Since being diagnosed with cancer for the second time and going for outpatient chemotherapy at that Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, I have had time to reflect on one of the possibilities of why God has allowed this to take place (although I certainly can’t know the mind of the Creator!).
I was convinced that I was serving Him in the right place on the inpatient blood cancer floor at Prentice Women’s Hospital, where Phil’s Friends’ Hope to Hospitals program delivers care packages to the patients. However, God had a different plan in mind! For the last two years we have been discussing how to bring the Hope to Hospitals program to the outpatient department at Northwestern. But we did not clearly see a way to do that.
When I began going for outpatient chemotherapy, God provided the opportunity for me to speak to the manager in charge of supportive oncology about the Phil’s Friends programs, something that would never have happened if I weren’t physically there receiving chemotherapy.
This must have been God’s timing because through that conversation, God has opened the door! We now have the opportunity to bring hope to thousands more patients there, providing them with Care Packages and Cards of Hope, and showing them Christ-like love and encouragement. It’s incredible to be a part of God’s work for the cancer patients at Northwestern, and to see Him get the glory!
