Katie’s War
Part 5: Prayer Through Cancer by Katie Hawkins
God answered the beautiful prayers you sent up for me, friends.
If you missed my journey the last few weeks, here’s a quick recap. If you have a queasy stomach, you may want to read this next part quickly!
When throwing up, bouts of diarrhea, and a rash on my inner thigh and back persisted for two weeks, my doctor advised me to ride the symptoms out. But the symptoms continued, and by the next week, I was so weak and lethargic that he admitted me in the hospital to uncover what was going on. They found nothing to explain my symptoms. Even though I didn’t test positive for a bacterial infection, I was given antibiotics, pumped full of fluids and sent home. Nothing had changed, nothing was changing, so I asked you to pray. Desperate and at one point convinced that I’d beaten cancer only to die of massive diarrhea—one night I had 17 episodes—God answered the beautiful prayers that you sent up for me.
You prayed for healing. It didn’t come instantly. I’m still battling with digestive issues, but the healing is trickling in. The rash is almost gone, I don’t have to resume chemo for a couple of weeks, and I’ve eaten food other than saltine crackers!
You prayed for comfort. My pastor texted me to share 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” This Scripture brought to mind the great comfort I received from a book called Clara’s War. It’s a biography of a young Jewish girl who hid with her family and 14 others in a bunker beneath the house of the Polish man who rescued them. With straw laid down on the dirt for beds, their toilet was two buckets at one end of the bunker. Food—consisting mostly of potatoes—was handed down through the trapdoor. And all the while, Nazi soldiers and SS men also lived in the house above the bunker, so they couldn’t make any noise at all. This lasted for 18 months!
Now, why did this story comfort me? Well, at one point in the story, Clara gets a rash all over her body due to bedbugs and lice from the dirty straw she was sleeping on. Someone had lowered down a bucket of apples instead of the usual potatoes. They tasted so delicious, but gave her horrible diarrhea. I could only imagine what it was like sleeping on filthy, slimy straw; tiptoeing to a bucket to be sick in with 14 other people in hearing distance; and not having any access to medicine—all while experiencing the anxiety of possibly being discovered and shot.
So, as I lay in my clean hospital bed, that was so comfortable, and ran to the bathroom just a few steps away, I could only thank God that this little sickness is all I had to deal with. I kept saying, “Thank you God for clean sheets, toilets that flush, doctors and medicine to attend my ills, and freedom! You are so good to me, and I will praise You!”
Dwelling on the horrors that someone else went through as they experienced symptoms similar to mine made me less prone to self-pity. And thinking of the beautiful ways God saved and miraculously healed this whole family through such dire circumstances, gave me hope and courage to carry on in dealing with my own sickness with a joyful attitude. Such comfort!
You prayed for peace. One day after you had prayed for me, both the devotional I was reading and the podcast I listened to quoted the very same story! I knew God had a point to drive home to me. It was about Julian of Norwich, who was an anchoress (meaning she made it her life purpose to withdraw from society and pray, kind of like a monk). Julian lived in England during the Bubonic Plague that killed 1/3 of all Europeans. She became sick herself at one point. Thinking that she was dying, she had a clear vision from the Lord. He said to her, “All will be well, all will be well, and every manner of thing will be well.” She lived two more decades. Hearing this story—twice, mind you—gave me incredible peace. I’d like to stay here two more decades, even though I hear Heaven is a great place to be!
You prayed for my family. I have a daughter living in NYC and a son living in Detroit with his family (including his new little 2-week-old baby girl). Two of the three worst cities to live in if you’re concerned about COVID-19 getting you. My other two sons and their families are in safer states.
Just hearing your gentle prayers for them all was so soothing. None of them lost their jobs or have gotten sick. We stay in touch regularly with a group text. This week’s family Bible memorization is James 1:1-2: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The same book of the Bible contains this verse: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Here’s to all you righteous ones out there who prayed so fervently for me and my family. Answers galore, and I thank you right alongside my thanks to Jesus.