Pure Joy
Have you ever met someone who completely embodies joy? You feel your mood lighting when you’re around this person and you know that when you leave them, you’ll feel better about your day. I think we all have someone come to mind when we hear these characteristics, but for us, the main person that we think of is the beautiful young lady at our home named Danely. We’ve written about her before and previous newsletters asking for prayer.
Danely has a rare skin condition that causes her to be extremely susceptible to cancers. As you can imagine, living in a place where the sun is blazing almost everyday, this greatly complicates her life. Despite the heat, she always wears long sleeves, long pants, close toed shoes and a wide brimmed UV protection hat. Precautions are taken anywhere that she goes, including at school where her classroom always keeps the black out curtain closed.
Despite years of extreme precaution and countless surgeries to remove cancerous growths (including in her eyes), her cancer has been quietly spreading and in September we heard the devastating words “palliative care” after meeting with a specialist in childhood cancers here in Honduras. Our team is convinced that no further surgery would give her a greater quality of life. As quickly as possible she began an oral chemo to slow the growth of her tumors, which appears to have been effective, praise God!
Of course through all of this, we wanted to keep the conversation open with her as much as we felt was appropriate about the changes she would be facing. Despite having grown up in church and exuding many fruits of the spirit, Danely had never been baptized. After a conversation with Chase about the meaning of baptism and salvation she wanted to be baptized. The team of people stepped up to make this event truly extraordinary. People traveled across the country to be there and celebrate this joyous moment. More than 100 people that love Danely and have been touched by her joy showed up for a time of worship, a reflection and to see her get into the pool. As she came out of the water, the most joyful laugh came out of her. She jumped up and down, truly showing everyone that she’s filled with a joy from the Holy Spirit!
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Psalms 16:11 NIV
Prayers:
-Please pray for Danely as she continues her treatment
-Pray for wisdom for the women that care for our kids each day.
-Continue to pray for our two young men that are in nursing school. They just finished their first semester and we are so proud of them!
-Pray that we would be refreshed as we enter a new year of ministry.
Praises:
-we celebrated a wonderful Christmas here with our kids and community!
-Chase is heading up a school lunch program this year that offers families a convenient, healthy, and affordable way for their child to get lunch while at school.
-Reagan is loving being back in the third grade classroom and working with her co-teacher Abby. Our team this year is a total answer to prayer!
-Ruthie is growing each day! She is speaking more Spanish than English, and we are so grateful God has connected us with an amazing nanny that shows her so much love while Reagan is at school.
Thanks,
The Grays
