When we began our ministry in Victoria, she had just graduated from University. She took a job here in order to help us in our church. We had a handful of people. She came, not knowing how the Lord would lead, but she came knowing that the chances of finding an eligible Christian man might be slim.

That was 24 years ago.

Well, last year, the Lord brought a single Christian man to our church … about her age … like her, never married.

When I first talked to this fellow on the phone, I wondered what the Lord might have in store. And this was it:

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of conducting the ceremony, my brother preached the sermon, and my sister got married to one of our deacons.

(That’s some of the nieces and nephews in the picture also.)

We’ve been a little busy with all this, but all the guests have gone home now. Things are subsiding back to normal. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing this marriage about.

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

I have written about this before, but I just want to again give praise to the Lord for the gifts he gives to men.

Six and a half years ago, my wife began to lose weight rapidly and was bruising easily. She was becoming more and more exhausted each day. (She was enjoying the weight loss part!) We called our doctor who immediately got the ball rolling in our health care system, no small feat. The diagnosis was Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Our hematologist was very upbeat, however. The new therapy for this disease was a drug called Gleevec, just approved for CML treatment two years previously. We haven’t looked back. Gleevec has very minimal side-effects (we haven’t really noticed any). My wife is living a normal life.

The interview with Bryan Druker, the doctor in charge of developing Gleevec reminded me of how close my dear wife was to death’s door:

The problem [with a CML diagnosis] was that the death rate in the first year was 25 to 50 percent.

The life expectancy after diagnosis before Gleevec was about 5 years. And the previous treatments would make those years pretty miserable.

This interview gives you a bit of insight into the persistence and dedication of Dr. Druker in bringing Gleevec into production. It is now approved for ten different forms of cancer, but is most successful with CML, I believe.

My wife takes a couple of little orange pills every morning and God has given her six and a half years of normal life. If there is a drawback, as I was commenting to a friend, is that she would have been in heaven these last five years or so … instead, she gets to live with me.

Maybe there is a purgatory?

Yesterday and today she was off driving our sons to Sea-Tac for their trek back to school. They’ll probably make it back before she gets home, but that is a fact of Island life.

In her absence… well, things haven’t fallen apart, but let’s just say her presence is sorely missed…

It’s not that I can’t cook. In fact, I’m a pretty good cook, just ask my kids (but don’t let them talk to you about "Stuff"!!)

No, it’s not that I can’t cook, its that I can’t manage without my wife. She runs our household with great efficiency (and a little too much obsessive worrying). She does this in the midst of a very active ministry among the ladies of our church. She is a pretty amazing person.

So our schedule is a little off without her. This absence is just overnight. If it were longer, our house would be a little less… how shall I say this? A little less clean? Certainly less neat. She hasn’t really been gone long enough for me to really let things get messy.

And, I like to think, she needs me around too. She called me today on the road. She is trying to redo our girls room (new comforters, shams, sheets, etc. … stuff – beyond my ken). As it happens, the Target she was in didn’t have everything she needed… so she had to backtrack down I-5 to get more pieces, and got caught in traffic. So she had me look up the map on Google and talk her out of the traffic jam. I hope she made it through without too much trouble.

The last time I talked to her, she was heading for the ferry and should be boarding as I type. When she has one of these crazy travel days, it makes me wish I was with her so I could help her with the driving (though the shopping end of it would only drive me slightly more batty than usual).

Nevertheless, it is times like this that remind me that Solomon was right when he said:

Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

And God looked at all he made, and behold it was very good. The crowning act of Creation, by the way, was a wedding.

^KJV Psalm 34:1-8 <A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.> I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

I found out yesterday about the medical procedure that my Dad underwent today. Dad called me at my home in South Carolina to tell me about it because it did involve some risk. The risk involved a very, very small percentage, but our family tries to avoid even the smallest risks, maybe because my grandfather sold insurance during his working days.

I wasn’t quite sure what to say, and my brothers (who were at my house at the time) weren’t either. We assured him of our prayers, and then we all tried to think of more pleasant things to discuss.

My sister kept us updated throughout the day today, first sending us an email at 2 PM Eastern time to tell us that Dad’s treatment had been delayed. Nothing serious, just part of life with Canadian socialized medicine. There was a possibility that Dad’s procedure would be delayed until tomorrow because of limited treatment space.

Fortunately, Dad was able to be treated today anyway, and the results of his test came back far better than we expected. Dad is doing fine, and no surgery is required — but no more Tim Horton’s donuts.

I’m so glad that even if the test results had returned with more serious news, our prayers would be addressed to the same God who helped David when he fled from Saul. Our weakness and distress today may not seem as dramatic as David’s trouble, but our God is always the same. We can still trust Him.

Yesterday morning I put my lads on a plane at SeaTac.

Last night we came home to a house that has had at least one boy in it for the last 24 years.

Today my boys are busy getting ready for their year at BJU, classes commencing next Wednesday. This is the will of God, and I accept it. (I didn’t say I liked it.)

And much remains for us to do here. My wife and I have ministry appointments all day, things that must be done in the work and ministry as we serve the Lord and his people here.

Our psalm last night for prayer meeting was Psalm 31. David is very low in this Psalm:

Psalm 31:9 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also.

But his trust is in the Lord. Though David expresses a deep complaint, vv. 9-13, he buttresses it on both sides with prayers and confidence in the Lord.

Psalm 31:14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.

…

Psalm 31:19 How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men!

…

Psalm 31:23 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. 24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.

That’s good therapy for the soul.

The other day, my wife shared with my parents the video of our oldest son’s wedding (just over a year ago). My parents didn’t feel up to travelling all the way to Greenville, so this was their first look at the DVD.

My mom’s comment after the video (I conducted the ceremony, so catch this admiring mom comment!):

“He could have told them a lot of that in private counselling and made it shorter.”

Moi? Long? Perish the thought!

Thanks, mom!

Gleevec turned a death sentence into a chronic condition, with next to no side effects for my dear wife. (Except she complains about gaining back the weight she lost with active leukemia!)

Newsweek has an article called “A Step Past Chemotherapy” that describes some of the new approaches being taken in treating cancers of all kinds, following the path blazed largely by Gleevec.

In the article, these are the lines that got me thinking about our milestone:

Such glitches take place within a complex network of genes and proteins, all of them performing specific duties to keep cancer alive. Targeted drugs interrupt various pathways in this network. One significant advance in this new approach is Gleevec, approved in 2001 to treat chronic myeloid leukemia. Gleevec clamps down on the cell’s accelerator, a protein called tyrosine kinase, which drives cancer to reproduce.

Essentially, Gleevec zeros in on the mutated white blood cells that show up in my wife’s blood stream and kills them, allowing the normal cells to function properly and proliferate. Which apparently makes her life expectancy about the same as anyone else. I have given her these comforting words: “You’ll live long enough to die of something else.”

We don’t dwell on it. Our tears and fears are long past. My wife takes a couple of pills every morning and life goes on. We are very thankful to be able to serve the Lord together still. But as I realized this summer is a milestone of sorts, I am full of thankfulness to our Lord who does all things well.

Today, after church, one of our older men noticed something in the carpet runner in our church hallway. He poked at it with his cane … and thought he saw a glint of light. There it was. Five weeks later, my wife’s diamond was found!

The fellow who found it told my wife, “I’ll sell it to you now!” What a bit of rejoicing! One of our ladies said, “it was a perfect end to a perfect day at church.”

Well, it was a blessing to us. It is just a thing, and we had given it up for lost. But we are rejoicing! Thank you, Lord!

I just thought I would share that with you. I’ll give you the update later.

KJV Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

NAU Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.

My dear mother-in-law, Susan Kiser, is home with the Lord. She passed peacefully in her sleep early Monday morning. We had been expecting her passing since she was diagnosed with mesothelioma in September. The Lord was pleased to allow her to live on into the New Year, but took her home on the day my wife was to fly down for her last visit. We have been praying for this day, since Mom’s condition was incurable and her life was uncomfortable the last weeks. Today the Lord answered our prayer. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Many jokes are made at the expense of mother’s in-law. I can happily testify that my mother-in-law was the best of women, one to whom the jokes did not apply. She was a trophy of grace and I thank God for her, and for the King James Only preacher whose ministry brought her to the Lord.

My mother-in-law was raised in a Christian Reformed Dutch home. She told me she had a ‘head knowledge, but not a heart knowledge.’ Without going into painful details, her early married life included a lot of difficulty.

Through the ministry of Wealthy Street Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, the family came to know the Lord. A caring Sunday School teacher intervened in the life of this family and they began to sit under the ministry of Pastor David Otis Fuller. [Yes, that D. O. Fuller.] My father-in-law made a profession of faith first. His life dramatically changed (although some years later he reverted to some of his wicked behaviour from before).

After some weeks of hearing Dr. Fuller preach, Mom K told me that she responded to an invitation during one of the services. She realized that her Christianity was all self and works. What was missing was faith and repentance. On that day, she gave her own life to the Lord and lived for Him faithfully until the day she died.

The home my wife grew up in was a Christian home. Mom K faithfully supported her husband and brought her five children up in fellowship with gospel preaching Baptist churches. My wife came to know the Lord through the personal witness of her mother.

Eventually, the Christian life in this home led three of the five children to Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC. Mom K later joined her children in Greenville, and served many years on the staff of BJU. There my wife and I met. There Mom K became my ally in wooing her daughter. [That is a story much too long to tell here! Suffice to say that without Mom K, our wedding probably would never have happened.]

I honestly am so blessed to be a part of this family. If you have met any of them, you will know what dynamic personalities they each are. My wife was a “Who’s Who” at BJU. The rest of them are the same quality. [I, on the other hand, was a "What's That".] But best of all, best of them all, is my dear mother-in-law. I am so glad to be her son-in-law.

By her faith in the Lord, the suffering of this age is now over forever for her. All the ‘no mores’ of Revelation are a reality. She walks now in the Glorious Day.

And last, I bless God for the ministry of D. O. Fuller, and all men like him, who faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. No preacher of the gospel is perfect and I suspect that I have significant differences with Pastor Fuller, but I have nothing but thanksgiving for him as a fellow saint and servant of the Lord.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

We always try to make Christmas last the whole month of December and with kids away at school it seems easy to keep that holiday spirit while they are home. Monday they leave, but sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

My parents headed home to Alberta on Friday while the kids and I headed north to the Island’s only ski hill. We had a great day with my brother and his family, even though the snow was falling in blizzard like conditions up on the mountain. (Down below, where my brother lives, it was pouring rain – welcome to the Island!)

Our ski hill never has to make any snow, they just get tons of it because of their altitude and the fact that we are in a rain forest down here where the people live. On the mountain, it is just snow and more snow.

While we were there, I am sure we got at least six inches of snow, maybe more. It was really coming down. Just checking their website, I see that they have had another 50 cm since [that's 19 inches in RealSpeak - they've had more than 3 feet in the last three days]. The weather made it a bit unpleasant for the skiing, especially the wind, but still… skiing is great anytime. And for me, anytime is now just twice in the last 27 years. Alas, time and money are always constraints. And now I am feeling that an aging body is becoming another constraint. I did ski. I didn’t fall down once! (I fell down four times…)

The trip was the first time skiing for my younger four. And the result? They want to go back. I guess they are hooked.

It is too bad we don’t live in snow country. My brother and I grew up skiing every weekend through the winter. We were skiing all day every Saturday, every Sunday afternoon after church [until time for evening church] and often on Fridays after school as well. Those were the days. Now when I ski, something funny happens in my legs and my upper thighs catch fire. I don’t ever remember that happening before?? If anyone can enlighten me…

Well it was a great way to finish off our holidays. Now it is back to reality. Work, life, death, taxes… all of those things are happening for us soon.

Brethren, let us pray for one another in the coming year!

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3