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December 28, 2006
Results of Thursday Appointment at Kaiser
We’ve given you a rest from updates over Christmas. Healthwise, there wasn’t anything to report until I saw Dr. Leimert today and found out whether the tumors in my liver had grown or not. His comment was that the tumors were “relatively indolent but not inactive.” I complimented him on his command of English! Of the three largest, two have gotten bigger (4.1 x 2.8 to 4.3 x 3.4 and 1.0 x l.0 to 2.3 x 1.5) and one has stayed the same. The smaller ones haven’t changed. I tried suggesting that the two that have grown be zapped, but Dr. Leimert wasn’t willing to consider that unless the pain I was experiencing from them was really debilitating. I’m not in pain yet from the cancer, but I probably will be by tomorrow or the next day from the Taxol I had today. I didn’t have any adverse reaction when they gave me the chemo (they give premeds first to deal with the probable side effects and then start the chemo very slowly). But the common side effects of Taxol are: decrease in red cells, white cells, and platelets; sores on lips, gums, and stomach lining; har loss; numbness, tingling, weakness of hands and feet, arms and legs; mild to severe body aches, especially in the legs. I won’t bore you with the less common side effects! Reminds me of sitting in Batangas City with Dode Pack when she had dengue fever (an illness carried by mosquitos). She was reading from Merck’s Manual about what she might experience and it was a long, long list.
Our Christmas has been quiet and good. We haven’t had lots of parties to attend, just a few get-togethers with friends from church, and two families with us on Christmas Day and a few relatives here the day after Christmas (Boxing Day in England). Again this year a highlight was being able to listen to the Nine Lessons and Carols live from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. It was broadcast at 7 am Christmas Eve morning, our time, so I only got to hear half the program before going to church to practice for our morning service. But we were prepared this year, and Dave taped the rest of the service, and downloaded the words to all of the service. And, wonderful as it was to listen to those lessons and beautiful carols written many centuries ago, it was also wonderful to participate in the Christmas services at church here. A year ago I couldn’t play my flute, and this year I can. The excitement for Wil has been getting his own snowboard. He’s off now to look for boots on sale. Then he will be itching to get up to Mt. Hood to try out the new gear!
My friend Linda and I were able to borrow wigs and a number of hats from the American Cancer Society so I can keep my head warm when the hair goes. Of course we are disappointed that the tumors have grown at all when we were hoping the Lord would shrink them, but He knows how in His sovereign plan, He means to use this for His glory.
Posted by David at 3:35 PM
December 11, 2006
Lampinen Email Yule Log 2006
Whirlwind Philippines Visit In November
We reconnected with many pieces of our past during our two-week whirlwind visit to the Philippines in November. Karen was a part of the team that started Cornerstone Bible Christian Church before she met Dave. That church is doing well, now pastored by the son of one of the early leaders. Reinard was playing the guitar when Karen led worship; now he is leading the church! Lord of Life Christian Fellowship also has its own building now, though they still have a large debt to the contractor. Pastor Sam Castro is still leading the church and doing an excellent job of training lay leaders. We spent our first Sunday with the LOLCF family. Dave spent a day with Bob Lopez, director of PMA (Philippine Missions Association) catching up on what has been happening in the PM3 movement (the plan of seeing 200,000 Filipino tentmaking missionaries deployed by the year 2010) and strategizing for Bob’s visit to the Northwest next spring. Faith Academy is the school the boys attended. Karen spoke at a women’s meeting and we both were there for an after-school get-together with teachers. The new swimming pool is magnificent and work was about to begin on a long-awaited auditorium. We weren’t able to attend a service at Faith Fellowship, the church we attended our last few years in Manila, but Dave had a tour of their newly expanded premises and we spent a very relaxing day with Brent Burdick, who pastors the church, and his family. We were married and spent our first year together at Tanauan Bible Church and were able to spend a night in the home of Ana Gamez, one of the young people when we were there, and now heading up the cross-cultural missions work of the church. Her family has a lovely new home in the housing project of the church called Bahay Pangarap. Batangas Province is where we both did our language study and seeing Lerma Calingasan represented Karen’s link with those early years. Lerma was Karen’s first Filipino friend. When they met Lerma was a 16 year old high school student; now she is vice president and CEO of a university of 3,000 students called Lyceum of Calamba. Of course what links together our involvement in all sorts of places and ministries in the Philippines is OMF. We stayed at the OMF Manila Center, attended prayer meetings, met with our new General Director, and enjoyed fellowship with many fellow workers laughing, crying, strategizing, and praying together. A women’s retreat in Calapan, Mindoro meant Karen had extra time to visit with the 21 women who were able to attend. While there she was able to go by boat to a small island to swim while the rest of the group snorkled. We had beautiful weather throughout our trip, help getting around when it wasn’t easy to get places by bus (thank you Reinard!), and lots more visits squeezed than we can tell you about now. If you have access to the internet, check out our updates and photos. One reason for making the trip when we did was that Karen needed to have quite a bit of dental work done and trusted her dentist in Manila more than the one she had been to in Portland! Jonathan finished a root canal and put in three new crowns during our visit. In God’s perfect timing, we were able to make the trip using Northwest Airlines Frequent Flyer miles, so the whole time came as a very special gift from the Lord.
Expanding Opportunities for Missions Mobilizing
Starting January 1, we will become part of the OMF US Home Staff, in the Mobilization Department. Dave struggled trying to work on his own in developing relationships and opportunities to minister among the Filipino churches here in Portland this past year. So, we are excited about becoming a part of a team of mobilizers where we will be given training, direction and accountability in missions mobilization. We will be working closely with our OMF Northwest Regional Directors Dick and Donna Andrews, focusing our efforts here in the greater Portland, Oregon area. We will also make several trips to the OMF US headquarters near Denver, CO for training and face-to-face interaction. Karen continues to work on her book a bit at a time.
Karen’s Health Update
Last year at this time Karen was just starting chemotherapy because the treatment plan she had been on was no longer controlling the cancer in her liver. She was taking a drug called Navelbine from Dec. until Oct. when that was no longer effective. While her oncologist has been fighting cancer himself (he has multiple myeloma and has just had a stem cell transplant) she has been assigned to another doctor. That doctor has been recommending a more toxic form of chemo, but she hasn’t been anxious to start taking it. She had several scans in Oct. which showed that there was cancer again in the breast as well as tumors growing in the liver. The most recent treatment has been a lumpectomy to removed the malignant lump in the breast the day we returned from Manila! Recovery from that has been uncomplicated. But the plan now is to repeat scans on Dec. 20 and start the new chemotherapy on Dec. 28. That means we can enjoy Christmas before having to deal with the side effects of Taxol. We are praying that if God has other plans, He will cause the tumors to shrink even without chemo during the next two weeks. God’s faithfulness hasn’t changed, nor His assurance that He is with us and will care for us.
What’s up with Wil
How do we sum up Wil’s life over the past year? He is now taller than both of us (almost 6 feet), and weighs more! He continues to love sports, but has focused more on soccer this year. He was a forward and received a plaque saying that he was the ‘Most Improved Player’ on his high school team. He’s playing in-door soccer now once a week and needs to learn to run faster so that he’ll be even better next year. He had a lead in the school play last year and discovered he likes being on stage! He also helps with the church AWANA program leading games. Younger kids look up to him and he’s good at playing with them. His grades have been good, he has a lot of friends, and he’s on the Student Council as Social Chairman and in the Spanish Club and Drama Club. He’s also studying New Testament Greek! He’s outgoing, and a lot of fun to be with. He has a very positive and healthy self-image and we’re proud of him. But we aren’t encouraging him to start driving, since at 16 the insurance premiums are really high. No girlfriend yet, but he has discovered that girls exist and he enjoys their company. He worked as a golf caddy last summer and earned enough to pay the expenses on his cell phone for a year. He’s hoping for a higher paying job next summer.
Death Toll Rises after Typhoon
By Carlos H. Conde
Published: December 4, 2006 in the New York Times
MANILA, Dec. 3 — Rescue workers began Sunday to bury hundreds of victims of a landslide set off by a typhoon that loosened the slopes of a volcano in Albay Province in the northern Philippines, sending mud and debris down the mountain. The death toll as recorded by the Red Cross stood at 406 on Sunday, but officials warned that it would certainly climb and that there was little hope of finding more survivors. The Red Cross said that with hundreds of people still missing, and perhaps with entire families buried under the mud, the final death toll could exceed 1,000.
“There are many unidentified bodies,” Richard J. Gordon, the chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, told The Associated Press. “There could be a lot more hidden below. Whole families may have been wiped out.” The National Disaster Coordinating Center reported Sunday, three days after the typhoon struck, that 309 bodies had been retrieved and that 298 people were missing. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a “state of national calamity” on Sunday to hasten the release of government money for rescue and recovery efforts in the hardest-hit areas in the Bicol region, a group of several provinces in the eastern Philippines that are frequently buffeted by typhoons.
The typhoon hit the region on Thursday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds that destabilized the slopes of Mayon, the country’s most active volcano. Most of those killed lived in villages at the foot of Mayon. Mud and boulders cascaded down the mountain, crushing people in their path. Entire villages lay buried beneath thick, black volcanic sludge. The typhoon, one of the strongest to hit the Philippines in years, downed telephone towers and power lines, plunging the region into darkness. Disaster officials estimated that at least 40,000 people had been forced to flee their homes, while local officials said the number of homes destroyed could be much higher. [Note: Typhoon Reming also hit the island of Mindoro. OMF’s Mindoro Center was severely damaged and many people lost their homes and crops. ]
"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed." Matthew 2:10
May you know that joy as you look to Jesus this Christmas and throughout the new year,
Our love in Jesus,
Dave, Karen, and Wil
Posted by David at 2:50 PM
December 7, 2006
Doctor and patient updates
Good news on Dr. Panutich! He was released from the hospital on Nov. 30, two weeks after having a stem cell transplant. When I spoke to him on Sunday he said he was still feeling weak since his counts are low (very anemic and compromised immune system) but I learned today that he has been to his office at the clinic twice already this week. He is sure that prayer has made a difference in his speedy recovery and he has a strong fighting spirit.
It was Dec. 7, 2005 that I started my first round of chemotherapy. I remember only too well how hard those first two weeks were and didn’t want to have a replay this year leading up to Christmas. So again I’m dragging my feet on starting on a new type of chemo, until after Christmas. I’ll have a heart test and CAT scan on Dec. 20th (pray for an easy IV needle insert!) and start the weekly chemo on Dec. 28th, the day after Ben’s birthday. The lumpectomy showed the lump to be malignant, as expected, with quite narrow margins. If that were the only cancer in my body, I’d need to do radiation now, but since the liver is the more major problem, I need to go on to Taxol, a more toxic, systemic treatment. Having the chemo weekly means I’ll be getting smaller doses and maybe my body will find it easier to tolerate. But hair loss, and all the other side effects that go with killing all of the fast-growing cells in my body is what lies ahead, but not just yet.
Posted by David at 11:03 PM
December 1, 2006
December Prayer Bulletin
Dear Team,
After two wonderful weeks of visiting friends in the Philippines we flew out of Manila on Nov. 30th just hours before Typhoon Reming struck the provinces of southern Luzon and the island of Mindoro. This was one of several to hit the Philippines in the last month or so. Here is the report of one weather station as the typhoon initially traveled over the country. “This is an extremely catastrophic typhoon...PAGASA Virac (the government recording station) has recorded wind gusts of 265 km/hr (about 165m.p.h.) ...All interests in the Northern Samar, Bicol Region & Quezon Provinces should closely monitor the progress of this extremely dangerous typhoon.” Here is the weather report from the government weather office yesterday: “At 2:00 a.m. today, Typhoon "REMING" was located by PAGASA radar, satellite and surface data in the vicinity of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro or 100 kms south southeast of Manila (13.5°N, 121.3°E) with maximum sustained winds of 150 kph near the centre and gustiness of up to 185 kph.Iit is forecast to move west at 19 kph.” The storm struck Calapan, the place where we were this past weekend for the OMF women’s retreat. It is too early to know the full extent of the loss of life or damage. However, the main part of the OMF Calapan Centre has lost 75% of its roof. If this is the case for a solidly built structure, we fear what the situation will be for many poor families who have far less substantial homes. Many farmers were just recovering from an earlier typhoon and replanting rice fields. Pastor Sam Castro, from Lord of Life, told us of his brother in Mindoro who had lost most of his fruit trees a few months ago. All he could was to make charcoal from the downed trees and sell that to buy new seedling trees to replant. Do pray for many thousands of people who today are homeless and those who have lost loved ones.
We hope to get a newsletter written in the coming week, so will tell you more about our trip soon. Right now, we’d like to share several specific answers to prayer. We know that many of you were praying that our flight would arrive on time since I had surgery scheduled for 10:30 am yesterday. Our plane landed almost an hour early (!) and we had time to get home and unpacked before a friend took me to the hospital. Another answer is that the nurse who put a needle in for me to receive anesthetic was able to get into a vein on her first try (it usually takes at least three). I slept well during the procedure, and with pain medication, have had a lot of rest in the past 24 hours. Though a bit dopey, I was able to lead our Beth Moore Bible study this morning. And after a month of rain here, the sun has come out! Also in answer to prayer, Wil had a good two weeks here in our absence. He stayed with four different families during that time.
As we look to the future, we are facing a lot of uncertainties. Based on the biopsy findings from Karen’s surgery we will have a clearer picture of what the next steps will be in the fight with her cancer. She will need to have new scans soon to determine whether the tumors in the liver have grown more and if the surgery has removed all cancerous material. Based on that information, we will need to decide on a new treatment plan. Pray for wisdom and God’s guidance for the doctors and for us in this regard. Wherever we went in the Philippines, we were assured of the prayers of those we met. Many took time to pray for us right then and there, most asking God to heal Karen, which is indeed the desire of our hearts. Our faith and trust are in God. He knows what is best for us and we know that his will is “good, acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
With our love and gratitude for your partnership in prayer,
Dave & Karen
Posted by David at 3:48 PM