Last month Lois and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and the gift that she and my son Stephen gave to me was to hold my treasured favorite guitar that I had not seen for fifteen years! But what really brought tears of joy to my heart was to realize that this was part of a much bigger story of grace that my heavenly Father is still writing and it has to do with our son Andrew and his bout with cancer when he was a child.

When the doctors told us that Andrew would need three years of chemotherapy, I flew back to Nairobi to sell most of our belongings, including our furniture, clothing, two cars and my precious Ovation guitar! I sold it to another missionary who bought it as a gift for his son. That son coincidentally chose the same college as our older son Stephen, even after college and now, after fifteen years, gave the same guitar back to Steve saying, “Maybe your dad would like this?”

Good Reasons for Cancer?

I can still remember our shock at what we heard our six-year-old son saying after receiving his first chemotherapy treatment for Leukemia. His hair was falling out, his face was bloated and pale and we were inwardly sobbing with grief. But it was at this moment he innocently inquired, “Do you think maybe someday God will show us there was a good reason for me having cancer?” For the next three years of Andrew’s treatment God used this question as a mantra for our faith.

It always seems illogical that the diseases of “other people” come knocking at your door. After spending what we thought was three joyous, productive years as missionaries in Kenya, we were in the US for a short summer furlough. Many churches were visited and told of God’s goodness and our expectations for the coming term of service. In the last weeks before our departure back to Kenya we had plane tickets in hand, supplies purchased, and were ready for a mission retreat and family vacation at the beach. But God had other plans…

Before leaving for the retreat, we noticed enlarged lymph nodes in Andrew’s neck. His doctor was not too concerned and said to keep our eye on it. Then while on the retreat in Georgia more and more lymph nodes appeared in places I never knew they existed! When a fever developed, our doctor sent us to a big children’s hospital ER where many tests were done, but everyone was negative. We continued to fight the fever. Back home in Philadelphia, we saw an Infectious Disease specialist who, along with everyone else, it seemed, assumed he picked up some strange tropical disease in Africa. He was treated with strong IV antibiotics, the symptoms disappeared and we thought he was cured. We made final preparations to return to Kenya.  But this “cure” was only temporary. While on vacation, the fever returned and further tests, this time by doctors determined to leave no stone unturned, showed Andrew was battling cancer of the blood and bone marrow – acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Our hearts sank as the oncologist explained the risks of chemotherapy and how our lives were now to revolve around the treatment for the next three years. Andrew knew cancer was the disease taking health away from our good friend and coworker, Betty Herron. It was serious, but with courage and confidence in God he told everyone who asked, “I have ‘kid cancer’ and I’ll be all better when I’m nine years old.”  We could see God maturing this young boy’s heart to accept the unknowns as something under the control of his loving heavenly father.

In my mind I wondered, “Why did God let this awful thing happen to a sweet child like Andrew?” and “Why is God not allowing us to return to a fruitful ministry?” As we lived in a world of rubber gloves, disinfectant soap and needles, kept insulated from outside pathogens, and watched him change to be almost unrecognizable as our son, redemptive ideas started brewing in our hearts. We began to trust God for Andrew’s well being, for us to be able to return to Africa and for good to come from all of this suffering.

Over the next three years, I took a total of five different short-term teams to Kenya and Uganda. In the process, we were able to build a vision for new ministries to be a part of church planting. Through a mercy ministry trip, we became more aware of the plight of poor children living in the slums and of the Asian disabled in Nairobi and their receptivity to the Gospel. And this helped bring into being Lois’ Kianga Kids healthcare ministry. Worship symposiums ignited African musicians with a passion to write new praise songs that are Biblical yet culturally relevant. Last summer (2015) we had another worship symposium that has built on this. A building team showed us how we can partner with our Kenyan brethren to help them construct sanctuaries by mobilizing the churches to help in Kenya and the US. Since then, over a dozen new churches have been built with the help of similar teams and this year (2016) we are building a vocational training center.

In addition to this, we were able to recruit two more families and a single woman to join our team. That team of American missionaries continues to serve in Kenya, with new members being added. Two of those men helped me establish a church-planter training program that continues today with many Kenyans now doing the training, resulting in many more churches being established.

We do believe that suffering is part of a fallen world and we will not be delivered of its brokenness until Jesus returns. Yes, Andrew, God has shown us many good reasons why you had cancer and we are still discovering more! God is always working together big and little things for our good and his glory: big things like the healing of our son and small things like the return of a guitar.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.” –Romans 8:28