Pastor Ken Ponders Courageous Christian Witness
This year CPC has been called into intensive ministry with those in recovery from cancer as well as supporting hose grieving from the loss of loved ones to cancer. The recent Relay For Life event held at Edison High School challenged and energized so many members of our church members to participate.
Several Christians in recovery from cancer are inspiring us with testimonies of faith. For baseball fans worldwide Dave Dravecky etched his name into history on August 10, 1989. Defying all odds, after battling cancer in his pitching arm, Dave came back to pitch once again in the Major Leagues. Dave pitched a 4-3 win for the San Francisco Giants. Five days later, in a game against Montreal, Dave pitched as his arm split in two. After Dave’s fall from the mound, with the weakened bone, the cancer returned yet again. Finally, the arm along with Dave’s shoulder blade and left side of his collar bone had to be amputated for fear the cancer would spread and take Dave’s life.
Since then, Dave and his wife, Jan, have co-authored several books and travel worldwide as motivational speakers on how Christ-centered faith and prayer gives one ultimate strength to face any and all of life’s adversities.
From his memoirs When You Can’t Come Back, Dave Dravecky makes this observation: “In America, Christians pray for the burden of suffering to be lifted from their backs. In the rest of the world, Christians pray for stronger backs. That is why we look away from the bag lady on the city street and focus on store window displays. That is why we prefer shopping to visiting those in hospitals and nursing homes.”
Another inspirational survivor is Margaret Beckum from Thomson, Georgia. She is a fifteen year survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. During her times of treatment at the Cancer Center of Augusta, Georgia, Margaret has befriended other children and youth and takes the time to pray with each one individually. During spare time at home, she and her parents make prayer bracelets for each of the patients at the hospital. Even now with her cancer in remission, she regularly returns to the hospital to encourage the newest patients.
Jan and Dave Dravecky share this concluding insight from When You Can’t Come Back : “Looking back, we have learned that the wilderness is part of the landscape of faith and every bit as essential as the mountaintop. On the mountaintop, we are overwhelmed by God’s presence. When in the wilderness, we are overwhelmed by God’s seeming absence. Both places should bring us to our knees: the one, in utter awe; the other, in utter dependence.”
If you or anyone you know wishes to read inspirational literature for the process of cancer recovery, feel free to contact me. I recommend Don’t Waste Your Cancer by John Piper, Everyday Strength: A Cancer’s Patient’s Guide to Spiritual Strength by Randy Becton in addition to Praying Through Cancer: a 90-Day Devotional for Women co-authored by cancer survivors Susan Sorensen and Laura Geist.