name for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Besides Tricia’s wedding on Saturday, a special highlight was visiting Aunt Selma who was 101 in May! Her hearing is still good, and her memory amazing for her age. She did tell me that she has lived in that house all her life, and considering she’s been there since she was married, it has been almost all of her life! I asked the secret of her long life and she told me it was being thankful and trusting God. The truth of that is unmistakable in her countenance. As well as visiting, we’ve been packing. We brought two small chairs with us from La Crosse, and have now packed a very old china cabinet and boxes of our memorabilia into the back of our mini van for the trip back to Portland. Now that we will have a place to call home in the US, we decided it’s time to consolidate our belongings in one place for the first time in our married life! We probably won’t get quite such good mileage with the full load, but my resourceful husband and son figured out how to get all the boxes into the van! Just pray we don’t have a flat tire on route because I don’t know how we would be able to get to the spare tire!
Yesterday was the 4th of July. Since we had been to good parades and fireworks displays in the past few weeks we didn’t go to the local celebrations yesterday, but instead spent the afternoon and early evening at Dave’s brother Kim’s farm with his extended family. Wil devised a most unique croquet course to inaugurate a new croquet set. This morning we had breakfast with the pastor of Evangel Baptist Church here in Houghton, Steve Wilson and his wife Marsha, a great time of fellowship and prayer.
We’ve enjoyed our time here, but Wil is getting impatient to be back in Portland with friends. He would gladly head straight back from here, but since we aren’t sure when we’ll get here again, we want to see as many more friends in the Twin Cities and Fargo areas as we can. Pray for patience for him to be able to wait another 9 days before reaching Portland! We are so grateful for the safe travel, good health, and many good reunions so far.
Posted by David at 9:07 AM