Eleven years ago and a few months at the age of 28 I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I thought about my father when he had to go through all the chemo and drugs then had to have a valve put in his chest to administer the chemo at home. I watched him go from 230 lbs to almost nothing at all. What would my life hold for me? I wondered! Will I pull through this? Will I continue to live the way that I had always have done? I went into the hospital that day to be checked in for surgery cause they were going to open me up and take out just 2 in of my colon. I had some friends come and pray with me that day, then they left me there with just myself and my mother. My mother seen the concern on my face and asked me what was I thinking about? You see all the way up to that point, Christ met me in that place and took away all of my fear concerning this, but on that day right before I would go into have the very first surgery ever in my life, the thoughts of my father what had happened to him kept coming to my mind. That's what I had told my mother when she asked me. She just calmly told me not to think about him right now. So I did my best and watched t.v instead.
That day would be a pinpoint of change in my life. The reason why is because before that day I was a high school drop out. Yes I had quit school in my repeat of my senior year. I lived my life from one job to another with no real understanding about it at all. I was quite embarrassed about it too. I had went to take some g.e.d. classes, but would not put forth the time or the effort what it would take to get it. So I continued to live the each day to the next. Until that day that had pinpoint the change in my life. God was with me through out that time. 4 days after my surgery I would be released from the hospital. The doctor told me that he took out 4 in of my colon instead of 2.
I left that day to start my recovery at home. During that time God fed me daily through friends from church and my mother. I got started on my life all over again. During my recovery time I found an Adult High School here in Nashville called Cohn Adult High School. I called about it and got all the information that I needed. So I started collecting transcripts and whatever else I needed. So then when the new school year started I started too. It took me about 3 years to do this, but I walked the line as a high school graduate. I was so happy.
I would then continue on a few years later and go onto college. Finally! I was a college student. I had no idea what I was going to take or what was my focus on. I was told I needed to go and buy my books too. What? You mean you don't supply them like they do in high school? Oh my, so I went in the bookstore to buy my books and walked out with only one book. Oh my those things are expensive. What was I thinking? So a year after I started going to school I heard about a men's amature football league the Nashville Storm http://nashvillestormonline.com/. I went and tried out and I had made it. Wow! I made it. So I took all of the stuff that I had learned when I was in high school and threw it out the window, cause it wasn't working for me. I played 2 years as a linebacker, D-end, and special teams.I made some great plays and had some injuries along the way. After 2 years I would have to hang it up due to the injuries.
While I was playing and going to school I took my first missions trip over seas to Ethiopia and Rwanda with Visiting Orphans http://visitingorphans.org/. There I was changed again. You see before I was diagnosed with colon cancer God had called me to do missions. I had asked Him what He wanted me to do and He replied, "I want you to do missions!" Me: Uh What God? God: "I want you to do mission work." Me: You want me to go? God: "Yes!" So I went to one of the pastors in church that night Don Willis and told him what had just taken place. He had the men of the church gather around me and pray for me. He told me to put my hand to the plow and never look back. So as they prayed I laid there on the floor and worshipped God. That was when I felt God kneel down beside me and began to minister to me. He told me that night, "Chris, you are going to minister the deaf and they will hear, you will minister the blind and they will see, and you will minister to the dead and they will rise." Wow! Let me say that again, Wow! I was amazed at what had just happened. I was so excited when I got up. OK! What do I do now? So I waited, and I waited, and I waited. Then I went with my church to Mexico. What an experience. I was excited, but God wasn't calling me to go to Mexico. So guess what I did? I waited some more. Then a young woman some years later at Belmont Church, Amanda Lawrence was going to Ethiopia. It had been on my heart for the last year or so, so I checked it out and I went a year later.
So after I got there I begged and pleaded with God to please get me out of there as soon as possible. I was going through such culture shock from what I had seen. I was in disbelief of what I was seeing. The poverty was so much different then it was in America. Wow! I thought I knew poverty, but I was wrong. After two days I was praying the morning time and I looked out the window and I was asking God how I was going to get through these two weeks? God then spoke to me saying, "You are here for two weeks and they are here for their whole lives." end of quote. So I prayed to God to help me have as much fun that day as I could. That day I was overwhelmed with fun. It was then that God began to changed me. I was no longer wanting to go back home, but wanting to interact with every person I had seen. When I had left I cried harder that day begging and pleading with God to please let me stay. That day I left. I still had a few more years to go for school and little did I know there was a plan. A plan to return one day. A day that would soon come.
I was made the team Chaplin of the Nashville Storm, well I guess I was picked some what of a way. I began to coach for them and just love on these guys. There God was using me to minister to them. 5 years with the team we had 2 undefeated seasons, 3 championship appearances, and 2 championship victories. What a life I have gotten to live since I was diagnosed with colon cancer. God is good. I have finished school well the first part of it. I have an AA in Social Work and now I am planning on moving on in my life. Little did I know as I fell in love with Ethiopia and the people I would fall in love with this wonderful, wonderful woman there. The most beautiful woman in the world there. A woman that had captured my heart 3 years ago and made it her own. I would say that I am the luckiest man alive to have such a woman Hanna Aderajew Yalew Steele. She is my prime rib, God's anointed blessing for me.
Little did I know at the age of 28 the life I would be living. A high school graduate, college graduate, a national champion twice, a call to missions in Ethiopia, and the most beautiful woman in the world who loves me with all of her heart. Wow! I need to say that again. Wow! So I say all of that just to say this, "From cancer to surviving, I am a fighter so I am going to survive praise God." So just like the earth is round and it has a curvature, so does your life. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that its not there.
God bless you!
That day would be a pinpoint of change in my life. The reason why is because before that day I was a high school drop out. Yes I had quit school in my repeat of my senior year. I lived my life from one job to another with no real understanding about it at all. I was quite embarrassed about it too. I had went to take some g.e.d. classes, but would not put forth the time or the effort what it would take to get it. So I continued to live the each day to the next. Until that day that had pinpoint the change in my life. God was with me through out that time. 4 days after my surgery I would be released from the hospital. The doctor told me that he took out 4 in of my colon instead of 2.
I left that day to start my recovery at home. During that time God fed me daily through friends from church and my mother. I got started on my life all over again. During my recovery time I found an Adult High School here in Nashville called Cohn Adult High School. I called about it and got all the information that I needed. So I started collecting transcripts and whatever else I needed. So then when the new school year started I started too. It took me about 3 years to do this, but I walked the line as a high school graduate. I was so happy.
I would then continue on a few years later and go onto college. Finally! I was a college student. I had no idea what I was going to take or what was my focus on. I was told I needed to go and buy my books too. What? You mean you don't supply them like they do in high school? Oh my, so I went in the bookstore to buy my books and walked out with only one book. Oh my those things are expensive. What was I thinking? So a year after I started going to school I heard about a men's amature football league the Nashville Storm http://nashvillestormonline.com/. I went and tried out and I had made it. Wow! I made it. So I took all of the stuff that I had learned when I was in high school and threw it out the window, cause it wasn't working for me. I played 2 years as a linebacker, D-end, and special teams.I made some great plays and had some injuries along the way. After 2 years I would have to hang it up due to the injuries.
While I was playing and going to school I took my first missions trip over seas to Ethiopia and Rwanda with Visiting Orphans http://visitingorphans.org/. There I was changed again. You see before I was diagnosed with colon cancer God had called me to do missions. I had asked Him what He wanted me to do and He replied, "I want you to do missions!" Me: Uh What God? God: "I want you to do mission work." Me: You want me to go? God: "Yes!" So I went to one of the pastors in church that night Don Willis and told him what had just taken place. He had the men of the church gather around me and pray for me. He told me to put my hand to the plow and never look back. So as they prayed I laid there on the floor and worshipped God. That was when I felt God kneel down beside me and began to minister to me. He told me that night, "Chris, you are going to minister the deaf and they will hear, you will minister the blind and they will see, and you will minister to the dead and they will rise." Wow! Let me say that again, Wow! I was amazed at what had just happened. I was so excited when I got up. OK! What do I do now? So I waited, and I waited, and I waited. Then I went with my church to Mexico. What an experience. I was excited, but God wasn't calling me to go to Mexico. So guess what I did? I waited some more. Then a young woman some years later at Belmont Church, Amanda Lawrence was going to Ethiopia. It had been on my heart for the last year or so, so I checked it out and I went a year later.
So after I got there I begged and pleaded with God to please get me out of there as soon as possible. I was going through such culture shock from what I had seen. I was in disbelief of what I was seeing. The poverty was so much different then it was in America. Wow! I thought I knew poverty, but I was wrong. After two days I was praying the morning time and I looked out the window and I was asking God how I was going to get through these two weeks? God then spoke to me saying, "You are here for two weeks and they are here for their whole lives." end of quote. So I prayed to God to help me have as much fun that day as I could. That day I was overwhelmed with fun. It was then that God began to changed me. I was no longer wanting to go back home, but wanting to interact with every person I had seen. When I had left I cried harder that day begging and pleading with God to please let me stay. That day I left. I still had a few more years to go for school and little did I know there was a plan. A plan to return one day. A day that would soon come.
I was made the team Chaplin of the Nashville Storm, well I guess I was picked some what of a way. I began to coach for them and just love on these guys. There God was using me to minister to them. 5 years with the team we had 2 undefeated seasons, 3 championship appearances, and 2 championship victories. What a life I have gotten to live since I was diagnosed with colon cancer. God is good. I have finished school well the first part of it. I have an AA in Social Work and now I am planning on moving on in my life. Little did I know as I fell in love with Ethiopia and the people I would fall in love with this wonderful, wonderful woman there. The most beautiful woman in the world there. A woman that had captured my heart 3 years ago and made it her own. I would say that I am the luckiest man alive to have such a woman Hanna Aderajew Yalew Steele. She is my prime rib, God's anointed blessing for me.
Little did I know at the age of 28 the life I would be living. A high school graduate, college graduate, a national champion twice, a call to missions in Ethiopia, and the most beautiful woman in the world who loves me with all of her heart. Wow! I need to say that again. Wow! So I say all of that just to say this, "From cancer to surviving, I am a fighter so I am going to survive praise God." So just like the earth is round and it has a curvature, so does your life. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that its not there.
God bless you!
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