Ministry Moments:
The Lady with Cancer
by Lynn Ridenhour
Every Friday night a handful of us believers met at
the Kennedy’s for prayer and worship. They were such a lovely couple in
their late 70s. Mrs. Kennedy made and collected dolls. I never saw such a
collection of dolls. I'm talking--hundreds.
Joe & Jean Hoover, Conrad & Eunice Murrell, Lynn & Linda
Ridenhour, Agnes and the Kennedy’s—that was our group. At times others
would attend. We’d been meeting every Friday for the past year.
One night we had a guest, a lady in her late 30s. Her countenance was
quite downcast and despondent. She shared with us one of the most depressing
stories I had ever heard. The hospital had recently released her after having
performed exploratory surgery. The doctors, during surgery, discovered cancer
riddled throughout her frail body. They sewed her up and sent her home to die.
The cancer had spread to her spine, her liver, and her lymph nodes and was in
her colon. She was given the death sentence.
I looked at her. She looked yellow.
"…I heard you people pray for the sick. Would you pray for me.
Doctors say I may have three or four weeks...""
Joe got up, as if being led by the Lord. He was such a compassionate man.
Joe Hoover sold his five hundred-acre farm in Missouri, gave the money to the
Lord’s work, purchased a little general store in Louisiana, and lived for
God. I knew Joe back in Missouri. Joe stood over the young lady. I could see
the compassion in his eyes. He asked us to come gather around. We formed a
circle around the frail figure, then Joe began to pray.
It was a simple prayer. But a prayer that came from Joe’s bowels. I could
feel his yearnings. He asked God to spare her life, to heal her. Joe cursed
the cancer and commanded it to leave her frail body. He had hold of the horns’
altar while he prayed. You can’t tell me the prayer of a righteous man doesn’t
"availeth much…" Joe was in the holy of holies. His prayer was
filled with heavenly unction. I thought I was listening to the very words of
Christ. When through praying we all sat down, knowing we had been in the
presence of something holy.
The next day I got a phone call. It was Jean, Joe’s wife. That morning
the frail lady had gone back to see her physician. They found no traces of
cancer in her body. None. She was given a clean bill of health.
