Plan B

 (I wrote this while my internet was down June 28.) 

Sometimes our lives take an unexpected swerve to the right or the left. Well, Two friends of mine are experiencing this to the extreme. Alissa and Carey. They are in their early 20’s, they have been married for just over a year and have just recently came back from Africa where they were serving with a missions organization for 3 months (ish). They have been preparing with work out at a bible camp for the summer. Alissa is one of the program directors and Carey was going to work on maintaining the camp facilities. On Monday June 20 their lives changed forever. Alissa was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tonight June 28 they found out that it is stage 4. They believe it has spread to her hip.

Why, How, When, and WHAT THE HECK???

Processing this has been difficult for me, Sometimes I want to Praise and Rejoice because God is good because He holds us and keeps us from deviating from His plan, and in these challenges and aches we see HIM so clearly. Other times I am just in shock and am so saddened by the news and what it means for their lives. But I believe with everything in me that my God is bigger than CANCER. I believe that he can zap those cancer cells to smitherines. The question is will He?

I know that he wants the best for Carey and Alissa, that He loves them and is working everything out for their best. But his has a bigger plan than their comfort; it is to bring HIM GLORY. We can’t see the whole tapestry that he is weaving, we can’t see how this will change lives… not only their lives but everyone they interact with through the connection and commonality of cancer. We can’t see their faith growing… I think I can hear it though, you just need to talk to them for a few minutes and you can hear their hope, faith and peace amongst all the pain, saddeness, shock and suffering. 

My prayers are with them, their families and close friends. My prayers go out to the camp that Alissa was supposed to program direct for the summer, that they would find the right person to take over her position. My prayers are with the doctors as they plan her treatment and schedule  and prepare the chemo. My prayers are with their friends who are separated by distance and are so hurt and shocked. But my 1^st prayer through this whole week of cancer talk is that God is glorified and that HIS beautiful scheme of things is seen eventually. I do not want to be the thread that is fighting being put and twisted into place. I pray and I ask and I express my desires to the Lord but I know that His idea of beautiful and good don’t always line up with what I am dreaming of.

God has also changed my life in the last week. This time last week I handed out resumes to find out what kind of jobs were out there and if I would be interested in any. Well, Monday I start a new job… So quick! God moves swiftly. I dropped of a resume at Millcreek nurseries on Thursday, got a call back the same day, went in for an interview Saturday and Monday I was hired. It is perfect timing for me. God goes ahead of us. He knows the things that we will walk into (both big and small) and the solutions that he has hiding in wait for us.