What a change happens in 2 years. It was 2 years ago this month that I found myself in a hospital bed, wondering how I was going to tell my newly pregnant wife that I was facing a life-threatening illness. It’s been a long two years since I found out I had Hepatitis C, and for those of you who are recent subscribers or new followers, you may want to read a few posts in order to come up to speed (I won’t re-post all the details here for obvious reasons). Here’s my initial announcement, and then that was followed by update #1, update #2, update #3, and update #4. I have been amazed to discover the vast amount of people, all over the world, that have been praying for my family and myself through all this. We’ve been totally floored at the overwhelming generosity of time and resources that we’ve received from all over as well.
It’s so strange to attempt to thank distant brothers and sisters in the Lord on a medium like this, but our family cannot adequately express our thanks to everyone that has supported us in prayer through this time and helped us keep persevering through the midst of what has been, at times, quite a severe burden.
Thank you all so very much; may the Lord repay you all with vast interest for all the love we’ve been shown.
Still, we’re not out of the woods and I need to call upon everyone for prayer once again.
Last week, I spent a day in Vancouver, BC at Vancouver General Hospital and got clearance to start my second round of anti-viral treatment. It seems like my health insurance company has covered my additional medical expenses (though I still have nothing in unambiguous writing) and I’m now taking Sovaldi. Our family would like to request 3 items for prayer:
1. Please pray that this round of treatment works. My previous round of less intense treatment didn’t produce any results, so we’re definitely praying that this round is far more effective. The treatment regime I’m on could possibly eradicate my Hepatitis C completely, so we’d like to as you to join with us in petitioning the Lord unto that exact end. I’d like to invite you to join me in asking and trusting the Lord for complete eradication of the Hepatitis C virus. If this medication doesn’t work, I’m in line for a liver transplant and that’s, well, quite bad news (the waiting list is years, and my liver is not doing well at all…).
2. Please pray for my precious wife (Jennifer) and two toddlers (Tobias & Kajsa). This regime of treatment is quite intense, and the last round of less-intense treatment was amazingly difficult for my wife and family. The side effects are uncertain (everyone responds differently) but last time I lost my memory, got really crabby (quite randomly too; the drugs are actually quite mind-altering), had basically no energy at all, and had a variety of other effects that made life rather difficult for myself and the rest of the family. Please pray that my wife has extra patience, grace and endurance through this all. She’s a far greater blessing than I deserve and has had a real tough go through this all.
3. Please pray for my upcoming job search. I’m trusting that the Lord will make this treatment regime effective, but healing will mean that after this all I can go back to work. I’m going to be searching for ministry work during the next several months that I’m on treatment (and the months of recovery afterwards), and I am absolutely itching to get back to work…but I would rather not go back to my property maintenance job (it’s a great job, but it’s time for a career). I’ve been talking with churches, off and on, but now I’m going to be seriously looking for ministry work.
The problem is that I live in Canada and I’m a theologically conservative/properly fundamentalist fella (in the historic sense) who is educated, fairly inexperienced, and in my late thirties. I’m consistently told I’m “too old” to be a youth pastor, “too inexperienced” to be a senior pastor, “too educated” to be an associate and “too conservative” for all the churches that don’t care much about age, experience or education. The Lord can grant me ministry work, but after talking with as many churches as I have talked with over the last several years, I’m under no delusions about just what an ostentatious act of providence it will be for me to end up working in a church somewhere. I may end up filling a role in the body other than working in a local church (i.e. writing and speaking professionally), but the local church is where I’d love to be.
Over the next 3 months, I’ll be working on book ideas and probably blogging a bit on here and the Cripplegate (and possibly going nuts on one or two other projects that I imagine will surface), but I don’t really know what will be happening since I’m not really sure how bad the side effects of my treatment will be.
I’ll covet all your prayers and will deliver updates as information becomes available.
Until Next Time,
Lyndon “naming it but not claiming it” Unger
