By Mark Ellis
He thought he had a stubborn case of bronchitis, but when he couldn’t make it up a staircase without stopping to catch his breath, he knew something wasn’t right.
“My wife said to go to a doctor and he discovered I had mesothelioma,” says Leon Freitag, superintendent of the North Dakota district of the Assemblies of God Church.
Mesothelioma – always considered malignant — is a rare cancer usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Sufferers face a grim prognosis and cures are extremely rare. Apparently, construction work as a carpenter in the 1970s exposed him to the deadly fibrous crystals that embedded in his lungs.
Freitag sought out the top mesothelioma doctor in the U.S., affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “He let me know there is no cure and all they can do is manage it the best they can.”
Another oncologist told him the cancer was advanced – stage four – and he had a year to a year and a half to live. “I had a large tumor on top of my left lung, laying over the aorta. I had another tumor in the lower part of the lung and lesions all along the left side.”
They thought the larger tumor might be growing into his aorta, which is why they ordered four chemo treatments over three months.
After the oncologist delivered the grim prognosis, Freitag told him, “I feel in my heart I’m going to say to you in a few months, ‘But God…’
“I know, I know,” the doctor said curtly, and quickly left the room.
Freitag met with a gathering of ministers and district council delegates and told them: “I don’t know if God will chose to heal me or not. I know He is sovereign. I am prepared to live it out, one way or another.”
As the disease progressed, the tumors began to produce fluid in the pleura, the lining of his lungs. “They drew off two liters at a time, but told me they couldn’t keep doing this,” apparently because of the danger of collapsing a lung.
Sure enough, on their third attempt to draw fluid, his lung collapsed. “They tried to inflate it, but couldn’t get it to stay up,” he notes. They finally got his left lung partially inflated, only two weeks before he was scheduled for surgery in Boston.
“All along the pastors and laity were praying and interceding for me,” Freitag recounts. “Diane and I felt like a cloud was carrying us along. We had miraculous peace in our hearts.”
The night before his surgery he had to sign releases, because they thought they would have to remove one of his lungs. They also put a cardiologist on standby in case the tumor had grown into his aorta.
As they wheeled Freitag into surgery, his wife Diane turned to the doctors, nurses and anesthesiologist and said, “We are a praying people and I believe when you open my husband up you’ll find out God was already there before you got there.”
And glory be to God, that’s exactly what happened!
Doctors had hoped the chemotherapy might have produced 40 percent shrinkage in his tumors. But the tumors had not shrunk 40 percent; they had shrunk 80 percent and the remaining 20 percent of the cancer was dead!
“For some reason, it had not shown up on the CT scans or MRI,” Freitag notes. “God must have done it the night before the surgery.”
The surgeon could not believe what he was seeing. “Reverend, you are a lucky, lucky man,” he muttered aloud as he wheeled Freitag out of surgery.
Freitag could hear the comment but couldn’t speak. Inside, he screamed aloud: NO LUCK, NO LUCK; FAITH, FAITH!!
When the same doctor first saw Diane, he told her the good news, “Your husband is cancer-free and he’ll live to be an old, old man.”
Later, when Freitag met with his surgeon and they reviewed a CT scan taken after the surgery, the doctor said, “Reverend, if I had not done the surgery on you, looking at this I couldn’t tell you ever had cancer or ever had surgery.”
Freitag gives all the glory to God. “I am humbled. For some reason God’s grace and mercy came to me,” he says. “It’s really not about me. It’s about the power of God.”
“I hope it inspires people to believe.”
Do you want to know God personally? Here are four steps…
First We give God the Glory and Praise. Now I have been told I have bladder cancer and I am taking treatment for it . I also know that by his stripes I am healed. I would like for you to put me on your prayer list .I would thank you so much .
There is power in this testimony, Rev. Jesse. And that power is yours. Health and healing to all your organs and flesh and bone in Jesus’ name.
BLSS’D BLSS’D BLSS’D-HEAL ….. GLORY GLORY ….. TO GODDDDD – DDAAHHHH !#!
Please pray for healing for my husband, David, who has mesothelioma … they do not take out lungs anymore in Australia. He is in the early stages … we are Christians but are finding it overwhelming and want to believe that God will heal … My faith is not strong, but I believe that if we rely on our faith, then we are over ruling God. I really want to believe, but being honest, I cannot do it. I feel guilty that I cannot … but I do believe in healing. Thanks .. Jean
Comments are closed.