Missionary Dr. Allison Haga in Taiwan has a growing tunor near her stomach and will have a surgery in Hong Kong March 27, 2008. I request coworker's urgent prayer for successful surgery and recovery without any complication. God is blessing Dr. Steve and Allison Haga's Taiwan ministry at Kaohsing with many students as you see below.

Email from Dr. Steve Haga:

Allison now has a date for her surgery. It is March 27. It is a delicate surgery. The doctor hopes that it can be accomplished with without opening the chest and with cutting the stomach, but he will not know until he begins the surgery. He is supposed to be a very good doctor. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. I will certainly keep you posted as Allison's prognosis develops. For now, there hasn't really been much new to report. She is still in Hong Kong and still getting tests. But there have been some encouraging results in the tests done so far. Her doctor is hopeful that the surgery might be able to be performed without open up the chest and without removing the top portion of the stomach. He won't have a better idea about this possibility until more tests are run. And he won't really know until he does the surgery. But if he can avoid opening the chest or cutting into the stomach, the operation will have a much lower risk of complications. So that is a good prayer topic.

As for paying for the operation, we appreciate your concern. It will certainly be expensive – probably $26,000 US dollars. It's a delicate operation, and its one of those cases where you get what you pay for. Although we have positive cash flow month-to-month , you are right that we do not have that kind of money on hand. So it will have to be borrowed from somewhere. If the church is interested in loaning some portion, it might be helpful. But I really don't know about how money would be transferred to Hong Kong. So I'll just pass your question on to Allison, and see what she thinks about it, and whether it turns out that such help is needed. In any case, our hearts are warmed to see the compassion in your offer.

Here in Taiwan, I am OK. The last two weeks, Julie has come to Bible study, in addition to the regulars: Bo Yu, Ya Wen and Ivana. Jane and Priya.

God bless,
Steve