Peter Unafraid

Some readers will already know that our 11 year old son Peter has cancer. I set up a CarePages site as a way to provide some more details on his health and treatments and in order to move it to a slightly less public place than facebook. Instead of a billboard on the freeway, it became a sign saying, “More information available here.” But many people had trouble accessing the CarePages site. So I am moving things here to my existing blog. Here I will post about Peter’s condition, updates on his treatment, and share some reflections on it all. Your encouraging comments to Peter or the family will be passed on. And your interaction with my theological reflections are welcome too.

The Story

On Saturday, November 12, 2016 Peter sprinted in the sand all day at an ultimate frisbee beach tournament. The next day we discovered he was carrying an eight-pound, basketball-sized tumor in his chest. The children’s hospital that diagnosed him put him on a plane to UCSF because his case was too dangerous for them to treat. We were shocked and terrified. Peter was unafraid. He acted like it was just another day.

Peter was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. Treatments began and within a few days the massive tumor had shrunk by 65%. Unfortunately, two months later the tumor had stopped responding and had grown slightly. Having a tumor that did not disappear with initial treatment put Peter into another category altogether. This was more devastating than the initial news. Peter, however, was unafraid. He wasn’t happy about it, but he wasn’t afraid.

“Are you afraid of dying?” I asked.
“Kind of,” he said.
“What about it are you afraid of?”
“Yeah,” he said. “When you think about it what is there to be afraid of?” Peter is confident that if he dies he will be with the Lord. His strength has given us strength.

As of March 2017 Peter is undergoing a new round of more intense chemo. If it is successful in shrinking the tumor, it will be repeated; then he will then get a bone marrow transplant. We are looking at several difficult months of treatment with a prognosis that, statistically speaking, is not very good. We feel lifted up by the prayers and faith of so many.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
– Psalm 27

What can I do to help? We are grateful for all the people who have asked. Here are some things people can do.

1. Pray. We have been greatly encouraged by the number of people who are praying for Peter. Thank you! We have felt God’s love in the midst of our grief.

2. Write to him. Here’s how:

Address it as below, but in the lower left corner of the envelope write his name, Room C-6865, and “Patient Mail”.

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco
1975 Fourth St.
San Francisco, CA 94158-2351

To email Peter, ask for his address.

3. Visit. Check with us to make sure it’s a good time.

4. Finances. This all happened at a particularly complicated time. We were planning to move to Belgium (where I, Peter’s dad, will pastor an international church), our house had sold, and I had announced my last day serving my present ministry. Many people have asked if they can help financially. The answer for the first few months was “No, we’re fine.” Now that I have ended my work here (so they can move on and I can focus on the family), we are saying, “Yes, if you would like to give we will gratefully receive.

Donations can be sent to:

Gateway Church

353 E. Donna Dr

Merced, CA 95340

Indicate what it is for. I will remain on staff at Gateway, the parent church of the churches I planted, but the funds will come from outside support.

A little more about Peter:

Peter is bright, curious, adventurous, and creative. He likes travel, new foods, hiking, camping, Scratch (programming for kids), ultimate frisbee, and reading. He agreed that I should customize the care pages site I set up for him so that it had a fluffy pink bunny next to a football. Then the bunny would eat the football and turn into a giant mutant rabbit. That is beyond my ability but he says he will try to program that on Scratch. Check back soon to see it.