Finding Hope In Cancer

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

No, the devil's nightmare here. From it's time to man up. Challenging men to step into their true manhood. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Imagine getting that phone call that you are dying of cancer. That's what happened to a young man, a close friend of mine named Michael Lubbock. This has been, goodness, over a decade, and this is going way back in the Truth Talk archives. But you will be encouraged and blessed as you hear the heart of Michael and his joy in Jesus, even though he's facing impending death, but he's looking forward to heaven. So join us for Truth Talk right now as we talk and go back in the archives with my good buddy, now in heaven, Michael Lubbock. Have you ever been on the receiving end of one of those phone calls from one of your close friends, one of your star students in your Sunday school class, maybe, who just got bad news from his doctor? Folks, I'm faced with an anomaly today. We're faced with a real life, real situation, real person today, a man who I've known for some time now, who was in my Sunday school class not too long ago, who is now in another man's Sunday school class who you're going to meet in just a second. 38 years old in the prime of life, incredible rising star in his career, married to a wonderful woman of God, two small kids that are precious that I've seen grow up. 38 years old, gets that call from the doctor.

Stage four colon cancer. That's not good news, and we're going to hear how this man wrestled with that news now, over a year later, I guess, on Truth Talk Live today. A regular listener. This guy used to jab me about the show. When he was in my class, I'd never heard the end of it, but I want to say hello. I want to bring on Michael Lubbock to the show. Michael, it's great to have you on Truth Talk Live, buddy. Hey, Stu, thanks for having us here, and look forward to sharing what God's been doing in my life the past 18 months. You used to grab me and say, Stu, you gotta do the show on this.

You gotta do a show on this. Now I've got you as a guest, man, so it's pretty cool. And who's this man next to you? Mr. Shelton, you call him?

Yeah, Mr. Shelton. He's a Sunday School teacher, and a great man of God, and just a wonderful, passionate man for Christ in the Raleigh area. And I can't imagine being here today and talking about what the journey I've been on the past 18 months, and getting the cancer diagnosis, and not having this guy here with us to share. So you're in my Sunday School class, when you lived in this area, and then you went on, and now you're in his class, and he walked through this journey with you. We found out, you know, long distance about your condition, your diagnosis.

You're 38 years old, 37. You get a phone call from a doctor telling you you had some pain. What happened? Lead up to it.

Well, sure. Well, it goes back to, you know, probably February or March of last year. And I was starting to feel a little different. I was starting to have night sweats. I was starting to lose weight, and just overall just didn't feel very well. I had some changes going on, work positive changes, but just wasn't sure what was going on. So I decided to go to the doctor and have things checked out. Went to my regular doctor, and they couldn't find anything wrong with me. They said I was healthy as a, you know, healthy as a horse. The only thing they found was a white blood cell count that was just a sliver high.

But that was it. And wound up getting referred to a oncologist slash hematologist. And we go to meet this doctor and we sit down and we start talking about some things. And he's like, there's something, there's something going on. We're not sure what. But what we'd like to do is, you know, what we do first is we do a scan and we just start eliminating things. So we went and we had a CAT scan done, not prepared for what would happen later in the day.

Had no idea what was, you know, what was facing us. But back home later that day, I get a call from the doctor. And it's that call that you don't want to get. On the other end of the phone, the doctor says, Michael, we've gotten your scan results back.

It's abnormal. And I need you to come see me this afternoon. And I was downstairs and I got that call. And I knew Millie was upstairs and in our bedroom. And I had to walk upstairs. And it was a tough walk because I knew that I had to tell my wife something that was that was going to break her heart.

And I walked up to her and I said, I got a call. And we need to go see the doctor. There's some abnormalities. And so we loaded up, we drove to the doctor's office. And we went in and he says, Michael, he says, your scan came back abnormal.

And let me show you what what we found. And you're in your colon area. There's a tumor. There's a tumor about the size of a softball. And in your liver, there are four separate tumors.

The first one is about the size of a tennis ball, the next one about the size of a golf ball, and then two other smaller ones. And you know, you are diagnosed to stage four colon cancer. And, and that'll knock the wind out of you. And it was it was a real blow.

And Millie and I, we sat there and we held each other and we cried. And, but we were we were blessed that the Lord took us to a great doctor. And he told us, he told us right there, he said, Look, he said, this is not a sprint.

And this is a marathon. And that that day, that Friday started that started the journey. And that was in April of last year. And from that, you know, we start the process of taking tests, biopsies, and getting really underneath what was going on with the diagnosis. And from there, in I believe it was June of last year, I had surgery, I had the first of three surgeries to remove the, the softball size tumor that was in my colon area. And that surgery, thank goodness went very well. And it was it was a big surgery, as you can imagine, I was in the hospital five, six days, first time I'd ever had any type of real health issues in my life. And so so from there, we started the chemotherapy process. And I was I was very lucky that my body responded very well to the chemotherapy. And that during that time, I remained very active, I worked, you know, I was able to, you know, to, to, to, to lead a very normal active lifestyle, like the hunting fish, I was able to go, you know, wake up at four o'clock in the morning, go duck hunting and go fishing and do those types of things. But through that, you know, yeah, it definitely took a toll, I don't want to make it sound like chemotherapy was a walk in the park.

It's not it's not a walk in the park. And it's not a walk, you know, it's very it's very real when you go to the doctor's office and you and you go in and you sit down and you see people at all different forms of their walk with cancer and different cancer stages. And certainly I don't want to make it sound like or lighten or trivialize what what what chemotherapy was like. But I was fortunate that I was able to, to lead a pretty normal lifestyle and have great results with with the with the chemotherapy drugs and the fact they started shrinking those tumors down in my liver. And so from about the July timeframe, through December of last year, I was on chemotherapy.

And by the end of it, it definitely was wearing me down. But the great news is, is that through God and through the healing power of chemotherapy, those drugs I was taking, it started shrinking those tumors and put us in position that we could and I say we because it's a journey. It's not just about me.

It's you know, Millie, and I and my family, my parents, my my in-laws, everybody, you know, is a part of this. And we went to Duke, and they were actually able to do what they call liver reduction surgery, where they took out about 40% of my liver. And that 40% is where those tumors were located.

And they let you know, of course, that lets me about 60% of my liver. Well, that was a pretty major surgery. I think I wound up with something like 60 some stitches or staples in my stomach. From that it was it was major league surgery. And I've got a nice, we'll call it a victory scar. It's in the shape of like a hockey stick that starts about the middle of my add and right in the V of where your ribs come down, goes down to my belly button and hangs a right and goes all the way over to my hip. Now you had another surgery done more recently.

I want you to talk about that and a couple things happened in between. Absolutely. A couple questions to throw out there. Is God real?

Why the pain? Does God even care? How do Christians cope with cancer?

In the prime of life, a man gets stage four colon cancer. What do you do if you're this man's Sunday school teacher? We were able to drag your Sunday school teacher in.

He's in today. Mr. Shelton, you hear from this man. What does the church do? Is the church real? Bunch of fakes, bunch of posers, a bunch of stiff suits. Is that what the church has made up today?

Folks, if at the end of the day show, I want to hear you answer that question. Is God real? When it rubber meets the road, is the church real when one of their members has been diagnosed with the worst nose you can get in a stage four colon cancer? And that's what we're going to pick up on all day long on Truth Talk Live today. Now you're going to call in. You're in a situation with cancer. You want to say a word to Michael, pray for him. Anything goes today with Michael Lubbock, our guest, 86634 Truth is our toll-free number nationwide.

Truthtalklive.com is the website. Michael, quickly now, you had this major surgery at Duke that left this hockey scar on you. What happened next? Well, during that surgery, they also discovered several nodules in my abdominal lining that were cancerous. And it was a big play because we felt like the surgery to take the tumors out of the liver, that was going to be it. And there was more to it. We weren't done. Okay, tell us the rest of the story.

We're going to bring this wise Sunday school teacher of yours and how did this science class get involved? What do you do when you get that phone call, folks? 86634 Truth. Hang on, there's a lot more to this story when we come back. Creedle Christianity, you're there. You believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Holy Ghost. But what about orthopraxy?

What about living out the faith? What about when you get the phone call that you are not looking forward to where there's a sudden tragedy in someone's life? Maybe you get diagnosed at age 37 years old with stage four colon cancer, like my guest today. My good friend was in my science school class not too long ago. Now he's in Mr. Shelton's class. You got to put up with this guy now.

Michael Lovick. What about this guy, Mr. Shelton? He's going to get back on his testimony, but what are your comments thus far? You found out the news about when he did. He was one of your first calls, wasn't he, Michael?

Absolutely. Well, first of all, let me say that I can't imagine anyone going through what Michael Milley is going through that doesn't know the Lord, that doesn't know and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As far as our Sunday school class, let me tell you that obviously we were all shaken to the core.

In our humanness, we're shaken to the core. You know, all believers know that God is in control, that he's totally worthy of that trust, but when you get a telephone call like we got, you know, I got in my car and I went over to Michael's house and he and his dad were out in the driveway and I hugged him and we shed a few tears together and then we began to talk and, you know, I remember saying to him, Michael, as tough as this is going to be, you know, God will be more than sufficient for you in this. And he's going to use you as an instrument of his glory. And then I remember that I shared with him, I said, Michael, I think that, you know, people probably think many times I've heard enough sermons. I need to see the reality of Christ lived out before me. And that's what you're going to do, because God's grace is going to be sufficient for you and he's going to carry you. Okay, now just from an outside perspective, here you have a young man who's in his 30s who gets this awful tragic diagnosis of stage four colon cancer.

And anyone that knows anything about cancer out there, that is not a good diagnosis. So did you see a man here, Michael Lovett, Mr. Shelton? Honest to goodness, now let's just be transparent. This is truth talk live, so tell the truth. Did Michael, did you see a man who got bitter against God, stood on his housetop and shook his fist at God and said, why are you doing this to me? And cursed God and walked away from the faith? Is that what you saw?

Absolutely not. I wish those of you in this radio audience who don't personally know Michael Lovett, I wish that you had the opportunity to see him and look in his face. This is a young man that loves the Lord to the core of his being. And while, yes, he was disappointed, yes, he was frightened, yes, at times he gets down as any of us would.

He stands on the reality of Jesus Christ in his life. You know, the verse that says rejoice in the Lord always, that's Michael Lovett. Now, Michael, that doesn't mean this has been easy. You have been through the hardest thing you could ever imagine. Your family, your wife, your precious kids, it's just been a shocking, it's just a shock for everyone as your son, as Mr. Shelton just said. But you had an encounter in the parking lot at Chick-fil-A with God that just blew me away. I have no other way of describing it. Tell our listeners kind of why this was not far after you heard the news from the doctor that you've got stage four colon cancer.

Sure. This was probably less than a week after getting the diagnosis. Matter of fact, it might have just been a couple of days, but I had stopped at a Chick-fil-A to get some lunch and I sat back down in my car to enjoy a Chick-fil-A sandwich. And I just started, you know, just praying, just, you know, just a normal, you know, thank you, Lord, for, you know, for the food. And it just, you know, quickly, my heart was stirred. And I just started praying. And I remember just praying out loud, I'm yours, Lord, you know, you got me. And not that he didn't have me before, but it's more you got me in this situation.

This situation is way bigger than I am. And basically, it was for lack of a better way of saying it was me coming to the end of myself, knowing that there was no resourcefulness of Michael Lubbock that was going to get me out of this situation. There was no, when I say hustle, I don't mean hustling in a bad way. But I mean, there's no hard work. There's no elbow grease. There was no, hey, look, if we really get after and work hard, we can, we can, you know, we can lick this thing. Because you've been in sales, you'd solve people's problems.

You go to these major companies in your job, and you help them with their solutions with IT and other things. And so you walk into Chick-fil-A, as I recall, you telling me this story, right? And you get your stuff, right? You go back to there.

Right. So I'm sitting there and I'm just, and like I said, I'm praying and it's like, Lord, you got me. And, and then all of a sudden, just the Lord through the Holy Spirit just starts washing over me and just picking me up, holding me, ministering to me.

And, and I'm just sitting there. I'm in, I'm in the car and, and, and I wouldn't describe myself as a, as a, as a charismatic worshiper, if you would, if you would, you know, if you will. But I'm sitting there in my car with my hands held up over my head, just giving praise and thanks to God for loving me for the God of the universe, the creator of the universe. He's sitting there caring about me so much to minister to me in my, in my, in my darkest time or my worst news. But it was when I, when I just, when I was at a point of just complete surrender to him, I said, you know, Lord, you got me, you know, that's when just the Holy Spirit just started washing over me.

And there was about 15 minutes there. I guess I wasn't really watching the clock, but we're just, the Lord's ministering to me and he's, you know, just, you know, it's like, son, you're, you know, you're in my hand. I've got you. I'm in control. I'm going to lead you through this. And he just starts putting, putting, putting those things in my heart and parading those things across my heart. And I'm, and, and, and, and I'm also, you know, in, in prayer as well. And it, at that time we had our, our church had just done an experience in God study and there were, you know, some different principles in there about, you know, God, you know, you know, it's pursuing a lover love relationship with you. Uh, you know, God wants you to join him where he's working. And that was just a prayer that I had that, that, that basically to summarize it was, it was, you know, I'm sitting here fellowshiping with the Lord through the Holy Spirit. And it's just, you know, Lord, how do you want to use me? I'm your servant. You just use me how you see fit through this and, and, and, and you get the glory, you know, and you get the honor.

I don't know, uh, why this diagnosis came about, why this cancer came about, but that, that wasn't the important part. It was, God, what are you going to do through, through this? And, and, and I don't say that like I was challenging God, but it was more of a, almost more of a curiosity, you know, God, what are you going to do through this? I just want to be your servant and where you take this, I want to follow and, and, and, and, and lead me.

I want to join you where you're working. And that was really the, the, the, the, the, you know, a big essence of just surrendering and, and, and then that encounter. And I got to tell you, there's, there, there was just tears pouring out of my house, but they weren't, they weren't tears of, of, uh, of, of sorrow or anger or any of those things. Stu, I was absolutely electrified on fire for the Lord. And I mean, I, I, I wouldn't wish a cancer diagnosis on anybody, but I wish everybody, everybody knew what it was like to have that kind of intimacy and fellowship with the Lord and to be in his hands and be in his care and, um, to be picked up and carried and energized and given his strength and his peace.

Cause at that point, the, the, the, the burden of the diagnosis and for me really subsided and, and it, and it became more about what, what the Lord, what the Lord's going to do, what, what is he getting ready to do? How is he going to touch my life, my family's life? How's he going to touch Millie's life?

Um, how is he going to touch other people around me? And we're going to talk about what's come out of this. Folks, can you help me with this?

We've got a situation here. How can this guy be excited about being close to the Lord when he has cancer? Someone want to take a shot at that question?

86634 Truthmore coming up with Michael Lovek and his study school teacher after this. How a Christian copes with cancer, more specifically, a man in the prime of his life gets diagnosed with stage four cancer and his walk with God intensifies, and he's all about the Savior, loving the Lord, living the Christian life. Where is God when it hurts? This man says he's right here. In fact, this man's closer to God.

How can this be? 86634 Truth, very personal for me because this was, I was, this guy was in my study school class and had to put up with me teaching the Word every week. And now he's in your study school class, uh, Mr. Shelton, a man who, when, when Michael, we first met, you stood six foot five inches and well over 240 pounds during that range.

And you could bruise your way on the basketball court and on the football field. And he's, he's, uh, he's, what are you now? What's your, you're six, five still, but what's your weight now? Uh, I've dropped down to beanpole status. Uh, I went down all the way to 178 from the last surgery I had. When I went into the hospital, I weighed, uh, 238 pounds. That's something. And over an eight week period, I went down to 178, which is about, I guess, a 60 pound drop. So you dropped 60 pounds. So they went in and did some radical surgery this last time and God just worked, orchestrated something cool there.

Oh yeah. That, that, uh, that was pretty amazing. Uh, we, uh, it was a pretty intensive surgery. It was a 12 hour surgery and, uh, I was in the hospital for about, I don't know, seven days or something like that here in Winston.

And, uh, I went home and was home for a while and that was probably the toughest physically eight weeks, nine weeks of my life, just getting over that surgery. And, and, um, they are, uh, there was a lot less of me inside of me than, than when I went to the hospital. They took out how many inches of, or feet of, uh, intestines and all that stuff. I mean, they took about all of it, buddy. I think, I think they left me with about 10 feet, but they wanted to get radical to get all as much of the cancers they could. And then they, it was intensive. They got as much, you know, medically in, in, in, intrusively in there to get all the, everything they could take out.

And, and you had to get a, one of those, a glass to talk to me, or what are those things? Yeah. So you've got to allow total change in your lifestyle now. Um, total change, but you know what, that, that's part of what had to happen for, for healing in my body. And you know, if that's what had to happen, that's what had to happen that, you know, the ileostomy is not the important thing. I mean, that's just, you know, that it's not, I mean, it's, you know, um, you know, that, that, that's, that's what had to happen for, for, for, for doctors to successfully do the surgery. All right.

So be it. Um, but, uh, but I did have it. And, you know, a challenge with an abscess that started in my normal area and it started causing the blockage and that led to a lot of the weight loss. And matter of fact, you know, I went back to the doctor to, we didn't know what was going on and, you know, they kept me in the hospital for a week and watching me.

So no, that was pretty wild, but that's when I, that's when I dropped all the way down to 178 or something. But anyway, if you know, if you want to make a comment to Michael, if you want to answer the question, you know, what about Christians coping with cancer? How can a young man of God like this be even more turned on to the Lord and excited about his faith in the middle of this battle for his life? And he's got young kids, he's got his wife, family, and Mr. Shelton, you're his, you're a science school teacher.

This is not how life should be. You know, you're a man who's more advanced in years than this man here. And you said to me very candidly over coffee before the show, hey, Stu, guys my age are supposed to be getting these kinds of diagnoses, but not Michael.

How does this, how can this be? Well, you know, let me just back up on something Michael said. You know, we talked about him physically. You know, we said he was 6'5 and 240 pounds. Let me just say that as I observe Michael now, he's more powerful than he's ever been. Physically, as the world looks at him, they would not see him nearly as strong as he was. But when you look at him and the impact that he's having and the way that he's living his life, in his testimony a few minutes ago about what's going on, it's the classic example when it comes showtime in our life and tragedy shows up on our doorstep, there's a choice that's to be made.

And that's the choice. Am I going to run into the arms of Jesus or am I going to run away from him? And Michael sat there and gave us the powerful testimony of he felt the presence of the Lord like he'd never felt it before. And he chose to run into the arms of Jesus. And let me tell you, his witness is radiating throughout our church, throughout our community, and I hope radiating over the airways as we sit here today. Well, Michael, people that get afflicted with this kind of thing, the question a lot of times is, where do they go? Who do they turn to?

Who can they be real with? You ran into the arms of a godly wife, of course, and family, but you ran into this man's arms in an entire Sunday school class. Now, I thought Sunday school was where you go and you get a bunch of doctrinal knowledge up in your head here and you got a bigger cranium and you're smarter. But there's something transformational about what happened.

Can you talk about this body? I mean, these guys really, I mean, what went on? I didn't know they were supposed to be that kind of support.

I mean, that's not on the job description for science school. Sure. Our Sunday school class is just, I mean, they've been tremendous. I mean, Millie and I have just been surrounded in love and fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters, not in our Sunday school class, but in our church and by our pastoral staff and by others. And we've just been the beneficiaries and we have seen people that just are in love with the Lord and never really had to be on the receiving end of that before.

And it's so beautiful to see people that love the Lord, that want to serve the Lord and them reaching out to people in their darkest time of need. I mean, you know, yes, you know, there's the food that shows up in the casseroles and that's good and that was a part of it. But, you know, one thing, just an example, one example, our Sunday school class when I was in the hospital with the first surgery, Millie and I had no idea, but they came over to our house and they did an extreme bath and bedroom makeover. And because they were concerned that they wanted to make sure that I had a comfortable place to be when I came home from the hospital to recuperate. Millie and I, we bought a house that was a few years old and, you know, we knew we needed to paint and that kind of stuff. We just hadn't gotten to the master bedroom yet. Well, we come back from the hospital, there's, you know, ceilings are smooth, bathrooms are redone, bedrooms are redone.

There's a flat panels, you know, TV sitting on the wall. There's there's, you know, they, you know, they took time to arrange pictures of our family and our kids. And, and I mean, you know, that's just one example. And I could go on to where, to where, you know, that outreach and that fellowship, you know, the constant calls, the encouragement, you know, you know, a friend of mine ever do. I mean, every day he's off work, he calls me and it's like, let's go do something. Let's, let's let, you know, you know, it just, it just goes on and on and on with just outreach and love and genuine love, you know, for Millie and I, the people that love the Lord and Mr. Shelton and Miss Tanya, they, man, they have been right there through every step of the way. That's your teacher, Mr. Shelton here. But what I thought, well, I mean, I thought you guys are totally breaking protocol here, Mr. So you're supposed to say, we'll put you on our prayer list and give us updates from time to time.

But you went above and beyond that, right? I mean, you know, the body of Christ. I mean, if we can't step forward, when a brother or a sister is hurting, then, you know, we're just a bunch of hypocrites. And let me tell you that the tangible things that were done, and Mike has mentioned some of those things, but everybody, you know, they had this longing in their heart, I just knew that prayers were going up, you know, far beyond what had ever, you know, happened before everybody was being touched, everybody was being impacted, the Lord was moving in the class and in people's hearts, prayers for healing, prayers for support. All kinds of folks have come to you, put hands on you to pray for you for healing and prayers for Millie. Now talk about Millie, your wife, in this journey. And by the way, if you want to weigh in or talk to Mike, or maybe you want to pray for him on the show, we'll welcome any call at 866-34-TRUTH, or maybe you like me, or just kind of taking all this in, trying to figure out how to make sense of this. A man literally faced with his mortality here, diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in his 30s, and yet his love for Christ has gone so deep, and God is so real to him, the church is so real to him. How can this be?

866-348-7884. Maybe you have a testimony you want to share with us, you want to see a picture of michael at truthtalklive.com, but your wife, this is maybe the unsung hero here. Talk about Millie, she's a nurse, never thought she'd be nursing you, huh? Never thought she'd be doing it right now, you know, that's the kind of thing you joke about when you're young, hey I'll take care of you when you get older, you know, you're going to look after me. But you know, it's hard to start with Millie, I mean, she's just, she just has a love for the Lord and she has a love for me that has just been, it's just unconditional. I mean, she has seen me at my weakest, she has seen me at, you know, during, you know, at the moment when I, you know, I've got the worst news. I mean, we sat there and we held each other in the doctor's office and she is just, she has just continued to love me and our marriage, we have just grown closer and I've seen her do things that, and there's one particular thing that comes to mind that just, you know, I just, you know, I say where she just humbled herself and we were kind of laughing about it at the time and it was sort of upon reflection after the fact. But, you know, when I had, especially when I had the liver surgery, you know, I, you know, you know, not to be too silly, but you know, I couldn't wash my feet and I couldn't, I couldn't bend over to reach them. And, you know, one evening she's like, you need some maintenance down here, man. The dogs are barking, baby.

These cowboys are hurting. And I, you know, I felt kind of silly because she went and got this little foot tub and she put some lavender stuff in there and I was like, Whoa, what are we doing? But in all seriousness, she was looking out for me and I want to finish this because I don't want to get stuck with just my feet and lavender.

Okay, well, we'll finish the foot story. Wow. What does a wife do when her husband has cancer?

How do Christians cope with cancer? 86634 Truth. More with Michael Lovek and his sunny school teacher after this quick break. Hang on. Truth Talk Live.

I'm your host, Drew Epperson. What do you do when the door knocks, the phone rings and it's bad news? In this case, Michael Lovek in his 30s gets a call from the doctors.

You got to come into the office, bring your wife. You got stage four colon cancer. Michael, his tough news. You've grown so much closer to God and I'm just perplexed. I encourage at the same time. There's so many people out there attacking God, you know, atheists and other people saying, Oh, he's not real. And I've been burned by the church and I've been, you know, God did me wrong and this and that. And yet in all of this conflict, you've drawn closer to God and you're just remarking about your wife. Finish what you said about your wife, Millie, and her journey. And this has taken her through a major trial, but you both, your marriage and everything, there's a there's a closeness and intimacy with the Lord that you just haven't never had before. Absolutely.

And yeah, we need to pick this back up because we left it off. My feet were soaking in lavender. So that's what lavender was. But we're just talking about Millie's unconditional love.

And just this is just one example. But you know, she cares enough, you know, that she got down there and she actually washed my feet. She actually went and got this little pet egg and scraped my feet and put lotion on them and did all these things. And there my wife is sitting on the floor, humbling herself.

You know, I'm not a foot guy at all. So this really hit home to me that she would sit right down there. And no matter what what need I had, even, you know, even to the point of foot care, you know, she would she would sit right down, sit right down into it.

And there's so many things. I mean, just, you know, when I'm sitting there, you know, you know, I'm in the hospital, I got drains pouring out of me. And, you know, and she's sitting there, you know, making sure that I'm watching them clean, or just the fact that we hold each other, you know, through this and, you know, there's time, so it's really tough. And, you know, where she gets down or I get down, and we sit there and, you know, and, and, you know, we're holding each other up. And, you know, we're praying for each other.

And, and just, you know, we're loving on each other. But she is just, I mean, she's just been amazing. I can't say I can't say enough good things, you know, just awesome things about my wife. And just in just how she has been there, because she's walked this. I mean, I've said it many times, I think I think it's tougher for her watching her husband, go through this than it is for me to physically go through it. Because she, you know, she's seen me, you know, in the hospital bed, she's seen me lose the weight, she knows what it's like to see me with, you know, like, say, with tubes hanging out of here, or, or seeing me hooked up to chemotherapy. And, you know, she's got to sit there and watch that.

But she's got to watch me go through that. And meanwhile, guess what, she's keeping a family together. She's got two kids. We've got two kids at home. But she's being mom, she's being nurse, she's being wife, you know, she's being, you know, caregiver, you know, everything.

And she is just she has just done it beautifully, beautifully. Okay, I love you, baby. Let's bring Scott in here. Scott, you're on Truth Talk Live with Stu Call from Arkansas. You're on the air with Michael Lovett.

Go ahead. Quick, Scott, come up on a break. Hey, Mike, it's Scott Brooks. How you doing?

Hey, Scott Brooks. Good. Just calling to say we're happy to hear things are going better for you. Well, I appreciate that.

And it's good to hear your voice. What's your connection? You guys know each other? Well, it's hard to believe we've done a Christian talk radio show.

We'd say that we're fraternity brothers. So Scott, it's great to talk to you. I'll catch you later. No, no, no. But seriously, Scott, it's, you know, it's awesome to be able to say that, you know, there's still there's still challenges in the neighborhood. There's, you know, they did find a few more spots. But you know what? We're encouraged and we're good here.

Scott, we want to hear your perspective about hearing all this. But hold on. Maybe we'll do it during the break. Everyone stay with us. We'll get we'll donate this whole live network break.

It'll be the Michael Lovett break. Hang on Truth Talk Live right here. Scott, a young man like you, you guys are frat brothers. What about this testimony? He's closer to Christ through all this. How can this be? What are your thoughts real quick, Scott?

Because we only have a little bit of time. Well, I mean, he's always been a great guy. And I mean, I don't think he's ever been that far away from Christ. So we went to a Christian school. So I know there was times when it probably wasn't always the Christian school it should have been. But I mean, we're never far away. Yeah, it's good to hear from a college buddy, isn't it?

Absolutely. You talked to a lot of people that really love you out there, Michael. Scott, God bless you, man. And I want to just throw out a plug, Mr. Shelton, to unsolicited, by the way, to Bayleaf Baptist Church. If you think there aren't any churches left that care about people that are going through difficult times, is that one of them? Bayleaf Baptist, huh? Bayleaf Baptist Church. Come and you'll hear the word of God proclaimed. Located where?

Because we're heard all over the world in this show. Where's it located? Possum Track Road, which is actually at the end of Sixth Forest Road.

Near Wake Forest, Raleigh, North Carolina. Hang on, more Truth Talk Live. We'll wrap it up after this. Almost out of time on Truth Talk Live. He's in his 30s and he got that phone call that no one wants to get. Michael Lovek, the doctor, called. You've got stage four colon cancer. Here we are, just over a year later, some massive surgeries, three or so.

He had a softball-sized tumor. You still have some. Where are you right now, Michael?

And then we want to take this other call. Someone wants to say a word of encouragement to you, but where are you real quick right now? You love the Lord.

You're excited about your walk with God, and that's what's been such a blessing to me. Physically, how can we pray for you real quick? Well, just physically, I mean, there's some more work to be done. A couple of spots were found to my lungs, to my liver when I was in the hospital with a couple of weeks ago.

But there's a strategy for fixing those. They're going to be able to go in and do some relations and some additional chemotherapy, but just pray that for nothing else to show up from a cancer standpoint and just pray that just continue to be obedient to the Lord and keep serving him. I say this is, we're here talking, but this is not about me. This is about God and what he's doing in my life and what he wants to do in everybody's life, in the relationship that he wants to have with them. Mr. Sheldon, you've seen a lot of people touch to this man. People have come to Christ.

Marriages have been healed because they've been watching him and how he's handled this. And they see a man. Tell us, who do you see now? Give us your quick, you know, your take away from the show. Practically out of time here.

Yeah. Well, first of all, I mean, people look at Michael and they see themselves and they say, what would I do and how would I respond if that was me? And they see that Michael has chosen to fall into the arms of Jesus. And so it has had a tremendous impact on everybody that's had the opportunity to, you know, to be around him and to see him. And as I say again, he is the strongest right now he's ever been. You know, we never know how long we might live.

We have a fallacy in the world that says that, you know, the quality of life has to do with longevity. Yeah. You know, we never know how long any of us are going to laugh. But I will tell you that Michael Lovek has had an impact in this world that would outstretch somebody that lived 100 years who didn't know Jesus Christ because he is a powerful, radiant witness of the majesty of Christ in someone's life. Nicole, you're going to have to take us home. You're on Truth Talk Live with Stu all year long. We've talked to Michael Lovek. His battle with cancer, his intimacy with Christ through this all God is so real and so close to him. His church, it's wrapped his arm around their arms around him. What do you say, Nicole, to Michael as we wrap up? Well, I just want to affirm what Mr. Shelton said.

I've seen Mike and Millie. I've been an onlooker through this journey, and they taught my daughter a two-year-old Sunday school class. And, you know, not only does the world watch Christians, but other Christians are watching how Christians handle adversity as well.

And their witness to even the believers in our church is beyond measure. And Michael, I just love you guys, and I thank you that you've just given us such an example of how to face such a tragic situation. Thanks, Nicole.

Hey, wow. What do you say, Mr. Shelton and Nicole, and everyone else listening out there, what should Sunday school teachers do when they get that phone call from Michael? This guy was in my class. Now he's in your class.

What do you do? Sunday school teachers? Well, first of all, you don't pontificate. You don't talk theology. You show up and say, I love you, man, and Christ is more than sufficient for what's going to happen, so let's just watch him work. Wow. Watch his body. Hey, Christ is real, and so is his body, the church.

God bless you. Hey, listen, everyone, make a comment on Michael. Go read this later, Michael, at truthtalklive.com, over there at the website. This is the Truth Network. One of our generous sponsors here at the Truth Network has come under fire.

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