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Good Morning Dear Friends and Family!
God is still Good ALL the Time! I’m continually thankful for your faithful prayers, encouragement, help, and expressions of support. You are treasures. I’m seeing God’s work these days in new and exciting ways. These really are the best days of my life!
Here’s the latest. Yesterday, I got my blood checked and my PSA is 0.4 which means it did not go up from last month. Thank You, Lord!
As most of you also know, we’ve been closely watching my PSA. Some fluctuation in PSA number is normal in men, but with no longer having a prostate gland, the only thing that can produce PSA in my body is cancer cells. My PSA had been at 0.1, which means “undetectable” for 18 months. We were hoping and praying for 24 months of 0.1 from the end of treatments, which would have indicated that I was “cured.” Well, with only 6 months to go before our big day, my PSA rose to 0.2, and then in a couple more months to 0.3, which is considered to be the biological indicator of the "reoccurrence" of cancer. At that point, I had a CT and Bone Scan done locally which thankfully, did not show any cancer metastasized in any part of my body. This means that the cancer has returned, but it is “hiding” at the biological level and has not manifested itself anywhere in my body. After the scans, Cathi and I went back up to UCSF and Dr. R and the doctors there recommended that we wait until “if and when” the PSA rises to 1.0, and then at that point I will go back on hormone therapy and hormone blockers. He thought that I would be at 1.0 by the end of summer. So, that is our plan if the PSA hits 1.0 and of course we pray that it doesn’t!
So dear ones, this means that we’re moving on with life and love, and continuing to learn to trust in Jesus. We’re living each day to the full, and realizing continually that “every day is a gift!”
I’ve been feasting on a great couple of verses.
Psalms 89:15-17a (NIV)
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength.
The Lord truly is my glory and strength as I walk in the light of His presence! I’m excited about these days. As we get ready to gather at the cross, and then celebrate the empty grave, I’m looking forward to seeing how God will pour our mercy and grace on our Central Coast of California. There is great unity among the churches, and great needs in the lives of the people. God has been clearly leading us out of the walls of the churches and into the streets!
As just one expression of this, we will be doing one of our five Easter services down at the pier in Pismo Beach. We’ll worship, I’ll speak, we’ll have some testimonies, and we’ll have people available for prayer with people. We’ll also be handing out special water bottles with an “r u thirsty?” label and a web site on them. We purchased www.ruthirsty.org and I wrote a simple salvation message from Jesus’ words in John 7:37-38 “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them." We then placed the link for all of our evangelical churches on the Central Coast that are a part of our pastor’s network www.centralcoastchurches.com where people can find a church that is closer to them.
This is exciting because it is not about “our” church only, but Christ’s Church! We’ll be giving out thousands of water bottles with a smile and a willingness to tell people how the living water of Jesus changed our lives! We’ll also give out r u thirsty water bottles at the Strawberry Festival in May, the Father’s Day Car Show in Pismo in June, down at the beach on the 4th of July, and at the Harvest Festival Parade this Fall. We’ll give them to our neighbors, when we do service and mission projects, and at our upcoming All Church Picnic. We are serious about “hitting the streets” with the Living Water! We want people to come to Jesus! And, we want people to get involved in a local Christian church. And, if God leads some of them to New Life Community Church, we’ll be ready to help them not only drink the Living Water for themselves, but go out and share it with others! Well, I’ve got to go, I’ve got a lot of living to do!
Amazingly Graced,
Pastor Ron Salsbury