The Porters live across the street and my son Derek, who was 3 when we moved here, and Michael Porter played together often as children. We had been living here only about a year when Jackie, Michael's mother, died after breast cancer metastasized into brain cancer. It was very sad to attend her funeral and see Michael, as a young boy of five, was left without a mother.
    He and his father Mike seemed to grow very close as they continued to live here, but as the boys grew older, they grew apart and we saw less of the Porters. I would often see Mike, a healthy, muscular man in his early 50s, outside cutting the grass or hanging Christmas lights, but we rarely chatted, only waved as we passed by.
   Today I went outside to get the mail and found an opened bill lying in my yard. It was addressed to Mike, so I went across the street to give it to him, not really expecting to see him at home in the middle of the day. I am sure my jaw dropped when Mike opened the door because I hardly recognized him, as he was totally bald and looked like a skeleton. I asked him how he was doing, and he replied, "Ok, under the circumstances. I've been battling throat cancer for the past year."
   He invited me to come in for a few minutes, so I did. I told him that just today some friends and I had discussed Dr. Lorraine Day who had been diagnosed with cancer, but through good nutrition and natural therapy had recovered her health and was now cancer free. He handed me one of her videos, which a friend had given him a few days ago, and he has glanced at. Her website is at this link:
 
http://www.drday.com/itvdirect/index2.htm
 
   I could see that Mike was having difficulty talking and it was not easy to understand him, but he said that he had been a cigarette smoker and quit 18 years ago. The doctors do not think that caused the cancer, which has left him with a lump on his tongue and he is unable to eat solid food, as his jaw is also locked. He is on morphine and percoset, which he must grind up and add to a glass of water in order to take it. He has undegone chemotherapy and radiation and now the doctors are recommending that they remove the cancerous part of his tongue and jawbone, then do reconstructive surgery.
  I told him that I would request prayers for him, and asked him if he knew the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. He said he really didn't want to talk about that, but that he and Jackie had gone through a period when they had "gotten saved", but he didn't have a good relationship with God now. I sensed a loneliness, as Michael, who is now 21, has moved out into his own place, but he comes home to cut the grass and do a few other things which his dad is no longer able to do.
   I know it was no accident that his bill was lying in my yard, nor that he invited me in to talk. Please pray for this pitiful man and his only son, that not only would he be healed physically, but spiritually. I will keep you posted. Thanks.