Picture is an "orphaned" flower plant that popped out and grew between our patio cement-crack last spring and lasted until the first snow came.
COINCIDENCE?
Hello folks -- we have not been blogging for the past few months due to other pressing situations, but here we are again!
Yesterday, Esther & I decided to dress up and walk in the park for the first time since New Year. It was a "break" from the cold winter brrrr...weather -- temperature now hovering around the 60's -- what a great relief!
A car stopped. Dr. Mayank Shah rolled down his car window and started to chat with us. He said he gave my OR phone number to a patient who was complaining of a heart condition and now diagnosed with "cancer of the esophagus on top of his heart problem." The patient is "very distraught."
Earlier in the morning while I was making my hospital rounds, I also received a phone call from another patient who was just recently diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. Both husband and wife expressed their desire to know more of what to do for her husband's problem after hearing I had the same experience. It was an emotional call. I offered a copy of our book entitled "Choosing To Live" and shared my empathy, concern and prayer for them.
And now looking back to our personal life, we are reminded of our own experience almost 13 years ago, when we were at the same predicament as these patients are now. Dr Shah was the doctor who checked me out that same day and thought I had a "heart attack."
Are all these coincidental?
Well, it was also my dear dad who came to pray for me during my annointing and pleaded, "Please heal my son, dear Lord, the way you healed King Hezekiah."(Bible). God healed Hezekiah and lived many more years, thereafter. We praise the Lord for giving us 13 more years of productive and cancer free life.
For now we have the privilege of helping and encouraging others diagnosed with cancer not to lose hope. Our life had been drastically changed that fateful Saturday afternoon in March 1996 when all our hopes and dreams vanished after hearing the heart-rending and feared word "cancer," but we give glory to God for giving us another chance -- doctors, nurses, friends, and loving family to help us with our efforts to fight back.
Yea, this time of the year Esther gets emotional when reminded of our life-threatening & then, miraculous life-changing experiences. We trust in Him!
"Choosing To Live," and now we can rightfully say, "Triumph Over Terminal Cancer."
Well folks, thank you for being there for us!
Ben & Esther
