Sam Conway

The first thing I want to say is, ‘Thank you for being our friends’!! I have struggled with writing this, and would prefer to write or call each of you individually, however, our world is so totally ‘upside down’ right now, that time is of essence, and it would be impossible to do that. I do look forward to the time that we can talk or visit with you one-on-one!! Thanks for understanding about this ‘blanket letter’. It is really important to us that you have some idea of what is going on in our lives right now & will hold us up in prayer.

April 5th, just two short weeks ago tomorrow, our lives changed forever! We were so excited about attending Kevin’s Busch race in Dallas, TX. This would be the first NASCAR race I have attended since Christen’s home going!

We had made arrangements to meet with friends in Dallas to go out to lunch the day we arrived. Our friend, Billy Boring, is a physician in Dallas with a large practice, and a Godly man who serves on the board of the ministry where we serve, (IBLP). While eating lunch, he heard Sam cough a couple of times & said he didn’t like the sound of it, so after lunch we would swing by his office & take a chest X-Ray, which we did.

The minute he walked into the room with the X-ray, I knew there was something drastically ‘wrong’. His demeanor had changed & he had such compassion, there were tears in his eyes. He saw a pretty “significant’ growth and immediately started making calls to other physicians.

Within 24 hours, Sam had a complete CT scan, sonogram, and was scheduled for a Brohchoscopy with a Pulmonary Specialist. Over the course of the next week, God open door after door for appointments, CT & PET scans, tests, and incredible intervention at every turn. Dr. Boring said that in his entire career he had never had anything go this fast, or see doors literally ‘fly open’ at every turn!! We were having scans that should have taken four weeks to get an appointment and doctors with a three-month waiting list!

On April 13th, we met with the Pulmonary Specialist, who walked into the room and said he was ‘very sorry that he had sad and serious news’. The diagnosis was that Sam has Bronchogenic carcinoma, (lung cancer), isolated to the upper left lung and does involve two Lymph nodes. It is Stage 3A, (not in any other part of the body), large cell.

We flew home to Chicago that afternoon. Kevin flew up and spent his birthday, (April 15th), and Easter with us, and we had a great weekend together!

As you can imagine, since last Thursday we have been on the research journey! We fly back to Dallas this Thursday to meet with the Oncologist who will tell us more and lay out a ‘plan of action/treatment’.

From there, we are flying to Charlotte, NC. The most exciting part of this coming weekend, is to be back at our ‘home church’, Central Church, where the Elders will be anointing Sam with oil and praying for him. (James 5:14). God has also opened a door to see a wonderful Oncologist in Charlotte, who will meet with us, look over all of Sam’s records, and give us his opinion as well. This doctor, although not taking any new patients, has agreed to see us . . .God opened this door through friends . . . we are so grateful & thankful! After we have more information, we will understand a little more and are seeking GOD for HIS DIRECTION for our plan of action.

After all we have been through, after sharing all the “Trusting God’ messages, we KNOW God IS faithful & trustworthy, but our world has fallen apart. Life as we have known it is TOTALLY different! I will be the FIRST to NOT wear a mask, or pretend: this is painful, horrible & anxiety-ridden for me, (Ann), and HARD!!!! I have been ‘wrestling’ with God, and Sam seems to be taking everything so much better than I have!! To be totally honest, I am still struggling with understanding the how & why’s . . . .something I’ve already learned we don’t have to know, but sometimes struggle with! I go back to Christen’s journals where she wrote: “Trust does not require understanding . . . truly trusting will not need knowledge, but ACTION”.

I know this is long, but one more side note: I was so emotionally ’stressed’ that the thought of watching Kevin race, (in Dallas), was almost more than I could bear that weekend. I KNOW that God knew that & although I was truly sorry for Sam & Kevin, he did not race Saturday!! As he was sitting on ‘the line’ ready to go out for practice Thursday, NASCAR came & told them he would not be able to go out on the track!! (This was due to a huge ‘glitch’ in the sale of the team & the previous owner ‘pulled the number’ just minutes before practice!) It looks like Kevin will be sitting out several races until all the legal ramifications of this are settled! God NEVER misses any details!

Will you hold us up in prayer? We want to learn all that God has to teach us through this journey. We will not allow Cancer to defeat us . . . .we’ve learned that everything passes through God’s Hands . . . and, while easier to say than practice, we ARE trusting God, as we KNOW HE IS ABLE!!!!!!!

We love each of you & you have touched our lives in some way! Feel free to call or write . . . . Sam has been so blessed by those he has heard from & is so amazed at how much you-all care!! He keeps saying he is so humbled by people reaching out to him! Sam is as high-energy as EVER and has NO other symptoms AT ALL!!!!! This is a GOOD sign!!!! How thankful we belong to God & can lay all of this at his feet!! I will try to update you as we move forward in this journey. You are an important part of our lives!!

Love in Jesus,
Sam & Ann

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