December 2025 Newsletter

God blessed us with nine children, and as a family project, we built a house on a hill, with views to the north of Pilot Mountain and the Blue Ridge in Virginia, and south to the tall buildings of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After all our children left home to pursue ministries of their own, people commented, “I guess you are empty nesters now!”

“No,” I replied, “When we first got married, we had no thoughts that we were in an empty nest. We were married! It was wonderful! Gradually, children joined our nest. We all had good health, and travelled extensively singing, preaching, and teaching God’s Word. Eventually, all the children left home to pursue other ministries. But Rhoda and I were still together in our honeymoon house on the hill.

Our first clue this year that Rhoda was experiencing a significant health problem was one evening when as usual she climbed one flight of stairs to go to bed. She said, “Ray, I don’t know what is wrong with me. I am terribly out of breath!”

She went to her medical doctor who drew a blood sample. On Saturday morning, April 8, at 7:00am, she gave us a call (most doctors would think that is their day off; they can check the results on Monday). Not her! She said, "I don't want to scare you, but your platelet count is 16; you must go to the hospital immediately!" When they drew blood at the hospital her platelet count had dropped to 14; at 10 you could start bleeding through the pores in your skin. (Normal is 145).

Further analysis showed that her spleen was much bigger than her liver. Her bone marrow was in emergency mode, desperately flinging platelets into the bloodstream. But those platelets were imperfectly formed, and therefore useless. God’s intricate body design is for the spleen to salvage components to be reused instead of thrown away, resulting in a downhill spiral.

Rhoda had recently prayed that although she had significant ministry to believing women, she felt very timid about sharing the Gospel with unbelievers, and asked God to do whatever it took to help her have boldness to do that.

At the hospital the doctors concluded that she had a type of lymphoma, and they needed to diagnose what it was before doing any treatment. Rhoda remembered her prayer, and realized that this cancer was the answer to that prayer. She determined to let the light of Jesus shine through her to every person who came into her room, and to give her testimony of allegiance to Jesus, and her confidence that when she died, she would live with Him forever in Heaven.

Family and friends were praying for us. One doctor on the case said, “I don’t know if I believe your results,” because Rhoda’s platelet count improved significantly even before any treatments were done. They were still trying to diagnose the specific type of lymphoma to determine what kind of treatment to recommend. They decided on immunotherapy. Her cancer is not regarded as curable, but is treatable. They have had patients that have been cancer-free for 12 years.

People come from other states to go to this hospital for cancer treatment. The Lord gave us a wonderful doctor that wants to make sure the treatment is not worse than the disease.

Every 3 months Rhoda goes back for another blood test. She has responded well to the treatments and feels good.

Everyday Rhoda & I rejoice that we can be here, doing things together at our honeymoon house on the hill.