A shameful past story

On May 17, 2009, with the founding service, Good Neighbor Church began, and the pastoral schedule of my husband and I began. Then, in 2011, after my wife's breast cancer, and then ovarian cancer in 2013, there was a start again in the first crisis.

And I think the second crisis must have been an event and time in my life where seriousness and shame were combined. The thyroid problem in 2014 wasn't too difficult. However, in the middle of 2015, his wife's ovarian cancer was on the verge of recurrence. What was small at the time of surgery in 2013 became bigger. He had to undergo surgery and a third chemotherapy.

In the end, when I was faced with the 4th cancer, it seemed that I would send my wife to heaven first if I had no more pastoral care in the face of that crisis. Because of her wife's personality, faith, and her sense of duty, she is not the first person to say that she should give up. We gathered together with the belief that our children should know and need understanding.

At that time, the sons and four wives who were college students and high school students gathered together. After calmly discussing the present reality, he said that he had come to the conclusion that it would be better to put down his ministry. So, as his family, we asked each of us to express our opinions. Her wife doesn't say anything. Her first son will follow her father's decisions, she says. Finally her second son speaks.

He asks with a serious face, saying that he understands the situation and circumstances. “Dad, what are you planning to do when you quit the ministry?” It was a question that seemed to pick me up in the calmness. Following the call for more than 20 years, the road that I had learned, trained and walked by focusing on only one mission passed like a lantern. Even so, he answered that it would be difficult to start something again, but if we pray and prepare, we can do anything.

Then his son speaks. Even now, if I remember the words of my son at that time, it is more than strange, it is surprising. I was ashamed too. Somehow... it seemed like the Lord was saying something. second son's words. “Father, we know it is difficult. But with a little patience and overcoming it, we can grow up quickly and help the house.” So I say don't give up. He did not want to be remembered as a father who gave up, even if he would become a father who failed at his son's words. So he passed the second crisis.

Years have passed, and their children are now in 2022, and their eldest son is working as a computer team at ANZ Bank (Malbon, Australia), and the second son is working as a doctor (NZ) first-year intern. Following Esther's spirit that her wife would die if she died, she proceeded with cancer treatment with the Bible instead of chemotherapy, reading the Old and New Testaments. She has been through biblical chemotherapy and she is now taking up her ministry as she is healthy. Hallelujah~

“Do not become discouraged in doing good. You must not give up, for in due time you will reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:9)