Day 326

JOHN CATON IS HEALED!

Those words keep reeling in my (Amanda) mind. Can it be true? Those words I have longed to hear and John has longed to hear are finally being spoken! It's amazing to me, it stunts my speech and makes my head spin. He is healed. He is going to be ok. This changes our whole life! 

Tuesday was the day we saw Dr Antin, best doctor in the world! He was beaming :) He said John's T cells were nearly at normal human level! WOW! John with T cells! This is huge! We still wait to see if he will develop B cells but we are confident he will. 

We got the all clear to come home for Christmas so Indiana PA here we come! John returns to work 2nd January 2012.

Each day that passes comes a deeper realization of what this means. It brings with it a deeper level of gratitude for all God has done. 

God spoke, we listened, we obeyed and He was faithful.

We are amazed. I wish I had more to say but I am just so stumped; I am sure I will share more soon.

For now please celebrate with us :)  

Day 314

Apologies for not updating everyone sooner but there has not been much to report! What a lovely statement considering our first 6 months of this year. John had another appointment two weeks ago and the doctor was very happy again saying "Your lungs are sounding the best they have ever sounded!" This is just amazing. John, his whole life, has struggled with respiratory infections so to have lungs that sound clear is nothing short of a miracle!

Now the beginning of the end has begun. Two weeks ago John stopped taking one of his anti rejection drugs (Tacrilimus//Prograf) and has been great since! No signs of GVHD! We see the doctor again on the 22nd November and they will draw more tests to see if the immune system is building  still :) (The last test was August)

The next step is coming off the last anti rejection drug (Rapamune/Sirolimus) and then he will no longer be on any immune supressents! :)

As I (Amanda) look back on this year I cannot help the tears coming. Tears of gratitude that the words God spoke to us seem to be coming to pass. It still blows my mind to think that we are just a normal couple who prayed and asked God to speak to us and He did! He inclined His ears to hear our prayers. He listened all this year as we cried to Him from our beds (so often apart from one another). He knew the whole time that these days of blessing would come. That now today on day 314 we sit in awe of His faithfulness. O dear now I am crying as I type! And yes we have much to come, much news to still hear but today we are just overwhelmed with gratitude for our loving, powerful and faithful God.

Here's to more good news to come...

Day 289

He just keeps looking better and better!

John is doing so very well. We still await the big news, does he have B cells? Will he continue to create T cells and will they function effectively. So far all we know is slowly he is getting more and more T cells.

John was due to begin lowering his immune suppressants 3 weeks ago but due to a rash on his face it was delayed. John was prescribed an ointment to help with the rash but we have had many problems obtaining it from our pharmacy so here we are 3 weeks later with nothing! In the meantime the rash seems to be better. John was advised to also put a small amount of 1% hydro-cortisone on his face but it seems every time he does this the rash gets worse! Who knows why? 

As day 289 begins and John feels and looks normal the isolation is starting to become draining and difficult. The first 200 days were so crazy with sickness and hospitalizations that we never really had a second to think but now we have lots of time to think.  John wants so badly to be back at work, with his friends. Just to be able to go the store! 

The original plan at the start of this year was a 12 month isolation period but with all of the setbacks we have encountered and his immune suppressant tapering not even starting yet it is hard to imagine it would not be extended.  Truth is we are too scared to ask the doctors; the idea of his isolation being extended, even if just a month, is devastating. 

And so we pray on, and keep trusting God. We know the promises He has made to us and that his ways are very different to ours.  God out no time limit on His promise, we just know He is faithful. 

Update on our financial support: God has been blessing us so much! We now just need around $200 more a month; over a half of what we started needing!  If you are interested in joining our monthly support team email Amanda at electromand.ywam@gmail.com. Thank you so much for all who have responded to our need!

Transparency- Update

Dear Friends

Thank you so much for all of you who responded to our email last week. It was so good to hear so many of you related with our hearts and have been praying for us. We thank you also to those who are considering financially partnering with our ministry; either by monthly support or special one time gift.

We wanted to keep you updated on our needs, as promised.

This last week God has begun to bring us closer to our $400 extra support a  month. We have had 4 new people express their want to commit to support us monthly and one family raise their monthly giving! We are so thankful God put us on their hearts! We still await to hear exactly how much 2 of them are committed a month but we have an extra $55 a month coming in now! To God be the glory! And so we pray on and continue to ask you to pray with us, consider us in your monthly giving, and connect with us so together we can see God's kingdom expand not only in New England but the ends of the earth. As I type I think about the 1,111 people who gave their hearts to Jesus in Taiwan; so many of them had never heard the name of Jesus, never heard of a creator God- in fact one night our team did outreach in a square that had a temple which was dedicated to the "unknown creator God"! They got to tell people that the creator God is not unknown, He is real, He loves you, He is Jesus and He wants you to be in relationship with Him. What an amazing privilege to share God.

So our total now is $345 and we will keep you updated!


Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, be encouraged that God is working powerfully in our world :)

Connect with us to hear more...johnedwincaton@gmail.com

Much Love
John and Amanda

John and Amanda Caton

Day 267

It was an early morning in clinic but happy to say it was a short appointment :)
John is looking much better, all vital signs good and he is even beginning to consistently gain weight.
All counts also look good (red, white and platelets). His T cell level is also good at 374 at last test (normal range is between 400 and 500). Doctor believes this will continue to go up which is very exciting! John having T cells is a miracle and our hope and prayer is that they will continue to multiply to a normal human level. Another t cell level test was done today and we will find results tomorrow.
They have also been measuring John's B cell levels. John has never had these before. The last level in August still showed that he had none. We await to see if this will change.
John was due to come off the anti-rejection drugs today but that was delayed due to a suspected resurgence of Graft Versus Host disease (GVHD); John has a rash on his face. Please pray with us that this is not GVHD as that would complicate things.
Overall the future looks bright and we continue to see progress, albeit slow.

Transparency

Transparency. Openness. Honesty.

Our hearts yearn to live a life defined by these attributes, and yet one thing holds us back. Fear. Fear of judgment--not only from others but from ourselves. Fear of a lack of provision--what if we can’t pay our bills? Fear of the future--what if John gets sick again? And yet the very brokenness that should lead us to God and to our friends is the one thing that leads us away.

Away from expressing our need and into self-sufficiency.

As we prayed last night, going over our budget for the coming year, we knew we were in need and yet every part of us resisted admitting it.
A wave of realization hit us.
We needed to confess. We needed to repent.

So often this year we have been led by fear in our finances. We stockpiled food, buying more than
we needed because we were so afraid we might not have the means to get more. John
spent much of this year too sick to drive, so every time I could get a ride I spent as though another
ride would never come along.
We should have expressed our need. We should have humbled ourselves to ask for help.
We should have trusted God more. He has surely proved faithful to us.

And so we write today to repent openly, confess and ask for your forgiveness. Those of you who
give to us, we ask you to forgive us for not making Godly decisions in our finances. God is changing our
hearts, leading us to a deeper place of trust in Him. Thank you so much for your commitment to us, you
are truly invaluable and we love you.

We also write to swallow our pride and say we need help. Our projected expenditure for the coming
year leaves us with a deficit of $400 a month. This year we have relied heavily upon one-time donations,
which have been a great blessing.
We ask that you would pray about joining our team, if you are not already part of it.
Giving is easy. It can be done by check or online at www.ywamboston.org; there is an option to set up
a monthly direct debit transfer, so it can happen automatically.  We also have a Paypal account, if that is easier for you.
If you are in the UK please contact Amanda at electromand.ywam@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking time to read this.

Our promise to you is that we will be more open from now on, about our needs, and about our hearts.
In return we ask you to do the same. As the body of Christ we need each other.  In our shared
brokenness can be found true joy in the Lord.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Much love,
John and Amanda Caton

Revival

Our hearts yearn to see revival in Boston.

As we have prayed, worshiped and served in this city to our surprise God has bought a revival in OUR team! As we have prayed to see the spirit of independence, pride and intellectualism broken over Boston God has begun to break those things over our individual lives. There is a new openness within our team, a new surrendering and a deeper level of brokenness.

This is O so good.

How can we meet the broken if we are not also broken? How we can we bring a solution to a problem we do not understand?

We know God is doing a new thing in this city and in our ministry. He has blessed us with a new building, a new location (closer to the city) in a vibrant multicultural area and a new refreshed sense of purpose.

He is breaking us out into new areas we have only dreamed about! We are finally breaking ground in our Campus Ministry and this Fall we begin having meetings at Tufts, BU, MIT, Berklee College of Music and Harvard. Our evangelism is also evolving; spreading now to include internet evangelism. Our new building also enables us to host many more community events!

In the immediate future we face a big task.

Our new building need a lot of TLC; many of our days have been spent cleaning and fixing things; we have come so far and yet have far to go.

On October 19th our performing arts team begin a 4 week 'Encounter' tour; 2 weeks will take them PA, MD, CT, OH and VA and then 2 weeks will be spend performing in the New England area. Amanda will be involved in the New England tour.

It's so exciting here right now I want you ALL to be involved?

If your hearts are moved as you read this please let us know! We love to connect with people, not only to pray for us but so we can pray for you! It's what it's all about.
Pray....
Give....
Connect....
Join us :)