Hello to all!! There has been some major difficulties getting technology to cooperate with us! Now, we think, Janni can finally log on and write everyone! We have been hitting some strange road blocks as of late and have to wonder at the invisible battle that is going on in the heavenlies.

Janni called me, to tell you that Kole had some difficulty last night! His legs hurt! The day before he had a head ache, however it went away! Janni said she has been fervent to pray over Kole and he has responded by praying as well! Steve has also been in fervent prayer over Kole! We see God answering prayer all the time! Kole now is calling out to God on his own. Whenever they pray over his symptoms, they eventually leave! Janni said they are "short lived"! We are witnessing God win these little daily battles all the time now! Janni also wants me to let you know that she has found it a blessing to worship God and praise Him when the attacks hit! The enemy expects her to curse God, but instead she worships. She finds such comfort and beauty in Him! Today Kole was riding in the car and asked Janni to sing the "Nails in His hand, the Nails in His Feet" song! She could not remember it and so I was lucky to get a call from Kole! Kole said Aunt Jodi, what was the song about the nails. So, around 11 o'clock this morning I was singing to my darling nephew on the phone! I cry thinking about it! Oh, how much Jesus loves him. Jesus has the scares to prove it! Kole is worshiping Him! We all are worshiping Him! We desire all to worship Him!

David has come to my mind lately! He started worshiping God as a young shepherd boy! He was able to get to know God while being alone with his sheep. God delighted in David's company and in his little songs of heart felt praise! When David's sheep were faced with the enemies of both the lion and the bear. God did not hesitate to come to David's aid! With God's help David slew the lion and the bear! David gained confidence and allegiance to his God! He had no one out in the field to deny his faith and say "oh David, it was your skill"! He knew where his help came from! He knew his Helper! Later, when his older brothers had joined Saul's army to fight against the Philistines and Goliath, David was able to have confidence in God for this bigger battle! The battle with the giant. We could say he had a giant sized battle ahead! He grew to trust his big God, through getting to know Him, through worship, and through experiencing God's deliverance first hand! David boldly told King Saul in 1 Samuel 17:37 "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will surely deliver me from the hand of this Philistine". David, stripped of all human armor, than went out to face the giant armed with his God. In 1 Samuel 17:45 David says to Goliath, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied". David had confidence in God when few around him could muster the courage to step out in faith! David proves that it is not in ability, size, and strength that brings victory, but faith in God alone!

When Kole was a tiny boy, my mom tells this story about Kole! Kole was going into my parents church one Sunday and he says out of the blue, we are here to fight the devil! We have laughed many laughs over that story! Now, we wonder if maybe we should have took him more serious. My sister and I put on the "Armor of Salvation" as we prayed together yesterday! His armor is invisible, but oh how it works! It dawned on me one day, that I failed to believe its effect to protect us from the enemy of our souls. In fact, I asked God one day who my enemy was! I have discovered I have a real enemy! We all do! We cannot fight, if we have our unshielded heads buried in the sand. In Ephesians 6:10-20 Paul explains our armor. We have the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet fitted with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (God's Word). The chapter goes on to admonish us, as Ephesians 6:18 says, to :

"... pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints".

This is the battle plan for Kole Keller. We are arming ourselves with the "Armor of Salvation"! Out of the blue I caught myself singing the words of this hymn this morning, "At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day....."! In one day, Jesus took the burden of our sin away. In one day, God took away the big burden of Goliath away. We are believing God for this trouble to, to be rolled away! Praise Him, our victory is won!

Jodi

Hello, Janni has much to say and due to issues with logging in onto this blog, she has not been able to express it! Anyway, everything should be fixed now and hopefully you will hear from her soon! We were together on Saturday! I have some good friends who were home from Mali, Africa. They brought along their two twin baby girls, adopted in Mali! It is incredible story! Janni and my good friend, Amanda laughed together as they held these two promises! Amanda, shared her struggle waiting on God for their arrival! She not knowing if God had intended to give her, her hearts desire----children! Then, after a long wait (which we understand now) God blessed her with two adorable twins (you can read their story at McMali.com). My good missionary friend shared her testimony with Janni and shared how God blessed her with the most perfect babies at the most perfect time! She saw that the struggle made the blessing all that more appreciated and glorious! God adores us so much that He allows us to struggle and wait on Him! In the mean time we get to know Him and His grace that sustains us! We had a marvelous time together talking about our Lord and His provision! Amanda's provision has arrived---I am sure she will be requiring much more down the road! Her biggest need of God's provision right now is "sleep"! However, she is not longing anymore for children! Her longing has been satisfied by the God of heaven and earth! She came to realize when the struggle came to a close that she could be satisfied in God alone! She handed over her desire for children, and in return God handed over the most beautiful twin baby girls you ever laid your eyes on! Anyway, Janni was able to see that she too has been in a wait---but hearing how God not only did not fail in providing relief---but He provided more "relief" than even expected! He poured out His blessing to the point that it even overwheled the "gift receiver"! He is that kind of adoring God. He adores Janni, Steve, Kole, and Jaelle! He adores them so much that He has allowed them to pass through this valley with Him in order to reveal His glory! We sometimes have to have our comfort and earthly security taken away before we can discover Him! I am envious in a way of how near they are to Him and how they have paid a price that will not return void! Jesus paid a price for us, that surely will not return void! Sometimes there is no way around a valley! However, when you finally through blood, sweat, and tears, reach the mountain top, you see that the valley was necessary to get where you now stand---on the solid ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!

My husband was teaching a Bible study last night on 2 Samuel 22 where David writes this prayer of praise to his Rock! He writes:

"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliver;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stonghold, my refuge and my savior--
from violent men you save me.
I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The waves of death swirled about me;the
torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord;
I called out to MY God.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.

Verse 18-20
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out (of valley or pit dwelling)
into a spacious place; he rescued me because he
delighted in me.

My husband said that rock signifies "strength"! He said you can see that there is strength in a physical rock! In the same way our invisible God is strength! We can count on our invisible "Rock" more than we can count on the visible cement foundations we have our feet on this very moment. Janni and Steve have moved their feet to the invisible Rock-- from the visible soil of this earth! Now they are planted on solid ground! They are in a safe place of refuge! They are safer than ever before, when this earth had their hope! Now ---Only God, the Rock has it! We praise Him from this valley and we will praise Him from the Mountain top! Glory to Jesus the Lamb that was slain!

Jodi

What a kind and attentive God we serve! Janni and I talked together on the phone sister to sister and sister-in-Christ to sister-in-Christ! The Lord loves the Kellers more than any of us can imagine and He is so tender to soothe their fears and "pump them up" with His Word, especially the promises that it contains. When the going gets tough, the wise keep persistent in prayer and belief. There has been several times when God has planted a verse on my heart only to have a believer repeat that same verse to me in various ways! It was difficult to pray on Saturday and so that day I just asked the Holy Spirit to pray for Janni and Steve with "groans that words cannot express"! I received an e-mail from a dear sister-in-Christ from our church who is maintaining our prayer chain and keeps people posted on Kole and others. In that e-mail she puts Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express". It was like the Holy Spirit said, to me, that he was attentive to that little crying out I did on Saturday. He heard and He interceded for my sister and her family! God is so in the business of bringing a constant flow of encouragement! He keeps tapping us on our shoulder and saying "I am more than here for you"! We as humans need constant reminders from Him and He is so willing to oblige! What He does not want is for us to wallow in the pit ignoring His outstretched hand to pull us out! We can be like swine and enjoy wallowing in the mud way too much! Another verse I believe God put on my heart was talking about whether Christ would find faith when he returns! I desire that answer to be yes, yes, yes and yes! Janni says the same and so do my parents and many others! We will not let bad news "blow out our flame of faith" but we want it to "fan our flame of faith"! In Luke chapter 18:1-8 it talks about about the persistent widow coming to a judge over and over again wanting a just ruling in her case! The judge was getting tired of turning her away only to have her return, and so decided that he would give her case a just hearing. Jesus than says "....And will not God (who cares and loves us) bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?". Janni and I both believe faith is being persistent in prayer! God looks for us to be tenacious, not giving up on Him even when we feel like throwing in the towel! We are holding on for dear life to our faith! It is easy to believe when things go our way, right away. But when it gets worse before it gets better---it is too easy to get bitter! Janni, instead wants to be a faithful mom and servant and be dedicated to keep going to our King over and over again. We will not give up on our Lord, for He does not give up on us! Anyway, Luke 18:8 came to me as my parents were sharing the news of Kole's MRI report. Several days later, I happen to go to the Brooklyn Tabernacle website to put another prayer request in for Kole. They have that verse posted as their inspiration for praying twenty four hours a day, seven days a week! I think of their labor of love, praying for people they do not even know, and am in awe! That is Christ's body! That is a reflection on the kind of sacrificial love Jesus has for us! To belong to the church family is the biggest blessing of my life! We can be so critical of the church's weaknesses and throw out the beauty that is found there! Never would we be able to handle this heart ache without Christ, and as a bonus "the Body of Christ" (The Church)!

Janni and I were talking together about how much we are learning from God, himself, our teacher. He is teaching us to surrender! I figure it is kind of like this---we have a house full of furniture and trinkets and the like. Surrender would be laying down on the floor and watching someone come into your house and rearrange everything under your nose! Your responsibility is to lay still and quiet and allow it to happen and be willing for it to happen! When we invite Christ into our lives we get the companionship of the Holy Spirit! When Jesus left his beloved disciples, his heart ached for them. So, He promised not to leave them all alone. In His great mercy, he provided himself through the Holy Spirit! We allow the Holy Spirit in the houses of our bodies, but we do not allow Him to touch anything. The Holy Spirit wants to take residence and make room to work in us. He needs to be free to do some rearranging in our hearts and minds. Janni and the rest of our family has been rearranged! Though, we have fought it at times, we would never want to go back! God has good taste and does a better job at getting rid of our hang-ups than we ever could! It is freedom! Second Corinthians 3:17 says "Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom". Criminals who surrender to the law are put in prison. Christians who surrender to the Holy Spirit, are set free! Amazing isn't it, how we have to rearrange our thinking!

When Kole got off the plane from Memphis, Janni and Steve decided he could choose a restaurant to go eat at! Kole chose Taco Bell. Janni said that it was so cute, because Kole ran to Taco Bell as if he were set free! When deprived of the freedom the Holy Spirit offers, we should run to him with the same enthusiasm! Don't feel too sorry for Kole, he has gotten to eat prime quality food for four months. He truly ate like a King! Why we have such taste for "junk food", is beyond me! I myself, am guilty! God loves each and every one of you, out there! It has been such a great blessing for me to be a part of this! You have shown us great love! Your prayers have been hounding the "Throne Room". God loves all of the attention and takes great delight in every petition, from the very young to the very "wise"! Kole is not lacking, in what is most important----LOVE!!

Jodi

Our God is so awesome! The devil is certainly attacking us.
As you know the news we got on Friday was not what we were wanting to hear. It was disappointing. At first, I just thought, "God, here I have been professing my faith and now what do I say." He completely answered my question. He said "Janni, He may not be healed now but I have promised and I will follow through. You must continue to have faith even when the news gets harder." God always answers prayers but it is not always the timing we think it should be. God told us to persevere and have faith. God has promised us that Kole will be healed. God raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus from the dead, the centurion' s little girl from the dead, he healed many from leprosy(yesturday's cancer), casted out demons, and so many more miracles. There is no reason why we should doubt that KOle will not be healed from the tumor that has grown. God can do anything at anytime. He has promised healing and we know it will be done.
Today was tough. I was trying to get on the plane and we had food issues. I was so stressed. I prayed for more strength. I was beside myself. I wish I could express in words how down and frustrated I was. Anyway, God revealed to Steve and I not to worry and stress. Kole is in his hands. It reminded me of the scriptures that God gave to me back in October. It was 2 Chronicles 20 with King Jehosaphat. God said it was his battle not yours.
God has revealed a lot of scripture to Steve and I. The miracle of the mother who chased around Jesus to have him heal her daughter who was demon possessed. She perservered in her faith. The disciples called her a dog because she followed them everywhere. She did not give up. Jesus healed her daughter because of her faith. I want to be like that mother. I will not give up my faith for what the doctors may say. God has told us that Kole will be healed. We know this because he will not break his promises.
TOday, God also revealed to Steve a scripture in Hebrews chapter 10. It is a call to perserverance. God continues to reassure us that he is with us. Verses 35-39 spoke to me. "So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to perservere so that when you have done the will of God , you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteousness one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who beleive and are saved."
The whole next chapter is on faith. The bible is God's living word. I believe every word written in it. God speaks to us through his word. Thank you Lord for your words.
Thank you to all who prayed and are continuing to pray for Kole and our family. God is listening and answering always.
God Bless,
Janni and Steve

Hello friends and family. This is what I know! I know "all the way our Savior leads us". Along with that important truth, the MRI has shone that the tumors have grown and that Kole has cancer cells in his spinal fluid! The information I have is very sketchy! I do know Janni says "she is believing God"! God is good and we are praising and trusting Him, knowing Kole is in His hands! Though we do not understand and see the plan the way God does, we believe! God always finishes what He starts and always remains faithful. We desire to remain faithful to Him--even in our crying out! God is good all the time! We are His sheep and He is our shepherd. He is looking out after Janni, Steve, Kole, and Jaelle! He will lead them, as He leads us to our knees. Even this is not too hard for God! God will never fault our belief! I was reading through the gospel accounts of Jesus healing the sick, blind, demon possessed, etc. and many times He says, especially in Luke,"it is your faith that healed you, or don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed, or rise and go; your faith has made you well, etc." We desire to do our part and believe God, no matter what!

"All the way my Savior leads me--What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know what-e'er be-fall me, Jesus do-eth all things well......"

Love you all,
Jodi

Burr--- is this a cold February Sunday or what! My husband has given me hope that this might be the "peak" low of the winter! My poor parents arrived back from Florida over a week ago, only to face such frigid temperatures! Anyway, they missed their grandkids and that was what drew them home. My poor father was welcomed back by my own children with "dangerous" excitement! They put on a performance of gymnastic feats. Grandpa Sprunger ended up with a black eye and broken glasses. He is yet to come back!! Anyway, my mom said that Kole and Jaelle have been chasing each other through the house and have caused quite a ruckus . We have been waiting and praying for the day when Kole would have his "child like" bounce back. We actually welcome the energy and craziness. There had been a time when Jaelle could out run, out maneuver, and out last Kole in energy, physical strength, and agility. Her big brother is "on the move".

Today, I was talking to my Sunday School class about praying for Kole this week. I started telling them some stories about conversations Kole and Leah have had when they were younger. Some of the neatest talks happened several times traveling in the car. One time I spent a little time teaching Leah and Kole a little song that I have felt teaches children about Jesus' love for them is a unique way. Keep in mind that Kole was into Bob the Builder at the time! Anyway, I change it a little when I sing it to kids, but it basically goes like this.......

"The nails in His hands, the nails in His feet, they tell me how much Jesus loves you" (Kole did the hand motions by pounding his palms of his hands half to death----he was hammering those nails in good). "The thorns on His brow (Ow!), they tell me how-- He bore so much shame to love you. And as the heavens pass away, all His scars will still remain and forever they will say just how much Jesus loves you".

Both Kole and Leah got into this little song and at the end of it, they both said "Jesus needed a band-aid". I think Kole would have picked out a "Bob the Builder" band-aid at that!! Anyway, it was so sweet and remembering that precious innocent time in our lives brings a smile to my face. I think Jesus smiled at those two precious little ones of His! They were willing to soothe Jesus' hurts and I know Jesus is willing to soothe theirs. Little did we know back then, that the day would come when we would be asking Jesus not just for a band-aid, but for a miracle of healing. I would have never imagined that Kole would have this coming in his future, but God knew. God is not over whelmed with the problem. He is our King and Ruler over everything. He paves the way for us and He has taken Kole in His arms and has personally cared for Kole with tenderness and mercy. He has used "human" hands and feet. His touch flows through man in ways we do not understand. I can say this looking back, Kole was taken care of like a king, by our "King". He may have moments when the memories were hard, but I believe for the most part he felt comforted under "His Wings". Jesus gave Kole His own kind of "band-aid", a better one than even "Bob the Builder" or "Johnson and Johnson" can make.

Today, we studied the Israelites during the time of the Judges! Jaelle gets her name from that Biblical book! Some may call the book a little bloody, but I assure you it is never boring! Anyway, during the book, Israel struggled with peer pressure. They were pressed in on every side. First, the fell for the pressure to follow the idols of the Canaanites, Mideonites, Philistines, etc. As a result their negative peers influence turned sour. The Philistines and all the "ites" put on the "pressure of oppression". It was a no win cycle and the Israelites fell into the trap over and over. Many times repenting and many times God sending help in the form of a Judge--- like Gideon, Deborah, and Samson. At the end of the book of Judges, Samuel becomes prophet. He has to hear the people begin to complain, due to the peer influence, that they too wanted to have a "human king". They wanted a king they could see and touch. God for a long time said that they did not need a King, for they had the perfect King in Him. He had proven over and over His power to deliver, protect, provide, and on and on. However, it was not enough for man. God never wanted them to look to a man, who could not care for them like He could. Yet, they insisted and God gave them their way. It seems but for a few kings (example David and Josiah), most of the kings let the power go to their head and they ruled the people harshly and with evil motives. They were better off sticking with their true unseen King. When Janni named Kole, it used to make me think of the nursery rhyme "Old King Kole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he". We no longer have visible Kings around here, sitting on gilded thrones. No, we rely on our unseen King and He leads the way and cares for His people with true authority and power on high. Jesus is the Keller's King. He will care for them with royalty. They will have His royal treatment. They are His loyal subjects. We worship our King! He is all we need! Our King came born in a barn. His future led to His nails for our healing and redemption. His blood has potent power to heal and wipe out sin. One day we will use our sense of sight and see Him on His throne. We will touch the scars in His hand and on His side. We believe in our King unseen!

Jodi