Where is God when you have cancer?
by Samuel E. Ericsson

Five years ago I was told I had massive bladder cancer.  Cancer is the most feared word in the English language.  The news came as a shock to someone who had never had a serious illness.  During the past five years people around the globe have prayed for me who might not otherwise have done so.   This has been a great blessing to our family, Advocates International and me. There is absolutely no doubt that God hears our appeals and that He can heal.  We have learned a great deal on this journey.  Every day is His gift to us.  What follows is His-Story on where God is when you have cancer.  The story is not over yet, so stay tuned.  It’s been quite an adventure!

Have Meal, Don’t Travel:  In the summer of 1999, I went to three physicians in Northern Virginia, including an urologist, Dr. X, because I had some physical discomforts. Initially I thought it might be my prostate.  After examinations and blood tests, I was assured there was nothing wrong.  Dr. X gave me some free pills off his shelf and saw no reason why I could not travel to Eastern Europe for conferences.  The trip would take four weeks.  I started taking his pills.

Two days before my planned departure to Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, Bobby and I had dinner at a restaurant near our home in Springfield, Virginia.  Towards the end of the meal, I passed out.  Fortunately there were several paramedics at the restaurant’s bar who came over to help.  An ambulance rushed me to Fairfax Hospital. After a few hours I was released.  Although they found nothing wrong, I cancelled the trip.  Something was not right.  The next day I called Dr. X to tell him about the restaurant incident.   He showed little concern but agreed to see me the following Tuesday. 

A Timely Cancellation:  Unimpressed by Dr. X’s cavalier approach, we called Margie, a nurse Bobby knew in Pennsylvania.  Two weeks earlier she sat at our table at a banquet for 4,000 people in Salt Lake City at a convention for Bobby’s home-based wellness business.  Margie works for an urologist and told us to call if we needed a referral.  She gave us the name of Dr. Hardy, a highly respected urologist in Northern Virginia.

When I called Dr. Hardy’s office on Monday they told me that their first opening was six weeks away.  I took it.   The next day I returned to Dr. X who scoped my bladder and found two small tumors.  Cancer!  Unthinkable!  Bobby has focused on a healthy diet during our 30-year marriage.  No white flour.   No white sugar.  She grinds grain and bakes fresh bread every week.   Junk food and red meat were rarely on our menu.   I called Bobby with the news.   She was shocked.

When I returned to my office, Dr. Hardy’s nurse called saying that a patient had just cancelled an appointment for the next day.  Was I interested?   24 hours earlier I had to wait six weeks.  Now a slot was open!  I told her, “I don’t know your religious beliefs.  I believe in Providence.  An hour ago I was told that I have bladder cancer.  We need a second opinion.  We’ll see you tomorrow.”  Thank you, God!

As soon as we met Dr. Hardy, we connected.  He is an excellent physician and a former Deputy Director of Urology at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, the hospital that treats America’s Presidents.  We discovered that one of Dr. Hardy’s roommates at West Point in the 1960’s was Brigadier General Richard Black, a good friend in our Adult Bible Fellowship at Immanuel Bible Church.  Another classmate was David Tye, our computer consultant, who also attends Immanuel.

Two Startling Discoveries:  After reviewing Dr. X’s report, Dr. Hardy scheduled a cystoscopy surgery for Monday.  He thought it would take less than one hour to remove the two small tumors based on what Dr. X reported.  Bobby and I arrived at Fair Oaks Hospital at 7:00AM for the pre-op.  They rolled me into the operating room at 9:00AM for my first-ever surgery.  Instead of one hour, however, the surgery took three and one-half hours.  When Bobby heard nothing after an hour she began to worry.  Finally, Dr. Hardy came out to tell her that he had removed the largest mass of bladder cancer he had ever seen.  The cancer mass was 20 times larger than the typical operation.  If he had known the size of the mass, he would have recommended that the bladder be removed.  Five years later I still have my bladder.  Thank you, God! 

Of equal concern were tumors he removed from my ureter (the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder) that prevented my kidney from draining properly.  The left kidney was swelling and could have ruptured on my trip to Europe.  I would have returned home in a box.   There is no physiological link between the cancer and my fainting at the restaurant.  God simply chose to knock me out and keep me home.  God is in control.  Thank you, God!

Working With The Designer:  Bobby is trained as an Occupational Therapist and has spent over three decades studying health and nutrition.  Her family has a history of cancer, as well as Alzheimers.  She has therefore adopted a proactive approach to maintaining good health focused on lifestyle and diet.  She reads books, magazines and newsletters on these subjects constantly.   It was my turn to do some reading.

While recuperating I read several books in Bobby’s library, including God’s Way to Ultimate Health by Rev. George H. Malkmus.  In 1976, a few weeks after Malkmus lost his mother to colon cancer, he was told that he had a colon tumor the size of a baseball.  His doctor recommended surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the same treatment that his mother, a registered nurse, had received.   Malkmus was 42.  He felt that the conventional approach had not helped his mother.  After prayer, Bible study and counsel, he decided to follow a diet and lifestyle based on Genesis 1:29: “Then God said [to Adam and Eve], `I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit and seed in it.  They will be yours for food.”  Within one year, his tumor was totally gone without surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

As a Baptist pastor for more than twenty years prior to his cancer, Malkmus had been troubled by the fact that believers were no healthier than others.  Moreover, the prayers for the sick seemed to have little or no effect.  Something was missing.  Malkmus concluded that since God designed the body with an immune system to fight disease, healing might not happen by prayer alone.  A lifestyle consistent with Scripture that strengthens the immune system, coupled with trust in God, is needed. 

This approach made sense to us.  The Designer can heal a chain smoker with lung cancer, but it would be wise to stop smoking.  A good definition of prayer is talking to God about what we are doing together with Him.  We adopted a three-prong approach: 1) prayer; 2) a wellness lifestyle and 3) open to sound medical advise from both the traditional and alternative medical views.

Malkmus launched Hallelujah Acres (www.hacres.com) teaching a lifestyle that has had excellent results in dealing with many diseases, including cancer and diabetes.   (Phyllis is a good friend at our church who had advanced MS.   She has fully recovered under this program. Doctors are amazed at her “impossible” recovery.  Even brain lesions have healed.   She’s been our cheerleader.)  Bobby and I both started on the lifestyle program after my first surgery. We saw good results initially and kept Dr. Hardy informed.  He often told us, “Whatever you’re doing, bottle it and sell it.” 

Although doctors can rarely explain why people get cancer, there are at least three known causes: toxins in the environment (e.g. nicotine, asbestos, chemicals in the home, food and workplace), malnutrition (i.e. eating the wrong food or not eating the right food) and stress (the body can’t tell the difference between good and bad stress.)   Bobby and I went to work on each area.  Since there is no family history of cancer, DNA is not the culprit.

Our initial results were good.  The cancer’s growth slowed, but it did not disappear.  Four months after the first surgery, Dr. Hardy performed another cystoscopy and discovered new growth.  He recommended a chemotherapy called BCG.  It is a TB virus that works in some cases,  but no one knows why.  We’ve learned that when doctors say they are “practicing” medicine, they’re not kidding.  They hope their treatment works, but cannot give guarantees.  BCG is a wash inserted by a catheter that “irrigates” the bladder.   After a few BCG treatments, I began to have chills and sweat profusely at night.  Some nights I soaked three sweatshirts.  I lost 20 pounds in two weeks.  Chemotherapy is a poison designed to kill cancer.  But it also kills good cells and can destroy the immune system.  My immune system chose to fight BCG.   BCG was not for me.

An Unexpected Phone Call:  Seven months after my first surgery I received a phone call from a friend, Helen, who lives in Los Angeles.  We had attended the same church during the 50’s and 60’s.  We had not spoken to each other for at least 30 years.  Helen told me that she had been in the medical field for 35 years and that she had “a word from the Lord” about my cancer. She recommended an herbal product called MGN3 produced by a company in New Jersey.   She gave me their phone number.  I thanked Helen for her call and concern.  I then told her that Bobby had also read about MGN3 and had ordered six bottles the previous week.  The package was delivered the day Helen called!   Thank you, God!

When a friend you have not talked to for over 30 years calls from 3,000 miles away recommending an anti-cancer product among the thousands and thousands in the marketplace and the same product arrives on your doorstep that very day, you know Someone is watching over you!   MGN3 is not The Answer for my cancer, but it is evidence of God’s hand on my life.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

Read The Fine Print:  My cancer appeared to shrink as long as I stuck with the lifestyle.  Advocates International is a global movement where my travel has been important.  So I hit the road again after each surgery.  But the wellness lifestyle, especially the diet that includes juicing five pounds of carrots daily, is almost impossible to maintain on the road.   The cancer kept coming back every six months so Dr. Hardy had to remove the new tumors each time.  After my fourth surgery, he recommended another chemotherapy that has proven effective in some patients.  We agreed.

The morning of the scheduled chemo (also done by irrigation, not by an IV) the nurse gave me the information sheet on the drug.  As the nurse prepared the “cocktail,” I lay on my back reading the fine print written by a committee of doctors and lawyers.  Time was short, so I focused on the RISK section. It stated that in 64% of cases in a study of 800 patients the chemo poisoned the bone marrow.  Wow!  The bone marrow is crucial to the immune system.   I told the nurse to postpone the treatment until we understood the risks.  Dr. Hardy explained that the bone marrow poisoning in that study occurred when the chemo was taken through an IV. It would not occur in irrigation.  We chose to proceed.  Two hours after taking the chemo I turned as red as a beet with a rash from head to toe.  Again, my immune system fought the toxic chemo.  It was not for me.

We continued with the lifestyle and Dr Hardy would say, “Whatever you’re doing, bottle it and sell it.”   But Advocates’ travel and the stress of keeping a global network moving forward – plus the ever present fund raising – takes its toll.  When new growth reappeared some months later, the recommendation was to try another chemotherapy.  We did.  Although there was no visible negative reaction, there were no signs that this did any good either.  I continued with the lifestyle – more or less – and the cancer would reappear.

A Painful but Necessary Fall:  On July 18, 2003, a few weeks before I planned to leave for Ghana and Nigeria, I slipped and fell on the steps in our home and broke seven ribs and punctured my right lung.  We had seen God derail my plans before so I did not complain. X-rays soon disclosed an unknown “hot spot” in my left lung about the size of a half-dollar.  No one knows how long this “hot spot” has been there.  We were told that there was a 95% probability that it was malignant lung cancer.  I was shocked. I have never smoked or been around secondhand smoke.  Perhaps the bladder cancer had traveled.  Who knows?

Derailing Surgery:  The lung specialists suggested immediate surgery to remove the lower lobe of my left lung.  Reluctantly, we scheduled the massive surgery.  We prayed for wisdom.  Five days before the surgery, I came down with the worst case of diarrhea in my life.  It would last ten days.  The day before the surgery, I received a call from a lawyer working for the U.S. Solicitor General in Washington, DC.  Our friend, Sam Casey, the executive director of Christian Legal Society, had told Tom about my lung problem.  Tom had undergone a similar surgery and shared some details of the surgery with me: breaking ribs to gain access, damage to nerve systems, the use of Oxycoten, a highly addictive opium-based pain killer and ongoing pain lasting months after the surgery.  Bobby and I knew nothing about these risks or procedures.

That evening we prayed for wisdom.  We reflected on what had occurred during the previous four years as we saw God’s hand on our lives. We again watched videos by Dr. Lorraine Day, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco.  When Dr. Day discovered she had breast cancer – her tumor grew to the size of a large grapefruit – she examined over 40 alternatives to surgery, radiation and chemotherapy until she adopted a wellness lifestyle similar to that of Hallelujah Acres.  In eight months, her tumor was gone.  Her videos Cancer Doesn’t Scare Me and You Can’t Improve on God were very helpful.  See www.drday.com.

We felt there were too many events pointing away from having lung surgery at that time. On the morning of the scheduled surgery, the nurse called to tell us there was an opening for us to come in earlier than planned. We told her about the diarrhea.  The surgeon cancelled the surgery so we did not have to, but it was an answer to prayer.  Surgery derailed!  Thank you, God!

Committed or Double Minded:  At this point I had to make a decision.  For four years I had lacked discipline in parts of the wellness program.  The program is not simply a diet but a lifestyle.  Rest, reduced stress, exercise, sun, fresh air, devotions, benevolence and attitude are as important as the diet and daily carrot juice.  I had been “double minded” as James warns in his letter.  I cancelled all air travel until I am cancer free, reduced my days in the office and delegated responsibilities to “the best staff money can’t buy.”   The Cancer Free goal is September 4, 2004, my 60^th birthday.

In October 2003, we heard about a blood test called DR-70 that traces cancer markers in the blood.  It does not show the location of specific cancers but measures cancerous activity through certain proteins and enzymes in the blood.  Both Bobby and I took the test so that we would have a basis for comparison.  On a scale of zero to seven – with zero being perfect – my first results were 1.9 and Bobby’s 1.1.  (Everyone has some cancer.  The issue is whether the immune system is fighting it.) 

In December 2003 I had a second blood test.  The result was 1.2.  This was a good sign that the cancer appears to be shrinking.  In January 2004, Dr. Hardy scoped my bladder and reported seeing only one small “superficial” tumor.  Five years earlier I had the largest mass of bladder cancer he had ever seen. He told us that 60% of patients live five years under conventional treatment and chemotherapy.  Now it appears that my bladder cancer is leaving the stage.  Thank you, God.   In February 2004, Bobby and I we will do the DR-70 test a third time.  Stay tuned.

Wise Counselors:  In addition to our treating physicians – who are among the best in our region – God has brought along other doctors who have given us wise counsel.  One is Dr. Jan Dahlin, an orthopedic surgeon in Oregon.  He was a close friend of Dr. Henry Brandt, a noted physician who wrote several books extolling God’s wonderful creation, the human body.  Jan is a Swedish immigrant who grew up in the same neighborhood in Sweden where we lived prior to moving to the U.S. in 1953.  At a prayer meeting in 2003 in Oregon someone gave Jan a slip of paper with my name and phone number.  He called.  Although we have never met face-to-face, our hearts are “knitted together.”  I consider him a brother and respect his wise and biblical counsel.  We have spent hours on the phone – without filling out any insurance forms!

As a surgeon, Jan sees God’s healing power time and again.  He notes that conventional medicine limits itself to very few tools in their toolbox – drugs, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.  Doctors may put patients on cancer programs but that is not the same as wellness programs.   Jan reminded me of the story of King Asa  in I Kings 15 and II Chronicles  14-16. The Bible records:  “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord – but –  in the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet.  Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians.  Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.”  II Chronicles 14:2 and 16:12-13.

Handcuffed:  For 12 years I practiced with a major Los Angeles law firm that was a leading medical malpractice defense firm in California.  The sad truth about law and medicine in America today is that doctors often feel handcuffed by “the system” to limit their treatments to drugs, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation fearing malpractice exposure if they choose other alternatives.  A more serious set of handcuffs is philosophical: “modern” science rejects the notion of a Designer of the human body.  It took $3 billion dollars and five years using the world’s most powerful computers to map out the complex DNA found in a human cell.  Yet “modern” science concludes that the DNA is the product of “time plus chance.”   Over the past five years, we have witnessed that the Designer remains fully engaged in good health.  The best medicine is to work hand-in-hand with Him.       

The Biopsy:  On January 29, 2004 I had a needle biopsy in preparation for the lung surgery on the cancer doctors felt 95% certain was there. It was quite an experience being fully alert while a long needle goes into your back to draw out cells from the “hot spot” in my lung.  My nose bled and I spat up blood.  My lung collapsed so they put a tube in my back to suck out the air.  The good news is that the preliminary results show that the “hot spot” is not cancer.  It may be an infection that I have picked up on my travels.  I’ve traveled a million miles and visited over 65 nations.  Among my visits, I’ve been to TB wards in prisons.  An infection does not come as a surprise.  The diarrhea in September derailed the “must have” lung surgery and the needle biopsy derailed it again.  At this time we do not know the final results of the biopsy, but we know we are in God’s hands.

Rejoicing in Suffering:  When I called Jan to report the preliminary good news on the biopsy, he was thrilled and read verses from Romans 5: 1-5: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  

Where is God when you have cancer?  At your side.  Every day. Without fail.  There is no doubt!   Thank you, God!

Thank you for your prayers.  God is not deaf!   Stay tuned as we continue living in His-Story!

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Sam’s Daily Wellness Lifestyle

1.      Trust God!!
2.      The vegan diet excludes all dairy and meats.  It is limited to “living foods” (excluding anything killed, packaged, processed or canned) so that the cells get the essential living enzymes.  It is a high alkaline, low acidic diet.  Cancer thrives in an acidic environment.  Caffeine is very acidic.
3.      The diet is 85% raw fruits and vegetables and 15% cooked;  85% vegetables and 15% fruits.
4.      Juice five pounds of carrots every day = a liter of carrot juice.
5.      Barley green juice about 3 times per day.
6.      Flax seed and flax seed oil daily.
7.      Exercise 30 minutes per day and get fresh air and sun daily.
8.      Rebounding (small trampoline) for 15-20 minutes per day is excellent exercise at the “cellular” level and helps flush the lymph system.
9.      Get at least 8 hours sleep.  Try to be in bed by 9:30PM.
10.  Reduce stress
11.  Daily prayer and Bible study.
12.  Keep a positive attitude.
13.  Be benevolent = don’t focus on your own problems but reach out to others.
14.  Drink at least three quarts of processed water each day.
15.  Take supplements, including antioxidants, garlic and enzyme boosters.
16.  Trust God!!!

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2/1/2004