Pray for Andy Anderson

Andy Anderson, pictured in front of me with Holy water on the occasion of the blessing of our new playground, is our parish verger and all round good egg who does a HUGE amount for this parish. He is a governor at the school, a member of the PCC, a server, on the Community Centre Steering project and always on hand should anything need doing. On top of all that he is a good friend as well.

Born locally and educated at Saint Barnabas’ school he is very much a cradle Barnabite. Sadly Andy, aged only 58, was diagnosed with Myeloma last year and discovered it is at a fairly advanced stage. After what has been a long haul, for him and the family, he is due to have a bone marrow transplant on the 10th January. But unfortunately his pre-operative test results were not good and he has been found to have reduced lung capacity. There are a host of reasons for what might cause this but it does mean that if his lungs do not make it through the tests next week his life-saving operation will be cancelled. His life expectancy will then suffer hugely as a result. Medically he will have reached the point where no more can be done other than to manage his pain.

So, with Andy’s permission, I am asking everyone who reads this blog to put him on their personal and church prayer lists. Pray please for God’s powerful, healing touch on Andy’s life. Pray that he will get through the tests and be a good candidate for his operation. Pray for those who minister to him so skillfully, the doctors, nurses and all involved in the health services. Pray that he will be close to God no matter the outcome and that he will feel positive as he faces the future. God answers prayer, so let us bombard him with this one!