Eight days ago, I arrived at Toronto General Hospital at quarter-to-six in the morning. At 8 o’clock sharp, I was wheeled into a large operating room with a team already preparing for my surgery. That’s the last thing I remember until about 8:30pm, when I woke up. I was able to talk to Joanne for a moment: an hour earlier, the surgeon had told her that the procedure was a great success. The tumor was gone, along with everything it had affected: my left lung, a few pieces of rib bones, and part of my diaphragm (which the surgeon reconstructed with mesh). I had been in surgery for just over 12 hours, and now my recovery was starting.

After a whole day on the operating table, almost everything in my body had shut down and needed to restart. I was hooked up to all kinds of tubes that supported my body through many fluctuations. With the guidance of my surgeon and the skilled help of my nurses, each day was a step back towards “normal”: taking my first sips of water, unhooking a tube, reducing a medication, taking a few steps down the hallway. By Sunday afternoon, these steps were completed, and so I spent Monday morning getting ready to leave for home.

Honestly, I can hardly believe that I am now (Tuesday afternoon) sitting at a kitchen table, typing up this note. Even two days ago, I was in no shape to do anything like this. Reflecting on the past week, I am deeply impressed with God’s kindness and care for me. This was an enormous surgery, with various risks and dangers. Despite the challenges, both the surgery and my first week of recovery were highly successful.

As the end of the week approached, my mind turned to Psalm 116, a thanksgiving for God’s deliverance:

The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

I had an amazing surgical team and nursing staff at University Health Network in Toronto. Until a few weeks ago, it really did not hit me how special a place this is (besides the fact that my brother works there!). Toronto General was recently ranked the third best hospital in the world. The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, in the same network, is also one of the three biggest cancer centers in the world. I bless God for these institutions and their staff.

My recovery period is expected to last six weeks, so I continue to depend on God’s kindness to see me through to a full healing. We have a nice place to stay here in Toronto until the fourth week of April, when we expect to return to California.

All of these blessings have much to do with your prayers. It was an incredible blessing, while I was too weak to pray much for myself, to know that so many friends were diligently remembering me to the Lord.

I also don’t want to miss the chance to thank so many of you for your incredible generosity in helping us with the expense of this medical procedure. Over the next several weeks, I hope to be able to thank you more personally, but for now I can only say to you all that I am thankful to you, and to our gracious God who fills the hearts of his people with love for each other. As Paul once said to his friends in Philippi, “It was kind of you to share my trouble” (Philippians 4:14). With God’s help, I hope your prayers and kindness will enable me and my family to live more and more for his glory.