Josh needs your prayer!

[cousinprovidingprayer]

Josh is my cousin's brother. My sister is knows more about his situation so I am going to just copy and paste something she wrote about it instead of trying to explain the situation myself and messing up detail. Please read this and pray for Josh and his family.

______________________

Some of you who know me also know my friend Jessica (my cousin Andrews wife). Well, less than a month ago, her brother Josh went to the doctor with shoulder pain. They did a ct scan and it caught the top of his liver where they were able to see lots of little 'lesions'. He was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer in the liver rarely(like, never) originates there so they did a bunch more tests and scans to see where it came from. I just found out yesterday(8-20) that they found cancer in his pancreas. It's inoperable and highly resistant to treatment. He starts chemo on Tuesday(8-26). Jessica flew out this morning to be with him.

Here's a little background on Josh;

He's in his twenties. Married to his wife, Tricia. They just moved to Massachusetts about 2 months ago with their 2 year old daughter, Gracie. Josh started classes at MIT, but that's been put on hold because of his cancer. Josh and Tricia just had a baby girl a week before Josh was diagnosed. They are belivers and have tremendous faith in the Lord and want His will to be done.

I'll update you all as I find out more information.

Thank you.

*Update: 8-25*

Josh's chemo actually starts on Wednesday. Jessica and her and Josh's mom are with them right now. They're trying to have 'fun time' , which is obviously hard because as of now, no one (except God) knows if Josh has 6 months or 60 years to live.

Pray Especially for Tricia. She is kindof breaking down (understandibly).

Being new to Massachusetts, Josh and Tricia have no church family or Chrisitian friends to give them support, so every day is that much harder because, although they are belivers, its easy to lose faith.

Thank you for all of your prayers! They are very encouraged by you all.

*Update: 8-27*

Got a call from Andrew. Josh had chemo today. The doctors gave them some really bad news; the cancer has metastasized and is stage 4. There are really no statistics in Josh's specific case, but the stats for non-metastasized stage 4 cancer similar to Josh's don't have very good results to say the least.

There is really no 'silver lining'. It's not looking good. Pray for strength for the whole Jahnke family. I can't even imagine facing the strong possibility of losing a spouse, sibling, etc.

God is in control. His plan is perfect and better than we could ever dream of. "God is good all the time; all the time, God is good."

Jessica told me that Josh said this a few weeks ago;

"Worst case scenario: I die. I get to go to heaven and be with God!! It's horrible for all of you, though. Best case scenario: God provieds a miracle and I then have an awesome testimony!"

He's got an amazing attitude.

Thank you for your prayers.

 

[tapallen]

Father, I ask you for a miracle in the strong name of Jesus. Please heal Josh. Wrap Your arms around Josh and his family. Let them sense Your presence and give them Your peace.

 

[fallbackplan]

Dear Lord, Josh is in a situation like my neighbor Gene Shultz. He too is a Christian. He is faithful to the Lord and 3 months ago, he was given six weeks or less to live, no hope, no time to redo all the things in life that he had done wrong. He had to say goodbye to his family and just depend on dying according to the doctors. Well, they were wrong, somehow by the Lords grace, he is alive today and he is mowing his lawn, working at Lowes and providing for his wife Gloria. He has gained 30 pounds because he wanted to eat all his favorite foods before he dies. We prayed for a healing at the time of his diagnosis, all I could do is tell a bad joke: a guy was given 6 months to live Gene, I told him, he couldn't pay his hospital bill so they gave him another 6 months. That's the only thing I could tell this man and you'd have to understand Gene, he laughed. The man had just been told he was dead basically and he laughed at my bad joke. Well, Jesus answered that prayer....Gene is alive and going to come out of this. He had numerous, numerous tumors in his lungs and the cancer is going away, nobody can understand how at the hospital. Well, we know why this happens, prayer....so I today, believe in a healing for Josh. There is hope Josh, you believe that you will be healed and God will heal you. He will do it. I've seen it with my own two eyes and I know that Jesus will heal you. All things are possible with the Lord Jesus Christ, not some things....but ALL things. Take heart my friend, help is on the way. Keep your eyes to the heavens for Jesus is on the way to heal you. God bless you Josh for showing us all how to keep our heads up during a life crisis. Amen.