Hi All:
The Haitian Donkey now had his 8 hr surgery, emptying out what was left in my belly cavity one week ago (not hot chemo this time, risk benefit ratio not encouraging) and we are making progress. We are very thankful to the Lord for His help and encouragement during this time. I just got done making a loop around the floor, feel good and strong enough, though a bit wobbly. My brother, Will, has been superb in being my personal nurse, caretaker and only visitor allowed. He can only come once daily, from 9-12 am, and they are so RIGID that you cannot enter 1 minute earlier (I fear sometimes we empower people and it may go to their head? Though final decisions have yet not been made, it appears that I will probably go home on Saturday with home care nurses helping with dressing changes twice daily, etc.
As you may have heard, I did the surgery as only vomited everything for the last 4 weeks before and felt ultra miserable. Plus, had the hole between the colon and the bladder, so chronic UTIs made life difficult and complicated, with frequent hospitalizations. Dr. Bartlett scoped my stomach remnant and discovered that where the loop bringing the pancreatic and bile juices back to the intestine, to recreate flow, a large cancer had grown around it and totally blocked the bowel passage. The rest of the abdomen was a mess of tumor and troubled bowel mixed. He ended up taking out the piece of bladder attached to the cancer nodule in the colon and had rotted through, allowing mixture of the two systems, with attendant complications. This was repaired and I have a pipe in my bladder for a while to let the hole heal well before stressing the balloon by blowing it up. Then he took out all the rest of my cancer and bowel mix, I only have now 2 x 1 foot sections, one from the end of my esophagus to the skin (my ONLY area of absorption, normal people have 26 feet of absorption in their small bowel, plus another 6 feet of large bowel). The other section goes from my bile duct and pancreas and brings them out to the skin in the second one foot length of bowel. The rest of my belly is empty except for my kidneys, liver (removed some cancers stuck to it) and bladder, so a bit more scrawny looking, I fear.
Dan, Duane and Evert are back in Haiti and will be home next weekend. I am eager to hear what progress they have made, especially in the compensation area, and hope that my improved health will allow me to be more active in helping on these projects. Pray for wisdom and safety for them as they undertake the projects. We have heard that a generous donor to CSL has offered to match up to $25,000 USD for the solar project and thus am trying to contact people to make them aware of this possible solution to help towards this goal. And, amazingly, we are coming towards Christmas and it is time to ask for donations to the “Rice and Goats” Fund again. It is always appreciated by the employees but again will be especially so this year with the runaway inflation making life unaffordable for so many people in our area. If you are able to contribute to the Matching Gift for the Solar Project, please send it to:
CSL USA
c/o Dan Boerman
2632 – 28th St
Wyoming, MI 48519
USA
And the “Rice and Goats Fund” can go to either the above or to:
Byron Center Bible Church
8855 Byron Center Ave,
Byron Center, MI 49315
USA
In either case, make a note on it as to how to properly channel the funds into the appropriate project.
As always, thank you so much for your support, encouragement and prayers for the ministry at CSL. Every penny we receive goes directly into supporting the Haitians, we all “work for free, something we know God can do and we pray He will.
In His Service,
Dan, Duane, Evert, James, Jenn, Rachel and Bill