Bryce - struggling against cancer - Pray 4 him

Do you know someone who is struggling with cancer?  Perhaps you are in a fight against it yourself?

Cancer takes more and more lives each year and knows no age boundaries.
Today in one of the classes for which I subbed, the students called out, "Absent." when I called young Bryce's name.  He's only a freshman in high school.  There was no strength in the call of their voices, however.  They had said "Absent" with such a quiet demeanor and so many of them at the same time.  With each student's name I call, I always look up to acknowledge the person behind the voice.  At this moment when I looked up, the faces of each student was solemn as I've ever seen.  Their eyes told me something was very very wrong.

Upon asking, I was told that Bryce had been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks and that just yesterday he had been sent home to be cared for in his last days of life.  Bryce has had a type of brain cancer for several years already and been through all the chemo and various treatments possible.  When he has been well enough, he has joined his classmates at school.  He has had good seasons and bad.  The students said they adored him, especially the few who had actually gone to school with him in Middle School and Elementary School.

Bryce, they explained, was a fighter and always maintained a positive outlook.  Though he was terminally ill, he had been and continues to be for them a role model on how to live and look at life.  One student shared, "You know, Bryce is a Christian.  Even when he's not well, he's always praying and always reading from his Bible."  Another student shared, "Yes, and he is the only person I know who has never lost his cool or given anybody any trouble."  Then someone told me that they had just sent him a class card and that he was always present in their minds, and that for him personally, Bryce's life, words, and attitude had given him the inspiration to seek more of God since he had found so much love and peace in his friend.  Now isn't that a testimony!

The way I understand it, Bryce won't live many more days on this earth.  However, what a witness of faith this young man has been in the lives of his peers, and no doubt, everyone who knows him.  It was such a blessing for me to be in the public classroom and hear the testimonies of these students about their friend and openly use the names "God" and "Jesus" as if it were a private school.

Let's keep Bryce in our prayers for healing and continued peace in his struggle against cancer, and let's each say a short prayer of thanksgiving to God for Bryce's life and for how God has used him during his short life on earth!

And may Bryce serve as an example to anyone struggling with cancer and/or who is caring for someone who has it.  God is faithful now and forever.