Russ Vliet

Many of you know that my brother, Russ, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer (also in his peritoneum and omentum at the time) in December and began chemo treatments in January. The first round sent him to the ER where he had 5 cardiac arrests. After receiving a defibrillator on his 54th birthday in January and a month of rest, Russ continued with a second type of chemo treatment. He proceeded with this for 5 months, but after scans, he was told that the cancer had spread and grown. At the end of July, Russ agreed to try a third type of combo chemo medicine treatment in hopes of keeping the cancer "stabilized". He has been through 2 rounds of this 3rd type of treatment. After each of these past 2 rounds, Russ ended up in the ER due to dehydration (he cannot even keep down water) and nausea and pain.

If you know Russ, you know he has been a hard worker all his life. His job before he started having stomach issues in November was working as a Master technician with Toyota, which is a very physically strenuous job. And his wife Amy too is a hard worker. She had just completed her Masters of Special Education over the holidays with intentions of procuring a full-time teaching job. With Russ's diagnosis, she chose to be by his side over the last 9 months so cannot hold a full-time job. Due to their situation, they have not had an income since Thanksgiving of 2021. As you can imagine, with 2 children in middle school, this has been a strain on any funds Russ had in savings.

There was a GoFundMe set up early on in Russ's diagnosis, and although the amount raised was generous, those funds are totally depleted as Russ paid off all his ongoing medical bills from the last year (ie. doctor visits, physical therapy, several trips to the ER, TPN treatment, chemo treatments, etc.) God has been so good to Russ and Amy through many people praying, giving, and donating gift cards. We know that God will continue to take care of Russ, Amy, and the kids using the generosity of people. Last time, many who did not even know Russ, prayed, sent kind thoughts, donated their time to build a deck on Russ's house and fix up some wood rotting issues, and gave what they could monetarily.

We are so thankful that God loves Russ and his family. And we are grateful to those who have already shown God's love to Russ and his family. We continue to ask for your prayers, and if you can, to give whatever you are led to give. Russ and his family need wisdom to make some decisions that will impact their future.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights... James 1:17 a