Asking for prayers

Dear friends who read this blog I am asking prayers for a sister minister and friend, Ruth Vann Lillian. She has had some bad news. I am asking for your prayers for her, her husband, Bill, and their boys, Liam (5) and Angus (almost 4). In mid July, she had a colonoscopy with the removal of 4 polyps. The largest (lima bean-sized) turned out to be cancerous. Such is rare at my "tender" age of 39. Because there is a strong indication that the cancer has invaded the colon lining, the doctors have recommended removal of about 10" of her sigmoid colon and nearby blood vessels and lymph nodes to check for spread of the cancer. The good news is that her prognosis is encouraging because the cancer was found early. She is one of the "lucky" ones who had symptoms and paid attention to them. The surgeon gives her a 90% chance of cure with this surgery. He does not expect to find that the cancer has spread..She will have the surgery Aug 31 at UAB and expect to be in the hospital 5-7 days. Then there will be a recovery time of 6-8 weeks. Obviously this will be very hard on her family. Angus was born with many deficits and disabilities and is given ongoing regular therapy which has really helped. So please be in prayer for her and her family.

Aside note to this is that it was over a year ago that another one of our sister ministers in the N. A. conference of the UMC died after fighting colon cancer courageously for more than 6 years. She was a friend of mine, and her death was a big loss to all.