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I was gently chastised Sunday for not posting so will attempt to bring you up to date with what is going on.

Medical progress: I recovered much quicker from the last Zap and feel 'good' most days, though I need a nap most days too. Tiredness sets in quickly if I work around the house, and that too varies from day to day. The hair stopped falling out, so it is a bit thinner, but still there so I didn't get a buzz cut as I had threatened. The best news is on meds. I stopped taking the anti-nausea pills and that went fine, now I have cut back on pain meds and feel pretty good. I just took a naproxen yesterday instead of my prescription pain med and it is fine. The fact that I can do with just that, plus the fact that I can swallow easily and eat most anything I like makes us think the chemo has been doing some major work. This morning the Dr. agreed and scheduled a follow up test for Aug 8 after my third Chemo cycle. When I entered the hospital I had severe abdominal pain, and had trouble swallowing most days so we are much improved on those scores. Praise God.

Yesterday I wrote but did not post:
Friends reported Sunday that their daughter Lisa was facing a battle with cancer. She is a young mother with a new baby--a situation so unlike mine that the fact it is cancer is the only commonality. We sometimes agonize over how to pray to a sovereign God in such situations: on the one hand we know he is working out His plan, not our. On the other hand, cancer is such an evil thing. I feel we must pray boldly: He is not above listening to us and doing what we ask. Read over the interchange between Abraham and God on God's plan to destroy Sodom (Gen 18:20-33) and see if God won't change His plan for us. With six requests Abraham bargained with God over how many righteous people in Sodom would be enough to save the city. He bargained God down from 50 to 10 righteous people, but God did not find even 10. Why did Abraham stop at 10? One more request from 10 down to 5 may have saved Sodom (though I can't imagine that as a good thing). So let us follow Abraham's example with our prayers and pray boldly for Lisa and her family.


Today we find the tumor is benign after all. Does this constitute answer to prayers such as the above? I certainly believe so.

Sunday we had a most excellent sermon on taking dominion where ever God has placed us. One of the points was illustrated with an excerpt from Richard Dawkins, one of the four "New Atheists" who have gotten a lot of press in the last few years. I was familiar with Dawkins and the others from various readings and a book I just finished (Beyond Opinion by Zacharis). Their two tenets seem to be: 1. there is no God, and 2. I hate Him. Their argument, when they try to make one, though judging from another of the four whose book I did read, Christopher Hitchens, usually they just rant, goes like this:
1. There is evil in the world
2. If there were a good God, He would deal with it.
3. Nothing has been done.
4. Therefore there is no God.
This argument makes a big leap at number 3. We Christians would argue that He has dealt with it in the only effective way so the argument fails. The press, being mostly non-Christian, lets that go by and still gives these people lots of publicity.

The one of the four I have read, Hitchens, has a book called "god is not great". As I said, it is more rant than reasoned argument, somewhat because that is Hitchens' style, but also because well thought out logical arguments fail for reasons like the above. I wrote a review on his book, but it is too long to post: if you want it, I will email to those who request or find some other way to post. Hitchens took part in a debate last week at a libertarian conference. His opponent was Dinesh D'Souza author of "What's So Great About Christianity?" and the debate was at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. Judging by the way Freedom Fest is billed, I doubt there were many Christians, but D'Souza 'won' by a show of hands. Complete report here: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69456

Thanks for your prayers.