Wednesday 18th April,
2012 St. Mary's Annual Meeting |
Mike Lambert – Testimony Back in August 2011, I was admitted to hospital, in
a wheelchair, as an emergency. I had a CT scan, after which I was told
that I had bowel cancer which had spread to my liver and my pelvis. The
prognosis was pretty dire and treatment options came into the
“palliative” category. Nine long days later, I was called to the hospital
to be told that I actually had Lymphoma, which was still advanced and
aggressive but potentially curable. Nine months later, after a course of
chemotherapy and follow-up radiotherapy, I no longer have any detectable
lymphoma and the prognosis is good. However, MUCH more important has been what God has
taught me through this. I have considered myself a Christian for around 30
years. However when I was first diagnosed I was close to being
spiritually dead. I came to St. Mary’s some Sundays, but I didn’t let
God interfere with the rest of my life. On the night that I received the first diagnosis, I
found myself writing “I WILL TRUST IN GOD AND LEAN ON THOSE WHO ARE
SUPPORTING ME IN PRAYER”. God gave me those words and from that moment,
God gave Sue and I a peace and confidence that carried us through the
next 9 months. I realised that if I did die it didn’t matter, to me at
least. ^ People all over the world were praying for me. The
community of St. Mary’s supported Sue and me through prayer and more
practical things like meals. Sue and I really felt the love of God
enfolding us and for the first time in our lives we started praying
together every day. It was around November that I realised that I had
needed a big “kick up the backside” to bring me back to God and started
thanking God for my illness. Looking back to August, a group of very well
respected experts were 99+ percent certain that their original diagnosis
was right. Were they incompetent? I prefer to think about some words
given to me by a work colleague on the day after that diagnosis: “Just
remember, God is your fortress and through him anything is
possible.” Praise the
Lord! ^ For anyone who has read “The Hiding Place” by
Corrie Ten Boom, there is the story of Corrie’s father asking a young
Corrie when he gave her the ticket for a tram journey. “When I need it”
she replied and her father explained that God would provide us with our
“ticket” when we needed it. On the night of my diagnosis, God brought me
“my ticket”. |