Exhaustion, pain and hospital food make an unpleasant trio — one that Phyllis and Andy Holland know all about.
The couple became well acquainted with the three in 2004 when Andy spent more than 120 days next to Phyllis’ bed at UAB Hospital in Birmingham while she underwent treatment for two types of leukemia.
But they didn’t know that the experience would give their whole family, as well as their church, a new avenue for ministry.
Once diagnosed, the doctors’ prognosis was not good for Phyllis, a member of Cahaba View Baptist Church, Leeds, in Birmingham Baptist Association.
According to them, she had only 30 days to live.
Phyllis was in and out of intensive care units and endured intensive chemotherapy. She lost her hair, was constantly throwing up and completely lost her appetite.
It got Phyllis’ attention.
“I told God that I was not ready to die,” she said, thinking of her two young grandchildren.
Phyllis didn’t give up. She began recalling what she had learned in the Christian home in which she grew up — that God can do anything. She knew He could save her.
Eventually the doctors declared that her leukemia had gone into remission. Phyllis prefers to say God healed her.
During the weeks she was in the hospital, Phyllis’ son Steven and daughter-in-law Amanda were volunteering at The American Cancer Society’s Joe Lee Griffin Hope Lodge in Birmingham, which offers free housing for cancer patients and their families during the course of treatment to reduce travel and lodging expenses.
“My family encouraged me to help out there once I was healed,” Phyllis said of the Hope Lodge. “And when I did, I fell in love.”
One night a month since 2005, the Holland family, under the group name The Praying Cooks, has prepared meals for and conversed with the patients and their families.
“We were led to this ministry from our own experience of what each of these people are going through,” Phyllis said. “Sometimes we must walk in the very shoes of the role that God is going to use us in later.”
While she can relate to the patients, her family can relate to the caregivers. And everyone has a significant role. Andy is the main cook. Steven leads everyone in prayer and preaches a sermon. Phyllis and Amanda bring words of comfort as they sit at the tables of the guests while they eat. Members of Phyllis’ church family also volunteer at Hope Lodge.
“We have people ask us how we can be so strong,” said Jim Davis, pastor of Cahaba View Baptist. “They see our faith and it encourages them to know that there is a God, there is a higher power, and they can see God and know there is hope.”
Phyllis, who is doing well and has gone back to work, and the other volunteers have one goal in ministering to the sick and their families. If nothing else, they want to show them love and that they are there for them, praying for them and holding their hand.
“You’ve got to have faith, and you’ve got to hold on to Him no matter what the doctors tell you,” Phyllis noted, because “God can do anything.”
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