Many of you may not know how this ministry came into being so I thought I’d share its history. It could go way back because God has molded, shaped and refined us throughout our entire lives for such a time as this, but I won’t go that far back…just the beginning of Saved By God’s Grace. It will be a 15 part series full of miracles and God’s love and by the end I pray you see how God’s grace is alive and was with us throughout this journey…which eventually led us to Kenya!
Four years ago, in February 2006, I was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer. Interesting way to start a story, but I’ve found that most of my life altering events began with stress/trauma. This definitely fit into a “life altering” event for both Chuck and I. It began with a yearly exam with my doctor. Since my mother had colon polyps removed my doctor suggested I get a colonoscopy. When I left his office the nurse gave me the phone number to call to make an appointment and if I had not gotten that number I probably would have put it on the back burner and forgotten about it, but our gracious Lord wanted it taken care of now! I called and made the appointment, thinking no big deal we’ll just get this done and show my doctor there is nothing to worry about – yeah right…
I went in on a Friday for the procedure, I was out of it during and afterwards, but Chuck said the doctor (we’ll call him Dr. S) came in while I was waking up and said it looked like there may be a problem. Dr. S showed Chuck a mass inside my colon, but said he couldn’t tell him anything definitive until after the biopsy came back. Chuck pressed him and he finally said it wasn’t good and we should find a surgeon. Since it was the weekend and nothing could be done until the next week when we would get the results of the biopsy Chuck decided not to tell me what Dr. S said. Now before anyone questions his motives, I am totally fine with his decision. Why ruin a good weekend with news we really didn’t know anyway? I would have been anxious and probably fearful the entire weekend (all those what-ifs, dreadful way to spend the weekend), so instead we had a great weekend with the family – at least I did, Chuck probably had other things on his mind, but I thank God for such a beautiful, thoughtful and faithful man I am married to!
(Go to Part II)