Coveting Your Prayesr (email)

Dear all,

It's been a quick month, hasn't it? And time for an update once again!

First off, please continue to pray for the Ullstrom family. David Ullstrom is the OMF missionary here in Kaohsiung, and he is also the one that oversees the Partners Program. His son, Ian, was diagnosed with cancer back in the summer of 2008. He's gone through a lot of chemotherapy now, but nothing seems to be working as the cancer keeps coming back. The doctors wanted a second pathology report and found out last week that the cancer Ian has is not what they thought it was. He actually has a form of cancer call embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma - it is quite rare and the prognosis is poor. With that said, the treatment that Ian has been receiving before hasn't been harmful to him, and it would probably be the same kinds of treatment. But now that they have confirmed what type of cancer Ian has, the doctors have told the Ullstroms that another round of chemo would only extend Ian's life for a few months, and not years.

Ian has decided not to do anymore chemothearpy. One doctor predicted that Ian will have 3-10 months to live. In the next few weeks, the family will be spending more time together. David's dad and oldest son will be coming over to Taiwan as well. Please continue to uplift the family in your prayers! Ian has been showing amazing faith... especially for a 16 year old teenager! Please pray for peace with God, and for strength and comfort for the family. Below is something that Ian wrote to his friend on facebook....

"I don't know how long I have left here, but certainly I've been enjoying every moment of it, even enjoying the silence. I'm still putting all my hope on God, because I didn't really put my hope on medicines anyways. However I can not tell what His will is, so I also do expect that I might die. We don't always know what God's plan for us, because what if God really is calling me home? But we will just keep trusting God for his plan is the best, because it is. Or maybe God just wants us to forget about hospitals and insurance, and trust him ALONE. So maybe a miracles can happen like what happened to Cindy's (friend) aunt. That would be great and I would be able to get my friends to believe in Christ. But even he doesn't, I only want to say that.. He gave me life so he has all the rights to take it back again."





On my side of things, Chinese New Year is approaching quickly! This is THE biggest holiday in Taiwan so we all get a week off.
A group of eleven of us (OMF Partners and fellow Christian brothers and sisters) are going on a Taiwan round-trip for the week. For the first part of the week, we'll be driving up the east coast to Taipei, doing some sight-seeing and exploring Taiwan (this will probably be my only chance to explore the island!). During the second part of the week, when the locals are not as busy with family gatherings, we will be holding some evangelical meetings in the cities that we will visit. We've contacted the missionaries in Taichung and Jia-Yi city. Our hope is to talk to the locals during the day, to do some skits/songs in public areas to attract people. Then we'll invite them to an evangelical meeting that night, possibly with more skits, testimonies, and songs. Praise God that the ideas are slowly forming into realities! Pray for the group on this trip - Alan, my boyfriend, will be coming along, as well as Grace Ng from VCMBC. Please continue to pray for open doors!! :)


I'll write more on my blogs (with pictures!).... thanks all for reading and praying~

In Christ alone,
Iris