The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7 (NIV)

The first couple of weeks into March have seen an improvement in our weather. We now feel like Spring is arriving! We hope the last snows have passed and the ground cover is melting. The days are longer and the temperatures warmer. Still pretty chilly with below average temperatures, but much better.

Noel’s blood work has also shown an improvement. With 3 out of 4 liver readings now being back into the normal range. This is such a relief. We praise the Lord and thank you for all your prayers… Last week we returned to Boston again a room at the Hope Lodge opened up at the last minute so we were thankful for more answered prayers and not to have to pay for a hotel room.

Noel had appointments for blood work and to see the oral doctor from the Brigham and Women’s, Dr. Treister, and to see Amy, Dr Soiffer’s PA… Noel’s mouth, although improved from the beginning of the year, is still extremely sore. Eating, drinking and even, at times, talking is difficult. Dr Treister said to continue using the mouth rinse 4
times a day and he would also prescribe a couple of Steroid injections directly into Noel’s mouth. Which may or may not help. Noel had the shots on Wednesday afternoon but now, a week later, he has not seen much improvement or relief, which is very disappointing.

Amy was pleased with the good liver function results and lowered Noel’s Prednisone dose again.. It will take a few more months to get off it all together… But it’s moving in the right direction. The slight concern with the sugar levels in Noel’s blood tests in the last few weeks, Amy said was due to the Steroid and they often see this but also expect it to right itself as the dose is reduced.

Please continue to pray for the sores in Noel’s mouth. Which are no fun he longs to eat more than soup, protein shakes and soft food, as even these, and even water, cause pain to his mouth.

Pray also the cold/chest infection/cough he has at the moment also clears up quickly..

We are back to Boston for his next appointment on April 1st. Please pray again for our accommodation needs on the 31st March and 1st April and for our travel there on the 31st March and back on the 1st April, in time for Meryl’s next appointment with her cardiologist on 2nd.

Noel will now write about the second part of our trip… the ministry part.

A lovely blessing has developed as a result of the last Welcome Home Initiative at the Spiritual Life Center that Noel led last October. One of the Iraq war veterans who came and received substantial emotional and soul healing, told us about a Christian Healing Center that had been established in 2013 at Ashburnham, north west Massachusetts. Noel was asked to visit it and advise the folks that run it about how to get ministry to traumatized combat Veterans going.

The original plan was to go in January but this was scuppered by Noel’s illness. We were thankful to God that we could make it on this Boston trip.

Ashburnham is about 1.5 hours drive from the City.

A meeting was arranged for Wednesday afternoon. Frustratingly it did not happen. Spiritual warfare of a kind took over instead. We were delayed at Dana-Farber Cancer Clinic by a silly mixup, described in our Facebook posts that day. We were further delayed by extremely heavy traffic around Boston and Concord. Concord is where the first battle of the American Revolution against us Brits took place in 1775. We almost felt events were conspiring against us again, at least spiritually, and didn’t get to the Healing Center until after 5 p.m.

We discovered our meeting had been postponed until the next morning, so the Holy Spirit redeemed the situation in a good way, as He promises to do! Our hosts readily understood the predicaments we had just gone through!

After a very pleasant overnight stay at the lakeside home of a Center leader and her husband, five of us met on Thursday morning, praying and talking about WHI and ministry to Veterans. The Veteran who came to WHI is already visiting a Veterans Home, beginning to build relationships with some of those living there. We encouraged him to keep going in this ministry. It will surely be blessed. Please pray for Dave’s ministry to be abundantly blessed.

We encouraged our hosts to send several suitable members of their prayer team to the WHI Training Weekend we plan to run at the SLC on August 28/29. The weekend equips suitably “called” Christians how to pray in depth for traumatized Combat Veterans.

We talked about possibly running a training weekend for the center later this year or in 2016.

Finally our hosts were excited, yet challenged, by feeling a strong desire to run a full WHI at a nearby facility possibly in 2016. Would we at the SLC be willing to send team members to help? “Yes, of course we can and will, at least until you are confident enough to run retreats without us,” we said.

After such a hope-filled and positive meeting, we drove home through the lovely snow and tree covered hills and valleys of Vermont and New Hampshire on a cold but extremely beautiful sunny day. We felt richly blessed to be a small part of what we feel is the growth of a new Spring, which is, in fact, already flowing and simply needed recognition (see Isaiah 43:19 – a word from God that we were first alerted to when we started ministering in Eastern Europe in 1993/94). God did some amazing things back then. What, we wondered, will He do here, now, in the Ashburnham area? Please pray for the outcome of this new exciting, potential-filled ministry venture.

We love to hear from you, we are very blessed by your love for us. We love to read your comments left here and on our other web pages and through other means of communication. We pray for you so please let us know your prayer needs. And please do give thanks to The Lord for every blessing of which there are many in our lives.

I will give thanks to The Lord with my whole heart…
Psalm 111:1

Snow, snow and more snow… Here in Glens Falls we have had multiple feet of snow on the ground for weeks and Boston has had record amounts of snow this year. But we have been blessed with fine clear days to drive there and back… for which we are very thankful, last week’s trip turned out to be just overnight as we could only get one night’s accommodation at the Hope Lodge, so we left soon after Noel’s appointments on Wednesday to drive home – just ahead of more snow!

During the 2 weeks since his last visit to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Noel had blood work done at the CR Wood Cancer Center in Glens Falls and it seemed that things were beginning to move in the right direction, so we were very pleased that the tests at the DFCI showed the same movement with slightly better readings for Noel’s platelet levels and liver functions… this coupled with the fact that Noel’s mouth is much less sore and he says he now feels about 70% well… it was decided to begin to reduce the high dose of steroids he was prescribed! Coming back off them is a lengthy process. This is good as the side effects of the steroids are not much fun, one of which we need to keep an eye on is the rise in ‘sugar’ levels… So he will have blood tests again next week at the CR Wood Cancer Center here in Glens Falls.

We praise the Lord that we are coming out of this dark valley and moving forward again. Noel is still on what he calls ‘light duties’ (British Army term) and trying to pace himself and not to rush back too quickly into doing too much. We have now learned that he must be careful not only not to catch infections but also not to over tax himself as this puts a strain on his, as yet still immature, immune system which then seems to result in the GVHD flare ups. They arrive quickly, with little warning, and then take ages to recover from.

But even on ‘light duties’ life seems pretty busy with no time to be bored.

We are grateful for all your prayers and support in so many ways – your snail mail and welcome calls and messages. We are sorry if we are not always quick to reply and hope you will bear with us. We are also grateful for the recent anonymous donation in Noel’s honor to CaringBridge. Although we do not receive the donations made to CaringBridge ourselves, they do go towards providing this great asset for us and others free of charge which enables us to keep in touch with you all though that service.

We were given the option of Noel’s next appointment being in 2 or 3 weeks, so we decided to take the 3 week break and his next appointment is on March 11th. We are once again on the wait list for a room at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge. Please pray for a room to become available there. Hope Lodge is a wonderful blessing and being able to stay there on so many of our visits to Boston has saved us hundreds of dollars in hotel costs. We are so grateful to the American Cancer Society and those who support it for enabling us and others to stay there at no cost. Of course we try make donations ourselves from time to time, and occasional donations from others are always welcomed by the management of the place, which costs a huge amount to run each year.

It won’t be long now before we will again be turning our own thoughts and efforts towards our own fund raising for the American Cancer Society through our participation in the Relay for Life. For us this has become an annual family event as we celebrate Charlotte continuing to be a cancer survivor, as well as Noel and myself. We would not have chosen these three journeys but they are 3 journeys during which we have received many, many blessings, especially drawing closer together as a family and having our faith in a Mighty God strengthened.

God bless you all.

Meryl and Noel

 

After note from Noel: We have not been engaged in much ministry these past two weeks. The Lay Chaplains Academy went very well and was enjoyed by those who were able to attend. Sadly as you know we were not able to be there. In conversation with Bishop Dan at the Spiritual Life Center, we have decided to postpone the female combat Veterans healing retreat until later in the year (we had not yet widely advertised it and there were no registrations, coupled with my own health and that of one of the staff at the SLC). The main ministry event recently was the annual Board meeting of By His Wounds ministry (Rev. Nigel Mumford’s healing ministry), which I was able to attend via Webex. I have been able to do a bit of follow up over Facebook with a former Croatian soldier who I met at Global Interaction last December. He wants to translate some of the Welcome Home Initiative materials to help the soul wounds suffered by Bosnian War Veterans.

My help comes from The Lord , who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2

O God our help in ages past. Our hope for years to come . Watts.

The last two weeks seem to have flown by. Lots of snow, some sunshine but extremely low temperatures, Glens Falls was reported one night last week to be the coldest location in the whole country. With minus 32’F, now that is cold!

I am pleased to say I am fully recovered from the bronchitis although very tired and Noel has slowly been feeling much better, the medications kicking in and reducing the horrible GVHD symptoms. The rash is gone and the sores in his mouth are getting much better. He began to go from only liquids and blended soups to soft foods and a more normal range of tastes. Today he has eaten a sandwich for the first time in weeks. Talking for him has become easier although his voice is still not quite his normal one yet.

This week we drove to Boston as normal on Tuesday, thankfully a dry, cold and clear day… the countryside looking beautiful with all the fresh snow. Boston had so much snow travel in the city was extremely congested. Huge snow banks and buried cars along the roads. We had been unable to get a room at the American Cancer Society’s facility, the Hope Lodge, but were able to get a room at reduced rates for hospital patients at the Inn at Longwood, almost next door to the Dana-Farber. For which we were very thankful.

Noel’s appointments on Wednesday were early in the morning so we planned on leaving around lunch time to drive back to Glens Falls ahead of the predicted bad weather coming from the North West.

Noel, we thought, had an ear infection, with a bit of associated dizziness, and this was confirmed by Dr Soiffer. We were disappointed in the fact that Noel’s liver function tests were slightly worse again… So Dr S has ordered blood work to be done at Glens Falls CR Wood Cancer Center next Wednesday as he wants to keep a good check on this. He was also surprised to see that Noel’s platelet count had suddenly dropped. They have never returned to what is considered normal at 150.000 but have been holding steady at around 120,000 to 130,000 +/-, so yesterday’s reading of 57,000 gives cause for concern so along with the blood test for his liver they will also check his platelets again next week. If they should fall below 50,000, I expect he will be given a transfusion. But in the mean time he must take care not to do anything that could cause bleeding.. We will then return to see Dr S in 2 weeks time on Wednesday the 17th February.

Dr Soiffer is a little puzzled as to what these changes mean but he does know there is no sign of rejection of the transplant by Noel’s body as tests show Noel’s bone marrow is 100% that of his donor. So he is pretty sure it all has something to do with the GVHD – Graft verses Host Disease.

The antibiotic that Noel was give yesterday, did not suit him at all… After just one dose, after a few hours he was very, very sick. Vomiting and feeling extremely dizzy.. So today I called the Dana-Farber and he has now been prescribed a different antibiotic for the ear infection. One he has taken before so we hope he will not react to this one.

Apart from the health issues we are enjoying being home, seeing the grandchildren, getting back to our church and reconnecting with folk.

Noel is not able to really get back into his ministry as yet. So until the health issues are resolved everything is on hold… Which is frustrating for him. He estimates he is operating at, perhaps, 80% of normal, at the most. Each day is a bit of a struggle – but improving! For both of us!

This week, Noel has been constantly thinking and praying for the Lay Chaplains Academy, mentioned in detail in our last update. It has been tough for him to be there in his heart but not physically.

Thank you for all your loving support, prayers, phone calls and correspondence… they mean a lot to us. Please keep praising God for all his blessings and praying for speedy a recovery for Noel. Safe travel to and from Boston and the funds to cover the increase in medical expenses at the moment.

For those of you, who like us have lots of snow and more to come. Keep warm. For those of you in sunny places. We wish we were there! Our prayers are with you all. God Bless you!

Meryl and Noel.

Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good!
His love and mercy endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16 :34

After extending our stay in Boston by a day, last Friday, a week ago today, we decided to drive home to Glens Falls… 7 weeks to the day since we had left for our long international trip… Nether of us felt well… so were glad to be home and have an early night.

On Saturday morning I went to the Doctors as I felt no better from the cold and cough I had been fighting for almost 2 weeks… seems I had developed Bronchitis, most likely as a result of my cold being either the same RSV virus Noel had or the ‘flu. Seems the ‘flu shot I had last Fall was not able to protect me… since the infection was viral… I was given a 5 day steroid course and codeine cough mixture. It was turning into a frustrating weekend for us both.

Our Health Insurance company twice refused coverage on the special medication for Noel’s mouth that had been ordered by the head of Oral Surgery at Brigham and Woman’s in Boston. Eventually, after many phone calls, I was able to get it directly from the pharmacy in Boston by paying out of pocket and them giving me a 50% price break
and have it sent in the overnight express mail so thankfully Noel was able to begin using it for his mouth on Saturday. The ointment prescribed for his lips was also refused cover. Today at the Dana-Farber a special case is being put forward to try and get it paid for as the out of pocket cost will be $550. And the Doctor thinks it will help. All very frustrating.

We just spent the whole weekend resting, we did not even attempt to unpack from our long trip or read all the accumulated mail the mail man delivered, that had been held for us… It will just have to wait.

By Monday we were both beginning to feel some healing effects of the medications and lots of prayer from friends and family.

Tuesday… We were back on the road to Boston for Wednesday’s appointments. We were glad to be able to return to our room at the Hope Lodge.

Noel’s medical team of Dr. Soiffer and Amy Joyce his PA were pleased to see Noel looking a little better. Having mostly got over the RSV virus… and the medication beginning to bring some relief to his mouth. Although he is still drinking Ensure he has been able to have some Chicken Noodle soup and canned pears which I have put though the blender. And speaking is somewhat easier.

Dr. Soiffer says that the sores in his mouth, the digestive discomfort, the constant hiccups and reflux, his loss of 20 pounds in weight, the skin rash and muscle aches are all caused by the GVHD (Graft Verses Host Disease). The virus contributed to worsening it. Noel’s liver function tests showed some improvement, which is
encouraging.

They are now treating the GVHD aggressively with a high dose of daily steroids… and some prescription medications for the hiccups and reflux and codeine cough mixture for the lingering cough.

Noel is very tired and hopefully will now be able to sleep better with out too much discomfort.

The next appointment to review him is in 2 weeks time. Wednesday, February 4th. at the Dana-Farber. We are on the wait list for accommodation at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, please pray for a room to be available, as otherwise it means a hotel room.

Although getting Noel’s health balanced again must be his first priority at the moment, it is noteworthy that Feb 4th brings some disappointment too. This was to be the first day of one of his main ministry events for this year. Along with two Anglican Bishops of the
Anglican Chaplains jurisdiction of ACNA, Noel, as Prior of the newly created Order of St. Martin of Tours, was to have led several discussion and teaching sessions at the 2015 Lay Chaplains Academy near Birmingham AL. St. Martin is acknowledged worldwide to be the patron saint of military chaplains. He also had a significant ministry
towards ordinary men and women, also an important ministry for Lay Chaplains. He lived from AD 316-397, became Bishop of Tours, France in AD 371 and his festival day in the same as Veterans Day/Remembrance Day, November 11th. Please pray the Academy will be hugely successful for the training, community spirit development and growth of Lay Chaplains (currently totaling 9) in the Anglican Church of North America.

All Noel’s ministry is on hold at the moment but we hope he will be well enough before too long to get involved again, especially to co-lead a healing retreat for female combat veterans from March 16-18 at the Spiritual Life Center in Greenwich, NY. But in the mean time please keep him in the loop if you are involved with any of his projects: ACCTS, Lay Chaplains ministry, WHI, Spiritual Life Center (SLC). He needs to stay connected.

You can always contact us by phone 1-518-824-5863, I am trying to be Noel’s ‘secretary’ and answer calls. You can also send emails. Copying to us both [email protected] and [email protected]. By sending to both of us hopefully one of us will see it!

Please continue to pray for Noel’s healing and that we both feel well again soon… we continue to be encouraged and not discouraged and please pray for our return journey to Boston on the 4th for good travel weather. It’s a very cold winter here in Glens Falls.

Today our granddaughter Charlotte, who had told me before we left on our long trip that “it isn’t normal, Granny. It’s just not normal” was happy to see us today as we collected her off the school bus and said, “now it’s normal” and we all agreed it was good to see each other again.

Thank you for continuing to support us in prayer . Please keep in touch. God Bless you!

Glens Falls… May 20th 2014

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
Ephesians 1:11-12. The Message

The 2 months since my last update seems to have flown by… life as we get older seems to get busier and busier. Both Noel and I have recently celebrated birthdays, always a joyous time for us as we love to celebrate more birthdays… a gift from The Lord.

During the past few weeks we have been, as always, busy with helping to look after Charlotte and Lucy. We continue with our fitness walking… and Noel is busy once again with his ministry (see his notes below). And, of course, as the seasons change I find myself with yard work to do again, Noel is of course quite happy that he is still restricted from yard work something he has no passion for ! His immune system does not need any attacks from mold etc which is thrown into the air when we mow.

Last Monday we were in Boston again for Noel’s now bimonthly routine appointments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. We were once again blessed with accommodation at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge… such a comfortable place to stay. We had lovely fine travel weather on both Sunday and Tuesday. The country side is looking beautifully green after a long, white winter.

During the weeks since his last appointment, Noel had a second extremely nasty head cold of this year, with a lot of congestion that was hard to shake off… even with prescription meds… and a return of the mouth sores. Amy, Dr Soiffer’s assistant, said the mouth sores, which are caused by the GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) are not uncommon in stem cell transplant patients when they are fighting some other infection such as a cold. Thankfully both the cold and the sores are very much better now.

Otherwise Noel continues to get stronger and feels great. It is now just over 3 years since we found out he had this rare cancer of the bone marrow… I say had, as he is now in remission and does not have any signs of the cancer. It really is a miracle that he is alive… with out the transplant he may not now have been. And we give thanks everyday for God’s amazing grace. Noel celebrates 2 years of new life on June 11th – the day he received the donor stem cells. Praise The Lord!

Amy was happy with all Noel’s blood work even though a couple of numbers could be better (red cells, platelets and liver) but he is doing great. In the process of slowly reducing the drugs Noel has been on for the last 23 months, she took him off one of the immune suppressant drugs he has been taking. We pray this will be a good move, without side effects.

We are now just a few weeks away from participating as a family in our 5th Relay for Life. There are thousands of good causes and fund raising events for a multitude of different reasons and I am sure many are dear to your heart. Cancer research, the care and well being of cancer patients are two of ours… because we as a family have had close encounters with cancer, Noel and I, along with Charlotte, our granddaughter, are all blessed to be survivors. For this reason we Relay and try to raise funds for the American Cancer Society in support of the amazing work they do… but to raise funds we need donations… please would you consider making a donation small or large, it all helps… Last year our team HEARTS OF HOPE raised over $2000. this year we hope to raise even more… Please help us.

Charlotte is trying to also raise funds on her own initiative (with a bit of help to show her how). Last summer, during vacation between Kindergarten and First Grade, she held a Lemonade and Cookie Stand every Saturday afternoon… this gave her a good start to her 2014 fund raising …maybe you could help her reach or surpass her goal… and make a donation to her effort… please visit http://tinyurl.com/lh79plo.

For Meryl and Noel please visit our team page HEARTS OF HOPE At this link and click on our names. The web link is http://tinyurl.com/q438cev. Thank you !

Noel’s next appointment at the DFCI in on the 7th of July… But before we drive to Boston again we have several other trips to make. Noel will be travelling by road and air to Virginia Beach, VA and Columbus, GA, as a panel member for a hands-on workshop training church and ministry leaders how to pray for Veterans and their families suffering from combat stress (May 30/31) and co-leader of a Welcome Home Initiative retreat for Veterans suffering from combat stress (June 5-7). Please pray for significant ‘soul repair’ to take place in the lives of those attending both events. Then, from June 28-30, we will drive about 8 hours to Greensburg, PA to attend the Anglican Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (AAFC) annual training symposium and convocation. These ministry activities will all be carried out as staff members of ACCTS (www.accts.org) and as a Lay Chaplain commissioned in the AAFC. Please pray for safe travels, good meetings and sufficient finances to cover both trips.

Please continue to pray for our sons Charles and Toby; our daughters in law, Sarah and JoAnn; and our grandchildren, Evelyn, William, Charlotte and Lucy. Also pray for safety and good health, as we all look forward to a family reunion, all 10 of us, here in Glens Falls in the summer, when the UK contingent visit for a week.

Thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us, your support has been amazing, we hope we can encourage others as they encourage us… please stay in contact with us, send us your news updates and prayer requests. And our door is always open so if you ever find yourself in our area… please visit us… God Bless you and your loved ones.

This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118.24.

Looking back since our last update a couple of months ago, life has
been busy and time has passed quickly… they say the older we get the
faster time goes… The calendar tells us it is the 1st day of
Spring next week and now that we have ‘sprung forward’ here in North
America into Daylight Saving Time (DST) it certainly seems that Winter
may be on the way out, although we still have at least a foot of snow
on the ground and we woke this morning here in Boston to a covering of
fresh snow!! The weather forecasters promise more on Wednesday, both
here and at home. But although long, extremely cold and a more than
average amount of snow (a total of over 60 inches) we have had some
bright sunny days and Noel and Charlotte enjoyed a half day skiing and
tubing during the school break at our local ski hill and we had fun
playing in the snow with both girls when school was closed because of
the snow. We also got lots of exercise clearing our drive and sidewalk
many times!

Our drive to Boston yesterday was in brilliant sunshine and with the
snow on the ground and the frozen lakes the scenery was very
beautiful. We are blessed to be staying yet again at the ACS Hope
Lodge. Today’s appointment at the Dana Farber with Dr. S went well.
During the last 2 months Noel has experienced some recurrence of the
mild GVHD, not helped, I am sure, by a very lengthy sinus cold which
his immune system found hard to shake off.

Today’s blood work was stable with acceptable if not perfect levels.
Dr. S made some slight adjustments to his drugs and was still very
pleased with Noel’s continuing great progress. The blessing of this
was brought home by meeting up in the waiting area with a couple we
have often chatted to in the past. She, since we last saw them, has
been told her cancer has returned and she has been hospitalized with a
debilitating recurrence of GVHD. We cannot be grateful enough that
Noel’s progress since his transplant has been so good. Most sadly, in
the past few weeks, we have had news of several friends and others we
know closely who are newly in the battle; of other friends and family
members of friends whose battle with cancer continues to be a
challenge or, sadly, the fight has been lost. Our prayers are with
them all.

We are also reminded that here in the USA the ongoing work of the
American Cancer Society is so crucially important. Support is needed
for research to find cure. Support is needed in so many different ways
for patients and families going through the battle. Although by no
means unique, we are a family who know some of the challenges cancer
brings with it. So, we will again this year be participating in the
Relay for Life fund raising event being held at Greenwich, NY. Along
with other members of our team, HEARTS OF HOPE, we hope to raise more
funds for the American Cancer Society than the $2,000 the team raised
last year. We would ask you to consider helping us in this and to
visit our Relay for Life web pages and make a donation. Charlotte, our
cancer survivor granddaughter, is also raising funds as part of the
team so a donation to her page would be a huge encouragement to her
and her effort for Hearts of Hope this year.

For Charlotte, go to: http://tinyurl.com/lh79plo

For Meryl, see: http://tinyurl.com/n8v7aqj

Our families on both sides of the Atlantic are doing well,
grandchildren Eve and Will both celebrated their birthdays in February
in style – they both had Chicken Pox, but are now well again.
Charlotte and Lucy are both doing great and keeping us ever busy.

Now a word from Noel about what he has been doing on the ministry front.

“Meryl has already mentioned about the ‘Granny and Poppa Daycare’ we
enjoy twice or three days each week, and the lovely half day Charlotte
and I spent skiing and tubing. We love this close contact we have with
her and Lucy, even though we are usually quite tired at the end of
each day!

“I have also been busy editing and compiling the Leaders and
Participants guides we are preparing to support the Welcome Home
Initiative DVDs which have been made for each healing and teaching
session. We hope these guides will be ready to use on the weekend
conference at the end of May at Virginia Beach to train and equip WHI
retreat organizers. It has been difficult and time consuming to make
progress on these guides and we feel we need to speed up getting them
ready for publication.

“I’ve been quite busy keeping in touch with several Chaplains and
other Combat Veterans through all forms of social media, phone calls
and face to face meetings. By nature this is a discrete ministry and
one cannot say much for reasons of confidentiality. Suffice to say
many are blessed to have a shoulder to lean on or a listening ear.

“Next, I was blessed and privileged to talk about my faith and the
Welcome Home Initiative at an interfaith breakfast meeting in
mid-February which was well received.

“Finally, last week, I was invited to form part of the prayer and
planning team of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy Diocese preparing a
Welcome Home ministry on behalf of the Anglican Church in North
America (ACNA). All good progress in advancing the Kingdom of God
within the military environment.”

Thank you and God bless you for continuing to take this journey with
us. It will be 3 years on April 1st since Noel was rushed to the ER
and the journey began and 2 years in June since his transplant. Your
faithful support, prayers and love have made a world of difference to
us both. Please continue to be in contact with us and keep us updated
with your news and prayer needs so that we can give thanks and pray
for you.

Noel’s next appointment here at the Dana Farber. Is scheduled in 2
months time for Monday May 12th. At this time he will receive more of
the childhood immunizations his ‘baby’ immune system needs.