September 21, 2004

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Greetings once more from Vista! After a 5-day stay in Scripps Hospital Encinitas, it was nice to come home again. :-) Praise the Lord for His answer to prayer about the surgery! Thank you all for being so faithful in praying. I have appreciated all the email messages, cards, phone calls, and even beautiful flowers that you have sent.

Praise God the surgery went well. I was awake by the time they wheeled me out of the operating room. The surgeons were both pleased by how the surgery went. I have had no complications. The initial and subsequent pathology reports show no cancer in the one lymph node they removed. That should mean no more chemotherapy. Yeah! Praise the Lord! Pathology on the tumor itself were not as encouraging. It may still be sized as 5 cm so the margins of clean tissue around it are not very wide. Therefore, I will probably be having radiation. That's okay; more or less what I expected. Apparently, the chemo killed the cancer cells at the center of the tumor so it "deflated" but the edges stayed intact. I may learn more at my doctor's appointment next Monday, Sept. 27.

Please keep praying for the work in Iquitos. Pastor Abraham and Patsy returned home encouraged from the Deaf Bible conference in Lima. Let's continue to hold them before the throne of God's grace in their ministry at Efata Baptist Church. This week our mission administrator, Bob Trout, and his wife, Lynne, are in Iquitos to meet with the missionaries and some Peruvian brethren concerning decisions about the future of the work there. Please pray for wisdom, faith, and vision in all their meetings and discussions. By "work" I mean the ministries we are involved in there - Bible institute, youth sports evangelism and discipleship, etc. I don't think they will be discussing the ministry among the deaf directly. Thanks for praying!

May the Lord continue to bless all of you as you have blessed me. Keep looking up!

Your sister in Christ,
Lynn Porter