Despite Metastatic Breast Cancer, This Missionary Returned to Serve in Kenya
Nate and Kim seemed the perfect missionary candidates. They were both committed believers and physicians, Nate, an internist specializing in HIV, and Kim, an obstetrician. They moved to Kenya to serve in a hospital in Kijabe. The adoptive parents of four children, they eventually came back to the States on their first furlough.
That’s when Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer, says the couple’s friend, general surgeon Dr. Charles Page, on the “Hope Through Cancer” series on Charisma News. “So there they were … they had given their life to the Lord to serve people. And come to find out that after she finished her treatment, we found out that Kim had metastatic breast cancer. The cancer went to her bone.
“So they were faced with this dilemma. … So after a lot of prayer, Nate and Kim decided to go back to Africa and continue to serve.
“Kim basically said, ‘Well, I’m going to have cancer over here or over there. Why not go … and do what I’m called to do?'” explains Page.
That was 14 years ago. “Through the process of looking upward and looking outward, God healed her,” says Page. “There is no other medical explanation other than God intervened and met them with their needs as they stepped out and just continued serving other people like they had always done.”
Page says for cancer patients, it often “seems like God is distant. But He’s not.” His book, A Spoonful of Courage for the Sick and Suffering, encourages readers that “God’s going to see them through their difficult times and can give them what they need when they need it.”
To hear more inspiring stories like this one, check out Dr. Page’s book and the podcast included with this article!
