Richard Bell's Lymphoma Returns

Richard Bell, pastor of the Apple Valley Community Church, a Grace Brethren church in Winchester, Virginia, has been battling a rare form of lymphoma the last several years.

Bell, 60, experienced aggressive treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and was hoping for several years of relief from the disease. Recently he learned, however, that it has returned after only about four months.

Richard and his wife Nancy (daughter of Ralph and Betty Hall) are facing the possibility that effective treatment may not extend his health appreciatively. Currently, however, he says he is feeling well, is able to preach most Sundays, and is enjoying a reasonably good quality of life.

Richard asks that his friends pray that he might be free from slow, painful progress of the disease, and that he would "end well" and that his wife, two adult children, and church would see God glorified in him.

In the immediate future, he will be treated with several rounds of light chemotherapy which he hopes will give him some months of reasonably good quality of life. The address for the Apple Valley church is PO Box 2851, Winchester, VA 22604.