Update from Dec 22

Update on Judah December 22, 2010

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas from rainy Seattle!

we just got back from the hospital and had a good long meeting with Dr Thompson and Dr Cheung.  The results from the original biopsy and  MRI were examined and it is conclusive that Judah does indeed have lymphoblasic lymphoma and is at stage 3.  However, thank God the cancer is NOT in his blood or bone marrow.  This means it is not leukemia.

The doctors are confident in their ability to deal with the illness and will begin treatment next week, after Christmas.  The whole process will take about 2 years with the most intense part being the first six months.  

Needless to say this was another big blow for us, after so much good news the past few weeks.  Thank God for His grace and strong presence with us in this time, and thank you for your continued prayers for our family.  A lot of decisions and changes will have to be made in the next week as we prepare for the next season of our lives.

Among other things please pray...
 for each of us, as we feel like our life has been flipped upside down.
 for Judah and his physical and emotional strength through all of this.
 that we hear positive news about our medical insurance soon.

We love you all and find so much strength in your friendship.  Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you know who has been praying for Judah.  Thank you!
The Andrews
 

1st Update for Judah

Hello friends,

(We will try to send out periodic updates on Judah's condition as time goes along, and ask that you please forward them to anyone you know who would be interested).

After submitting our paper work for medical insurance this morning, we had our first appointment with Dr. Brown (a Christian pediatrician). He checked Judah's paperwork and examined him. Dr. Brown referred us to Children's Hospital in Seattle and will take care of transferring all paper work and setting up the first appointment. By Monday or Tuesday we will know when the appointment will be.

After a lot of discussion and praying we have decided to initiate a strict health plan specifically designed to fight cancer and increase the immune system. Incredibly, a $200 juicer did not sell at our churches missionary auction last week so we have been able to discover the incredible world of juiced fruits and vegetables!

We have a great support system in place with expert individuals able to give advice practically every step of the way. We sincerely thank those of you who have given financially, sacrificed time and prayed, fasted for a breakthrough, spread the word to others, and those who have hugged, cried, laughed and researched with us. We are in this together and God will recieve the glory for this victory. We appreciate you for joining us in this journey.

With Love,

The Andrews Family

Hello friends,

I'd like to thank you for giving and praying for us while I was in the Dominican Republic participating in the YWAM Regional Conference. Below is a brief read out from the time and some wonderful pictures at attached. Again, thank YOU for taking part in this Great Adventure with us! We are blessed!!!

A sense purpose and destiny filled the air as over 400 YWAMers from over 17 nations turned their hearts upward, singing love songs to the Overseer and Bishop of our soul. What a blessing it was to be together with people from around the Caribbean giving thanks to God for his faithfulness for the last 50 years to our mission, and seeking His face for the flames to go forward into the future as we continue to impact the hearts of individuals. It was a blessing to have Loren and Darleen Cunningham with us, the founders of Youth With a Mission. We all feel empowered with vision to continue doing what God has called us to, with a specific focus on the younger generation. Please pray for me as I continue serving as the Area director for the North West English speaking nations within the Caribbean and we seek to see this region empowered with Truth to impact the nations of the earth.

Also please keep our Legacy conference in your prayers for this weekend. It’s evident to us that God is doing something in this time in Belize among the young people. We have over 170 young people that will be attending this conference from all over Belize. Our heart is that God himself would speak this weekend to the hearts of every individual. I will be speaking this weekend on the Kingdom of God and how we as individuals need to prayerfully find out what our part is in seeing His kingdom come to our nation, and to walk in loving obedience to that call in what ever area He may call us to.

Thank you again for your friendship, your love brings such grace to our family as we walk together in the calling of God on our hearts.

With love,

Jason & Sara Andrews

Knights and Days of Chivalry

This week in the "Andrews Academy" ;) we have been studying the "the days of chivalry", with the Lords and Ladies and their castles. Boy oh boy, the kids are sure enjoying this one!

We talked about the sons of a lord and how their life progressed from child, to page, to squire, to knight. Of course we gathered every book and toy we had with castles and knights to examine them in depth! We also made our OWN family Coat of Arms, identifying us from others in "the battle".

They day a squire was dubbed a knight, was a grand affair. There was an all night prayer time, a rare bath to be taken, new cloths to don, a new belt and fancy golden spurs to be fastened on. However, one detail of this whole day stood out to me and kids. Below are the vows a knight would solemnly swear in front of those attending the ceremony -

To be brave and good

To fight for the Christian religion

To protect the weak

To honor women

It stood out to us that the boys went through 21 years of serving and training before they could be a knight, and these were the values a knight carried in his heart. Indeed, it was a time full of feuding and turmoil, yet some things still stand out in history that we can all learn from.

I can assure you that these days of school will stick in my childrens head forever (I hope), it sure will stick in mine!

High School Impact

Jason was able to share in a high school's Special Emphasis Retreat today. We always count it a priviledge to speak truth and love to the youth of our nation and to walk beside them and hand them tools that will enable them to walk differently. We're thankful for the open doors and feel honored to stand with the high schoolers and together see a change come to this nation.

The New Dance Studio!

It's "almost" done! At least it's functional! We're having classes in OUR NEW DANCE STUDIO!!! It's so exciting to see it finally "done"! There is still a lot of work to do, but at least for now we're in our own building and the students are enjoying all the space ("TWO mirrors??").

This is a dream come true for many of us and we're so thankful to God for this miracle. It's amazing. May this building be used for His glory for many, many, many generations to come.

Ad Deum Dance Intensive Readout

Below is an email readout from our Dance School director, Patti George. She and 5 others from En Croix attended the Dance Intensive in Houston Texas this year. Thanks for praying and enjoy the update! ~ Sara

Hello Everybody!

I am home!! I wanted to send a quick thank you and update on the dance intensive this year. It started out intense and ended intense!! I am so glad that I went even though by the second day I missed my babies so much! It was very difficult to leave them for a week but I knew John had it under control... or i made myself believe that! ?? lol.. jk John did an excellent job with the girls.

Every morning we were taken to a church where we would all gather and worship for an hour... sometimes two... how incredibly refreshing to just stand, or sit, or do whatever I want in His presence! God was so there! Everyday God would show Himself to each and every one of our team members. (Bethany, Caleb, Amy, Susen, Vicky and I) I felt so refreshed and revived with my relationship with God, getting back to my first love.
We were then taken to the dance studios, (about 100 students) to get ready for our ballet class in the morning, lunch, modern, and then 2 electives. It equaled up to A LOT of dancing everyday... 10:30 -6pm with a lunch break. We all were pretty much crippled by TUESDAY!! The teachers all loved Jesus and it was a really encouraging time of being challenged in excellence to dance! I was very proud of each one on our team -as we do not have that kind of exposure to classes like that on a weekly basis like most do that were there participating- we all put our everything into it!

I will tell one story for those who like to read ;). Our last elective of one of the days was a choreography class, where you learn some choreography from Ad Deum Dance Company. I have to admit at this point I was EXHAUSTED and in somewhat of a trance... SO tired and annoyed that the song I was learning a dance to was Ave Maria.. an opera song. It proved to be amazing choreography.. really hard.. but amazing. Our teacher, Shizu, an incredible dancer, wanted us all to sit and she performed it for us and gave us the story behind the dance. It was about Jesus' mother and her struggle and journey in life. The dance was powerful and then Shizu started talking about a mother's love.. and how it is comparable to the love of God!! I was in tears, many were, but as a mother I had never identified myself with Mary and how she would have felt having her son go through what He did in His life and then be crucified on a cross. What an experience! And that is just part.

Overall, I felt encouraged and like I was given a few more tools in my belt!
Thanks to all who prayed for us and gave towards this trip!!

Blessings!!
Patti