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The ministry of a
cancer patient
For CIU student, disease is an opportunity to focus on others
J
ohn Jones walked back into his doctor’s office in June
2015. He had joked around with the staff a half hour
earlier. Now they gathered around the phone that they
had used to call him back to the office to review the
results of an MRI scan on his brain. The cheerfulness and
joy that had been among the staff was gone. Jones knew
he was the last patient of the day and they should all be
getting ready to go home.
He took the phone to hear the doctor say the MRI showed
a brain tumor, later diagnosed as Medulloblastoma, a
cancerous tumor located in the base of his brain. Two days
prior, he woke up to an unimaginably painful headache. He
had experienced smaller headaches as he finished his first
year at CIU, but this one was intense enough to seek out a
doctor.
Surrounded by grim faces, and with his worried parents at his
side, Jones listened to the doctor. He only recalls two short
phrases: “Mass behind your head” and “go to the E.R.!”
Why Me?
“I struggled a lot understanding the reason why,” Jones
said. “Why does it have to be cancer? Why do I have to
be out of school for a year? Why can I not see my
friends? Why am I losing my hair? Why am I
seen as this sick person walking around the
hospital?”
Jones was asking questions that no friend,
family member or doctor could answer;
however, the Lord had plans for him.
“The times when I would ask God, ‘Why
Me?’ the Lord would reveal to me that
there is an objective here and the Lord has
put His faith in me to be the one to do it.”
A Christlike mindset grew in Jones that caused him to
look at his sickness with new eyes.
“I’m so glad my sister is not sick.” Jones said. “I’m so glad
my mother or my father is not sick. I’m glad it’s me that’s
suffering not my family members or my friends.”
He was committed to find joy in his circumstances and allow
God to use him. He found ways to serve his doctors and
nurses. Jones’ cancer was technically a pediatric cancer.
His hospital’s staff were weary from working with children
suffering from one disease or another and, as might be expected,
the children did not usually carry an adult-level conversation.
“I could actually have a conversation with (the staff),” Jones smiled.
“I’m very relational so conversation was the best medicine I could
receive (and) the Lord was using the sickness in me to heal other
people.”
Gospel Opportunities
He also found avenues to share the gospel, including with a
psychologist.
“One day he said, ‘I’m not a believer, but I’m interested to know why
you’re OK with all this?’” Jones recalled. “I was real with him saying,
‘I’m not OK with this all the time, but when I see a friend of mine who
says he’s going to get his life right because I’m sick, I feel reenergized.
If I die right now I know where I’m going, but for him, I have no idea.
My prayer is that this cancer will bring life to somebody else.’”
Jones’ treatment plan consisted of an initial operation to remove the
mass from the base of his brain, six weeks of high-dose radiation,
four months of high-dose chemotherapy, one bone marrow
transplant, and three stem cell transplants. His last chemotherapy
treatment was February 2017. Three weeks later there was no
sign of the disease and he was declared a cancer survivor,
returning to CIU in August 2017.
A New Desire
“I came back to CIU with a new perspective,” Jones
said. “My freshman year I was kind of arrogant and
prideful. I didn’t really see how I fit into the student
body. I’m from the inner city and most people from
CIU are not.”
He has a new desire to seek out friendships with
people from different backgrounds and connect with
them any way he can. He also applied to Residence Life
and became an R.A. of Memorial Hall.
“I wanted to have one friend who’s from the city and then another
friend who grew up in Haiti working in an orphanage.” Jones
explained. “Res Life is a platform for me to preach this message of
diversity and getting to know and love on people even if you have
differences.”
It may come as no surprise. After he graduates from CIU, John Jones
plans to continue training to become a healthcare chaplain.
by ben rutkowski
ciu.edu
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CIU Today
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