Prayer Request

April 30, 2008
James 15: 13-16 “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
Prayer is a powerful thing. When God’s people come together amazing things happen. Recently I posted and asked you to pray for many things. Please continue to pray for the children. There are many changes taking place in their lives. Pray that God’s hand would be in the renovation of the new building and for the children who will inhabit it. Continue to pray for peace and healing for the Skala family. Pray for the building of the church in Odessa. Specifically pray that God will send men to help in the leadership of the church.
I also asked that you pray for Dr. Vladimir. I would like to update you on his condition.
Originally he was to fly to the U.S. on Friday, April, 25th. Because of his condition it was important to get him to Florida for treatment as soon as possible. By Monday evening all the documents required by the US Consulate, were received. Tuesday a visa was issued after meeting with the consulate and Vladimir’s plane ticket was changed to Wednesday. He is now in the hospital in Orlando, Florida. The following is information from Vladimir to help you understand what is going on and pray more specifically:
Thank you so much for your prayers! I do appreciate each one of them.
They did biopsy of the tumor today, besides MRI and postbiopsy CT. Preliminary histology is glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor. The grade (how agressive the tumor is) will be clear after the final report comes in on Tuesday. Would you please pray that it would not be very agressive tumor.
Earlier the brain tumor like that had one of the worst possible prognosis with people living up to 6 months after diagnosis. Now they use newer approach and treat it as a chronic disease. They now give low dose radiation once in two weeks and low dose chemotherapy everyday for 5 days for two months and then track the success with MRI every 4-6 months. If need be they go on with chemo and radiation for as long as 2-3 years with good survival rate.
So despite dismal prognosis earlier recent past 2-3 years suggest that treatment is there now.I will probably have to slow down on my work load. Last several weeks I operated 3 major 6-9 hours reconstructions per week and I was tired even with results that were pleasing. After such treatment I might not be able to operate as much but at least I could do one major case and a couple of smallar cases per week and that would be fine. My neurooncologist said it is feasble. I am blessed with the team of doctors and nurses over here. Doctors are knowlegeable and nurses are caring. Gary, Tim Bullard, Clarence Brown come by every day twice a day to offer help and just to talk.
The cost of chemotherapy treatment is immense: it is at least 5 thousands dollars per month. But the Lord is good and he knows I do not have the money for that. My neurooncologist is talking with Schering Plowgh and other chemotherapy drug companies so that they would donate to me those much needed drugs. Would you please pray that his will become true? That would be another miracle in chain of miracles our Lord is giving me undeservedly and for free.
God shows me love every day. I am calm and secure. I feel well and full of energy. Several people from hospital staff I do not know came over to my intensive care room and asked if I am a patient, as I do not look like one. I told them I am not going to look like one! And, what to praise the Lord about too! After brain tumor biopsy I feel even better then before the operation: apparently removal of part of tumor decompressed my bain and also he removed some cerebrospinal fluid which helped symptoms for couple of hours.
I appreciate very much that about 20 people I do not know email me and sympathize me and say they are praying for me. Would you please post this letter so that all would be updated and know what to pray about? Quite frankly I get tired quite fast and so far I am not able to answer 20 letters a day personally.
Also, would you please contiue to pray for restoration of my health?
Thank you very much!
Vladimir
We also received word yesterday from Vladimir. There are only two hospitals in the U.S. that specialize in his type of treatment and he is in one of them. Praise God! He will start chemotherapy today. Please keep him in your prayers. If you would like to e-mail a word of encouragement to Vladimir, you can e-mail him directly at vladmedicine@mail.ru
Thank You