June 17, 2008
Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,
Now that the Calcitonin therapy has become the last medical option for Buntheep's healing, and since it needs to be administered for up to two years, we are beginning to make plans to return to Cambodia. Tentatively we project that we might temporarily leave Jacksonville to visit Pensacola next week, where our church family at First Baptist wants to meet Buntheep and also help us get our dental work and my eye exam done. Then we would return to Jacksonville for the MRI on July 1.
As soon as possible after that, we would depart for Florence, Alabama, where my mother lives, and pack up for the journey back to Cambodia, hopefully about the middle of July. Please pray that God will provide funds to purchase some needed supplies to take back to CCAM with us and to pay extra baggage fees for transporting those supplies, plus the gifts many of you have given to Buntheep and the other CCAM kids.
We have been anxiously awaiting the results of all of Buntheep's lab work to find out if additional appointments with an endocrinologist would be necessary. Praise the Lord that all the tests were normal, so no further appointments will be needed. Even though she missed one period last month, the pituitary and thyroid glands seem to be functioning properly. Possibly the irregularity was caused by the trauma of the radiation.
We are very grateful to the Novartis company for their donation of four month supply of the drug Calcitonin, which is now in our hands. However, Dr. Aldana has been in touch with them again to see if more of the drug could be made available for us to hand-carry to Cambodia with us. Getting couriers to bring the drug to us later will be difficult, and shipping is not a viable option. Therefore, pray for God's provision as needed.
One of our recent prayer requests was for a volunteer to travel back with us to assist me along the way. The Lord has graciously answered our request by prompting a long-time friend and ministry partner, Roslyn Darr, to volunteer for the journey and even to stay short-term to help at CCAM. Please ask God to provide funds to purchase plane tickets for 3 persons: Gioia and Buntheep need one-way and Roslyn needs round-trip.
Right now Max and Martha Crabbe are here in Jacksonville again to pack up most of our things and transport them to Florence to await our arrival there later on. Praise the Lord for their loving sacrifice yet another time.
However, in the midst of so many blessings, our spiritual enemy is busy manufacturing difficulties, for which our God continually provides solutions as we ask in faith. Yesterday, I woke up with the middle finger on my right hand locked in a bent position. Nothing I did would dislodge it. It is swollen and painful. Apparently, this is called "trigger finger." This condition was probably caused by my pulling Buntheep’s wheeled supply cart along with us these many months wherever we went across the hospital grounds. Needless to say, with my hand incapacitated in this way, I am not able to do many important things, especially giving injections of Calcitonin to Buntheep! Thank God for providing Debbie Sells, Buntheep's physical therapist, to give her daily injections while I am unable to do so.
Praise the Lord also for providing an appointment with a hand surgeon this morning. She has scheduled me for surgery tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. to release the “trigger finger.” Please pray for successful surgery and quick recovery.
Ouch! This pecking with one finger is pretty tiring and painful, so I need to stop now. But we continue to wait expectantly for more evidence of the Lord's protection and provision. "Many are the tribulations of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from them all!"
In His Hands,
Gioia and Buntheep