‘Coming to America saved my life’
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as you love yourself” – Jesus (Parable of the Good Samaritan)
A friend said she thought of me last fall while she prayed for a young Ugandan mother with breast cancer.
“I think you’re supposed to meet her.”
She wasn’t free to say the woman’s name but compassion flooded through me and I felt our paths would cross.
Jhanet Sebunya was introduced at IRMC’s breast cancer support group in November, invited by a member into our fold. We learned she’d planned to come to IUP and work as a graduate assistant to pay for tuition. Then, last August, a week before leaving Uganda, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
That changed everything.
“Coming to America saved my life,” she says. Cancer is basically a death sentence in her country, so it’s vital she retains her student visa and continues her treatments here.
“My name’s Janet, too,” I told her that night. “I’ve prayed for you without knowing your name. I think we’re supposed to meet.”
I told her we had adopted a Kenyan family as our own and she said wistfully, “I wish someone would adopt me . . .”
I’ve since learned more of Jhanet’s story. Her mother died when she was six; her elderly father had other wives and children; she felt orphaned most of her life. She’s now married with a son, almost three. Her husband is visiting right now but will soon return to Uganda to his job; her little boy is staying here with his mama.
Jhanet hopes to earn a degree in non-profit management and return to Uganda to help address extreme poverty. First though, she needs to recover. IUP helped her connect with Indiana Regional Medical Center and the local Hillman Cancer Center. They immediately began to aggressively treat tumors in both breasts. Unfortunately, chemo made her nauseated and weak, which are ongoing problems.
With her gentle ways, she is a magnet to other women who encircle and support her, including one kind lady who invited Jhanet into her home to recover following a double mastectomy in February. The good news is that her first round of treatments eliminated all the original tumors. The not-so-good news is that two malignant lymph nodes were discovered.
I’ve tried to be there for her since we met; now Jhanet is here for me – a fierce prayer warrior, encouraging me to trust God even as she continues to feel nauseated from chemo.
She’s amazed at American kindness and generosity. The Refugee Working Group of Indiana, St. Vincent dePaul, CMA Church and others have stood with her. Now she has a God-sized problem that will take a miracle to resolve. She owes the university for tuition and as I understand it, can only resume classes if an enormous debt of $16,000 is paid. Too weak to tackle a full schedule of classes again next fall, she plans to take a medical leave for a year to complete chemo and radiation treatments.
*****
Someone asked me on Good Friday how I approach advanced cancer. I’m embraced by thousands of prayers, a healing God, a wounded, risen Savior, and a great medical team. The Easter season is about resurrection power—the Bible says the same dynamite power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us who love Him. (Romans 8:11)
I responded that God has a plan for me and equips me through grace to fulfill it. Part of that plan is to complete a few books and to love on people, including Jhanet. I believe He’ll keep us both around until our earthly assignments are complete. I’ve prayed this verse for my children and now claim it for Jhanet and me: “… He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6 NIV)
Jesus tells a story that has profoundly influenced my life about the Good Samaritan, who assisted an injured stranger while others passed by. The example of this foreigner, a despised Samaritan, inspires us to see the stranger in our midst and be the helping hands of Christ.
Jhanet’s friends have established a GoFundMe page, to enable her to complete her classes when she is healthy. If you feel nudged to help, please visit Jhanet Sebunya’s GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/cancer-care-for-jhanet? or contact me personally for details. Every single gift will help; I’m prayerfully asking some readers to make sizable donations.
With God’s help and ours, I trust my newest African daughter will heal, live to raise her child and be a Good Samaritan to others in Uganda, fulfilling His purposes for her.
All will be well.
Women who have lived with cancer are welcome to the IRMC Breast Cancer Support Group, which meets 6 pm, the fourth Thursday of the month in the Women’s Imaging Center. Contact Dena at ddiehl@indianarmc.org for more information.
Texting Thru Recovery/Indiana Gazette
