The Thoughts of a Young Preacher

I would like to introduce you to a good friend of mine. His name is Alan Loomis and he is a 13 year old boy. I first met Alan when I started my first ministry position in Billings, Montana. The church needed a teacher for the Junior high kids on Wed night and I had some experience in that area from my youth ministry days so I jumped at the chance. Little did I know that I would meet someone that would change my life forever. Alan is really one of those special kids. Anyone that has ever taught no matter whether it is in the school system or in the Bible class knows that you naturally pick your favorites. I try not to do this and yet I can't help it. Alan was always kind to the other kids. Here always was thrilled to be in Bible class and always was ready to answer the questions. He never seemed to be swayed by the crowd and this impressed me. I think my favorite thing about Alan is his big smile. He always has this huge smile on his face. In late Jan of 2005 Alan got really sick and after some testing the doctors discovered that Alan had a very rare form of Leukemia. The call it A.L.L. with the Philadelphia Chromosome,If you don't know what that means just know that is a very rare form of blood cancer that mutates and makes it very difficult to treat. As you can imagine this is very tough on Alan and his family. They are all really great Christian people. So today on this blog I wanted to share with you a couple of their journal entries about their experiences with reveals their faith as well as the struggle to make it through this tough time.

The first journal entry:
Thursday, March 19, 2005 9:37 AM CST
This is to let you all know where we have been and are hoping to go from here. First Alan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with the Philadelphia Chromosome on Jan 31 2005. Todd, Alan and I left for the Denver Childrens Hospital on Feb 1 2005. He was in the hospital till Feb 8. He had a central line put in for all the chemo and blood draws to come
from. He had a bone marrow tap and a spinal tap. He started his first round of chemo on Feb 4. Then we returned home and on Feb 11 he had more chemo in Billings. Feb 18 he had more. On Feb 22 he was admitted to the hospital because his liver was not working right. He stayed till Feb 26 then on March 3 Todd, Alan and I went to Denver again. Todd, Makayla and I were being tested to see if one of us could be a bone marrow donor. None of us matched. It is rare for children to get the Philadelphia Chromosome and also for it to be (ALL). Anyway he is now waiting to start the next phase which will start out by being in the hospital in Billings for five days and then a shot an medicine for the next three weeks. We get the plan only weeks at a time. His liver level is still to high to start the next phase so we are hoping that on Monday March 21 it will be down and he can continue on with the next step. We do what to thank everyone for everything. It does make it easier. He has a great spirit and he is very positive! As we know more I will let you all know. Thanks for all the cards! WE LOVE THEM!


The most recent journal entry:
Monday, February 27, 2006 2:55 PM CST
Hello,
Well Alan is finally feeling good. He still gets sick everynight. We may have to try to change the time of his medicine again. It seems that we have to move it around to keep him from getting so sick. He was able to help Todd at the show they had this weekend. He had a great time! He was also able to attend worship. He went to school today for the morning classes. He had a great time! He is doing a math test tomorrow afternoon. We are going to ride ATV's this afternoon. It is so nice here we wanted to do something before he starts again. His counts are up enough that he will start the next round of chemo on Wed. It is early we have the surgery at 8:00 and then check in to St. Vincent after that. This one is a five day treatment. We only have five more to go. We are counting down the time. Hope you all have a great week. We love you all.
Love, Tammy


I would like to ask that you pray for Alan. Lift his name up to the Lord. I know that God can heal anyone! I believe that with all of my heart and I ask that you pray for Alan today! Instead of leaving comments on this post, I ask that you go to Alan's website. There is a place on there where you can sign his guestbook. It doesn't matter if you don't know he just tell him who you are and let him know that you will be praying for him. This really encourages him.

Click here for Alan's website!

Thanks so much for doing this!