“If We Had Not”
As I sit down to write this update, I am sitting the back seat of our car and my heart is full. Full of what God did today. Yes we are on our way back to Prishitna from my treatment in Greece and yes God did something today. Well God does stuff everyday, but often times we really don’t recognize the things He does. So why am I sitting in the back seat of our car on the long drive you may ask? No, I am not sick needing to lay down. I am sitting in the back because I am a homeschooling mom battling cancer, homeschooling my daughter on the drive home.
Often times when we go to Greece we leave Isabella with our friends in Kosovo. The Lord has blessed us with an amazing group of friends who have been SO willing to take care of Isabella while we go to Greece. I love my friends, but they are busy with families, ministry and homeschooling their own children as well. Recently I have been feeling like, “we are getting into a routine at the hospital, I know what to expect, let’s just see how it would be taking Isabella with us and have her do school while I get treated.” We will probably not do this all thetime, like when I know I have scans, however we may continue to do this the times when I will just receive my meds.
So as I was getting settled in my room there was a knock at my door. As I opened it I saw a man standing that the door with Greek Bibles, he wanted to make sure I had a Bible. While I speak no Greek and he spoke no English, I wanted to tell him I was a believer. So I showed him some of Isabella’s God school books I had with me and my Bible to let him know that we are lovers of Jesus too. We both made hand motions showing we love all love Jesus and he left the room. I was so encouraged knowing that there is a man in the cancer ward of St.Luke’s hospital going door to door making sure people have God’s word. How cool is that?
So I continued to get myself settled and one of the male nurses came in and he saw Isabella was with us. I loved to see his interaction with her. After he got me settled he gave Isabella a job to do. Her job was to press the “call” button when each of my bags were empty to change the meds. She took her job seriously and did it. So in regards to “homeschooling,” she is getting in some practical experiences, she is watching and learning what nurses and doctors do at a hospital.
Once we got settled with my meds, we started school. Today’s treatment went by really fast and after my treatment we were still waiting for the podiatrist to come and look at my toes. Since Isabella had completed an assignment, she asked if she could go to the children’s room on the floor for recess. One of the reasons why I had kinda hesitated about bringing Isabella is because I felt like it would kinda hinder us from trying to reach out to cancer patients. When we come without Isabella we request a room with two beds, this way we can hopefully interact with patients and share the love of Jesus with them. However when we come with Isabella we request a room with one bed in order to respect my neighbor who could possibly be experiencing some not so pleasant things as a result of receiving chemo. Receiving chemo could be hard and trying at times and sometimes a person needs to sleep and this would be difficult to do while an eight year old is in the room. So today we had our own room, Isabella had a break with her school and we were waiting for another doctor. This was a good time for Isabella to go play.
After we were done seeing the other doctor we went for Isabella. As we were in the kids room I noticed a mom with a little girl about 5. As I looked closely at the little girl I realized that this girl and mom were not here visiting a sick person in the hospital. This little girl was a patient, and what ward of the hospital were we in? The cancer ward. What gave it away that this little girl was a patient was she was wearing pj’s and she had the same type of needles in her hand that I have when I have treatment. As I stood there collecting Isabella and looking at the mom and daughter, I felt the Holy Spirit’s strong conviction saying “you do not leave this room without ministering to these people.” I thought ok. So I started talking to her. They do not speak English, we do not speak Greek. We got that this little girl has cancer, I tried to share with the mom that I too am battling cancer. I asked the mom if we could pray for this little girl, God understands both English and Greek. God sees this mom and little girl, God know the battle this family facing and God can touch this little girl and heal her. So Mark, myself and Isabella stopped and prayed for them. As we were leaving we noticed another lady and her daughter were watching and they said “that is great that you stopped and prayed for them.” They were Australian believer’s. I wonder how that act of obedience touched touched the heart of the on lookers. Maybe the Lord could of used that to encourage them to take a step of faith and to reach out to others? You never know how God can touch ones heart.
As I reflect on that experience I could not help but think if we had not brought Isabella, we would not have run into the mom and little girl battling cancer. Yes, we could not talk with the lady and the daughter, put we were able to show Christ’s love to her and pray. I could not help but think about how God loves this lady and little girl and how, some how (only He knows) He wanted to show them how much He loves them by placing believers in there path to pray for them. I love how God uses our ordinary days to do extraordinary things. Although we may not see it at the time, but God may want us to change how we regularly do things (in our case bringing Isabella for treatment), in order to reach a lost and dying world.
I hate cancer, but I LOVE watching God work as we battle cancer.
