Help Them Prepare

If you’re involved in a leadership role with a cancer support group, chances are you’ve dealt with cancer, either personally or with a loved one. You know how difficult the journey can be and you have a heart to help others carry their cancer boulder – something too heavy for them to carry alone.

The first step of a cancer support group in helping others carry their cancer boulder is to help them prepare for the journey. The definition of prepare is to put oneself in readiness – get ready.

A support group can help each individual get ready for the journey by:

Warning them that the journey ahead will be difficult, but assuring them they are not on their journey alone. The Lord will lead them on their journey.

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,  your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.  

Isaiah 30:20-21

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.                                    
                                                                                                Proverbs 3:5-6

Encouraging them to make sure their support base is in place. This is a season of life where they need the support of others more than any other time in their lives and it’s important to be able to receive that help.

Physical support – they will need the logistical help of family and friends.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!      
                                                                                                  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Emotional support – they will need the listening ear and understanding heart of a trusted family member or friend. Encourage them to find a “safe” person to whom they can open their heart --share their fears and doubts; cry with -- admit their needs.

“Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.”

   Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“Modern research echoes what the Bible has said for centuries: people who have intimate connections in which they are vulnerable and honest generally live better, function at higher levels, and heal faster than those who are isolated or distant from others. We all need the fuel of love and relationship to continue growing and healing.”

   John Townsend

 Spiritual support – encourage them to find support and seek spiritual growth within their church home. If they don't have a church home, then encourage them to find one.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

   Hebrews 10:25

Helping each individual prepare by setting up a support network – physical, emotional and spiritual – will lighten the burden and help him or her endure the journey.

On the journey with you,

Jan Dravecky

Vice President

Endurance

      with Jan and Dave Dravecky

(A ministry of Dave Dravecky’s Outreach of Hope)