You may remember Richie as the church planter who has preached at New Life several times and has been battling both brain and lung cancer. He just sent us the following update that requires no additional introduction other than Yay God!!!

Richie MerrittHey friends and family,

Received the results of my PET Scan today and that coupled with my MRI last week have combined with some awesome news!  All of the spots that were originally found (June 2012) and the new ones in May in my lungs are completely gone!!  So.., the results overall are that all spots in the lung are gone, and the one remaining spot in my brain (identified in May) is shrunk to the point of being gone and nothing new in the brain at all!

Now one weird thing did show up in the PET scan – I have a 1″ spot in the lymph node of my left shoulder, but she (the Oncologist) does not consider this a defeat at all – she just said it is weird.  The bottom line is this, we are going to radiate that spot for 15 days starting on Friday or Monday – and that should eliminate that spot post haste.  However.., the really good news is that I am off chemotherapy for the 1st time in over a year for an extended period of time and can catch my breath and get myself back into some decent shape again.  The plan is to scan me in a few months to make sure nothing new pops up and just continue to pray that God has removed all the dormant cancerous cells – and prayerfully I can be declared to be in remission in the early part of 2014!!

So.., despite the one new spot – this is a HUGE victory for God!  My Oncologist who is normally a realist (pessimist) said today “yeah.., you very well may be converting me to this optimism thing!”  She couldn’t get herself to say “faith”, but the word convert rang out loud and clear!  LOL!!

So very glad to share this all with yous guys!  Thank you ALL for your Love, Support, and patience with me during this time!