Hope and Healing for Rachel Please help renew hope and healing for Rachel and her husband Paul, and children Daniel (12 years old) and Beth (11) on their 2+ year journey of appendiceal cancer. If you’ve met Rachel, you will quickly notice the many roles she embraces and her true joy for life.  She is a loving wife, attentive homeschooling mum, a loyal sister, caring daughter, loving aunt, and thoughtful friend. She will tell you that her most important role in this world is being a faithful follower of Christ. Even if you are just an acquaintance, you will observe that that she is a highly organized and disciplined person and has a strong desire to serve others with the gifts with which God has blessed her. There was no amount of planning or foresight that could have prepared Rachel and her family for the news of her cancer diagnosis over two years ago.  After experiencing severe abdominal pain in November of 2018, Rachel was initially mis-diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After surgery to remove multiple large tumors was performed in December, a correct diagnosis was made of Stage 4 cancer of the appendix, which is an extremely rare form of cancer. Because there is almost no data available for appendix cancer, it is treated like colon cancer. During the next two years, Rachel would undergo aggressive treatment including chemotherapy and a HIPEC surgery. The HIPEC procedure is designed to attack as much cancer as possible with heated chemotherapy applied to the abdominal cavity for 90 minutes. In addition to her two surgeries, Rachel has endured a significant amount of chemotherapy with varying degrees of success. The cancer treatment not only affected her physical health by causing pain, reducing her energy, and causing constant nausea, but also it had an enormous impact on her family.  Daily tasks that were once easy now became more difficult.  Finding foods that were easily digestible proved to be a challenge, and side effects from treatment became more pronounced and affected every area of life. After two surgeries and the start of a third round of chemotherapy, an unfavorable prognosis was made due to the advance of the cancer, and Rachel and her family have made the difficult decision to discontinue chemotherapy as of April 2021. If you’re reading this now, it’s because the Ryberg family has in some way touched your life.  We are asking for your support now towards our goal of $50,000 to help Rachel get medical treatments that are not covered by their health insurance. Any amount you can offer is a great encouragement and helps to offset costs.  To do so, please click on Hope & Healing For Rachel under OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT below. It will take you to their gofundme page. In the future, help with meals and rides may be requested using the Care Calendar on this Giveinkind page. Please see Special Notes below. Whether or not you can support in a financial way or with meals or rides, Rachel and her family would very much appreciate your prayers. As she often says: “We worship an almighty God, and He is the Great Physician!” Thankfully, there is hope in this situation, as a new natural dietary regimen has recently been introduced to Rachel, and she has experienced significant improvements to her digestive function. Just as we cannot plan out our entire lives as Rachel and her family are so poignantly and constantly reminded, we must remember the true reason for hope as Rachel continues to put her faith and trust in her Savior Jesus Christ while on this journey.  Scripture tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) Again, we would ask that you prayerfully consider supporting the Ryberg family during this time of financial, physical and spiritual needs, so that we may “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). As they are blessed, they can continue to be a blessing to others, giving ALL glory to God. Thank you again for your kindness, love and support on behalf of the Ryberg family.