Today at the clinic, Ben was injected with a tumor dissolving medicine! It's injected directly into the tumor and starts to dissolve it. Dr Renz said it’s perfectly safe at this location because the mass is right next to his skin and isn’t close to his heart or ribs or anything else. Dr. Renz reviewed his CT scans to know the exact location to inject. I hope this works🙏 It probably won’t dissolve the whole mass, but hopefully everything right around the injection!! (They put him to sleep before doing the injection and he didn't feel a thing!) Ben already thinks he can feel a difference and there isn't pain in that area when he coughs. Praise God!!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day with Ben getting chemo.. they are going to put him to sleep and keep a good eye on him while he’s getting the chemo. They said the mixture of chemos would really hurt and probably make him cry if he’s awake.

Please keep us covered in prayer.. also that he can sleep good tonight. He caught a cold and was up almost every hour of the night last night coughing.

Dr Renz mentioned again it’s extremely important we hit it hard with medicine.. the mass is so big and could any moment pinch off the vena cava -a main blood vessel to the heart. He said that Ben might need to get a stint put in his heart right there to help prevent it from happening. I hope and pray the chemo and injection will work fast so that’s not needed.

Thank you all for your care and prayer... prayer is so vital and we can feel it when you're praying. We're grateful!

Just a little update for you all!

We have been settling into a new routine here in Germany and resting a lot to get over jet lag and recouping from our insanely busy schedule with moving & Ben's treatments in the US.

Ben has had 7 days of treatment which have really helped boost him up. Some of that has consisted of IV food, which we have been so grateful for, since he hasn't been able to eat much for close to 2 months now and has lost so much weight.

We had a short talk with our Doctor today about the treatment plan for Ben.. they are doing one more day of immune boosting and then chemo starts on Wednesday. This time it will be a mix of chemos that is used specifically for young people and helps to not damage their organs. He has received some of the chemos before, but they will be in different proportions that he's never had before. Plus 2 new chemos I believe.

Please keep us in your prayers that the chemo will do exactly what it's supposed to do, and not harm his organs or leave any negative effects. Also, our Airbnb has steps he has to climb to get to the second level.. please pray Ben will have enough strength everyday to climb them (he gets treatment 5 days a week). Unfortunately, houses over here are hard to find without stairs.

Thank you for your care and continued prayers!

Hello friends~



We have some hard news to share with you. Ben’s cancer has steadily grown worse since December and it’s come to a point where we have realized that we need more intensive treatment for him. We found out last Tuesday that the growth in Ben’s chest is eating away at the backside of his ribs and appears to be slightly pinching off his inferior vena cava (a main return line to the heart - which explains his low heart rate he’s experienced several times in the last week).



We’ve been advised that it might the the best to get Ben some more low dose chemo to shrink his mass fast. And he always responded well to it in the past. This has been a very difficult decision to make but after talking to 5 doctors/medical providers and sorting thru all the advice given we believe this is the best thing at the moment. It’s not what we had hoped or prayed for but we are thankful it’s still an option. God has been incredibly faithful to us in every way and we’ve seen His hand work out miracles in our desperation to find a house.. medical things.. and everything inbetween. 



We have a plan to leave Lord willing on May 10 for Germany. Our return flight -for now- is set for July 10th. 



My parents have graciously offered to keep our girls in CA while we are gone. It tears at our hearts to have to do this again but it seems the best option for us right now. 



Thank you all so much for praying about our housing situation. God did provide a house on Monday the 21st.. and we were supposed to be out of our current house by the end of this month. To say it’s been stressful is an understatement.. But God I believe was testing us to see if we were willing to live in a camper. We were able to buy a camper last Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon I heard back from a prospective house that we had prayed about and felt very strongly that God wanted us to ask about living there. We’re grateful, oh so grateful that we don’t have to live in a small camper while Ben has cancer. And yet.. I know God would help us in that as well. Our current landlords have been so kind to let us stay in our house until May 5, which has greatly relieved us. Ben’s brother Weston offered to be in charge of our moving day, and one of our friends offered to organize a cleaning day for our old house. My parents are coming for a short trip to help us too. God has just been so good to us sending help right when we need it. 



We really covet your prayers.. Ben’s at a critical place in his journey right now and we see the mountain ahead not sure what lies ahead. But I’m so glad God does.



Thank you. We love you!

Once again, we are extremely grateful for every donation that has come in. We haven't been able to thank or respond to each one, but may the Lord reward you. (He will!)

Since early December, we started noticing some new symptoms coming on, and sensed a slow decline in Ben's health. While he had a lot of decent days, there seemed to be an underlying change. The oncologist mentioned that he had very high inflammation, which was causing a lot of muscle pain in various locations. Sleeping became gradually more difficult. We began to notice some liver trouble. There were days here and there where he felt great, and we were hoping that the IV's and supplements that we've been focusing on for months were helping with the inflammation & cancer. It's hard, because with this type of cancer, ct scans are the only main indicator of whether the cancer is growing or not. This type of cancer doesn't show up on blood tests. There are some other smaller blood test markers that can help guess, but we basically go 3 months at a time to know whether we are making progress or not.

That being said, our most recent scan was Mar. 14th. We received the results a little over a week ago, and found that Ben's cancer has grown a decent amount, and spread slightly. It is now pushing his trachea and aorta to the right, although it is not causing any issues as of yet. 

We have been researching and praying about what to do, as it's important to do something fast before it becomes an emergency. everything we have done so far has decreased it in size, or at least slowed it down, but it just keeps growing back. Our doctor in Germany is researching a few options for us, and we are researching a lot.

Last week our oncologist in Boise mentioned a new treatment that they are offering, called TruDose. They offered to get us in to one of the first few slots they had, which happened to be the following day. We quickly accepted, packed up, left the girls with some dear friends, and headed 8.5hrs South. It was a very quick decision, but one that we immediately felt very strong peace, and an urge to do. The treatment Ben received is a type of PRP related treatment. It resets blood platelets and in turn is supposed to help re-set his immune system and then his body can do what God designed it to do, and start to heal itself. We are hopeful it will help. There are 4 separate treatments, 1 per month, which means we will have 3 more trips to Boise coming up. 

We also found out that we only have one month left to move, instead of the 2 months left like we were originally told. Please pray that God will provide us a house soon that is mold-free and that the rent will be something we can afford. Please pray that Ben will have more energy to help move and that Heidi's pulled back will heal soon too.

If you wish to help out with our extra expenses traveling to the doctor and to compensate for Ben's time off work, we would be deeply grateful. It's not easy to share our needs like this, and many times we have wanted to stop sharing. For some reason God keeps nudging me to be vulnerable and share our needs with you - we do hope that our weaknesses will bring Him glory. 

Thank you to each one of you who have graciously given us money to help us pay for rent, gas, food, insurance, etc.. your sacrifice deeply touched our hearts and was a direct answer to our prayers & pleadings for God to help us.

Since Ben has not had very much work for the last 3 weeks, we have been trying to use the time wisely and have filled it up with as many therapies and detoxes as possible. We try to do something every day. Meanwhile, I’m trying my best to consistently make healthy meals with whatever stock of food we have on hand and trying to buy as minimally as possible the rest of the groceries needed. Through a kind friend, who also has a large network of friends.. we have been given milk every week, and some organic fruits and veggies. This friend’s husband recently died of cancer and has a lot of knowledge that she has learned to help her husband, and has kindly offered to help us. It brings us to tears the way she is reaching out to love and help us, and we are so thankful. It hasn’t come easy for us to say yes to the help, though.

God has sustained us through the past 2 years Ben has had cancer.. being ok with hard circumstances is something that we have struggled and wrestled through and many times have had to come to a place of surrender. We wonder what God is doing and why He hand-picked us for these trials? We hope our lives bring Him glory and that we learn the deep lessons He has for us.

We have more big things ahead of us.. 2 weeks ago our landlords asked us to move again, as they want to move into our house. They wanted to give us plenty of time to find a new place to live and gave us 4 months. Please just pray for us.. that God will provide what we need and that we will keep our trust in Him. The news was especially hard for me, as we have been asked to move 3 times in a little over 2 years, all the while my husband has not felt well. (And that doesn’t count the 3 trips to Europe for Ben’s cancer treatment!) It felt like the rug got pulled out under our feet. Again. And yet, it must be somehow an answer to our prayers.. and we know God will provide. Ben and I are just plain tired. It seems like all we have been doing the past 2 years is packing, moving, unpacking.. starting to settle in to a new place/new routines and then have it all repeat over again. God has not failed us and has given us an abundance of help from so many people with those moves. We are praying that God will help us find a mold-free house in the country, that has room for a garden, room for a sauna & big bathtub for Ben’s detox baths.. and that the rent will be less expensive. That’s pretty much asking for a miracle in this area. Will you join us in praying?

We also have been researching and praying about the next steps for Ben’s cancer treatment. Since the last update he has steadily had less energy and has more negative symptoms from his cancer growing back. Please pray God will show us what the best options are for Ben, and provide for our needs while he has to be off work.

Our heart’s desire is not to still be in this place of need, but to be helping others. But if you wish to help us, you can here on our GiveSendGo site.

Or, checks can be sent with a sticky note that it’s for Ben Cook to:

LAMB Services, Inc.

PO Box 1050

Ceres, CA, 97307

May God bless you for upholding us during this season of our life.

~Heidi Cook

Hello friends,

It’s time for a long-overdue update on our lives and where Ben is at in his cancer treatment and recovery. Our life has been incredibly full and busy since returning home from Europe near the end of May last year. We managed to squeeze in 3 camping trips, and moved in July to a new house. 

As soon as we got home from Europe, Ben started going to a clinic near home where he has regularly received treatment for his cancer. Vitamin C, Curcumin, Alpha Lipoic Acid as well as other therapies like red bed therapy to minimize inflammation, and help detox his body from the negative impact that chemo has on a person. We dove into learning more about diet and started out on the carnivore diet for a week or so, and then keto diet as best as we could. Each week Ben would juggle his schedule between 1-2 days at the clinic and working the other days of the week. An ongoing conversation we have around our house is how we are supposed to balance rest/work/treatment and church/social events without neglecting family time. It’s been hard for Ben to find something that will pay the bills but allow him to only work 3 days per week.

Ben’s CT scan in August showed that the size of his lymphoma mass was 1.1 x .9 inches. A more recent scan right before Christmas showed it had grown to 2.6 x 3.5 inches. Sigh. Not the report we had wished or prayed for. It’s been interesting to note the rate of growth and seeing if there are any predicable growth patterns. A year ago (December 2023), it had grown back to basically the same size it is right now. Ben’s body has thankfully responded very well to the treatment every time, but we have changed directions slightly as to the type of treatment he is receiving in hopes that it will get to the root of the problem and stop the growth ideally forever. Only God knows. In addition to the local clinic, have a new oncologist in Boise, Idaho, that shared with us that Lymphoma is similar to Leukemia because it’s a cancer of the blood. Miraculously, Ben’s cancer has not ever spread and is not even detected in his lymph nodes which is incredible since its lymphoma. Also, the scans show that the rest of Ben’s organs are in good working condition and we credit that to the good care of our Doctor in Germany and all of your prayers.  

We are very thankful that Ben has felt relatively good the last 7 months. He has had some negative side effects still from the chemo.. memory loss and cold hands and feet. He’s had a few episodes with bad migraines, low energy and generally not feeling well some days, but overall has been doing pretty good. We think that all the efforts we’ve put into his diet and going to the local clinic has helped his quality of life tremendously.

The plan for now, is for Ben to keep going to the local clinic a couple times a week, and follow the protocol our Doc in Boise has prescribed, keep being consistent with diet, and as many things at home as we can do, like Epsom salt baths and using the sauna in our basement.. and check in with our Doc in Boise in a month. We may also make a trip to Boise soon to use the photodynamic machine that ozonates the blood. Our goal for the year ahead is to build Ben’s immune system, while detoxing and using therapies to keep pressure on the cancer, so that his body can fight it itself.

Please keep praying for us! I wish we could know how much impact your prayers have made in our lives during Ben’s cancer, and what our lives would look like now if we wouldn’t have had them. We are grateful for every prayer, every bit of encouragement you have offered, and every dollar you have given to help us with our living expenses. We pray God will bless and reward you, and that through our pain and heartaches that God can be glorified and help draw you closer to God too.

We do have some needs, and it’s so hard to share them with you. It’s hard to be honest about it. I think it gets harder every time to share it, especially after so much that you have given over the past 2 years. God has always helped us -sometimes just in the Nic of time and our faith has really put to the test. We don’t doubt that he will leave us hanging now, not after everything He’s done in the past. Our living expenses are about $6,000 a month ($2,000 of that is rent), and we don’t know how we will pay for rent, or Samaritan Ministries insurance that’s due the beginning of February. Let me tell you a story though.. this summer we were down to approximately $300 left in our bank account, and waiting on 3 different job payments to come through. For some reason or another, all 3 people were late on paying for work that Ben had completed and rent was due. We knew God would help us but not sure how.. yep, it was pretty stressful! On the 29th of the month, our landlord texted me to say that someone had covered our rent for us that month. Oh, the tears of joy we shed. God heard our prayers, saw our needs and cared. Our heart’s desire is not to still be in this place of need, but to be helping others. But if you wish to help us, you can donate here on GiveSendGo, Or, checks can be sent with a sticky note that it’s for Ben Cook to:  

LAMB Services, Inc.

PO Box 1050

Ceres, CA, 97307

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, Equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21

With love,

Benjamin, Heidi, Elsie & Katie Cook