Update:

It appears I may not have sent an email since my bone marrow transplant in January! Some of you may think I've gone to be with Jesus (and some of you may think I've gone to a more just reward).

I haven't, though.

Apparently, God still has use for me, and I just keep getting better. I have to admit that the improvement is significantly slower than I was hoping for, but it is steady.

Despite the slow improvement, I opted to start a new business in the middle of my recovery. This has been very difficult and consumed most of my energy, resulting in very little work on my web site or books. I believe it was what God wanted me to do despite the fact that it was overwhelming and often physically painful.

Now that business is off to a slow start, I've hired some help, and I'm able to get back to the things I love.

With that update, I took the time to write about the "five-fold ministry," as charismatic churches like to put it. It's too long to be dropping in your inbox. You can read it on my blog at:

http://rosecreekvillage.com/shammah/archives/2875

Putting it on my blog also allows me to continue to edit it, which can be a time-consuming process for me. If I had sent you the whole thing in this email, you would have been stuck with whatever errors I didn't notice today.

I appreciate all of you bearing with me during these months of recovery, not from leukemia, but from the treatment for leukemia.

Actually, would it be alright if I added one other update, hoping it will glorify God?

Last week, one of my doctors told me for the first time that for a person with the sort of high-risk leukemia I had, getting a cord-blood transplant rather than cells from an adult donor, the risk of relapse is 30-40%. I hadn't known that!

The reason he told me was because I am now over six months past transplant, and the vast majority of relapses occur in less than six months, so I'm finally, says the doctor, out of the most dangerous waters.

Of course, I believe God told me from the beginning that leukemia would not kill me (nor the treatment for leukemia). However, when the risk of relapse, which would be very likely to be fatal, is included, my risk percentage, when looked at from the diagnosis of leukemia, was much higher than I ever realized.

• Odds that chemotherapy would bring remission: 70%
• Odds that I would survive chemotherapy: unknown but very good
• Odds that I would survive the preparatory regimen for transplant: 70%
• Odds that I would survive post-transplant complications: 80%
• Odds that I would not relapse: 60%

What do all those odds come out to? The way to calculate that is to multiply 70% by 70% by 80% by 60%. The result is 23.52%.

With those odds, not only did I survive, but I prospered and I (mostly) lived in joy. So did my family. Not long into the process, my wife asked, "Are you allowed to make leukemia fun?"

It was an adventure, to say the least, but it was sent by God. Do we believe that "all" things work together for good for those who love God and are called by him? Or only the things we like?

I chose to believe "all," and I got to experience God's grace possibly more than at any other time in my life.

For those of you that haven't read any of the story, I journaled the whole last year on a blog at:

http://yippee-leukemia.blogspot.com

If you go there, click the tab at the top that brings you to the "Yippee! I Have Leukemia" post. It is, in my opinion, the magnum opus of that blog.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support during this difficult and wonderful last year.