Yesterday I took my last morning walk down the beautiful shore of Lake Ontario. In a couple of hours we will head for the airport, and this evening (God willing) we will be back home in California.

Last week, we met the surgeon and a very positive conversation. We received an excellent report from the pathologist who found no evidence of remaining cancer in any of the tissue they removed during the surgery. We are glad to be returning home with such good medical news.

We are heading home with many good memories of visits with my family. Their help and hospitality has been a huge blessing to us during our time here. It has also been a special privilege to spend ten weeks sharing in the life and fellowship of Christ Church Toronto. These dear Christians have been so welcoming and helpful. We look forward to hearing how God continues to bless this congregation.

Now that we're heading home, it's almost time for my next phase of treatment, which will be seven weeks of radiation therapy. The goal is to eliminate any cancer cells that may have migrated a short distance from the tumor.

We're excited to get back into normal life at home. The kids are looking forward to seeing their teachers and friends at school. We are all eager to see our church community at First OPC Sunnyvale, and I am hoping that I haven't forgotten how to preach!

I'm not sure how many more updates I'll be sending out, now that the "adventurous" part seems to be over. I'm thankful to all of you for your loving concern for me and my family, and for your prayers and generosity.

After spending so many months concerned about my health, I have been thinking about a little comment John makes to his friend Gaius in one of his letters.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. (3 John 4)

I am profoundly thankful for my recovery and healing, and I'm more aware than ever of how many people experience great difficulties through illness. But John's prayer gets the order right: first a healthy soul, and then a healthy body. A good pathology report is important, but it is especially important to have one's name written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

The experience of receiving medical treatment has been a dramatic illustration of the spiritual remedy that I (and all of us) need. Augustine put it powerfully:

It was because of this vice, this great sin of pride, that the Lord came in humility. This great sin, this devastating disease in the souls of men and women, brought down from heaven the all-powerful doctor, humbled him to take the form of a servant, loaded him with insults and hung him on a cross, and all this so that through the healing properties of such medicine our swelling might be cured. Now at long last let me and women be ashamed to be proud, since for them God became humble.

One day the remedy will be complete, and all who have trusted Christ will be raised in sinless perfection with undying bodies. Then the Scripture will be fulfilled: "he forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:3).