By Mary Holder Naegeli
The days getting ready for my cancer treatments have been amazingly busy. Because I will be undergoing both radiation and chemotherapy, I am engaged in two tracks of testing and preparation. Today, for instance, I will go in for a dress rehearsal of my custom-designed radiation treatment. During this procedure the technicians, the physicist, and the doctor all sign off on the mapping of high-energy x-rays that will converge on the Beast. Yesterday it was a bone-marrow biopsy to set a baseline for measuring side effects of chemotherapy.
Another kind of preparation is happening at home. Because the disease itself has already made me feel sick and tired, it is apparent to me that I will need help here at home “for the duration.” And so, using a task-coordination website, my local friends are signing up to give me rides to and from treatment, to keep an eye on me afterwards until my husband gets home from work, and to bring meals in. It is heartening and moving to see where those volunteers are coming from: members of three churches I have served, old friends, current students, and even my daughter’s pals I haven’t seen since their college days.
Truly, “it takes a village” to heal a person. In so many instances of healing we read about in the gospels, the healing encounter ultimately is between Jesus and the one who is sick. But quite often, there is a third party (the Centurian in Matthew 8, the mother in Matthew 15) requesting the help.
Read more at http://wordtolife.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/the-supportive-community/
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Mary,
Know that many of us will be praying for you and your full recovery
My wife, Mary, and I went through her stage 4 cancer in 2007. Her treatment took eight months and two weeks. She remains in remission. We came to the conclusion that she could not die unless by her death achieve some unforeseen good which the LORD would choreograph. On a 3×5 card I wrote this statement of faith, “HER NAME IS MARY BECKER. SHE IS A DAUGHTER OF THE ONLY LIVING GOD. HER LIFE IS CHARMED. SHE CANNOT DIE IN ONE YEAR. SHE WILL NOT DIE IN THREE. SHE WILL NOT DIE IN FIVE. SHE WILL NOT DIE IN EIGHT. HER LIFE IS CHARMED. SHE CANNOT DIE UNTIL THE FATHER FULFILLS HIS PURPOSE THROUGH HER LIFE.”
One day I needed a word from the LORD. The Holy Spirit led me to Jeremiah 29.29: “Zephaniah the priest, however, read the letter to Jeremiah the prophet.” I read the whole paragraph, Jeremiah 29. 29-32. It was stupid.
I said, “LORD, this makes no sense at all!”
The Lord said, “Look across the page, silly!”
Directly across the page was Jeremiah 30.17a! “BUT I WILL RESTORE YOU TO HEALTH AND HEAL YOUR WOUNDS.” I wept. I am crying right now.
Mary, the LORD is already going ahead of you into this frightening place to prepare the way ahead of you. You will meet him there. Don’t be afraid. Just as you are seeing him now, you will meet him there.
Your brother in Jesus, Bruce Becker