Update on Half-Step Denise

[Gail]

Quote:

This evening I went and visited Denise's Dad. He filled me in on what is

going on with her.

I had not talked to her for a little over 1 week.

3 Days ago she went back to the hospital.

John Muir Concord Campus

Concord Ca.

925 682 8200 Room 3117

The second chemo treatment was a much lower dose than the first one. The

Doctors are not happy with the results.

It is not doing the work they hoped it would do. They cut back on the

amount because the first treatment was too much for her to handle.

She has not been home for 6 weeks now!

I said hi to her this evening at her Dad's place, but did not talk to her

any more than that.

Please share this with the chat room group.

[Tallmark]

I don't mean to stir things up here, but chemo kills. You cannot poison your way to health. I don't believe that it's from God. Check out Lorraine Day's videos on the subject: drday.com

Whenever I'm either up front or conducting SS class, I never ask for requests because someone usually asks for a prayer about a friend or relative going through that. It feels like asking God to bless you as you play poker, roll the dice, or hit the slots. I feel for the one going through it and their family, but there are alternatives that don't kill you.

[Woody]

Quote:

I don't believe

These are the key words and therefore they don't apply to our friend Half-Step Denise. Praise God she is listening to her doctors for the advice she needs.

Prayers ascending even if you are using Chemo. We love you. And WE BELIEVE.

[FoundByLove]

Actually, mixing chemo with homeopathy gets the best results, and that's scientifically proven over and over again. God gave us everything found in nature to manipulate and use to our advantage. To say that we can't use chemo is to say that we can't use gasoline or that we can't make soy beans into soy milk.

Also, chemo doesn't kill anyone when given in the right doses at the right times. It's misusing it and not including good health principles along with it, as well as using it too late, that kills. All chemo does, really, is lower the white blood cell count, which actually increases one's chances of surviving, because along with doing that, it kills to cancer (in my brother's case, it was Leukemia). Once the cancer is irradiated properly, in an otherwise healthy body, the body can and does repair itself and, over time, one can go on their happy, merry little way.

I don't wish to offend anyone here, but I never bank my health on a video, or on a single small study, or on any lecture where the lecturer isn't able to face the real and hard questions with real, provable, and believable answers.

I would like also to encourage you, Tallmark, to pray anyway. Praying for the well-being of others is never wrong, and God doesn't punish people for doing things that you think are wrong for them to do. Praying doesn't mean you approve of what people do: it means you care about them as people. If you don't approve of what they do, you could say something like, "I ask You to bless ______'s health, and give them and their family Guidance in this hard time in their lives." Not that God needs our prayers to do the Loving thing, but if you're asked to pray, I don't see anything wrong with it.

I will say that an instructor bringing up the issue of prayer before class is not always psychologically healthy for the students. It can be, but the way that's worded is crucial. There's a difference between saying, "Let's pray now. Are there any requests?" and saying, "I'm open to prayer before we start class, if there's anything any of you would like to pray about. If you have private requests and would like some time to pray silently, we can do that too. If you would like for me to pray with you privately after class, I am open to that as well." And don't expect tons of requests to come pouring in. People have healthy boundaries, and especially if they don't know one another, they aren't likely to want to share much of anything that's crucial in their lives. It's ok for people not to share private info up front. Over time, maybe, but certainly not to start off with.

What's best is to create fun, non-graded 10 minute projects for groups of 2 or 4 (I don't believe in triads anymore: been there, done that, OMW), where it's light hearted, not completely serious, and it lets people start getting acquainted with each other as people and not just as requesters of great things from God at the beginning of class. Creating a sort of "doe-see-doe" affect in the classroom is good too, where a student starts off with a partner, and over time mixes and matches with other students, but periodically goes back to that same partner for some short-term projects. Also, forcing students to keep the same partner in a project is -NEVER- wise. I don't care how ideal it would be if everyone could learn to get along with everyone else. Sometimes, it really just isn't meant to be. And no one should be punished for that either. Letting people pick their partners, or trade off if need be, is essential to people forming real, solid, healthy relationships with each other.

Once chosen relationships have formed between students, then it's ok to introduce the idea that they might want to start sharing prayer requests, on their own terms, as they're ready for that. Some never will be. Some won't want to pray aloud (I'm like that). Some will have more requests than others know how to handle (in this case, prayer request journaling is a good idea, with journals turned in and requests spread around a local prayer-chain, with student permission). The whole point of prayer, I think, is to enhance the bonds that are already formed outside of religious influences between people. God is good, I have no problem with public prayer, but it's really kind of weak, if you think about it, if it's happening between people who, outside of a religious setting (or time period), don't know each other well, don't seriously care that much about each other, or may even have issues with each other that are not condusive to sincere prayerful fellowship.

I honestly believe that there are two kinds of prayers. The fast, "God, something's wrong here in this person's situation and only you know about it and can fix it. Amen." And the more involved, "God, I've gotten to know this person well, I know their situation, I know the pain or joy they are going through. Here's what I genuinely feel and want and think about this after discussing it with them. Could you please... [do such and such that will enhance their life's experience]?" There's nothing wrong with either prayer, but I will say, the later is one that I would personally find more comfort in.

I'm currently a student, and I asked a Bible instructor last quarter to pray for me because I'd been suffering from influenza type A. He just looked at me and said, "Oh, you should just chew some garlic." That's cute, but seriously, garlic isn't the end-all/cure-all answer to everything, as if it alone can be depended on for all good health (I know I'm going to get stoned for that one!) I Asked God anyway, silently, in my own prayer, and over the next week or so, my symptoms abated and I was finally well again. But the effect that Bible teacher had on me in that instance (I otherwise love his personality, the way he teaches, etc), was very sour indeed. I know he meant well, that he cared and all, but it was kind of like, "I don't care enough to pray for your health here. I think you are to blame for your poor health because I'm guessing that you aren't doing the one thing that I personally think will heal anyone (he hadn't told me before that that he thought garlic would help)." It felt like he was somehow punishing me or whatever. Or just mocking me for believing that "where two or three are gathered," etc. And also for believing that God is greater than garlic, lol. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but that was how it came off.

Just a few thoughts.