Jim Juhl and Brenda Winter believe cancer has strengthened them — both in their Christian faith and in their relationship with each other.
As Rock County Relay for Life honorary chairwoman and caregiver, they’re looking forward to sharing this message during Friday night’s event in Luverne City Park.
“It will be an opportunity to talk about God’s faithfulness in our lives,” Brenda said.
As a Star Herald columnist, she’s written about her past two years with anal cancer and has shared thoughts on her CaringBridge page.
But Friday night she has a specific message in mind. “Unconditional contentment.”
She said Christians tend to pray for things that they believe will make them happy.
“We tend to think, ‘I can be happy if …’ Right now it’s easy to be content, because things are going well,” she said. “But we need to be unconditionally content.”
Jim agreed.
As Relay for Life’s first honorary caregiver, he plans to also talk about faith.
“We as a couple going through this cancer journey have a great opportunity to witness about our faith,” he said. “My take on it is this: When you get a cancer diagnosis, what is the first thing you do? You either lash out at God or look to him for healing.”
In all prayer requests, he said, it’s important to keep an open mind.
“You ask for things in prayer; he always answers, but not always in ways you would expect. … I prayed for healing, and he healed me of my selfishness,” Jim said about his caregiving role.
“It’s through pain and frequent prayer that you grow closer to God; maybe that’s how God is healing you. Maybe you need spiritual healing way more than you and your spouse need physical healing.”
And he said he’s grateful for new perspectives.
“When you are faced with losing someone or something close to you — that person and those things become so important to you,” he said.
Brenda joked that Jim’s easiest caregiving moment was when she ended up hospitalized with an infection.
“She couldn’t even talk,” Jim said. “For the first time I was in control.”
Those who know Jim and Brenda know they’re quick with humor and they promise to bring some of that to the park Friday night.
Mostly, though, they look forward to the comfort of being with others who share similar cancer experiences.
“There are thousands of people who could do this,” Brenda said about their honorary Relay for Life roles.
“I’m happy to share what I’ve learned, but I’m not going to be telling anyone at the park anything they don’t already know.”
Brenda considers herself fortunate among cancer survivors. “I feel better today than I have in years,” she said about recently concluding six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.
Other than a bout with an infection that landed her in the hospital, she said she’s grateful to feel healthy.
Her radiologist, in fact, said he’s never seen a cancer patient tolerate treatment as well as she did.
She and Jim attribute this good fortune to two things: prayer and responsible health choices.
Prior to starting traditional cancer treatment, they turned first to nutritional and holistic approaches that had been proven effective against cancer.
In many ways it worked; “starving the cancer” of sugars and other simple carbohydrates brought her cancer markers down to nearly non-existent, and she felt healthy as a result of the healthy choices.
But the tumor wasn’t shrinking, and caused discomfort that required prescription pain relief.
In her column, Brenda shared with readers that she “waved the white flag” of defeat and was opting for traditional treatment, which included a colostomy as a precaution for possible tissue damage.
In hindsight, the colostomy wouldn’t have been necessary, but they made decisions based on the information they had. Just like they did with alternative medicine.
“I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering, ‘what if I’d tried the alternative approach?’ In this case, traditional medicine was the responsible choice for that type of tumor.”
And they said they have no regrets.
“I’m glad we learned what we learned,” Jim said. “It’s all about nutrition. Chemo and radiation treat symptoms, not cancer.”
Brenda said they also learned about the human response to stress and toxins that can produce cancer and other illnesses.
“It’s all about being responsible — with nutrition and exercise,” she said.
In the past couple of years Jim and Brenda said they have made observations about cancer and the human response to it.
“What makes cancer different? There are many dread diseases — Alzheimer’s, MS — tragic diseases. But cancer is associated with death. If you have MS, you ask, what does this mean? If you have cancer, you ask, ‘Am I going to die?”
“The idea of facing ones mortality and what that means — it calls to question life, living, faith, God and eternity.”
Jim said Christians have an inside look at what’s in store for the afterlife.
“The book of Revelation ends with this picture of heaven that we can look forward to,” he said. “If we have that end in mind, there’s nothing to fear in death.”
Brenda agreed, but she offered that death is still difficult for mortals to accept.
“I’m not afraid of being dead,” she said. “But the process of dying — for family members, etc. — is what’s not enjoyable.”
The 2016 Rock County Relay for Life will begin at 5:15 in Luverne City Park. The survivors’ lap and balloon release begins at 7 p.m. followed by a lap dedicated to caregivers.
A luminaria ceremony is at 8:30 p.m. and closing activities are at 10:30 p.m.
So far, 12 teams and 126 participants have raised nearly $6,000 for the American Cancer Society. More information is available at acsevents.org.