Malignant melanoma! A new word had entered our family’s vocabulary, a synonym for fear.
It was February 1973 and we had been on the mission field in Lima, Peru for nine years. It had been more than long enough to prove the confidence we had put in the Lord. After eleven years of praying, asking, listening, waiting, we had heard the Lord’s clear call and had been commended by the small assembly in Hutchinson, Kansas, to put all aside and launch out, taking our three children to an unfamiliar land to serve an unknown people in the gospel.
Well we remembered how the elders in our commending assembly expressed their concerns for our financial support. We had appreciated their thoughts as they tried to put into proper perspective the few believers in the assembly, the small monthly missionary offerings, and the cost of maintaining a family of five in the metropolis that was Lima. We had sympathized with the elders, but assured them we were looking to the Lord of the Harvest for our needs and to the assembly for its prayers.
THE CALL
Now, nine years later, on a typical day in Lima, came the telephone call. Melanoma! It was the voice of Richard Burson, an elder in our commending assembly, a full-time worker and also guardian for our oldest, Tom, 18, studying in the local junior college. His message? The spot on Tom’s back that had been excised four months earlier had returned, and had been diagnosed as malignant melanoma. Then came the doctor’s observation: he had had 15 melanoma patients in 20 years of practice; it was a particularly virulent form of cancer; all but two of his patients had died of the dread disease. It was recommended that Tom be taken to the M. D. Anderson cancer research hospital in Houston, Texas, immediately. The rest of the conversation with Richard was received in a haze and fades from memory.
When I had answered that phone call I had heard the “beep” that always signals an international call, and therefore had called to Florence. She was at my side listening to my responses during the conversation and, of course, could sense the seriousness of the matter without knowing the details. A hurried explanation to her was followed by calling our other children, Paul, 16, and Elizabeth, 15, to the living room where all was explained and where we prayed, committing Tom and ourselves to the Lord for whatever was to follow.
Only then came the realization of the extra income we would need to provide for these added expenses!
THAT EXTRA INCOME
The first year we were in Peru we were grateful to note that our financial support for that year was exactly equal to my salary as a public school teacher the year before we went to Peru. We had thanked God for His faithfulness and for thus demonstrating that He would not do less for us than He had done while we were in secular work. We had, indeed, experienced some months of “no extras” in our family, but always enough. “My God shall supply all your NEED….”
In the face of so much need in Peru we had even been able to increase the percentage of our giving which Florence and I had covenanted with the Lord to pass on directly to His work and for some of the needs of the Peruvian believers. And we knew that it is in such a context of sharing with others that the Apostle Paul states that principle/promise in Philippians 4:19.
Yes, the extra income! As we began to settle into the reality of the situation with Tom, our need to be with him, to guide him through whatever experiences lay ahead, to comfort, to encourage, to share and to learn, we began to make plans. Foremost in our minds was the considerable cost of air fares for four people.
But, there was that extra income! For each of the three months prior to the phone call from Tom’s guardian we had been surprised by a noticeable increase in support. The first month Florence and I had merely commented on it, with thanksgiving. The second month of such increase in support we had wondered aloud what the Lord had in mind, and had even mentioned one or two possible “projects” we had talked of related to our ministries in Peru. But the third month of considerable increase of funds we really knew that the Lord had a definite purpose in mind and it was for us to wait and see what it might be.
Now we knew. “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer” (Isa. 65:24). Now we understood. We gave thanks again to our faithful God, purchased the airline tickets and packed our suitcases.
Of course, the experience of God’s provision in unusual circumstances did not end there, though the provision for that amount was sufficient in itself to give testimony to His glory, testimony which we have happily given many times over the years.
At that time we did not have medical insurance. We had been directed to the cancer research center in Texas, a facility with over 700 outpatients per day, all with one or another form of cancer.
We arrived in Houston about the same time Tom’s grandparents arrived with him from Kansas. In a special time of prayer with our gracious hosts, Stan and Marilyn Boyer, and the elders from their assembly, we committed Tom to the Lord for His all-wise and all-loving care, and began what was to be 18 months of hospital visits, doctors’ consultations, experimental treatments, much more prayer, abundant tears and, ALWAYS, God’s faithfulness.
DAY BY DAY
Almost our first “hurdle” was not with the disease itself but with the business office of the hospital. As it had been almost ten years since we had any dealings with hospitals in the U.S., we were totally innocent of what it meant for a patient to approach a hospital for treatment without medical insurance.
When our “financial situation” became clear to the business office (meaning no insurance, missionaries by profession, no mission board, no guaranteed salary, residents of a foreign country), there was considerable consultation by the hospital authorities with the final decision that Tom would be accepted as a patient only if daily expenses could be settled on a daily basis. Could we accept such a condition? Yes, we could, but it was not just because we had no alternative. It was because we had an ever faithful God who had prepared us “before [we] called…” for just this moment and circumstance.
There followed 18 months of doctors’ fees, hospital fees, in-patient, out-patient, experimental treatments, travel expenses, etc. Expenses were indeed paid daily. Thousands of dollars passed through our hands. The money was always there. There were tears—tears for Tom and tears of thankfulness for God’s presence and His provision. In addition, there was the loving and sacrificial response of many believers in the Braeburn assembly and the Spanish speaking assembly in Houston with supportive visits, homes opened for our time spent in Houston and vehicles always at our disposal.
But there was another supply. As commitment and confidence increased, peace increased. As we saw we lacked nothing, our thankfulness grew. We learned to share the truth of those lines of Florence’s favorite missionary poet, Amy Carmichael, “In acceptance lieth peace….” And this, after all, was the most important provision of our faithful God.
Eighteen months passed. No treatment produced positive results. A temporary delay of the advance of the dread disease came now and then, but it was a downhill progression all the way. Tom’s body did not respond, and eventually his super-alert and super-keen mind began to falter along with his body. An avid reader, he found he could not concentrate on the one activity he loved most. Well we remember the last lucid conversation he had with us when, with child-like simplicity he asked, “Do you think God still wants me in this condition?” Tom was saved and baptized and taken into fellowship at an early age and we could assure him that God not only would have him, but was eager to have him, and that it was “far better” to be with Christ.
Once the disease had metastasized to the brain, the end was near. That is, the end of the earthly part. On July 13, 1974, at the age of 19, Tom entered into full life. His ordeal was over. We had learned many lessons, and we had been confirmed in our convictions. “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS” (Lam. 3:23).
Written by Gordon Wakefield