Pray for the Hodsdon family

Those of you who have seen my Facebook posts recently may remember that I posted several prayer requests on behalf of my coworker, Ross Hodsdon, who became very sick while in Asia and had to be hospitalized. Eventually, he was able to return to his home in Maine, but his health issues continued. Tonight, I received an email update from Ross's daughter and son-in-law, Birch and Connie Champeon, who are also colleagues:

Dear Friends,

It is with heavy hearts that we write to you. We have been asking for you to pray for Connie's father's on going health concerns and we are grateful for the dozens of you who have written or called and said you are praying. What we haven't been able to tell you is that some of the tests done in [Asia] indicated a strong possibility of cancer. Since returning to the US dad has been so sick the doctors have been focusing primarily on those immediate issues, but continuing to seek answers for the other things that were seen as well. Several days ago dad had a bone scan, and last night the doctor called to tell them that Connie's dad has cancerous lesions along his spine and up into his skull. They feel the most likely explanation is advanced prostate cancer, but he has not had a biopsy (it will probably be 2 more weeks before he can have one) and until he does there is no way to know for sure what kind of cancer he has, how advanced it is, what treatment options are or what his long-term prognosis is. It feels like we still have more questions than answers, but the answers we do have are not encouraging.

Please pray for Connie's father and our entire family as we go through this valley. We know God is greater than all these things and His plan will be accomplished in all of this. In that we find great comfort and peace, but still great sadness as we know many times God takes His most precious children through these things to draw them to Himself.

This affects every aspect of our lives and ministry in ways we can not begin to anticipate. Not only is Ross our beloved dad and grandfather, but also our colleague, senior consultant, professional mentor, spiritual encourager and closest of friends. When we told the boys what was happening Rowan broke down sobbing, "But this will change everything!" It struck us how he understood better than we had up to that point, how encompassing these dark waters will be.

In a very real sense, Ross and his wife Cathy have been each of those things to me, as well - colleagues, senior consultants, professional and spiritual mentors, close friends, and like a second set of parents who have treated me as their daughter. Please pray for them, their daughter Connie and son-in-law Birch, their grandsons Rowan and Warren, and the rest of their family.


Ross Hodsdon (far left) at work in May 2010, leading a translation checking workshop for the Tenek New Testament