Two years ago, my husband was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. We ended up traveling to the best oncologist in the world for his specific type of cancer. As we later found out, she walked out of the room after meeting us and said, “He’s going to die.”
We fasted and prayed that my husband’s chemo would work and the tumor would shrink and leave his body. The fast did not work quite like we hoped; in fact, the tumor shrank for only a few weeks before chemo stopped working and it grew again. That small shrinkage allowed a margin around my husband’s heart enough for surgery though. It was an answer to prayer, just not in the way we thought was best.
During surgery, many people fasted for our family. I don’t know how to describe when you’re surrounded by angels, but I have felt it in a hospital room. It was a very big, extensive surgery that removed my husband’s lung and tumor, so there were a few extras in the OR to watch, but the nurse who came out of my husband’s surgery to give us an update said it was “a very peaceful OR.” She felt the power of our fast.
We got a text from the principal of a local school saying that it was amazing to see kids skipping the lunch line to fast for Ashton. They felt the power of our fast. The surgery was successful and the man who shouldn’t have made it to Christmas made it another year–a normal, happy year, with his family.
At the one year mark, his tumor came back in the other lung. I don’t think I’ve ever fasted and prayed as much as I did the second time, but what should have been the beginning of the end now that it had metastasized into his only lung has actually brought us a lot of peace and hope.
He is currently cancer free for 8 months after removing that second tumor, and he is our oncologist’s “miracle case”. I know that sometimes the answer is just “no”, or “not now”, or “not that way”, but I have seen God’s hand in every detail of our lives that pulled us through our trial and I know that he will do what is best for us.
