Just Can't Wait to Get on the Road Again...
"Just can't wait to get on the road, again...." (Willy Nelson)
Early into this cancer battle -- very early -- Neville Green, a pastor in England, wrote and invited us to preach in his church, in October (2006). This was a huge source of hope and encouragement -- it gave me something to put on the calendar, and head towards.
I always tell people who are newly diagnosed with cancer to think of something they REALLY want to do -- and put it on the calendar, for a date far past treatment. "Make that date and that event a goal -- any day that it's a good day, you are moving towards your adventure. If it's a bad day, that doesn't matter -- because you are still moving towards your adventure -- and you don't need to feel well, YET..."
So, preaching in The Gathering Place, in October, became the goal that I was moving towards. By the time October came, we were booked to be in Europe for 9 weeks, ministering in 11 churches in England, and spending 6 days in Finland, ministering in several meetings, there.
Every part of my life headed towards that goal. Chemo treatments were scheduled to be completed in time -- 12 days of radiation of my chest happened -- Dennis and I began short daily walks, to increase my strength. I had been holding onto a verse from Psalm 118 -- "I will live and not die, and I will tell of what the Lord has done" for a full year, and my opportunity was getting closer.
That mission trip was a display of God's goodness. We DID get to "tell of what the Lord has done." His Presence moved with us, in powerful and mighty ways. Hundreds and hundreds of people responded to the call to tell God they were sorry for blaming Him in their difficult circumstances, and hundreds and hundreds of people apologized to Him for being angry with Him for their life circumstances.
We were told, over and over again, that the message He is sending through us has changed people's outlooks, and lives. We were met, after each meeting, with such gratitude for a "message that we can understand, hold onto, and put into place in our lives."
Dennis and I found that after 9 years of teaching on Hope and Fearlessness -- trusting God AND His Plan (even when we don't like it...), we are now preaching out of something so much DEEPER than we ever had before. Previously, we KNEW what we KNEW -- in our hearts and in our minds -- but following the year of cancer battle, that knowledge seems to be seeping out of every pore of our bodies. I don't have the proper language for what I'm trying to say -- I think my little toes and my fingernails pulse with the knowledge of His goodness!
While in England, I was reminded that "according to your Blog....you are still ill..." That's where the memory-loss problems came in -- I was trying to post something new on the Blog, but had "lost" my own password into the file. I am FINALLY back inside the blog!
I am not ill! I am also not cured -- YET!
The scans say that the tumors exist. The blood work says that the tumors are "inactive (not growing)" I will continue to get new scans periodically. (Naively, I thought this was to watch the tumors shrink....but, as it turns out, this is more to see if there are any "new" tumors.... I am scheduled for an MRI of my brain every three months).
Cancer hasn't killed me, yet.....and it hasn't stopped me, either. God did NOT give me a second cancer battle, but He used the fight I had to go through to teach me, stretch me, change me --- and looking back, I wouldn't change ANY of it. What a time we had with HIM!
Later this summer, we will be back on the road again -- and have pure excitement about seeing old friends and meeting new friends, and spending all our time telling"what the Lord has done..". What a way to live!
We will head across the Atlantic again, in June, and be in the Shetland Islands, Northern Ireland and England. In each place, we will be witnesses to the GREAT FAITHFULNESS of God, and we will see Him touch His people.
YEA, GOD!!
Early into this cancer battle -- very early -- Neville Green, a pastor in England, wrote and invited us to preach in his church, in October (2006). This was a huge source of hope and encouragement -- it gave me something to put on the calendar, and head towards.
I always tell people who are newly diagnosed with cancer to think of something they REALLY want to do -- and put it on the calendar, for a date far past treatment. "Make that date and that event a goal -- any day that it's a good day, you are moving towards your adventure. If it's a bad day, that doesn't matter -- because you are still moving towards your adventure -- and you don't need to feel well, YET..."
So, preaching in The Gathering Place, in October, became the goal that I was moving towards. By the time October came, we were booked to be in Europe for 9 weeks, ministering in 11 churches in England, and spending 6 days in Finland, ministering in several meetings, there.
Every part of my life headed towards that goal. Chemo treatments were scheduled to be completed in time -- 12 days of radiation of my chest happened -- Dennis and I began short daily walks, to increase my strength. I had been holding onto a verse from Psalm 118 -- "I will live and not die, and I will tell of what the Lord has done" for a full year, and my opportunity was getting closer.
That mission trip was a display of God's goodness. We DID get to "tell of what the Lord has done." His Presence moved with us, in powerful and mighty ways. Hundreds and hundreds of people responded to the call to tell God they were sorry for blaming Him in their difficult circumstances, and hundreds and hundreds of people apologized to Him for being angry with Him for their life circumstances.
We were told, over and over again, that the message He is sending through us has changed people's outlooks, and lives. We were met, after each meeting, with such gratitude for a "message that we can understand, hold onto, and put into place in our lives."
Dennis and I found that after 9 years of teaching on Hope and Fearlessness -- trusting God AND His Plan (even when we don't like it...), we are now preaching out of something so much DEEPER than we ever had before. Previously, we KNEW what we KNEW -- in our hearts and in our minds -- but following the year of cancer battle, that knowledge seems to be seeping out of every pore of our bodies. I don't have the proper language for what I'm trying to say -- I think my little toes and my fingernails pulse with the knowledge of His goodness!
While in England, I was reminded that "according to your Blog....you are still ill..." That's where the memory-loss problems came in -- I was trying to post something new on the Blog, but had "lost" my own password into the file. I am FINALLY back inside the blog!
I am not ill! I am also not cured -- YET!
The scans say that the tumors exist. The blood work says that the tumors are "inactive (not growing)" I will continue to get new scans periodically. (Naively, I thought this was to watch the tumors shrink....but, as it turns out, this is more to see if there are any "new" tumors.... I am scheduled for an MRI of my brain every three months).
Cancer hasn't killed me, yet.....and it hasn't stopped me, either. God did NOT give me a second cancer battle, but He used the fight I had to go through to teach me, stretch me, change me --- and looking back, I wouldn't change ANY of it. What a time we had with HIM!
Later this summer, we will be back on the road again -- and have pure excitement about seeing old friends and meeting new friends, and spending all our time telling"what the Lord has done..". What a way to live!
We will head across the Atlantic again, in June, and be in the Shetland Islands, Northern Ireland and England. In each place, we will be witnesses to the GREAT FAITHFULNESS of God, and we will see Him touch His people.
YEA, GOD!!
Labels: cancer
posted by Living with Hope and Cancer @ 4/01/2007 11:16:00 pm
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