After decades spent serving others and pursuing healthy spirituality, physicality, and more, the father of my dearest friend has found himself in an unimaginable circumstance. After finding himself unable to walk in the week before Thanksgiving, being transferred from the ER to the ICU, scans showed several places of concern on his bones, including a large mass in his T spine compressing his spinal cord, which was causing paralysis of his lower half.

The doctors advised surgery to remove that mass immediately and then rehabilitation to begin regaining movement and sensation below the waist. The diagnosis of cancer is not one the family wants to live in fear about, but the fact is that there is a diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer and and ever-evolving process of healing and care ahead of them, including financial strain with this unexpected season of being unable to work. 

This is a man who has actively worked a physical job for 40+ years and is the primary earner in their household. They do not have insurance coverage or enough long term savings to help them weather this storm.

I know it is a season of financial expenditures for many of us, but it is also a season of the growing darkness moving toward light. The past few weeks have brought moments of weary darkness and moments of encouraging light for this family, but there are months ahead where none of them know how next steps will happen. They are holding firmly to Hope that they will be able to walk forward even when times feel dim.  

Would you consider sending some hope and encouragement toward them in the form of financial care? It would mean more than I can possibly say.