A Note About Jeremy Mains

Dear Friends,

On June 4, we were at the International Council meeting of Medical Ambassadors. This is the time yearly when all the Regional Directors for this ministry gather together to share their lives and make plans for the future.

Early in the morning we received a text message from our daughter-in-law Angela that she had rushed Jeremy to the ER. We knew Jeremy had been puzzlingly ill with flu-like symptoms that came and went, fatigue. Mononucleosis, we thought. Even the doctor he saw for an examination predicted that blood tests would come back indicating the same. His lymph nodes were swollen. Jeremy, age 41, is an adjunct professor at Wheaton
College, teaching Spanish—All those college kids, I thought. Makes sense.

By 1:30 p.m. we had packed and left Mount Hermon, the Christian Conference Center where we had been gathered, and were on a plane out of San Jose, CA, winging home to Illinois. Jeremy had been moved into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with failing kidneys; our son was in critical condition. There was a mass somewhere in his lower abdomen, his platelet count was down—the vital indicators of a body in crisis were all screaming, “Danger! Danger!”

Those of you who have gone through this crisis know the impact of the words "leukemia" and "lymphoma." And you also know that there is a long and terrible journey ahead for anyone so diagnosed.

Within that week, Jeremy was moved by ambulance to Rush University Medical Center down in Chicago, an hour-long drive (in good traffic) from our home. Jeremy and his wife Angela, and their three children, Eliana (age 5), Nehemiah (age 3), and Anelise (7 months) live just a mile from us in the little suburb of West Chicago.

After a grueling session of tests, and a fight to restore the clotting ability of his blood so even more specific regimens could be run, we received a diagnosis of Blastic Mantle Cell Lymphoma. Fortunately, this blood cancer is treatable, but it requires poisonous blasts of chemotherapies, which also wipe out the immune system and has wretched side effects that for many feel worse than the deadly disease itself. Jeremy is also young and healthy.

Jeremy has been working as an immigration counselor (as well as a freelance artist for his brother-in-law, Doug). His passion is to help the wretched of the earth, those people in whom God sees potential, but the world at large generally counts as worth nothing. Everything in his life is on pause now until this battle against the aberrant invader in his blood is waged.

We’re weary as we write this letter. But we have been filled with strength. With the help of social media, loving concern has come our way. What feels like thousands of Christians worldwide are bearing our son before our Heavenly Father with their prayers. A team in the Dominican Republic fasted for three days. Messages have come from Africa and South America.

We are able to give daily updates on Jeremy’s condition on our Facebook pages—if you’re on FB, check them out. Randall Mains, our eldest son, has put up a dedicated Web site. For current information, you can go to http://HelpJeremyAndAngelaMains.org.

For those of you who are faithful in your prayers, pray for our son in faith. We do believe with confidence that God can absolutely heal him. For those of you who are intercessors, we are asking that prayers be lifted up for the whole hematology ward at Rush University Hospital. Like our son, everyone behind those closed doors is battling against blood; they may have no one to pray for them. For the spiritual warriors, we ask that you wage war against the Enemy who would love to destroy this young man with so much promise to do God’s work in the world.

The book of John tells this story in chapter 11: “Now a man named Lazarus was sick. … So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord the one You love is sick.’ When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’”

We are praying that this diagnosis of Blastic Mantle Cell Lymphoma and its cure will be used for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it. It’s happened before through the centuries; we believe it can happen again.

At peace and trusting,
David and Karen Mains

P.S. Since the original writing of this note (late June), Jeremy has been responding well to the initial chemotherapy treatments, and has been scheduled for a two-week time to recover at home before beginning the next round of chemo.

NOTICES

Web Site for Jeremy and Angela

Before Jeremy was transported to Rush University Hospital in Chicago, Karen asked him, “Do you understand what is happening to you?” He gave a rational and complete answer; his kidneys were failing and he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (the diagnosis at that early moment). “Are you afraid?” she asked.

He replied, “No, I am not afraid. Of course I want to live a long life to raise my children and be with my wife. But if the Lord takes me now, I am at
peace.”

So, as ever, we gather strength from the very ones who need our prayers the most.

Visit us at http://HelpJeremyAndAngelaMains.org.

Jeremy and Angela Mains and family

Reminder!

The Soulish Food e-mails are being posted biweekly on the Hungry Souls Web site. Newcomers can look that over and decide if they want to register on the Web site to receive the biweekly newsletter. You might want to recommend this to friends also. They can go to www.HungrySouls.org.

David and Karen Mains

BOOK CORNER

50 Days of Hope:
Daily Inspiration for Your Journey Through Cancer

by Lynn Eib

During these early days of cancer treatment for our son Jeremy, David has been quoting from the book 50 Days of Hope: Daily Inspiration for Your Journey Through Cancer by Lynn Eib.

The book was compassionately delivered to our house with a lovely note from the author. Her stationary is headed: Lynn Eib, Patient Advocate, and her contact information is patientadvocate@juno.com. Web site is CancerPatientAdvocate.com. (CLICK HERE).

The handwritten note read:

“Dear David and Karen,

You don’t know me, but I have appreciated and been blessed by your books and ministry for years. So when my publicist, Maggie Rowe, asked for prayers for you son, I felt compelled to lift him up as well as his family. I also asked her if it would be appropriate to send you my latest book and she gave me your address.

I am a 23-year survivor of Stage 3B colorectal cancer diagnosed at the age of 35 (our girls were 8, 10 &12). I’m praying for Jeremy and trust that the God of all hope will be very real to him.”

Lynn has also written another book, When God & Cancer Meet, and we are extremely grateful for these kindnesses. Sometimes we don’t have the energy to search out the information we should have at hand, so when they just drop into our lap, it is truly a gracious act.

Since David has been quoting frequently from Lynn’s book, I am eager to read her words (I never recommend books I haven’t read, but in this case, I consider my husband’s good approval—“This is very well written”—recommendation enough).

Back-cover copy:
“You’ve just heard a diagnosis that shakes your world: It’s cancer.

What you long for most is the hope that everything will be okay. You are not alone. Join cancer survivor and oncology patient advocate Lynn Eib on this 50-day journey as she draws timeless wisdom from her popular books and shares uplifting new stories of people who have been in your shoes and discovered that when God and cancer meet, hope is never far away.”

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