Iowa pastor Dave Miller, president of last year’s Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, has reported he is “on the recovery trail” after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his kidney June 26.
|
BP File photo Dave Miller, presiding at last year’s Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference in Phoenix, underwent surgery for kidney cancer June 26. |
Miller, senior pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, underwent surgery to remove his gall bladder and spleen on May 3, when the tumor was discovered. His wife Jeni also underwent surgery to remove a growth on her thyroid that turned out to be cancerous.
The tumor on his kidney, as assessed by a specialist, was “small, found early, and … my chances of full cure ranged in the neighborhood of 99%,” Miller recounted in an Aug. 13 blog post at the SBC Voices website he edits.
As summed up by Miller “… in the space of two months, we had three surgeries to remove two organs and treat two cancers…. This has been a tough year – 6 months of illness, more pain than I can imagine, and the challenge of a mountain of medical bills.”
Yet, he noted, “God has walked us through this and we are blessed.”
One of the writers at SBC Voices, Brent Hobbs, lead pastor of New Song Fellowship in Virginia Beach, Va., initiated a GoFundMe account that raised about $5,750 toward the Millers’ medical bills.
And, Miller noted, “I saw two doctors, neither of whom are believers, talk about how amazed they were at the way that my surgeries went. When I told them that people all over the country were praying for them, they looked a little uncomfortable, but I had to give credit where credit was due. Both of them did a great job (and I told them that), but I believe they had some help!”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Reprinted from Baptist Press, baptistpress.com, news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.)