From Steve

This is the latest message from Steve, Sarah Lowrey's brother. It's a pretty powerful message. Please keep him and his whole family in your prayers.

Unfortunately, this is the question I have been asking myself as of late. I'm 32 years old, my birthday is coming up very shortly and this question of quality vs quantity of life looms over head.

Last Saturday, I took part in an amazing and powerful thing. One of the ministers in the area organized a "laying on of hands" by elders of the Christian church from all over Chicagoland. I walked into Camp LRCA (where it was held) and was blown away as to how many men where there. Men I had never met or knew, gave up their Saturday morning to come and pray over my wife and I. Many of the other ministers from the area were there as well, but by-and-large, this was an elder driven thing. I will never be able to truly express how much this meant to me. I am still completely humbled and grateful for being a part of this.

Quality vs Quantity: The elders laying on of hands, their prayers and petitions, asking God to grant me more quantity of life.The next step we were planning was to be involved with a Clinical Trial up at University of Chicago. Again, problems arose. My body is in overdrive with this cancer right now. For their studies, they were not able to administer this new drug to me until I have been off chemo for 28 days. That puts my start date at May 20th. Problem is, things have rapidly progressed downward in my body and we can no longer wait until May 20th. We are stepping away from the Clinical Trial because we need something now!!! My Dr has now found cancer in my lungs. My body is getting weaker and weaker. My Dr will be administering different doses of chemo in different forms trying to get every lat bit of quantity for Ol' Steve that he can.

It would be great if I could share some good news in these mailings, so I'm going to do so now.

My church (Impact Christian Church) is everything I have ever longed and dreamed of in a church. I love the people that go there and they truly love me. Impact has been such a huge support for me to lean on during this fight with cancer. Impact brought together so many people that are family today, but never knew each other before. Impact brought together one of my best friend's, Dan and his future wife Jen. I cannot, nor will ever, say enough how much this church has meant to me.

My family continues to lift me up. All those crazy trips back and forth to Univ. of Chic. with dad driving, making sure I'm comfortable, waiting, waiting, waiting. I could go on and on about the deeds of my mom and dad during this time, but they truly serve as Godly parents of a sick child. Candy's work has been amazing with letting her take off whenever she needs to (it has been such a help to have a nurse for a wife throughout this whole process). Jada continues to do good in school, but is starting to go through a rough patch. She sees what is going on and is trying her best to adjust to it all. Sometimes I just sit and cry because as much as this is a huge burden and weight upon me, it is and will be even more for Jada to bear.

So, Quality vs Quantity: Anyone that's ever known me has known that I live life to the hilt. When I decide to do something, I go barreling forward and figure out the details later. I looked at my wife the other day and said, "I don't think it would be fair if I only get 12 years with you, but what an amazing 12 years they have been." Have I done bad things I regret? Sure. Absolutely. But the good things I have done with my life, my family, my church, my friends, in service to my God really start to stack up those "Quality chips." This is not a letter of me giving up, in fact, I plan on fighting for tomorrow everyday of my life. This is just me letting you know, God has filled this 32 year old punk to the brim with an amazing life.

Keep up the prayers.
Love Steve