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From Christianity Today-
God is strange. At times, he is awful.
There’s no getting around these excruciating facts after reading Victor Lee Austin’s memoir, Losing Susan: Brain Disease, the Priest’s Wife, and the God Who Gives and Takes Away (Brazos).
At age 38, Susan Austin was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Due to the marvels of modern medicine, she healed. But the cancer treatments brought about the condition that ultimately ended her life—something called white-matter disease. Victor, Susan, and their two children initially felt relieved, only to discover a slow deterioration under way in Susan’s brain.
Readers will admire Victor’s fidelity to his wife and longsuffering, but his years caring for Susan were marked by second-guessing, uncertainty, and doubts. As a husband and a father, a theologian and an Episcopal priest, he limped his way through the fog of maintaining a home, teaching ethics, and leading church members through prayers his wife could no longer pray.
More here-
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/june/when-god-is-strange-and-awful.html
From Pittsburgh-
It was like Oscar night and prom rolled into one.
Thursday night, men and women of all ages gathered at the Galleria of Mt. Lebanon in anticipation of the night's main event: a screening of the film “The Fault in Our Stars,” adapted from John Green's best-selling teen novel. Wearing dresses and suits — or, for a fancy few, gowns and tuxedos — most of the filmgoers, more than 300, chose to go Hollywood.
But for many of these attendees, the film had added significance in their community. The evening, which began with a gala-style red carpet event before the screening, was organized and planned by St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon — which was used as one of the film's set locations. In the movie, main characters Hazel (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus (Ansel Elgort), two teens who meet during a cancer support group that is held within the walls of a church.Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/2014/06/06/Church-channels-Hollywood-with-Fault-screening/stories/201406060103#ixzz33x15qHiL
From Buffalo-
I am an Episcopal priest serving two congregations in Buffalo, N.Y. Two years ago this Thursday, on Oct. 4, 2010, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
My prayer, as I was listening to the doctor say the words, "invasive, lobular carcinoma," came suddenly and clearly: "Gracious God be with me through this journey, allow me to walk it with dignity and grace. And help me to be grateful, whatever may be."
Thanks be to God, that prayer was answered -- and then some.
As I awoke in the recovery room at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, I was so overwhelmed, so overcome with gratitude that the only prayer I could utter through the tears was "thank you."
Thank you.
Thank you for the presence of a world class cancer institute in my backyard.
Thank you for the newly arrived surgeon, who full of smarts and compassion, full of determination and grace, removed the cancer from me and painstakingly poked and prodded until she was sure -- absolutely, positively sure -- that all of the cancer was gone. That anything that looked or felt suspicious was removed. That the margins were checked, double checked and triple checked. That lymph nodes were felt and if not absolutely normal in texture and appearance, were also removed.
More here-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-catherine-b-dempesy/thank-you-god-for-cancer_b_1937451.html
From Christianity Today-
