Journey with cancer 29 April – Hopeful

Dear family and friends,

Chemo number 24 today. I’m becoming part of the furniture in the chemo ward. The time still seems to stand still while I’m there. But today’s visit was made quicker and more enjoyable by my friend Jim Ramsay accompanying me on the visit and making conversation about all sorts of things.

I will have another treatment next month and then a scan to check on what’s going on inside. This will be a bit different as they will scan without the contrast, due to my recent allergic response. I’m praying this will work okay and they can still get some accurate data to go on. We’ll work out afterwards whether the chemo continues or not. Likelihood is that the chemo journey will continue for a while yet.

I’ve just returned from an unusual and fruitful two weeks on the south coast. Week one, I spent on my own and the next week I was joined by the family. The plan was to make a start on writing a book. I was hoping to do more research, come up with a book outline, proposal, and get a draft of a couple chapters out of the way. I thank God that he enabled me to achieve a lot more.

It was fun to work at the beach, though it always threatened to be distracting and give me plenty of alternatives for procrastination. I enjoyed some times working in a hammock chair, with kookaburras laughing nearby, listening to the sound of the surf, and sheltering in the shade of the trees. The biggest help to concentration was the huge amount of rain, flooding, driving winds and pounding surf over the weekend. It gave be no options but to stay indoors and tap away on the computer keyboard. I worked out how to make a nice cup of coffee with my Porlex and AeroPress. There was no TV to distract me and I managed to catch up on some sleep. God was good to me.

The idea of a book has been on my mind for a while, but it had been too daunting to know where to begin. Some suggested cutting and pasting some of these posts inside a front and back cover. That certainly had been tempting and I think I’d like to compile them some day as well. But I felt burdened to identify what gives me hope in the face of cancer and to share this with others. It was hard to get going, but once I did, I became lost in the world of the book, and started to enjoy the opportunity to write.

Midway through the time away I submitted by proposal, outline and two chapters to a publisher for them to consider. I received the welcome news a few days later that this publisher had agreed to support me in this project. They’ve assigned me an editor to help me work on it, and subject to them approving the final product, they will publish and distribute this book. I’m very excited about this! It gave me the incentive to knuckle down and complete the first seven chapters, Parts 1 and 2, roughly 20,000 words.

This is an outline, of where things are heading, God willing:

LIVING WITH HOPE
A journey with cancer and God

PART 1:  LOSING HOPE

1. Hopeless news
2. Hopeless dreams
3. Hope matters

PART 2:  HOPE RETURNS

4. Hope in medicine
5. Hope in understanding
6. Hope in lifestyle
7. Hope in relationships

PART 3:  DEEPER HOPE

8. Hope in God’s grace
9. Hope in God’s promises
10. Hope in God’s people
11. Hope in God’s goodness
12. Hope in God’s work
13. Hope in God’s healing

PART 4:  ENDURING HOPE

14. Hope in death
15. Hope in life
16. Hope in eternity

APPENDICES

That’s the plan, God willing. If you pray, then I’d ask you to join me in asking God to bless this project for his glory and people’s good.

Thank you,

Dave