Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Phil Zielke: Cancer, Care Packages, And The God Of All Comfort

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Phil Zielke: Cancer, Care Packages, And The God Of All Comfort · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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defending biblical Christianity.
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No topic off limits.
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And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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Hey friends, prepare to be encouraged on this one and welcome to World View Matters.
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Thank you so much for tuning in.
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We've got a brother Phil Zilke with us.
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You're going to love to hear his story.
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The big words are cancer-free.
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But he has a speaker, teacher, coach, and two-time stage four cancer survivor.
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He's dedicated his life to ensuring that no one faces cancer alone.
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This is really amazing what he's doing.
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We'll tell you about that in a minute, but he founded Phil's Friends.
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It's an outreach that sends cards and care packages to people with cancer.
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He shared his story with millions of people speaking at events and on weekly radio.
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He lives with his wife and two sons outside of Chicago.
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In a conservative county, he says, no, I believe him.
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Anyway, brother, good to see you.
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Thanks for your time today, Phil.
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Thanks, David.
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It's wonderful to be on with you.
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Yes.
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Praise God that God's really using you big time, but it was a rough ride about 20 years ago.
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Let's bring up the book so far.
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It's on Amazon and it's on your website, Phil's Friends.
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They can get it two different ways.
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Seeing the good in it, congrats on the book.
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I love many of the chapters in there.
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We're going to talk about that in a minute.
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Let's go back and share.
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It's amazing that you didn't find out that you were at stage four until like nine months
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in.
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You did some treatment and the cancer went into remission.
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Then you were about to get married.
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Was it just a couple of weeks or months before you were about to get married?
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You had to postpone that.
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Walk us through that from 20 years ago, please.
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I was on my way to become a fourth and fifth grade teacher.
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I was doing my student teaching.
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I was a senior in college.
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For a year before that, I had started going to the doctor a lot because I had night sweats
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every night, hip pains, fevers.
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I was losing a lot of weight, no appetite, very pale.
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Every time I went into the doctor, they would misdiagnose me.
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I went through a series of tests, could never figure it out.
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It finally, back to April 2004, I had lymph nodes up on my neck about golf ball size in
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my neck under my arms.
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Finally then, I went in to see a surgeon.
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They drew some fluid out of my neck and saw that so much fluid came out.
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It spilled all over the floor.
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They said there's a 50% chance as a cancer.
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Rush the results still not cancer.
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I went and stayed, had a lymph node taken out.
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I was at home that day.
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My dad came home.
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We had a rage for him to get the news.
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He was a high school principal at the time.
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He came home, sat on my bedside and said, Phil, I don't want to tell you this, but I
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talked to the doctor and you have cancer.
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That's Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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I had no idea what that was, but right there, my dad did something very important with
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me.
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He prayed with me.
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He said, Lord, I know that Phil's your child.
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I just asked if you're supposed to have another six months, another year, another 40 years,
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whatever it may be, that he can bring you glory and he can be a witness for you.
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When he said amen for that, I think back now as being a dad, that prayer, to surrender
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your son into God's hands, what God has in charge from our beginning and to our end
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and the whole middle of our story.
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That's when I found out I was diagnosed with cancer.
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I had the symptoms for nine months of stage four, found it.
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The news came on my two-year dating anniversary to my girlfriend, Carrie.
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Went in, did six months of chemo, got better, and then started my first year teaching
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fourth grade.
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I had 28 kids, nine and ten-year-olds in my class, excited to see me, taught for three
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or four months, and then I got these pains in my hips again.
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New what it was.
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We were a few months away from my wedding now to Carrie and found out the cancer had returned,
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but this time they said we're going to go out at ten times more aggressive for a hundred
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times the effect and I thought, I barely made it through the first time.
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How am I ever going to do this again?
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So find myself in my hospital room, fighting for my life.
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That first treatment was the hardest again because I was trying to do things on my own.
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And once I learned to be able to surrender the situation to God, knowing he's going to
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take us by the hand as we go through this journey that we're not alone.
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Never are.
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That he's the same yesterday, today and forever.
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It gives you comfort and gives you peace when you go through it, even though you're
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going through such difficult circumstances.
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So did six or so months of chemo, then they harvested my own stem cells, put an in and out
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tube in my neck, hooked you up to what's kind of like a dialysis machine, all those stem
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cells going to a bag, and I came in for seven days of lethal chemotherapy, gave me the
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stem cell transplant through my port.
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That all took over, but at the worst of it for about a month, month and a half in an
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isolation room, bed by tubes on oxygen, wonder if it's going to be my time.
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But God had me in the palm of his hand, he had a purpose.
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And so God, you need to where you need me to be where I could really honestly be broken
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so I can serve him in the way where this purpose and plan was for my life.
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So this was thank you for, you know, condensing that for us.
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I know there's a lot of details that you could have shared.
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This was now 20 years ago, a lot of people go through a misdiagnosis and it is frustrating.
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In your case, what did the doctors, how did they explain that to you when they did find
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out?
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It was cancer.
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How did they explain it to you that they missed it for so long?
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Yeah, I think the first, the first thing that the surgeon, because the surgeon came in
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towards the end of the journey of finding out, he basically said, Phil, you got to go
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to a teaching hospital.
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And so what happened was they said, I was, you know, athletic.
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Sometimes I'd run 20 miles a day.
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I played midfield, you know, in the soccer team in college.
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And they were the least that they would suspect that it was me.
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So they kept on getting some pain medications that kept masking all the symptoms.
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But basically by that point, they said, you need to go to teaching hospital.
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And then God opened a door there.
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I had a doctor from University of Chicago call me, didn't even have to reach out, said,
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we heard about your story, come in the next day, you don't even need appointment.
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And so God took care of every detail down to even get me to the right hospital.
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So I want you to talk briefly, don't give it all away, because I want people to get
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to book.
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But talk briefly about chapter three, which is called courage is not the absence of fear.
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Talk to us about that, Phil.
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Yeah.
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So I think we all go through challenging times in our life, whether it's a health difficulty,
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it's cancer, it could be a relationship issue, whatever it may is, and courage is very
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important to our journey.
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However, we do have fears, all of us have fears.
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Every single day, it's a part of being human and being sinful and not always having our
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trust fully in God.
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And so you can have courage, but you may still have some fears that are there.
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And I think the biggest, most important thing about all of it is going back to God with
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every fear that you have, because for me, I like to equate it as being in a hospital
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room and you're laying there, you got all the, the beepers going off and your machines
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are buzzing.
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You think of that air vent, you know, that air vent is providing the air to keep the air
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circulating in there, but fear can come in that quickly.
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It's like unannounced and all of a sudden you have it and other people might actually
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recognize that you're fearful before you even are, but I think the biggest thing is going
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back to God and he's the one who gives you the courage.
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He's the one who gives you the ability to fight and to realize the ability to let go and
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realize that he's going to walk through this journey with you.
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You're never alone.
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Amen, brother.
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So dads, fathers, listen up.
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What Phil shared at the very beginning about his dad coming in and praying with him right
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when he got the news or right after or right when you got the news, that's huge.
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That's huge.
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Talk about facing fear, square in the face and saying, we're not going, we're not, we're
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not submitting to you, right?
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That's important.
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Let me ask you, over on the Facebook page, we see the PF design there, the logo, and
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there it is, Phil's friends.
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You can find them on Facebook.
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There we go.
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You can look at that.
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There's a couple different ways you can get a whole of him.
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Phil's friends.org, Phil's friends.org, and there's the Facebook page.
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But you've got, what is that?
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A bagged book bag next to you with the PF on it?
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What is that next to you there?
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Oh, this is a care package.
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So if you don't know anybody with it.
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Yeah.
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Tell us about that.
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Yeah.
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So we have boxes that we send out.
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So about a week after I was diagnosed, a group of people put a care package together
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for me.
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They all signed their names to it.
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They said they were thinking about me and praying for me.
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It caused me to break down and cry to know that I wasn't alone.
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It was okay to accept other people's help when I went through this.
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And then not only did I get the care package, but I had people who sent me cards in the
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mail that came every single week for two years.
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So when I was well enough to be at home, I lay upstairs in the couch.
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My parents were working.
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My younger siblings were at school.
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And I'd wear a watch and I'd look forward to when it was one o'clock.
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Why one o'clock?
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Because that's when the mail man came.
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And so I'd work my energy to the edge of the couch and make my way down the stairs out
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to the front door to see if someone had remembered me.
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And every week for two years, I pulled a card out with my knee on it.
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Always came at the right time as if God personally put that card in the mailbox himself.
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And so I go upstairs, I'd sit down, I'd open that card.
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People would let me know their praying for me.
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And I'd always have a Bible verse on it.
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So if I was a week, it could be something such as, you know, Philippians 413.
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I can do all things through Christ to give me strength.
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So those are those gentle reminders.
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And then I also had my grandfather who had driven 300 miles, he went to my house.
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He grabbed the Bible that I got when I was in grade school off my shelf.
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And I woke up one day at my hospital room and he was in the corner of the room.
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He was a lifelong learner.
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He had my Bible in his hands and he highlighted all the verses with hope and strength and
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peace.
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And then he read those aloud to me.
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He walked over to my bedside, he looked me in the eyes and he said,
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Phil, I need to tell you something.
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Your grandma and I, we love you.
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But most importantly, your heavenly father does.
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Then he took that Bible, put it on my nightstand and he walked out.
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When I couldn't help others or didn't want visitors, that's where I got my hope and my strength
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from.
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And then of course, I have many people that prayed for me.
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And so Phil's friends, you know, our mission is provide Christ Center support and hope
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to people going through cancer.
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And so we send care packages.
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They go out and decorate boxes.
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These are all done by artists and volunteers.
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For the least, I'll say the least of these artistically gifted, that we have stencils that
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people can use as well.
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So if you know someone with cancer, you can go to Phil's friends.org, request a care
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package for a person of any age, whether it's a man or a woman, whether it's a kid, we
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do special care packages for kids as well.
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And then inside the box is a drawstring bag.
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And in this bag, there's a bunch of items that go inside the care package.
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So for example, I kept a journal the entire time when I was sick.
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And so we have people that put journals together, they scrapbook these.
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And then there's a card that goes on the inside as well, that's personal.
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And not only on that card, but they also have, there's a letter in there that describes
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a little bit about my story and what Jesus has done for us.
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So we can get the gospel message out to people.
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And then we have some logo items in there, such as a water bottle.
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There is word search puzzles and crossword books to be able to pass time.
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And every care package, just as I got a Bible, we put a Bible inside every care package.
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Right now we sent over 65,000 care packages out, which is 65,000 Bibles, getting inside
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of people's hands.
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Then we have others that will make hats.
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They like to knit and crochet.
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It's their gift.
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And so obviously, you know, I lost my hair a number of times when I went through it.
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And when you're in the hospital, you can sit there and you're cold.
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You have something soft in your head is great.
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And then there's toothbrush and there's toothpaste, there's socks for women.
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So anyway, there's more items in here, but it's about a hundred dollars for us to send
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the care package out.
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It's a hundred percent run by donations.
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And then once that care package goes out, then we send cards of hope in the mail, just
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the same way that I got cards.
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We send those out every single week as well, or actually it's once a month for a year.
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And so we spend about, you know, 10,000 cards a month right now.
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We've sent over 65,000 care packages since we began, but we've heard numerous stories
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of how it shows up exactly at the right time, just the same way I got every card at the
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same time, the right time, their package at the right time, the prayers.
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And so it's a move.
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We know that God can take something that someone goes through and what they learned from
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it.
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And now use that to help other people in similar situations.
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There's just so much joy in serving and reaching out and supporting other people.
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You know, getting beyond yourself and showing God's love and following his two commands,
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right?
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The two greatest ones to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind,
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all your soul and all your strength and love your neighbor as you fell.
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So if you know some with cancer and you're listening in, I would encourage you to go
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to our website, fillsfriends.org and request a care package because that always shows up
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at the right time with the right message and it leads people to Christ.
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Wow.
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Phil Zilke, I'm really touched by how God is using you brother and what there are good
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ideas in life and there are God ideas.
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And what you're doing is a God idea, it is helping so many people.
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So people can donate obviously at fillsfriends.org, but a majority of our audience, I'm sure,
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knows someone who's been touched, unfortunately, by cancer.
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So yeah, friends, if you know someone, so Phil, the request at care package, is that
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something that you can do for someone else with cancer or does the person with cancer need
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to do that?
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Yeah, typically I'd say 95% of the time it's requesting for somebody else because people
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don't know what to do, want to be able to help.
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And you know, when someone's diagnosed with cancer, unfortunately, sometimes they can't
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have visitors or when's the right time to visit, but a care package that shows up anonymously
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on someone's front step, because even though you request it, it's going to show up from
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our organization and there's going to be a card in there at the top that has everybody's
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names that sign that, so it's personalized, let's them know they're not alone, there's
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so much power and people supporting others won't, don't even know others, so it's a great
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opportunity for people to put their faith into action to come into one of our hope centers,
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which is our volunteer centers that we have to pack these care packages and make these
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cards.
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And then we also do some packing events that can happen at churches and schools and companies
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and organizations that we do across the country to get this together.
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Well, I know you had a lot of people in our viewing and listening audience when you put
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a Bible in there and you focus on the gospel.
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That is the best news, the most hopeful news you can give someone in any circumstance,
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but especially with cancer.
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So friends, he just basically explained what, what how is it seeing the good in it about
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his book?
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We're going to talk more about the book when we come right back on World of You Matters.
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Today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily, the world news biblically understood,
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stay informed at harbingerstaley.com.
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Okay, Phil, I wanted to ask you, this may have a little bit to do with the courage answer
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that you gave earlier when I asked you about one of the chapters in your book, but you
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suggest that sometimes determination, passion and perseverance are not enough to cope.
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So how did you manage?
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Yeah, so not very well sometimes, say that.
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So I was a person who always had a very strong will, you know, whatever I put my mind to,
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I would accomplish that task.
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I learned a lot of great things through organized sports and the importance of teamwork
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and working together and, you know, staying away from toxic situations, all of that.
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But when you're diagnosed with cancer, the first thing that I had to honestly look to
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was my prior experience of sports and what I learned through that, whether I was young
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or in college playing, but eventually you realize that your determination, whatever you
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put through it may help you in sports, but it's not actually going to be enough when
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you're facing a physical diagnosis of cancer.
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And so for me, it was a process.
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People always ask, you know, how did the faith aspect come involved?
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It was a process.
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People met me on my bed, say, the Lord commands people to look at the sick and he does amazing
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things through that.
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So people met me where I was through that care package, through those cards, through the
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visits, through the prayers.
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But the second time I was diagnosed with cancer, I had mentioned earlier that first treatment
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was the hardest for me because I was trying to do it on my own.
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Until I realized to surrender the situation to the Lord, you can have all the fruits of
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the spirit of patience and, you know, all those fruits of the spirit that are important
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when you're going through this journey.
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But if I fast forward to my stem cell transplant, that's when I realized I was not going to
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be enough to get through this.
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It was a point where I realized maybe this was my time to leave this earth.
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And so that's when I made a promise to God and reached out and just said, Lord, I promise
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to give you my whole life.
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I'll do whatever you ask me to do, but if it's not my time, I believe Jesus died for
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me.
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I want to go to heaven.
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Please take me.
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And so once I got to that breaking point and I surrendered my life to the Lord, that's
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when I realized, you know, right before that point was when I realized I was not going
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to be enough to be able to get through this.
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I had to surrender myself fully to the Lord and whatever his plans were, whether that
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was to take me to heaven then or he had a purpose for me in living in these days.
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And so what I'm reminded of is in the book of James chapter four verse eight when it says
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drawn here to God and he'll draw near to you.
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And so no matter what in our hospital bed, that's, you know, us lifting our arms up to
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the Lord and him putting his hands inside of our and saying, I'm going to walk through
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this with you because he meets us around every corner in front of every challenge.
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You know, wherever we are, God is in that situation.
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And so the important thing is since he's the same yesterday, today and forever, we're
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the ones who move away from him, we're the ones who drift.
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And so if we can focus our eye on him or we can imagine it's like a road he's taken
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it.
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We reach out our hand to him and we're walking together down that road no matter what
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fire, no matter what challenge or what trial that we're going.
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And so that's really what I explain in that chapter in detail.
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So moving on a little bit, you may have answered this one in part already, but when you were
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worn out, which probably happened frequently from trauma and stress, what did you sense
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God speaking to you?
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And when did the idea for Phil's friends come to you?
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Yeah.
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So once I got to that promise and letting go and say, all right, Lord, you can have my
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whole life.
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That's really when the idea came because I kept a journal the entire time and got it
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other people that were building into me through the time, whether I viewed it as that,
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in those moments or not, like I had a woman Ruth, for example, she was the very first person
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who gave me my mowing lawn job when I was eight years old.
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So she'd pay me 20 bucks, I'd go to her back door and I'd take off my grass stains shoes
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and I'd knock on her door and she'd come over and she had one of those doors where the
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top opened separately from the bottom.
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So she'd open the top and I'd see this green tent cookies that were on her counter and
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say, hey, Ruth, can I have a cookie?
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And she had the best chocolate chip baked fresh cookies.
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Later in life, I realized she baked those for me because it was an opportunity for us
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to connect.
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Once I asked her to open the bottom of it and instead of me giving her the cookie or her
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giving me the cookie, I would have to follow her through the dining room into the living
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room, sit down on the ground and she'd sit on this well worn out couch and she'd tell
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me these stories of these difficult times that she said to go through in her life.
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And first of all, as an eight year old, nine year old, ten year old, I had no idea
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people could go through such difficulties.
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And then secondly, she'd tell me how God would show up.
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And so I remember as a little kid walking away thinking, how does God show up like this?
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I just had no idea.
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And so later on, then you realize all those lessons that God has built into you times.
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But then the vision for Phil's friends really came about, Ruth called me when I was diagnosed
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with cancer and she was in her eighties at the time.
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She said, Phil, I urge your diagnosed with cancer.
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You're going to want to write down your story because when you get through this, when
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God brings you through this, you're going to want to share your story with the world.
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And so I had people like that that were speaking into my, or I went through it.
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And so when I look back now, it's all very clear as, you know, when we're going through
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something difficult, it's not always clear in the moment.
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But again, once I got to that promise and I realized like, hey, this is God still has
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a purpose and a plan for me.
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I get out into the hallway and I have my IV pulled by me and I'd have a nurse or family
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member by my side.
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And I look forward to setting a little bite size goal.
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Get to that first doorway, the second day of the second doorway.
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Eventually, I'd make my way around the hall and I saw kids and I saw adults who had nobody.
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And I thought, this is the hardest thing I've ever ever to go through.
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And many of these people, not only are they alone, but they don't know who Jesus is.
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And so the way that God met me is how God was calling me to meet others.
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And then my dad got a phone call.
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He spent every night on the couch in my hospital room, even though he was working full
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time as a high school principal.
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And somebody called him and said, hey, I've been listening to this radio station, Moody
21:01
Radio.
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It's a radio station called Johnny and friends and they help the disabled.
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Your son, if he wants to help people, he's going to need to incorporate the name you're
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supposed to write down on that piece of paper is Phil's friends.
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And so we did and wrote down what we wanted to do.
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And God just clearly put inside of me to help other people in the same way.
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And the goal was not, you know, for me to just do this the rest of my life.
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The goal was to get something set up so so many people can engage for another.
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So that's what we want to do.
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We want to support.
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We want to teach.
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We want to train and be able to help others as we move forward.
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And so it's amazing all the stories that we hear, but then also all the ones that we
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don't.
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I know that God hath put them out there.
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And every time we hear a story, it's an encouragement to keep on going, but it's each and
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every day.
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So the vision, hope that answers that question.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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I'm really excited about this interview, this organization, congrats on the book.
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You definitely are seeing the good in it to continually seeing the good in what you
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went through.
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So you mentioned Johnny and friends and what you're doing now with Phil's friends.
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So give us some specific ways, people watching and listening that we can encourage people
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who are suffering or discouraged or ill because you've got a one chapter in your book,
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chapter 17 is called comforted to comfort others.
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So what are some ways that we can comfort encourage others who are ill or suffering?
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I'd say the first thing is all of us know someone and sometimes we're living in a very
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fast, pace, busy society.
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We have a long to do list, a checklist.
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I would encourage you to take quiet time, number one, take quiet time each and every day,
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spend time with the Lord, have your Bible out, have a journal.
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It's a great practice to be able to be in, to hear from the Lord and also just write down
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your thoughts.
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So I think journaling is a very good start for that.
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But I think also, you know, if we have these busy to do lists, I think the most important
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thing is dedicating our life to the Lord every morning first thing and say, God, I know
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I have a lot of my schedule today, but I'm going to read, I'm going to give this all
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over to you.
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If there's ways that you'd like to work through me today, please make that clear and obvious
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because I think sometimes people have so many needs, but we're isolated and obviously
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the devil wants us isolated.
23:13
God wants us reaching out to other people who can flow and work through us to help other
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people.
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The most important thing is identifying people in your life that you can help, who is
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God put in your sphere of influence, whether it's friends, family or neighbors.
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How about that?
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We live next to people and a lot of times we don't even know what's going on with our neighbor.
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Have that conversation across the fence, find out what's going on.
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And so once you do that and say, for example, there's someone that's sick, sometimes when
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I think, oh, I should make them a meal, I should show up over here, I should do this.
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Hold on, take a minute, pray about it.
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Either someone that they have who's a caregiver, that it's good to reach out to them and find
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out, is this a good time to visit?
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Ask the questions, hey, I'd love to be able to make a meal.
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Is this going to be helpful?
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So we're actually asking, instead of just kind of jumping in and saying, this is what's
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going to be the most helpful for them.
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There are many problems that people called my parents or my family and said, hey, I want
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to visit, but it wasn't a good time.
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There's other times, yes, I could really use a visit.
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So going in, once you, if you're going to visit someone in a hospital room or at home,
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I'd say empty yourself, be present, and I think sometimes it's just awkward to be silent.
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And it's okay, just let's point that out.
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We don't have the words to say.
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We don't have all the answers.
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We can have believers in our life and not exactly know what to share all the time, and
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that's okay.
24:33
We don't have all the answers.
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But God does call us to show up and to be present and then to pray for people.
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Amen.
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This is going by really fast.
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And before we run out of time, the last chapter in the book is called Waiting Expectantly
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on God.
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Now, where were you when you wrote that?
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Was this toward the end of your journey?
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Was it after you were healed?
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What did you learn to write this chapter waiting expectantly on God?
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Yeah, it was actually, you know, it was written after I was better, but I was like, you
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know, when you're in the midst of it, there's so much going on.
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It's hard to be able to process.
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So it takes a lot of time to process.
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But I think that's the big thing.
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We go through challenges in life.
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We have joys, there's successes, there's failures.
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But the most important thing is waiting on what God has for you.
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Because so often we get quick, let's jump in and do this.
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But God might just wait on the sideline for a little longer.
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Let me show you what I need to do.
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And he'll work things out in front of us and he'll show us, you know, how to be involved.
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And a lot of times the desires that he puts in our heart is what he's asking us to reach
25:36
out into.
25:38
So if you think about the organization, Phil's friends going from nothing to now supporting
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10,000 patients just last year, it was a lot of waiting waiting on God to show up and then,
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you know, reaching out in faith and walking in faith, loving in faith.
25:52
And when you do that, God continues to replenish you and it doesn't have to be done overnight.
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I mean, most over 2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
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If we can support a fraction of worldwide, we're not going to be able to support all
26:04
everybody, but we want to do what we can with what God has given us.
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So I'd encourage you, no matter what you're going on in your life right now, whatever's
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going on, difficulty challenges, wait on God, let him show up.
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And as he shows up, you're going to be able to have joy in those moments, even the most
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difficult moments.
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Amen, brother.
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I, I, I knew this would be a good interview.
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I just, you know, it's so encouraging.
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And I'm so blessed because I know the audience will be encouraged by this.
26:30
So friends, you can get the book on Amazon, but also at fillsfriends.org, just under shop.
26:35
And also you can donate what a great organization and request a care package.
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If you know someone with cancer, this is just such a practical and a God ordained thing
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to do, just to bless others in this way.
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I, brother, wishing you good success, friends pray for Phil, for Phil and his family for
26:57
his continued health and that he would enlarge your territory and get more people involved
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in Phil's friends.
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Like I said, it's definitely a God idea, which is why I wanted to have you on and to talk
27:08
about your book, brother.
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Thank you so much for your time today.
27:12
Thank you.
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Greatly appreciated.
27:14
And also on the website, wanted to mention, there's a lot of hands on activities that volunteers
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can do.
27:18
And in the book, there's discussion questions at the end of each chapter in case people
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want to use it as a book study.
27:23
So thank you.
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Thank you.
27:25
Thank you.
27:26
Thank you for catching that and reminding people, thanks again Phil.
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God bless you.
27:30
All right.
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God bless you.
27:32
Take care of it.
27:33
Yeah.
27:34
Friends, this is, I'm just so encouraged by this because I know this is something you
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can immediately have an impact in someone's life that's going through cancer by something
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so simple, right?
27:44
So what a great thing.
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God bless you friends.
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And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.