Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Photo by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
MEET GARY Anglin, a man who by the grace of God conquered cancer. Gary is the praise and worship leader of the 25,000-member Christian Cultural Centre Church in Brooklyn, New York.
He was in Jamaica as part of a team from his church that spent a week here doing ministry mostly in the Bamboo area of St. Ann. The team returned to the United States earlier this week.
Gary joined the church in 1989. He was at the time an accountant at the United Nations. He got laid off in 1992 and his senior pastor, Rev. A.R. Bernard invited him to join the staff of the church's music ministry. That same year he had his first major health crisis.
In 1992, he suffered a stroke which resulted in his left side becoming paralysed. The stroke also retarded his speaking ability. The doctors estimated that it would take years for him to recover. Within a week he was healed.
Then in 1994, Gary had a heart attack. His five-foot, six-inch frame was carrying too much weight and he was not eating properly. As he recovered the singer resolved to eat properly. He became a vegetarian and remains one to this day.
He stressed, "When God heals us, we have to maintain our healing. That means we have to take care of our temple, we have to eat right, we have to take care of our bodies. God heals for a purpose."
But the big crisis arrived in 1999. In that year he was diagnosed with liver cancer. "Where that came from, I don't know. Usually people have liver cancer from drinking. I never used to drink. When that happened I panicked. I got mad at God. Why is this happening to me"
Furthermore, his ministry was just taking off and now he had to deal with cancer. He cried.
Then his attention was drawn to Isaiah chapters 53 and 55. In particular, he was drawn to Isaiah 53:5 which states, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." He decided to place his health in God's hand and resolved to say out loud that verse everyday until his healing came. He modified the verse slightly. Instead of "and with his stripes we are healed." He recited "And with his stripes Gary is healed."
Gary kept the cancer a secret even from his wife, Carol. After a while Carol realised he was sick, but she had no idea of the extent.
He kept his illness a secret because he did not want people treating him differently. "I did not want anyone to come and say 'Gary I am praying for you.' Because nine times out of 10, they forget. So now I say if anyone wants to pray for me, pray for me now."
RADIATION TREATMENT
He went for radiation treatment once. It left him feeling so horrible, he resolved not to return. The doctors warned him saying he would die if he did not resume the treatment. Gary responded saying that if he is to die because he refuses radiation that is fine with him as he is secure in knowing what his eternal destiny would be.
He went about his normal activities as usual. He felt horrible physically many times, but he bore the discomfort and did his work.
All this time, as a praise and worship leader he was telling people that God is a healer, God is a deliverer, God is a rewarder. Before the cancer, these expressions were just clichés. But these affirmations came alive to him and he really began to believe what he had been telling people all along.
"Now I had to stand on the Word for myself. So I had to believe God for myself. The Scripture came to me everyday until it became rhema in my spirit i.e. it became alive in me, and that is when the healing process came.
"After five months, I was still going through the agony, but I still had a smile on my face. About the seventh month I began to feel a little better, but I was still uncomfortable. In the ninth month I started to feel like my old self."
In the ninth month, he went back to the doctor for some tests. Three days later when the tests results were in, the doctors called him. They wanted him to redo the tests.
He asked what was wrong. They replied saying they can't find any sign of cancer. Gary responded saying "Praise God." He kept returning for tests every three months and the results were the same no cancer.
After that visit to the doctors where he first heard the news that there was no sign of cancer, he finally told his wife the whole story. She cried and was mad at him for not telling her sooner. Then he went public with his story. It has now become a staple in his ministry as a praise and worship leader. He said praising and worshipping God has taken on new significance.
Another reason he was confident he was going to defy death when the cancer arrived, was that he had a prophecy on his life. He had received a prophecy that stated that he would be doing ministry all over the United States and at the time the cancer came, that prophecy had not yet been fulfilled. So he knew death had to wait until the prophecy came to pass.
As he goes around the United States doing ministry, Gary, who is also a recording artiste, tells persons living with cancer to trust God for their healing. For those who have less faith than himself, he says to them, trust God and stay on medication.
He said he has received lots of reports of people who took his advice and who have themselves experienced healing.
Gary stressed that it is important to maintain a worshipful attitude every day and especially so during personal crisis. Worship, he said, "is the act and attitude of wholeheartedly giving ourselves to God - our body, our soul and our spirit. We worship God not for what it does for Him, but for what His response does for us."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Gary Anglin may be reached at ganglin@cccinfo.org.
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mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
