It’s difficult to say what was in worse shape: the run-down century-old church or the cancer-stricken 56-year-old man sat on its crumbling steps. For many years, Greg Thomas would sit on these steps and pray when he walked his dogs along the country lanes in rural Minnesota. However, in May 2009, he found out that the searing earaches, headaches, and jaw aches that had plagued him for 12 months were due to inoperable head and neck cancer. In fact, it had progressed so far that doctors had told Greg’s family to plan his funeral.
Greg was sitting on the church steps one evening when he decided he would like to do one last thing for the Lord. This something was to fix the peeling paint, the leaking roof, the mangled steps, and the rotting floorboards. He approached the church’s association with a deal: He would repair the building if he got a key to the front door so that he could go in and worship whenever he liked. He warned them that it would be slow going as he had just undergone three rounds of chemotherapy along with 40 sessions of radiation. They agreed to his deal anyway.
Incredibly, as Greg scraped off old paint and replaced boards, he felt himself growing stronger each day. The more he worked, the better he felt – he didn’t even need to use the strong prescription drugs that his doctor had prescribed to him.
As Greg continued to fix the church, medical scans revealed some shocking, but very good, news: His tumors were shrinking. Four years and 23 days after his diagnosis, doctors were able to remove his feeding tube – the one they said he would have for the rest of his life. Today, Greg’s tumors are completely gone. He is now in remission and no longer needs any follow-up tests.
And the church? After five years of Greg’s labor and love, it has been restored to it past glory. Greg finished his main project this summer, but he will always be involved in maintaining its beauty. Greg believes that while he was restoring the church, God was restoring him.
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Topic: Church cures cancer (Read 652 times)