Dear Nick, many people have said I should share my story with you, given your profile I’m not sure how significant it is but here we go.
In February 2009 a friend of mine sent a clip of you called “You Will Finish Strong” which I watched in amazement and awe at your demeanor and how you engaged with others, in a way I had never seen before. Being the type of person I am, I had to find out more about you, which I did and subsequently found out that you are a Christian, which in some ways put me off, but in other ways made me more intrigued that you could love and witness for such a malevolent God who would allow his “children” to suffer. The more I listened to you speak the more angry I became at this creature whom I was not convinced existed. So, in my rage I jumped out of my seat at work and shouted “okay if you exist which is highly doubtful, and you are loving for which there is no evidence, and ‘all knowing’, change me from the inside out”. Within seconds I felt I had been stripped and a river of unforgiveness, anger, bitterness and resentment came flooding out of me. I had not cried in 23 years but was overwhelmed with this crazy sense of peace, joy and love, which to be honest I hated because all of a sudden I felt out of control, exposed and vulnerable.

That day I essentially accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour, not that I understood any of it at the time. And so, began my journey of finding a church and developing a knowledge and understanding of God and His word, etc.. However what I did not know was what lay ahead, and how God was going to work through my life. All I was told, according to God’s word was that, I was now privy to all these blessings and wonderful things, and that my life would be enriched.
Well a year later, I’m sitting in my office having a staff meeting and my wife calls to say that they suspect our son has cancer, my first reaction was to swear, apologize and then say “God you said it’s going to be good so, I believe you”. Of course, thinking this means the doctors got it wrong.

To cut a long story short, the biopsy revealed a rare and aggressive form of cancer and the CT revealed he had complications, a first of its kind pocket of cancerous fluid encapsulated the tumor, making an attack on the tumor extremely dangerous and his chances of survival almost nil. So, began a four year journey, in which we saw him recover against the odds, then have the cancer metastasize in his lungs and not only once but twice he recover after we were told he would not make it, on a few occasions. On one occasion he was grey and destined for the grave, with maybe 50 to 10 days to live. But, after the elders prayed on that Friday he walked out of the hospital the following Tuesday.
In those four years I lost my business and all my worldly assets, my self confidence and ego were shattered to nothing, but the cementation of my faith that God is real was strengthened beyond the breaking point. I’m not saying I came out unscathed because that would be a lie, I’m still struggling to reconcile all I was told and taught, I’m still struggling to rebuild my life and confidence, but because I was introduced to Christ indirectly by you (Nick) and because of your story, I always have something to look back on and remind myself that our limbs or lack thereof are not our limitation, our mindset and our attitudes are. God’s word is a very real and trusting place for setting our minds on the goal, and building character which defines our attitudes. There is a lot more detail to this story but it’s long, I will share it another time if you’d like.
Nick, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting God because it’s your story that made my story so much easier to endure, and made the cross which is the greatest story of all, so much more real and life changing. Love you forever mate, Mike