Colson Update 6/24/05

Dear Friends and Family,

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” 2 Timothy 1:12

This is a long one – but today was a big day and we have much to be thankful for!

First and foremost, we want to thank each of you for lifting us up in prayer. We know that churches in California, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania are praying for us, along with our many friends and family across the nation. It is amazing and humbling to know that thousands of people are lifting us up and praying for a special healing for Joey.

Yesterday was a day of great encouragement. Joey had CT scans done, but only after having to drink an entire LITER of barium sulfate and also getting an IV of contrast solution. The tastes were awful, but all things worked together because the CT scans showed that there were no other cancer tumors in his body. So, praise the Lord, the cancer has not spread, and is localized!!!

We are also blessed with a remarkable doctor. We do not doubt for an instant that God brought us to him for this time. If you would like to pray for him, his name is Dr. Ron Fisher. He has gone above and beyond and has stayed right on top of everything. He told Joey to call him “Ron”, gave us his email, and also his home and cell phone numbers!

The specialists from UVA finally called Dr. Fisher today, and will be calling us for more testing and consultations either Friday or Monday. After talking with them, Dr. Fisher confirmed that this is an extremely rare form of cancer to begin with, and even more rare to occur in someone over the age of 15. They are optimistic that Joey’s age (22) will help with the success of the treatment. Dr. Fisher even confirmed that in his entire medical experience he has not seen this type of cancer in this exact form. So, we pray that the doctor’s will have wisdom to know exactly how to treat and work with this unique cancer.

The immediate future holds more testing, and will almost definitely be followed with at least one surgery to start, and then there is still the possibility of more surgery and chemo or radiation.

We are thrilled at the blessing of today, and want to focus on that for now – that it is localized and not spread throughout!

Thank you for your continued prayers, and we will do our best to keep you posted. We can already see God’s hand in so many ways and believe that He will use this to prepare us for His purpose in our lives. Please pray for continued miracles, wisdom for the doctors, strength, energy and perseverance for both of us, and that we can use this to be a testimony and encouragement to others.

We love you,

Joey and Cynthia Colson

Hebrews 10:23