As the decades unfolded after my wife, Marlea, and I accepted Christ, God was faithful in helping us navigate career changes, Christian education, Christian university for our children, and keeping our commitment to serve Christ in the local church.
We thought that was enough.
Years later though, it became very clear to us that God was giving us a new calling. In 2000, I resigned my position as manager of a multi-store business. We packed up and left everything we had known in America and headed into the unknown to serve as missionaries in France.
Marlea and I settled in southern France, and God helped us as we began to learn the language and culture. We were making good progress when, in 2002, our youngest son was tragically killed in an apartment fire near his university the night before he was to come home for Christmas. Through the dark days of agony that followed, although we intellectually understood the lessons of Job, Peter, and others, we struggled to apply those lessons personally: to reconcile the age-old question of, “why such things happen to me?”
As we wrestled with God, we realized that this event did not change who God was. We also realized it hadn’t changed our calling to France. The latter part of John 6 became very real to us; there is no one else to turn to except Him. We returned quickly to France and continued our ministry. In 2006, I was elected by the local church to serve as interim pastor in Béziers, located in the southwest of France.
Despite the trials along the way, Marlea and I had transitioned in language, culture, and behavior. We loved the people; we could communicate and reason well with the French. We had also developed many friendships with believers and unbelievers. From a human perspective, we felt we were at our peak to be optimally used of God in a foreign country.
Then, Marlea developed a rare lung disease. After a month in the hospital however, she seemed to be cured. Returning to France, Marlea continued to gain physical strength through the summer. But only a few months later, she started experiencing severe back pain. After several doctor’s consultations and tests, we received word that she must go to the hospital immediately.
Doctors diagnosed Marlea with a serious, incurable illness called multiple myeloma. On February 5, 2009, the diagnosis was confirmed. We were in a state of shock and denial as a team of doctors filed into her hospital room and told us that at her stage, she had 30 months to live.
Marlea immediately started a high-quality chemotherapy treatment in France. But her myeloma became measurably worse after the cycle.
Needing a more aggressive treatment, God began leading us on a new path. After all the time we had invested as missionaries in France, we were about to go to, of all places, Little Rock, Arkansas. Marlea would receive treatment at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)—a recognized world leader in therapy for myeloma.
Miracles paved the way for us. One of our sons came to France to visit at that critical time. It seemed divinely appointed, so we returned to the United States with him. We were hesitant about the trip to say the least. Marlea was confined to a wheelchair. She had a body brace and was unable to sit comfortably for the nine-hour flight. First-class seating was available but not possible, at the cost of an additional $5,000 per seat. Apprehensively, we boarded the plane only to find that our coach section was nearly empty! God provided Marlea three seats to lie across!
As we settled into our new apartment in Arkansas, we became victims of reverse culture shock. After nine years in France, nothing was familiar in America. Re-acclimatizing was difficult, but as we did, we began to listen to the stories of the other people we met at the clinic. Over a thousand myeloma patients are under varying stages of outpatient treatment at the UAMS in Little Rock.
While here, we’ve often been able to offer a word of testimony or encouragement. We’ve had patients pray with us right in the waiting area or in front of staff. How different it has been from France where no one would even acknowledge God, let alone pray … especially not in public!
Understanding 1 Corinthians 10:13 and seeing others afflicted around us, we recognized that we were called to be examples even in this extreme environment. God had directed us from France to Arkansas for His reasons.
Recently, a lady approached us, explaining how Marlea’s smile had encouraged her at the beginning of her husband’s therapy. “If you can still smile and demonstrate joy, being in a wheelchair in obvious pain,” the woman said, “thenI can also go on with God’s help.” Testimonies like this can be multiplied time and time again as we have used our time at UAMS to connect with people at the clinic and beyond.
Marlea has made tremendous progress against the disease, and UAMS averages are far in the excess of the initial 30-month diagnosis doctors predicted in France. But perhaps most importantly, we are able to minister to others in our new circumstances. Our ministry here is not as active as it was in France, but our eyes have been opened to the enormous need for encouraging others and telling of God’s faithfulness, even in America! We can say truly, God has us right where He has called us to be and He has not made an error.
No temptation has overtaken you except as such is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
—1 Cor. 10:13
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