Praise and Prayer

Dear Friends,

It is a joy and a privilege to be back at home in Union Center once again. We left Boston yesterday around noon for the 5 hour trip home. The temperature in Boston was a sultry 90 plus degrees - Brown's kind of weather. We drove across Massachusetts on I-90, looking out at the majestic mountains and crystal clear lakes. Even in the Berkshires it was almost 95. We passed the exit for Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Pops. The mountains looked greener, the lakes looked glassier, and the flowers and trees looked brighter. Praise the Lord for His wonderful creation.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."

As many of you now know, I had my surgery on the afternoon of May 11th. The procedure was robotic laparoscopic surgery. I was in surgery itself for a little over 4 hours. I walked from the waiting room to the surgical prep area. An operating room attendant came down to the family waiting room to get me, and before going upstairs we had a family circle of prayer. The attendant requested to join the circle for prayer. The hospital chaplain also came to pray with me while I was in the surgical holding area. The surgery was delayed by 2 very long hours. (Mind you, this was on Friday afternoon in Boston, when people were getting ready to get away for the weekend.) I felt the presence of Jesus all throughout this event. The chief surgeon and his two resident assistants are Christians - the good hands people. The Lord blessed me and intervened for me. I came through surgery well and I began to come out of the anesthesia in less than one hour. When I woke up I was talking and praying. I thought that I had only been sleeping for an hour - not 6 plus!

I was released on Sunday morning to go "home" to our daughter Janice's house. Janice, Jeremy, and Micah's home in the big city became my place of rest, recovery, and recuperation. The surgery was successful and, by God's amazing grace, the pathology report stated that the cancer was completely contained - so that now I am free of cancer. Thank you, Jesus, my Lord and Savior!!! I am feeling stronger every day. I have been able to walk in excess of a mile in a single day.

Throughout this entire journey I have felt the love and the touch of Jesus, our Savior. Out of His great love and mercy He held me fast, and embraced me with His love and grace.

I thank you all once again for your love and your fervent prayers. I feel loved and blessed. I am a sinful man, saved by His grace.

This morning I was reading from Psalm 30, "I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up . . . O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit . . . Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning . . . Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent."

The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful family, a wonderful church family, and a wonderful fellowship of saints around the world. My wife, Alice, became an instant nurse, physical therapist, and personal trainer.

Thank you once again for all of your prayers, e-mails, and cards. Praise the Lord Jesus, for He is alive and well. He saves and heals. He forgives and restores. He reigns upon the throne forever. All is well, and the best is yet to be. It is a wonderful joy and privilege to know the Savior. It is a wonderful honor to serve Him as Lord and King. By God's grace, I plan to be preaching briefly at all services tomorrow.

Sunita and Andy came home in the early hours of this morning . . . Jessica and Tom came in last night as well.

In Christ,

Brown and Alice

Awesome News !! 5-25-07

Praise the lord for this day - one of the ten best days that he has made. This morning was one in which things seemed to be going awry for awhile. When I parked in the parking garage near the medical center the car stalled. At first I couldn't get it started again, but, by the grace of God, success at last. Then, only after circling the 3 levels of the garage did I finally find a parking spot. When I returned to the main level I couldn't find Brown, and then I failed many times to get him on his cell phone.
Finally we connected and began to walk toward the doctor's office on Harrison. After some waiting time elapsed Brown's name was called. Prior to removing the catheter the wound site was x-rayed, and it was deemed to be time at last - Praise the Lord! What a relief - to me as well as to him. I feel like a resident expert in the cleaning and maintenance of catheters, and am happy to resign from the post.
One member of the surgical team then saw us (Brown, Janice, and me) to review the results. Praise the Lord! Not only was the surgery successful, but the cancer was apparently completely contained within the prostate capsule. There is a 97 plus percent chance that Brown is fully cancer free. WOW! We are claiming complete victory.
It is amazing to see the ways in which the Lord has orchestrated this entire event. He has brought us through with grace and glory. (Details to follow at a later time, perhaps).Praise the Lord for His amazing intervention and victory!All glory to God!Brown

Praise the LORD!!!

My dad went to the doctor this morning and was given a wonderful report: the lab reports came back clean and clear! We had been waiting to hear if the cancer had spread at all and got the good news we hoping for. We are so thrilled and grateful. I just got to talk with him for a few minutes and the energy that was already back in his voice from the good news was so refreshing to hear. He is overjoyed and so, so grateful to the Lord and to all those who have upheld him in prayer. My mom and he will be travelling tomorrow back tomorrow to NY and Jessica, Andy and I will come home for the long weekend. I'm sure there will be some celebrating and resting!

Having friends who love you enough to faithfully pray for you is a gift that cannot be measured and one I would rather have than any amount of wealth or prosperity. I know my dad feels the same way and is praying for you all in return.

With love and gratitude,

Sunita

Psalm 103 (Dad's favorite psalm)

Devotions & Update from Alice and Brown 5-21-07

It is a bright and beautiful spring day in Jamaica Plain following 3 days straight of rain. Isn't it so often the way, that we slog through the rainy days of life, putting one foot ahead of another, to step out into the sunshine at last? Yet, even the rainy days, and the hard ones, are days that the Lord has made and we are commanded to rejoice and be glad.

It is so much easier to give praise and thanksgiving when all is "going right" in our lives than when we must endure hardships and difficulties.Did you ever think about the clay, kneaded, thrown time after time, bent into unnatural shapes, and then, if all of that wasn't enough, put into a fiery oven to bake out the impurities and imperfections and to create a vessel that can be used with honor. If the clay had "feelings" I am sure that all of that experience would be tortuous. Yet, without it, the clay would still be just a hunk of wet dirt with no particular value to anyone. We are the clay in the Potter's hands. We endure these hardships for a season but with the promise that "joy comes in the morning."

Brown and I had a restful and worshipful Sunday in JP, though we were unable to make it out for church. As a part of his daily meditations he read through Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 13."Where there is forgiveness of these,, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Hebrews 10:18-25 Each day is a new day in which to practice that "new and living way", to be moulded, shaped, pressed, and set on fire that the Spirit of God may be alive and ever present in us so that we may provoke one another to love.

May this be your daily experience today. May He, who has begun a good work in you, be welcomed to complete it in you. All is well. By the way, Brown is gaining day by day, but can't wait to be free of his encumbrances. Furthermore, he is really eager to be at home again.
Alice and Brown

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