CANCER...AND HOW I FOUGHT AGAINST IT.

My wife Blanquita and I were waiting for the physician to step inside the room.  The silence was deafening, the seconds seemed like hours.  The physician walks in and mentions the word cancer.  From there on everything becomes a blur.  I felt as if Muhammad Ali had caught me with a solid punch in the abdomen and all the oxygen left your lungs.  I believe most people see cancer as being synonymous with death.  Cancer is a word that no one wants to hear especially if the physician is staring at you.  As a missionary in Juarez, Mexico I usually write about the experiences in Juarez and other cities that I may travel to in Mexico.  But in this blog entry I feel it necessary to speak about my experience with cancer.  I hope that many will benefit from this story.  Whether  you've have cancer or some other unexpected monster has come to kill, steal, or destroy my desire is for you to find peace in the middle of the storm and joy in the midst of tears.

First and foremost I want to state that this is not about me.  It is all about God (Jehovah God) and His Kingdom.  When you're a child of God it's never about you.  So DON'T make it about you.  Fortunately when I was diagnosed with cancer I was as ready as anyone could be because I have been serving Jesus for 40 years.  I have spoken about trust and faith in God an untold number of times in my life.  And I still speak it.  Nevertheless, when the word cancer was first mentioned to me and the wind was knocked out of me I felt the punch in my stomach.  I was stunned.  It's a human reaction.  For a few minutes I felt myself losing balance, even though I was sitting down, but then I regained it.  I remembered again who I was.  I'm a child of God.  Worst case scenario is that if I die I will be immediately escorted into God's holy presence by His angels.  But my conviction was that death was not an option for me because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God's plan for me on this Earth was not over yet.  God still has many things that I must do for His Kingdom before that great and glorious day.  There was no other option but to fight this thing.  Yes, I knew that the fight was on, and that fighting was what God wanted me to do.  I remember saying in my thoughts to God, "We got this, God".  I took a real deep breath of air, re-filled my lungs, and regained my composure.  And the fight was on.  But Jesus was going to fight for me.  All I needed was faith.  Mountain moving faith.    

I had served just over 7 years as a missionary in Juarez without medical insurance.  Once I got medical insurance I went through a series of tests and on November 13, 2018 I was told that I definitely had colon cancer.  One week after that my wife Blanquita and I were to leave for Puerto Rico to visit my family.  The doctor spoke about another series of medical exams that needed to be started and he hoped that I would cancel the trip to Puerto Rico.  But I quickly decided that the exams can wait until we got back.  So off to Puerto Rico we went.  I was so sure that this would only be a temporary setback that without much thought I decided that I would not tell anyone about the cancer.  My family in Puerto Rico were not told, churches in Mexico that we minister at were not told, even my 3 precious daughters were not told.  I didn't want to upset them or cause them needless worry.  Someday when this was over they would be told.  But not now.  We went to Puerto Rico for 3 weeks and had the time of our lives.  It was beautiful and wonderful.  Then back home to start  chain of medical exams while still ministering in Juarez.  

For a month and a half I went through all kinds of exams.  Some, I have no idea what they were or what they were called.  But it was around $30,000 worth of exams.  

Here was my secret:  During that whole time I never lost sight of Jesus, my healer.  Sickness is not from God.  Sickness is an attack of Satan.  On the cross Jesus paid for your healing just as much as he paid for your salvation (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:21-25).  If you can believe Jesus for salvation, you can believe Him for your healing.  You MUST understand that.  Satan wants you to take your eyes away from God and once you do that you fall into his trap.  He is a deceiver and a liar, the father of lies (John 8:44).  Jesus called Peter out into the waters (Matthew 14:25-31).  Peter started walking on water but then the storm came.  The storm (your sickness, your trial, your finances, your problem) is a trick of Satan to take your eyes away from God and unto your issues.  Don't fall for Satan's old trick!  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..." (Hebrews 12:2).  "Fix" means that you lock in your eyes on Him and no matter what Satan does (the storms, the attacks, the sickness) you never take them away from Jesus.  Satan used FEAR to cause Peter to look away.  Fear is one of Satan's favorite weapons.  Jesus told Peter not to fear before he got out of the boat.  When Peter began to sink (are you sinking?) Jesus reached out to pull him up out of the water and asked him, "Why did you doubt?"  Fear and doubt.  Beware of those two weapons of Satan.  After I was diagnosed with cancer I knew that I had a giant on front of me that had to be destroyed.  And I knew that the Word of God was my weapon of warfare.  Please, please read Ephesians 6:12-18.  You'll notice that we are given many articles of armor that are for our defense, but only one for the offense.  And that is our sword...the word of God.  If you want to push Satan back and destroy his works through Jesus (1 John 3:8) you MUST have God's sword (His word) in hand.  

Fear will destroying you.  Fear cannot co-exist with faith.  Fear will always rob you of your faith.  Fear is not of God.  But without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).  So you either have fear, or you have faith.  Faith will trump fear.  An entire army of powerful, seasoned, well armed warriors who had God on their side were shaking in their boots over one man (1 Samuel chapter 17).  Fear paralyzed them.  The man's name was Goliath.  And who cares if Goliath was a giant?  Is Goliath bigger than God?  Suddenly I had a giant in front of me and it's name was cancer.  Is cancer bigger than God?  Following the cancer diagnosis I read this story in 1 Samuel 17 almost daily.  The word of God builds faith, and removes fear.  I knew that the Goliath in front of me was going down.  The army was paralyzed with fear and a young boy comes into the picture.  David was fearless because he had a testimony.  And we also overcome Satan by our testimony (Revelation 12:11).  David had an experience with a bear and a lion and he had killed them both with God's help.  And whereas King Saul and his men had forgotten all the past victories that God had given them, little David used the victories God had given him to his benefit.  He knew God had rescued him in the past and that God never changes.  God will fight for him again.  It doesn't matter how small or how weak you are, faith is powerful and it's all you need to destroy your giant enemy.  God put stories like this in His word to give us spiritual lessons, not just because they are great stories.  

Something else that I did immediately after being diagnosed with cancer was to increase my time of worship to God.  Remember that Satan wants you to take your eyes away from God.  Worship will increase your focus on God.  So you're causing Satan's schemes to backfire on him.  You're letting God know that no matter what happens in your life that you will always be faithful to Him and that you will always love Him and worship Him.  And you're also sending  Satan a message that he failed in his plans.  Don't ever give Satan the victory.  Many people look for God's hands, what God can give them.  They only remember God when they need something.  Once the need is met God is forgotten again.  But we look for God's countenance, His face, His beauty and His love.  If God never did anything for us He is still God and worthy of our love, and worthy of praise and worship.  But we still know that God's great love causes Him to give us what we need.  Satan had to ask God's permission to put me through this test.  And it gave me a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to prove my love for God.  Because I worshiped Him regardless.  The giant in front of me wasn't going to keep me from worshiping my God.  Please read the book of Job.  If nothing else, read chapters 1,2, and 42.  Nothing that we go through can compare to what Job went through.  Besides Jesus, no man has ever suffered as Job suffered.  Yet he dropped to his knees and worshiped God in the midst of his grief.  And Job's reward was beyond measure.  Still, we don't do it for rewards, but it pleases God to reward to His children.  

DECEMBER 2018

Now for a quick wrap-up of my adventure.  While going through the many exams that I was put through and the visits with 4 different doctors and surgeons I kept the faith, the joy of God, and worship.  I also continued my work as a missionary in Juarez.  At one time I had cancer in two areas of the colon and the cancer had spread to three places in the liver.  The surgeons advised me that they would operate and leave a colostomy bag on my left side.  The prayers, the worship, the faith, and other exams continued.  Eventually the cancer in the liver vanished and along with that talk of a colostomy bag ceased.  One of the areas of cancer in the colon was removed by colonoscopy.    But surgery was required to remove a  colon mass on my right side.  I had surgery on January 30 and a mass the size of a fist was removed.  But the biopsy came back as benign.  I was in the hospital for 3 days and when I left the surgeon gave me a prescription to fill on my way home for an opioid painkiller.  While driving home my wife Blanquita asked me what pharmacy I wanted to go to.  I told her that we were going straight home because the pain was minor.  I threw away the prescription.  Two days after leaving the hospital I let my daughters and my family know about the cancer experience.  Of course they were very upset because I didn't tell them initially.  But they are all fine after the initial shock and everything is great with the world.  Looking back it was all a blessing because I've grown even more in my God experience and I feel Him closer than ever before.  And that's worth it to me.  After my three and a half month ordeal with doctors and hospitals I am cancer free.  Glory be to His wonderful name!

My prayer is that you who are reading this will be victorious in all your trials. You can do it with God's help.

Please share this with those who are facing giants in their lives.  

Daniel Torres

12397 Chamberlain Drive

El Paso, Texas 79928
501-827-7679

Please contact me with any questions, prayer requests, or how to donate to the missions work in Juarez, Mexico.  Much help is needed. Currently we have a huge challenge to raise $48,000 for property to house and feed orphans as well as helping those coming out of human trafficking. The property will be used for other ministries/outreaches as well. 

Please send me your comments.