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”.