I got my tax information gathering done (to send to our CPA friend)! Yeah! When it came to medical expenses for the two of us this past year....yikes! I am overawed at how much it has cost for all my surgeries, treatments and doctor visits. And Randy’s, too. He also ended up having major surgery last year when his remaining “bad” knee, the one he’d been putting off having replaced, gave out on him while here in California. We decided he should go ahead and have the replacement done here while in the midst of some of the best doctors in the country. I had 2 surgeries, February and April, which turned out to be outpatient (praise the Lord!) and at the end of April he had his as an inpatient!

Preparing for our taxes is not my favorite thing. Yet like other things I’ve had to do, it gives me a view of reality which is not unlike stepping back and seeing the “forest”, not just the “trees”. Gaining a different perspective helps me see things in a new way. And usually I end up thanking God for the traces of his mercy and grace in what I see.

For instance, for Randy and me this past year has been the most unusual in our lives. Yet the grace of God is woven through the fibers of every day. It is evident wherever we look. The fact that our medical insurance is still in force and paying the agreed upon amounts is amazing and one of God’s huge blessings to us. The strength and healing I have been experiencing has “blown us away”, and we keep giving thanks and praise to God. We continue to be amazed at the way our family has embraced us and taken us in, literally, to live here with them in California so we both have had access to some of the best medical care in the country and even the world. The concern and prayers of scores of family and friends, like you, have humbled, encouraged and blessed us. And every day Randy and I need God’s grace to live apart from each other so I can continue and finish up my treatments here…and we have it. So many things point to God’s truly Amazing Grace.

As I approach the final 5 months of my treatments, I find myself mentally looking to West Virginia and home more each day. For a year my involvement with all that was my life in West Virginia was put on hold, suspended in my mind because I couldn’t be there physically. I had already learned the life lesson not to pine for what cannot be, so I settled in to living here with our sons and families and enjoying them while I had to go through all that breast cancer treatment means. I’ve always said God has given me a great capacity to adjust to whatever circumstances I find myself in. That capacity is his grace given to me for whatever life brings. In this case I have been overflowingly (I think I just made up a word) blessed because I have been able to spend the past 13 months with some of the most special people in my life, my kids (sons and wives) and grandkids! And the amazing part is they haven’t gotten tired of me! When it comes to leaving here when it is time for me to move back to West Virginia, I’ll need lots of God’s grace to leave them…. Well, I know I’ll have it when I need it, not before. That’s how God’s grace is given, for the needs of “today”, not tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

So what is happening “back home” and with Mustard Seeds and Mountains, which has been our life these many years? Our staff is very capably holding down the “fort” while Randy is in Georgia at our home church’s annual missions conference. I wish I could be there with him. Next year, Lord willing. We have so many dear friends in the Atlanta area and we thank God for them!

Randy will be conducting a workshop for the missionaries on how to best use volunteers in their ministries. I think you could say he is an “expert” in that field after 14 years experience! We have learned a lot over the years and I am glad for the opportunity he has to share with other servants of the Lord so they can benefit.

Randy was able to get a lot of work done this past week on the book he is writing for families. Our prayer is that God will use it powerfully to help parents shape their families to be Kingdom people, after God’s heart, accomplishing his purposes in the world. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Oktavec family for hosting him last week, giving him the time and space to focus on his writing. Thanks guys.

As a “remote” staff person with Mustard Seeds and Mountains, I book the mission trips and handle things related to personnel record keeping. Technology (stop laughing back there!) makes so much possible, even thousands of miles away from the home office, even when one is not a techie. I am glad to be able to do the things I do with Mustard Seeds, especially being so far away. Of course, I also have a ministry here in our local church and I am so thankful to be involved. Wherever you are, there you minister. And of course, prayer has no boundaries.

Speaking of prayer, as you pray for us and the ministry of Mustard Seeds, please pray once again for my daughter in law, Monica, who has had another injury to her right eye, and the cornea has been damaged. Pray God mercifully heal and protect her eye. And while you are at it, pray for her in her pregnancy and the young life she is carrying. Thank you.

This year has brought much into our lives. The evil one meant it for harm but God’s grace was available to turn it, as God intended, to good. When that “forest” you find yourself in turns out to be a grove of lemon trees…yup, make lemonade.

“Man’s extremities are God’s opportunities”.

Jacque

Thirty down, two to go! Radiation treatments, that is. I look like I have a bad sunburn (on the skin at the site of the radiation) but so far no peeling and very little soreness. All our prayers have been answered to this point and I am very grateful things have gone so well. I am trusting that the internal damage is also at a minimum as we have prayed. God has been good to me and I try to tell that to others, always giving Him the glory.

Friday, February 13, I go in again for another Herceptin infusion. These last a few hours each session. I will be continuing with these Herceptin treatments every three weeks through the month of July 2009. Then I will be officially done with cancer therapy, except for taking a pill (to suppress all estrogen production) for a total of 5 years. Both the Herceptin and estrogen suppression treatments give me extra protection against cancer recurrence. Not everyone tests positive for these particular receptors but I did and therefore can benefit from these treatments.
So praise God with us and continue to pray for total healing from cancer, myasthenia gravis and any heart problems.

And now for other great news from the Wallace clan: Jeremy and Monica (our eldest son and wife) are expecting baby #3! We are all looking forward to his or her arrival sometime the end of next summer. Please pray for mommy’s and baby’s health and safety.

Randy is in Florida as I write, speaking in churches and colleges, recruiting interns and staff for Mustard Seeds and Mountains, promoting Mission as Life trips and the ministry in general. We are excited about the work God has put into our hands, co-laboring with God in McDowell County, West Virginia, yet touching the whole world.

How so, touching the whole world? Mustard Seeds and Mountains’ ministry to people who come and work with us, either on a Mission as Life trip or as an intern or longer term staff, is powerful to change lives because of the working of God’s spirit in all concerned.

We at Mustard Seeds bathe everything we do in prayer…as you will hear Randy say, “Pray the work”. Since we are convinced this is God’s work, not the Randy and Jacque show, nor that of anyone else on staff, we look to Him for guidance and the power and provision to accomplish what we need to do.

And I want to encourage you to do the same, whatever God has put in your hands to do. Together we will build the kingdom of God, come what may. There are no superheroes in God’s kingdom, only servants of the Most High God, the Faithful One, to Whom we are called to be faithful. Got a higher calling? There is no higher calling!

I praise and thank God I have a reason to get up in the morning. His presence and faithful promises keep me going, even when I am tempted to feel sorry for myself. I miss my husband and will not see him for several months, and I get weepy at times. Yet I choose to praise God for all His benefits to me. He has been so good to me. Praise His holy Name.

Thanks for caring and letting me share my thoughts and needs with you. May Jesus Christ hold you together (Colossians 1:17).

Jacque