Cancer Intermission: A Word From the Slimy Pit
WELCOME to Issue #199 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing - a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
We’re stuck deep in the slimy pit of Alex’s cancer fight. Here are some of our raw spiritual learnings from that place…
As many of you know, I’ve been fighting cancer of the larynx since it was diagnosed at the beginning of April. Fortunately it was caught early, so the prognosis is positive. We are deeply grateful to God for the miraculous way that discovery came about.
The journey to remission has entailed going through 6 weeks of daily radiation treatment aimed at my throat. We are praising God that these end on Thursday June 27, the day many of you will be reading this! Please join with us in celebrating by eating some good ice cream!!
Unfortunately, though, the radiation has left me in a lot of pain, unable to tolerate eating or drinking anything warm/hot or with any texture (my diet is basically mush, smoothies, and ice cream!), and having almost unstoppable coughing fits (not great for sleep). More recently some large radiation burns have appeared on my neck, and I’m experiencing a great deal of tiredness.
To be honest, the downturn has really surprised me. While I knew some of these possibilities were there, I naively (arrogantly??) thought my fitness, lack of cancer symptoms, and general good health would help me to overall glide through treatment. It’s been a humbling and taxing time. 🥺
The big upside of all this is that I’ve timed it perfectly with the European Championships, so there’s a lot of guilt-free soccer watching going on!
Added to the health issues, our income has dropped a ton, so we’re taking the next step in living by faith. On previous occasions I’ve been able to help by hustling harder, but that drops completely off the table when a big win for me is not wanting to go for a nap after my breakfast smoothie! We’re learning more deeply how to really look to the Lord for all things.
So this feels like a slimy pit we can’t hope to climb out of by ourselves - and thus it’s truly a time and place where we are thrown deeply onto God.
In this video we reflect on being stuck in the slimy pit with no way out, the battles we’re fighting, and a few of the spiritual lessons we’re learning.
In spite of the setup, this is not a gloomy video!!
This will be a time of encouragement for you, and a place of equipping to help you more pastorally come alongside others who are going through their own slimy pit experience.
Here’s the video (which we shot about a week ago):
Next Steps
Who do you know who is going through a ‘trapped in the slimy pit’ experience? Obviously there can be all sorts of scenarios, of which major illness is just one. How can you better support, encourage, and love on them in this season?
If you’d like to pray for us, we’d be so grateful. In particular, please intercede for:
Relief from the side-effects of the radiation, especially for Alex’s throat to be calm and peaceful, with no coughing or difficulty eating and swallowing, and for his energy to increase.
That the cancer will be completely gone from his body, never to return.
For rest and recuperation for both of us in the post-treatment recovery phase in July and August. The cancer doctor expects for him to start to improve from mid-July onwards, so let’s pray for it to be sooner than then!
That we can personally mine all the good things that God is working in us through this challenging season.
For the Lord to open up abundant wells of provision and opportunity.
That by being public about this journey (which we felt the Lord call us to do), we will help build the faith of many to more deeply call on Jesus and trust Him in all things.
Thank you so much! We are so grateful for your love, support, and prayers.
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
P.S. Next week we’ll be back with the next video in our Understanding Spiritual Gifts Series, as we look at Words of Knowledge. We filmed all 8 of these before Alex’s voice became really bad, so you’ll be able to enjoy them during the summer months.
