Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Juan and His Family Facing a New Challenge

Please pray for Juan Alvarez and his family.  Today I went with Juan to his doctor’s appointment.  The doctor confirmed the worse case scenario – that he has CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia).  What this means is that he has to take a single pill every day for the rest of his life.  That one pill a day costs $6,000 a month.  The prognosis for CML with the one pill a day is a normal long life.  The prognosis for CML without the one pill a day is 3-4 years of life expectancy. 
Juan baptizing his daughter in 2007

Now for the good news:  there is an organization that helps with the purchase of this medicine.  Juan talked with a representative two weeks ago and tomorrow we need to call them again.  Apparently this is a process that takes a while as the doctor said that if he didn’t get the medicine by the first week of January to call him.

Can you guess what the main prayer request is?  Pray that he gets the financial aid he needs!  Such a cost is almost unfathomable to me.  If Juan lives to the age his father is now he will go through a million dollars worth of medicine.

Juan, through this whole process (two weeks so far) has been the picture of peace and joy.  As we left the doctor’s office I said, “I am sorry, Juan.”  Juan answered with a smile, “God knows what he is doing.  We just have to trust in him.”   


“Perfect love casts out fear.”  It is fully resting in God’s perfect love for us that results in peace and a lack of fear.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Praying for healing for Juan, and that the Lord will somehow supply the medication he needs. So glad he has the comfort of his faith! Hope Diana is doing OK through all this too. In Christ's love, Jim & Linda V.