ROB LACEY'S STORY

interview by Jools Hamilton 

One of the great mysteries of the Christian life is that while many people can claim miraculous healing, the prayers of others seem to go unheeded. Rob Lacey, known for his 'Street Bible' translation of the Bible, is one whose prognosis gave him no hope. Here's his story.

Everything in the garden was rosey, and the cream on the cake for Rob was that he had just been commissioned by Zondervan to produce the paraphrase of the Bible that we know as the Street Bible. But his life was thrown into turmoil.

He was first diagnosed as having cancer of the bladder in 1996, ". but about 3 years ago it came back and the doctors said I needed treatment - a chemical dripped into my bladder to scrape away the cancer cells - all very gory!"

That was just two weeks after he'd been commissioned to write the Street Bible and he was really looking forward to reworking and re-telling the stories. Suddenly he's going to hospital for treatment once a week for 6 weeks.

"Three months later, the cancer had spread and was now in my kidneys, so they dripped the same chemical, TB, into my kidneys.   After 9 months my bladder was totally shot . I had TB in the bladder which meant night-sweats, going to the loo 100 times a day, 30 times a night, sleep deprivation - humiliating stuff.

"About 15 months later they told me my bladder had to come out, ' . it's dead and raw'. I was almost a hermit by this stage, not able to get around or get out.

"There was I stuck in the house, watching day time television, which is dire stuff, I think it's a government plot to get people back to work!"

Just before the operation to remove his bladder the X-ray showed a shadow, ".they said they didn't know what it was but they would find out during the operation". It turned to be a tumour and now major chemotherapy was needed plus radiotherapy. He was given a year to live - at best.

"It was awful - just when we thought it was sorted, all of a sudden we're facing this - I had a little one year old boy, a wife, and all these plans for work - it was dire".

Rob decided not to start the chemotherapy right away, "It takes the immune system out when you need it most to fight the cancer". Instead they went to a clinic in Mexico to have immune boosting treatment.

"By now, pain levels were really bad, cancer was spreading into my bone. They told us in Mexico that the herbal natural medicines couldn't help; I needed to go home to get therapy to hold it back.

"We had arranged to go to a healing conference in Toronto, and although I was told to go home straightaway, we felt that to go to Canada was some kind of pilgrimage".

Rob attended meetings in Toronto and although God didn't heal him instantly, there was about thirty minutes during which he was pain free, "That was a result of prayer and a guy getting a specific 'word' about my condition".

Six months later Rob was much improved, but now a bright red patch appeared on his back and the doctors arranged more tests.   The tests showed no cancer, indeed there were signs of growth in his bones.

"The doctors can't say it was a miracle - they don't know what it was, but they said, "Why is it when it happens it always seems to be people of faith?"

Now he says; "When you've stared death in the face and he's the one who's blinked everything is different. You either die and go to heaven, or you get to live and stay with your wife and little boy . fantastic! Either way we win".

Check out Rob's work at www.thestreetbible.com