2020-12-04-Pastor Ko’s Update

December 4, 2020

The following was orally recorded by Pastor Ko within one hour after he was discharged from the hospital. Thanks for a sister who helped write it out.

Thanks to the grace of the Lord, it has been two weeks and two days since the operation, the most difficult period should have passed, and I have seen the grace of God often leading me during this time. On the third day after the operation, the lungs began to have fluid, which made me very uncomfortable, and sometimes I didn’t even have the strength to talk. But thank the Lord He still encourages me with His love so that I can lean on Him to move forward. I remembered one day the doctor said, “The pathology report will come out in the next two days to see if there are any cancer cells in the body.” I was quite worried when first heard it. But thank the Lord, since I could not read the Bible in those days, I listened to sermons instead. Just that morning the sermon I listened to was “Don’t Give Up”, which talked about Apostle Paul went out to preach, continued speaking out boldly for three months. Paul did not give up, which reminded me not to give up, so I thought , since the Lord told me not to give up, I should not think too much about the report, and just trust that His hand will lead me forward, and my heart was then at peace. Thank the Lord for reminding me through His Words. Another time the sermon was about the blind man in Book of John chapter 9, some people asked Jesus: “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus said, “No, this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” When Jesus looks at suffering, His purpose is not to see what has caused it, but what it will bring out. Thanks to the Lord! It also reminded me once again that the suffering I am going through is to help me move forward by the power of the Lord for He always has His good will in my life.

The biggest struggle right now is eating. Because the stomach is completely removed, there is now only one so-called “food pocket” to contain food, because there is no stomach acid, every time when I eat I need to take medicine to help digestion. But I often don’t have much appetite because sometimes the food was either too dry or too hard, it would take me more than an hour to just finish a little bit of food. Although I have a hard time eating much, the doctor advised me to eat more. Please pray for me on this issue. I remembered when I first started chemotherapy, I ate very little, but thanks to the Lord, through the constant prayers of brothers and sisters, I ate more and more later. May we experience again the mighty power of the Lord through prayers that I can gradually increase my appetite by taking several small meals so that the total amount of food can be the same as that of the average person. My stomach and dodecadactylon (the first part of the small intestine next to the stomach) and one-third of the pancreas were removed, and now the liver and pancreas are connected to the small intestine. Usually a person with one-third pancreas been removed may have high blood pressure due to high blood sugar and need to take insulin, which can be cumbersome once start taking insulin shot, it will be for life. But thanks to the Lord, my blood pressure has been very good, so I don’t need an insulin injection. Please also continue to pray for my blood pressure, blood sugar to be normal.

Thanks to the Lord, today (December 3rd) I have been discharged from the hospital. I’ll stay at a couple’s house at St. Louis for a few days before I can go back to Columbia. Please continue to pray for us, especially for my wife and my sister, for the care of me after discharge will place a great burden on them. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen them physically, mentally and spiritually so that they can carry such heavy burdens, and also for the Lord to help my body become more and more stronger to alleviate their work. Please pray especially for my wife, she is also a patient, and now need to take care of me. Thanks to the Lord, my daughter Sarah’s company gave her a month to work from home, especially during the most difficult time to come back and help. Please also continue to pray for my family. Thank you!