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BY TOM CONNAR

How excellent are the Lord?s faithful people! My greatest pleasure is to be with them.

I have always been a pretty healthy guy, proud of the fact that I have been indisposed very few days because of illness or disease. My health issues usually have involved body repair (such as orthopedic knee surgery), rather than illness during the last 20-25 years. Then ...

.?Then, in April, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Obviously, something had to be done. After consulting with a number of physicians, and considering and praying about the various options, I elected to have the Da Vinci robotic surgery offered at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Removal of my cancerous prostate lasted eight hours, partially due to some complications that were addressed during the operation. My recovery seemed to go very well. The medical team said I was ahead of schedule and healing very nicely.

However, 11 days after surgery, through the emergency room, I was entered into a local hospital with terrible lower back and chest pains. Ruling out a heart attack or blood clots, the doctors determined that I had pneumonia, one of the possible after effects of extended surgery. However, three days later, filled with antibiotics, I returned home and I have been healing ever since.

From June 19 to the end of that month was a time of the most crucial health crisis of my life. While many people suffer so much more than I did, my experience was reaffirmed by several learning moments:
? My abiding faith in God sustained me and blessed me during a personal crisis. I was never apprehensive as I faced extensive surgery and the risk with cancer. I know that this attitude is from a lifelong association with a personal, loving God who I trusted would be there for me. God?s healing and power truly does pass all understanding, and I was not fearful because God gbwc_superusered me as the Good Shepherd. God?s knowledge of human pain and God?s great love combined in my understanding of godly protection.
? I know where I am going. However I might die ? on an operating table, from cancer, or peacefully in my bed ? I do not fear death. I have made a commitment to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, which truly gives me inner peace. I do not particularly desire to die soon, for I am enjoying life on earth, but when I die, I know where I am going.

When facing a crisis in one?s life, it is reassuring to know where one is headed. Unfortunately, many people are not clear about their relationship with God or their eternal destination, and that can create an unsettled life, especially as one might confront a health crisis.
? The faithfulness of the Christian community sustained me. My wife Meredith and I were graciously overwhelmed with the deluge of cards, e-mails, telephone calls, inquiries, visits, prayers, thoughts and concerns, food and gifts showered upon us. These expressions of love came from Mount Zion members, from members of former churches where I had served, from colleagues, neighbors and friends. It is so endearing to be caught up in the midst of such Christian fellowship and love. These expressions of support truly have added blessing and healing to my recovery.

I am truly a blessed man! God blesses me, even (or, should I say especially) in the midst of a crisis. My relationship with the Lord gives me great comfort in life. The faithfulness and the love of Christian fellowship and support is a true witness of the nurturing of the faith community. I am also blessed to have a wonderful wife who has stood by me and assisted me immeasurably during my convalescence.

I thank God, and for God?s people, for causing me to be such a blessed man.

The Rev. Tom Connar is the senior pastor at Mount Zion UMC in Highland.

SIDEBAR:
Survivors stress early testing

African-American men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than their white counterparts. They are also at a greater risk of getting the disease, said the Rev. Maceo Williams, of Martin Luther King Jr. UMC in Baltimore.

Williams and his congregation host an annual Father?s Day breakfast to encourage men to be tested for prostate cancer.

More than 180,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed each year in the country and more than 30,000 men die from it.

Early testing is essential, said Williams, himself a survivor of the disease. He encourages men as young as 25 to be tested on a regular basis.

C. Hines Early, another coordinator of the breakfast and a cancer survivor, called upon men to eat low-fat diets and to live responsibly.

'Our main focus is to spread the word about early testing,' Early told the Afro newspaper. 'It?s like we are planting a mustard seed. So far we have succeeded in getting a lot of men to test. We support even those without health insurance. And we are open to anyone who wants to help himself.'