From: Leah Preston <[email protected]> Subject: Just Breathe Date: August 22, 2016 at 9:04:39 PM EDT
God’s blessing as we celebrated Dave’s life.
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My word for last week was “just breathe”, my children pointed out that was two words so I shorten it to “BREATHE”. It worked and I made it through last week, through the tears with lots of smiles as we remembered Dave’s life.
I was surrounded by friends and family from far and near. Heather said if we could have teleported people here the numbers would have gone into the 1,000’s. I am sure this is true because the light of Christ shown through my sweet husband. Cancer cultivated the fruits of the spirit in Dave in ways I had never seen before. At times Dave asked “why me?” and then went on to remember that God is in control of everything that happens in our lives. So instead of asking “why me?” the question became how can what I am living through Glorify God. The past 22 months Dave and I learned about the power of God through His grace, mercy and forgiveness. Dave and I had time to reflect on times in our lives when we turned from God’s best for us, and how faithful God was to pull us back to Himself and forgive us for our sins.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support over the past two years. I was blessed to be able to take care of Dave full time, rub his feet when they needed it, spend time in the Word, travel whenever Dave had the strength, and build things out of wood so our children would have things to remember Dave by. I think what we really enjoyed the most was reading books about other people who walked with God and served around the world.
As hard as the last 22 month may have been, I will always remember them as some of the sweetest times that Dave and I shared.
Proverbs 31:25 “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.”
I am sure many of you may be asking what next? That is simple, I will keep following the Lord in the same way Dave and I did together. I will remain with SERVE, To start with I will travel here in the US sharing the vision, and visiting with those who have gone out with us, to find out ways we can improve the way we share Christ across cultures.
When I get the chance I will join a few mission trips, the first one in October to Columbia SC to help with flood relief, another possibility is back to Ethiopia in November, to share time with Dave’s Anuak family who are missing him too.
For those who would like to send a memorial for Dave, you can send it to SERVE, marked “Dave Preston memorial”. I will use these gifts for future mission projects.
c/o E. Arnold Reinikka
25 Wood Lane
Malvern, Pa. 19355
May we all move forward into the future with God guiding us.
Leah Preston
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Dear Jean,
Right now we are still in MD Anderson? We met the oncologist and he thinks that Albert is doing well. He is doing a stress test because he occasionally, gets shortness of breath. Albert is still on chemo pills. The CT scan will be on the 31st then we will meet the oncologist again. The options are: surgery, biopsy, or nothing, just putting him under observation. We really wish they do the surgery to know definitely what’s going on there! But we also do not want to take the risk if there is! We trust that God’s plans are the best. They still don’t know if the tumor is malignant or not, or if the tumor can be reached by the surgeon or not! Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. Love Amal
Jean Stultz
[email protected]
[email protected]