Jan 29, 2019
By Cheri Appel
In the past year (2017-2018) Rob and I have had three experiences with neighbors and family members wherein their cancer was treated into remission.
For the past six months, my brother-in-law, Rich, was a patient at the City of Hope, Duarte, CA. He was treated for and achieved remission from leukemia! Rich and my sister, Cheryl, are ministers in the service of their King Jesus. They praise God along with all the rest of us that Rich can now return to his “normal” life with a rewritten testimony for his God.
Our neighbor, Steve, was diagnosed with two kinds of stage 4 cancer. He had cancerous lesions attached to his bones throughout his body. His treatment at City of Hope included a T-cell removal and transplant. He has been given another 5-10 years to live. His hair has grown back, he is looking healthy, and enjoying an active life again. Steve knows his Savior well—and recognizes that only God heals our cancers and controls our circumstances.
A year ago, Joe, was a 70-year-old diagnosed with kidney and liver cancer, stage 4. At first he decided to just let the cancer take its course, give up the fight and die. He knew his odds of survival were 1 out of 9. His daughter vehemently disagreed with Joe and insisted that he seek treatment. Joe allowed me to pray over him in September of 2017 when he was a bent-over, broken, sick man. Although Joe still expresses unbelief and is unclear on whether God heals or life is just all luck, he made a point to call me this past fall (2018). Joe told me that thanks to the year spent in chemo and radiation, which took the usual toll on his body, he is now in remission! He is healthy, active, getting married for the second time, and enjoying traveling. His oncologist said, in his practice as a doctor, he has only seen three people beat the odds, and the other two were much younger than Joe! In our phone conversation, Joe did recognize that he had been given the gift of more years to make an impact on the lives of his family and people around him. Someday, Joe will recognize that God played more than just an overseeing role in his healing and life.
