I am so grateful for the opportunity to thank the thousands of disciples who prayed for me during my treatment for pancreatic cancer. Four different organizations have published my story. Two were by the medical facilities where I was treated, and the other two were pancreatic cancer support organizations. This video was done by an incredibly talented videographer for a group called Let’s Win Pancreatic Cancer.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates. The overall five-year survival rate is about 12%. For those like me, whose cancer is operable, the five-year survival rate is around 20%. Going through surgery and follow-up chemo was not fun. Yet because of the support of my incredible husband Doug, my children Will and Victoria, my dear sister in Christ Sharon Stevens (who finished her race on December 3, 2022) and the support of the Cincinnati Church of Christ, and your prayers, I’m here.
As disciples, we know that God is good, God is perfect, God is love. I know that God hears all our prayers. There have been other disciples who have also experienced cancer in the past five years, and who have also been prayed for by thousands of disciples, and they are now in heaven. For disciples, we really have a win-win situation when facing the possibility of death: more years on earth to proclaim the glory of God, or heaven! There is no answer to the question, “Why am I still alive, and my brother or sister is not?” As in Acts 12, where both Peter and James are arrested. James is beheaded, and Peter is miraculously set free. Why was one killed and the other saved? There is no answer. Yet both lived and died as disciples.
So, I do not try to answer that question! Instead I focus on how does God want to use me now. As I say in the video, I went through several months of incredible physical weakness and a time of uncertainly. For five years, all of the medical professionals I was with would not, could not, say “You are healed.” None of us knows how long we will be around. Yet each of us can praise God every day that we wake up on earth, and each of us can ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Living as a disciple, and at some point dying as a disciple is a win-win. Let us each share with as many as possible about the best deal going…eternity in heaven.
