An Opportunity For Praise!

This last week was an opportunity to trust God. A couple of our dearest friends, Dana & Julie had quite the scare this last week. Over the camping trip a few weeks back Dana had Julie show us a suspicious mole on her arm. Jason, being familiar now a couple times with what irregular moles look like, mentioned to her she really should get it looked at. So she tried for a couple of weeks to get in touch with a dermatologist from our church who practices at Vanderbilt. For whatever reason, the nurse just wasn't calling her back and finally Julie just had to corner the guy at church and ask him to please look at it and let her know if she should come in. He wanted to see her the very next day.

Last Tuesday they did the biopsy and said they would have the results within a couple days. On Thursday she got the call from the doctor, it was malignant melanoma. His prognosis wasn't good and he said he needed to measure it to find out how deep the cancer cells went. If it was .75-1.0 mm dense, he was going to ask Julie to undergo lymph node mapping to see where else the cancer might have spread to. And then they would discuss treatment options. She called me Thursday evening barely able to communicate the news through her tears, and said she was hoping some of us from the small group could come over that night and pray over her. Within a few hours, everyone had dropped what they were doing and headed over to be with her and Dana. We all surrounded her, anointed her with oil and prayed faith and healing over her body. It was awesome to see everyone come together so quickly as a family and be there in a time of need. And yet as scary as it was, I didn't feel fear. I knew God would move on her behalf.

Friday afternoon I get a call from her that the cancer was only .71 mm thick. Wow. God moved and answered our prayers down to the specifics. It was incredible and Julie was ecstatic. As we all were. She headed back to Vanderbilt that afternoon and they removed more tissue just to be safe, in all its probably a 4-5 inch gash in her arm and then they stitched her up. She was so brave and I am beyond grateful. I love this girl dearly. She has been a gift that God has added to my life and to our small group since last fall. We have quickly become the closest of friends. That's what friends are for. To be family when family is not close by. To pray at a moment's notice when needed. To hold and comfort when there is fear and uncertainty. And to stand beside in battle when the trumpet sounds. I am so grateful, so blessed beyond words with the friends God has brought into my life here in Nashville and even more grateful He answers prayers.