Introduction
Oh
God, it’s cancer! A diagnosis of cancer conjures up a multitude of
emotions - fear, despair, depression, uncertainty, fatalism - all have
a profound impact on the individual and on the individual’s family
and loved ones. What does one do when told cancer is present? Where does
one go for medical advice, emotional sustenance and spiritual support?
Often the most probing questions asked are “Am I going to die? How
long do I have to live?” Most people are ill prepared to accept the
diagnosis, consider implications or contemplate a future as a consequence
of this momentary confusion over what should be done.
It is said that cancer has reached epidemic proportions, especially among people over 50. Every 45 seconds, someone dies of cancer in this country. This amounts to over 500,000 deaths per year. The medical profession and research scientists have endeavored to give us hope, based on current findings and new protocols for detecting and treating this disease. It is encouraging to note that “as detection and treatments have improved, many types of cancers have shifted from acute to chronic diseases, and some cancers are now highly curable. The statistics are positive, but numbers do not really tell very much about how persons with cancer survive – physically, psychologically, socially, economically, or spiritually. They do not tell us how people with a cancer diagnosis learn to live with fear and uncertainty or how they manage to be hopeful.”
To be sure, hope may be abandoned because, according to recent data, we are losing ground in our efforts to eradicate cancer. Over the recent decades, breast and colon cancer have shot up 60%, prostate up 100%, testicular up 300%. Lung cancer has risen 262% at the very time when the number of smokers has been dropping from 50% to 25% of the population.
The incidence of cancer among African Americans is indeed troublesome. “Overall, blacks are more likely to develop cancer than persons of any other racial and ethnic group. Black women have the highest incidence rates of colon and rectum (44.9 per 100,000) and lung and bronchus cancer (46.2 per 100,000). Black men have the highest incidence rates of prostate (222.9 per 100,000), colon and rectum (58.1 per 100,000). Black men are at least 50% more likely to develop prostate cancer than men of any other racial and ethnic group . . . Blacks are about 33% more likely to die of cancer than whites, and are 2 times more likely to die of cancer than Asian/Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Hispanics. During 1990-1996, cancer mortality rates were 223.4 per 100,000 among blacks, 167.5 per 100,000 among whites, 104.9 per 100,000 among Hispanics. . . .
Black women are more likely to die of breast and colon and rectum cancer than are women of any other racial and ethnic group. Black men have the highest mortality rates of colon and rectum, lung and bronchus, and prostate cancer. Black men are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than men of other racial and ethnic groups.” (American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Figures 2000, pages 28 and 29.)
Clearly, something is wrong with this equation. The need for education, prevention, and treatment initiatives among Blacks is imperative. These and other data suggest there is critical need to provide assistance to those who have been diagnosed with cancer and to their significant others as well.
Overview
This is a ministry
about life. It is a ministry about health, caring, love, and compassion.
Life is what Jesus came to give. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world
to take on our infirmities. Jesus said, “I am come that they might
have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
It was His mission to bring complete restoration of our bodies, our minds
and our hearts. He came to give health. Jesus was not, is not, and will
not ever be restricted in carrying out His mission. When we reflect on
the life of Jesus, everything He did was centered around life – our
earthly life and our eternal life.
Life is at the heart of this ministry for it is the heart of our belief system. We believe the Word of God; we believe cancer stricken Christians can stand on His Word which tells us we can have life and we can have it more abundantly. Our life work on earth is a preparation for our life eternal. Thus, we have chosen LIFE – as the title of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church Cancer Ministry.
Our Vision
The LIFE Ministry provides
insight, education and a spiritual comfort zone for those who have been
touched by and living with cancer.
Our
Mission
Our mission is to glorify
God in all that we think, say, and do. Our mission is to inspire and to
assist cancer survivors who are hurting, to have a bountiful life in Christ.
Our Goal
Our goal
is to address the needs of the congregation by providing spiritual guidance
and support, and by planning and conducting programs and activities that
will be effective in promoting spiritual, emotional and physical empowerment
while living with cancer. The LIFE Ministry will offer survivors, their
loved ones, professional health providers and others, support for living
their lives - though touched by cancer - in abundance. It is our desire
to provide caring and loving support to persons living with, coping with,
and surviving cancer.
Our Values and
Belief System
“And truly Jesus
did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His
name.” (John 30-31).
LIFE Ministry participants will:
- Accept as truth that God has endowed us with everything we need to become the person He wants us to be.
- Place our perfect trust in the Lord. God has promised to make a way out of no way.
- Make every effort to read the Bible daily. Read with a red pencil and shade those verses that have special meaning to us.
- Pray those scriptural promises back to God.
- Visualize and assert our assets. Affirm “God is with me in this!”
Objectives
The Cancer Ministry
recently conducted a survey of the Windsor Village congregation. This
survey was designed to elicit respondents’ most pressing needs regarding
cancer and to ascertain the level of interest they might have in becoming
active members of the Cancer Ministry. The pressing needs expressed by
our congregation during this church-wide survey, are the building blocks
upon which the following objectives are based.
- To Address the
Need for Prayer and Spiritual Guidance LIFE Ministry Participants will:
A. Encourage LIFE Ministry participants to become conversant with healing scriptures. We will focus our thoughts on giving love while expecting nothing in return (I Corinthians 13: 4-8); we will saturate our minds with that which is good and pure – God’s word (Phil. 4:8); and we will develop feisty attitudes toward eliminating disease in one’s body. (Matthew 11:12). B. Partner with the Prayer Ministry in praying for and with those seeking spiritual guidance and support. Through prayer, we will petition Our Lord and Savior to address the concerns of participants. C. Forward pertinent information to the Prayer Ministry so that cancer survivors may be blessed by their prayers, outreach, and support.
- To Address the
Need for Support Group Assistance LIFE Ministry Participants Will:
A. Hold regularly scheduled support group sessions for sharing information, concerns and the like. B. Seek assistance of professional health care providers who will, from time to time, address the support group participants on topics of greatest interest and need. C. Inform participants of resources and services available to survivors and their loved ones.
- To Address the
Need for Education and Information, LIFE Ministry Participants will:
A. Plan and conduct educational forums that address topics that are of interest and concern to participants. Topics may include (but are not limited to) cancer prevention, cancer treatment, survivorship, caregiving, nutrition, and the like. B. Develop programs and activities that address the pressing needs identified by the congregation in the Cancer Survey. C. Gather and distribute literature that addresses issues related to cancer.
- To Address Family
Life Issues LIFE Ministry Participants Will:
A. Conduct workshops that focus on family matters which may include topics on intimacy, respite care, children and their coping strategies. B. Assist families, children and significant others in understanding adjustments that often are needed for coping with cancer. C. Offer supportive environment for discussing family life issues and suggest resources appropriate to addressing those issues.
NOTE: Discussions, workshops, and all other assistance are not considered to be therapeutic in nature. When professional assistance is needed, participants will be so advised.
- To Address the
Need for Personal Care Assistance, LIFE Ministry Participants Will:
A. Offer support to families in the area, caregiving to the extent that is appropriate for Ministry members and of value to the family. For example, we may be in a position to sit with a patient to give respite care to the family, run short errands for a patient who lives alone, or perhaps do light work. B. Assist in scheduling hospital, home, nursing home, and hospice visitation as the need arises and as ministry members are available to provide. C. Call and/or visit cancer patients to offer encouragement, support, comfort, and prayers.
- To Address Insurance,
Social Security and other Financial Issues, LIFE Ministry Participants
Will:
A. Invite experts in the field to conduct workshops on topics of interest and need such as benefit plans, choosing a provider, planning for non-covered costs. B. Make available references and resources regarding types of insurance, government programs and the like. C. Inform survivors of programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, long-term care insurance and HMOs.
- To Address the
Need for Learning about Good Nutrition LIFE Ministry Participants Will:
A. Inform patients and their families in need of balanced nutritional diets and diet supplements. B. Engage the services of nutritionists. Conduct cooking and food selection, storage, and preparation courses (taught by certified dietitians and nutritionists). C. Disseminate information and conduct workshops on nutrition and cancer. Attention will also be given, as the need dictates, to the older members and their nutritional needs. It is widely accepted that with advancing age the propensity toward malnutrition increases. Special attention will be given to this population of the congregation..
- Transportation:
A. Establish communication with the American Cancer Society (and other appropriate agencies) to arrange transportation for treatments of cancer patients. B. Assist patients/survivors in utilizing transportation services that are available.
- Celebrations and
Recognition:
A. Develop programs to recognize survivors (patients and/or caregivers) to recognize their contributions to others – in spite of challenges they themselves have faced and overcome. Details to be developed by the Ministry. B. .Establish a “Survivors Award.” (Additional thought will be given to this as we develop it). C. Annual Candle Light Service in honor of those who have survived cancer patients and caregivers..