Philippians 4:6 & 7 

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to Thank Him for His answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.”

    Many of you have heard my story, but there is a recent event I will add.

    Throughout my life I knew how to turn my concerns over to God, but often I would continue to think about those concerns as if I thought I could fix the problem myself. When I was diagnosed with a rare aggressive lymphoma two years ago, I told God I did not know how to do cancer and surrendered my care to His hands. The cancer was so aggressive I did not have time to think about the what if’s. I let go and let God handle my illness. I had no fear and felt His peace throughout the journey.

    The treatments were tough, but I did not ask for healing or anything specific. I felt secure in His care and the peace only God can give washed over me. I felt a calm I had never felt before.

    Every step of this journey I thanked God for the doctor’s, my nurses, my family and my friends for all they did to assist with my care. I felt when someone was praying for me even though I did not know who it was at that time.

    Right before the pandemic, my friend Therese called and told me about her friend Kendra who was recently diagnosed with cancer. She asked if she could put the two of us in touch with each other since we were both women of Faith. As much as Therese and her friends had tried to help Kendra, none had been through cancer and she thought Kendra and I would be good support for each other. Of course I said “Yes!”

    We communicated through private message for a year, but had never met. We were a great support for each other. We had two different types of cancer with some differences in treatment. She was in her mid-thirties with three young children and I was seventy-three.

    A few weeks ago Kendra and I met face to face for the first time. We greeted each other with open arms. We spent three hours together and will continue supporting each other. The main focus of our conversation was that we had both turned our health issues over to God and could describe the peace we had that was beyond our human understanding. We gave thanks for many of the same things. We both had experienced nurses gathering around us in prayer. We thanked God for putting us together through Therese. We are both now in remission. Although we have disabilities due to our cancers they are manageable. What we learned through our journeys is that now when someone we love is going through a life challenge, we are able to turn them over to His care and ask that He give them peace.

Since this time I have known of other’s struggles both emotional and physical. There is no right or wrong way to pray. I have put each of them in God’s loving arms. I have paid attention to their situations and watched God work in their lives.

    Kendra has written a book about her experience and it is going through the publishing process. I am anxious to read it.

    After I made my latest trip to Barnes a friend said to me that she knows those appointments give me peace of mind. I say I am grateful for a good report, but God has already given me peace of mind.

    My hope by sharing Kendra’s and my journey is that it may help someone with events that come their way. It does not need to be a life changing event like mine. Sometimes I am slow to learn what God has been telling me all these years.

Peace be with you,

Cherryl Conlin