Many of you out there may have heard Janni and Steve testify Kole will be healed, if not already. They have received this message during several times alone with God in prayer. How can they be so bold? Do not get them wrong! It is not that they believe that their family is imune to death. The Bible says "where oh death, is your sting" anyway. God has just said in this instance, Kole is to stay. God can use us in our death and God can use us in our life. We believe that God has an appointed time for us to be born and for us die. It is not cancer that decides our death! It is our great and merciful Lord and Savior, who decides the best time for our life here to end! We have been created to want to live and to hope to live. It cannot be that all will get what they want, but what God decides is best! To say that Kole would be more blessed to stay here on this fallen earth, than a child called to heaven would be a mistake! We have such little understanding of our great God and King and His eternal home. We like what we know, and do not welcome change and loss. God knows that what seems to us a loss, is truly a gain for us and for His Kingdom and His glory. Janni and Steve have already experienced a loss in a sense. A loss of comfort and carefree living, a loss of being an average family with an average son. A loss of thoughts that do not trail towards fear, disease, sickness, and death. But through it all both Steve and Janni testify to great gain! Both of them have gained a greater knowledge of their heavenly Father and the depths and riches of His word. They have been catapulted into being a testimony and into having a ministry, which has given their lives meaning and depth. They have had the privilege of witnessing the Great God of the universe provide and lead them every step of the way down an unknown trail. They have grown their confidence in God and find Him faithful and delightful to belong to and know. God has been a real and present comfort and has poured out immeasurable grace and peace. Their has been tears and frazzled times, but each time God has taken them into His arms and bathed them in His love. They both testify that God's Word is the water that puts out the fire of their doubts and fears. The Bible is an incredible treasure. It cannot be fully understood without the key---the Holy Spirit. God's Word comes with great power and authority. The enemy of our souls does not want us to discover the great treasures that lie behind the black words on the thin white paper. Those words are God breathed and alive and so work to transform us from a life of death and destruction to a life of light and life. The Keller's have found God to be true to His promises and to His great might through the daily study of this vast treasure. I laugh because I have an old worn Bible from childhood, but not from use only from age! I loved this Bible because it was unique, in that the cover had a zipper. I did not love the Bible for it's living words that it contained, but for the outside cover. It was kind of like being fascinated by a candy wrapper. I found pleasure with the wrapper, and ignored the candy so to speak. As a child, I do not remember ever unzipping the cover and reading it's contents. God smiled at me, I am sure, for he knew one day I would discover His love letter to me. He takes great delight when we discover the endless treasures and promises of His living Word. It is through the Bible we get to know specific characteristics of God, though He can never be fully understood in His great magnitude. The words of the Bible are like a diamond. They are multi-faceted and gleam from every surface. They shed bright light in contrast with the "black velvet" of the despair from the earth. The enemy takes delight in keeping our Bibles zipped up, so that we will continue living in defeat and darkness. The scriptures speak to us God's words of encouragement, His love, and His direction and specific work in our lives. They are words of truth. There are times when Janni and Steve are beside themselves with fear. In those times, they dive for the nearest Bible and claim it's truth and power. Then diving to their knees, they pray that truth in faith. Both of them will testify that peace and safety is to be found "under the cover". Psalms 91:4 says "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and refuge". They have restored peace of mind, countless times, through seeking God through His Word. He has never failed them. That is why they believe. God is the only one able and has proven time and time again that He never stops keeping promises. He has been found to be faithful, powerful, and true. Numbers 23:19 " God is not a man, that he should lie,....nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and than not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" In Romans 5:2 and 5 God says "...we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God....... And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us". God is sure and steadfast like nothing on this earth. A human doctor can promise a cure, but cannot always deliver. God cannot promise and not deliver. His promise is sure and we can take great comfort in it. God delights in our faith in His promises. He knows it is difficult for us to believe.

Well, I best lighten this blog entry with a little story about Kole. Kole has quite a lot of confidence in his dad and his dad's basketball team! He has also inherited a competitive trait---we will not blame anyone on this! Anyway, Janni told me this incident Kole had at one of his father's games. Steve is always polite, friendly, and a true gentlemen. He is friends with many of the coaches in his league. He takes great pride in Kole and so before one game, Steve decides to introduce Kole to the coach of the opposing team. In his boyish way, Kole wrinkles his nose in a snarl and growls. Steve and Janni were mortified until they heard the next phrase out of Kole's mouth. Kole lowers his voice, points in intimidation at this surprised coach, and growls "You're going down". To that, those shocked adults had a good laugh. Kole had hope that his dad's team would have victory. His hope in his earthly dad's success is not always a sure thing. It is not like our hope in God. I have been taught that "Biblical hope" means it will happen. It is unlike "earthly hope" which means it might happen. Kole's intimidation however seemed to work at this game. His father's team won the victory. The opposing team's coach, came over after the game and told Kole that he got them this time. He was truly a good sport and I like this coach for his humble response to this zealous and loyal child. May we be just as zealous and loyal to our great God and King, ruler of everything.

Jodi

Hello,
Just wanted to tell you how awesome God is. Two Fridays ago, Kole had a headache. I freaked out. My faith went down the poop shoot. I sat by his bedside crying and praying to God to send Jesus to his room right now and lay his hands on his Kole. Well the headache did not last long and he recovered without any medicines within a half an hour. The next day at the game an friend of mine, that I do not see very often, came up to me and we began talking. She told me that She felt that he is going to be just fine. I did not think too much about it at that time but the next day someone else said to me that if you think God is talking to you and someone else confirms it that it is from God. As I began to think about Kole, obviously, I thought about that woman. Would I just say that to someone knowing what the doctors had said? I know she was a message from God. She was the answer to my prayer for Jesus to come in Kole's room right now and heal Kole. God sent this woman to give me strength, faith, and trust that it will be done. Wouldn't you know he sent another affirmation of his miracle for Kole. I was just talking to my dad this weekend and telling him how cute my kids looked in their picture with Santa. I told him how we showed Kole a picture of him from his October school pictures and how his hair keeps coming in better and better. Boy God is good we said. He used to have about a three to four inch gap of baldness on top of his head. Now it is only about an inch wide. Here come to find out my dad has been praying that God would show us his healing on Kole's tumor by growing back his hair. I cannot tell you how excited I am about all that God is doing in our lives. He is so real and alive. So many days I have thought about how sad and depressed I should be but I am so happy. I thank God for this. He is so good.
By the way, I have to tell you this cute story about Ellie. I was on my way to my parents house on Friday and Kole was sleeping. Of course Ellie, my little chatter box, was back there talking to herself. Before long I heard her praying. She said, "Thank you Jesus for hanging on the tree for my grandma, grandpa, Kole, mommy, daddy,...... " It was so cute. I think she is getting christmas and easter mixed together -hanging christmas ornaments and Jesus dying on the Cross. I laughed for a long time at her sweet innocence.
We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas. We are happy to be in Ohio for the celebration this year.
God Bless you all,
Janni

Merry Christmas-----almost!!! I will tell you, that with five children in the house, I hear at least three to four squealing voices repeat "our family Christmas count down" daily. My six-year old has taken to studying and marking calendars. I can only say, that I get a bit anxious every day when reminded, multiple times, that the days are few till Christ's birthday and my tasks are many! The children get anxious, for the day, and yet they do not experience heart burn! What is it with that? To be young and carefree! They get all the money spent on them, and yet do not have a dime to their name and not one debt either!

Kole and Jaelle came for a visit last night! My sister packed a cooler full of nutritious goodies. I have to tell on Jaelle. She may not be famous at this point, but she will be!!! Nothing gets past her, especially food! She ate her supper nicely, followed by four helpings of blueberries, her cheese stick, and other stuff. Nothing was left in the cooler, and so I cheated a little and gave her low sugar Dora the Explorer yogurt! She was thrilled and chatted to me the entire evening in the kitchen! She was so funny and delightful! When my sister came home she sympathized because she too, does the same thing at home. She too, spends the evening in the kitchen! Jaelle has always been a good eater and a grazer. Later on that evening, we were playing a game and I teasingly made a remark about Barney. Jaelle tilted her head to the one side and had a serious look on her face and said with gusto"I like Barney"--if she were a little older she would have added "so what are you going to do about it!" I had to laugh because to mention Dora, Barney, or food to Jaelle and up perks her ears! Kole looked great as well! He enjoyed playing polly pockets with his cousin Leah. He is gaining weight nicely! Many of you out there may not take that as a compliment. But, Kole once told me he was as thin as a snake. He looks better filled out like a strong tiger! Janni says he sleeps less now! Kole says his days are fun with his dad. He has blueberry waffles with special butter and a glass of goats milk for breakfast, gets dressed, brushes his teeth, takes his medicine, and plays with his dad and probably grandpa Keller too!! He is a happy boy!

I started thinking today, as I was praying for help for my worry and anxiety, if God ever gets tired of running to our rescue! I pondered how He could keep delivering us over and over from our trials and yet not get annoyed or run down. You would think we would get just a certain amount of His help and than we would be on our own! Yet, that is not the case! He hangs out in the "kitchen" all day and answers all of our every beckoning calls with love and delight. I can almost hear Him say, "there is more where that came from"! Janni and I may run out of food or patience with Jaelle. But, God never tires of meeting the needs of His children. We are blessed to know Him! I am so glad He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture. We get to graze all day! Good news for Jaelle! Anyway, in Sunday School we talked about the Tabernacle (tent/temple in the desert). The Holy of Holies is where God hung out! It is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. No one was allowed to hang out with God except the High Priest and he could only go once a year on the "Day of Atonement", for all other days, God was off limits! Every one else, women and children and men, stayed on the outside and only got to wonder what it was like to go to God and kneel in His presence. Why? They were an unholy people with unclean lips. God could not be in their presence. He could tolerate the Priest only after a blood sacrifice, ceremonial cleansing, confession of sin, and on and on. Today, the curtain has been torn in two. This points out the huge ramifications of Christ's work on the cross! It was Jesus alone who paved the way with His blood to the Holy of Holies, so that we can be made pure to kneel before a holy God anytime we want to! Do we take advantage of our privilege? We also get to house the Holy Spirit in us and become a living Temple of God! The enemy does not want us to grasp the significance of our privileged position and of our access to the powerful God of this universe! Our Holy God hangs out in our kitchen, even with the dirty dishes!!! The Israelites would not have been able to imagine this and would probably say "unfair" or "take advantage of such opportunity". For us, God says "come one, come all"--- women, children, and men washed in Christ's blood. His deliverance is there for us over and over again. It truly is a "Merry Christmas".

Jodi

Hello,
I just wanted to tell everyone that Kole is doing great. He has adjusted better than anyone with the diet. In fact, he cracks me up. Dr. Bunting, the doctor who found the tumor, goes to our church. Kole loves him and every Sunday we have to look for him. Well a couple of Sunday's ago we were talking with him. Dr. Bunting and I were talking about the diet we are on and he was telling me about the healthy food their family eats. Anyway, Kole says to him that I have him on a diet now. So Dr. Bunting asks him what is it that your mother won't let you have anymore. Quickly, Kole responds with Coffee. He acted like I give him coffee all the time. He rarely ever had any and that is the first thing he told Dr. Bunting. I just laughed. You never know what comes into his head.

Please continue to pray for KOle. We are planning on having a prayer gathering for him sometime. All the plans are not complete yet but I will pass on the information as we know more.

God is so good. We are so blessed to have his awesome love and power surrounding us always. When we are down I pray to the Lord for guidance and open the bible. HE always leads me to his uplifting love. I couldn't get through many days without his living word.

By the way, I really think Kole's hair is starting to get thicker on the top of his head. PLease continue to pray that it will all come back. We are also concerned with his pituitary gland. The radiation could have damaged it. Right now his hormone levels are borderline. We are praying that all damage to his body will be restored. Also, we are scheduled to return to St. Jude's in February. We love that hospital but we are unsure if we want to subject his body to the drugs of putting him to sleep and the radiation from the MRI. We are lifting all of this up to prayer for healing and guidance. Please pray for these specific things also.

We love all of you and we thank you for all of your support.
Love,
Janni