Imagine that you are a 23-year-old newlywed just entering seminary and you find out that you have a rare form of cancer. Even worse, shortly after discovering the cancer, doctors tell you that you have between 18 and 24 months to live. What would you do?
Would you fall into an abyss of hopelessness asking God why and feeling sorry for yourself? Would you spend the rest of your life doing the things that you have always wanted to do? Or would you demonstrate your faith in God’s healing power and use your situation to glorify Him?
After being diagnosed with an unknown type of bone sarcoma tumor, Brady Hampton, originally from Cullman, chose to use his life and condition as a ministry tool to win more souls for Jesus Christ.
A few months before entering New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall of 2001, Hampton began having lower back and groin pains.
“I began to feel pain at the time, but being a guy and who I am I just didn’t want to go to the doctor,” said Hampton. “I pushed it aside and didn’t really think much about it. After we got to seminary, the pain progressively got worse.”
Thinking he had pulled a muscle and having poor insurance at the time, Hampton waited months before seeing a doctor. After obtaining a good insurance policy, magnetic resonance imaging (an MRI) of his lower back revealed no problems and Hampton was diagnosed with a pinched nerve.
“That was my biggest fear in the beginning that they weren’t going to find anything and it was going to progressively continue and I was going to have to go through the pain,” he said.
Soon after, Hampton was in so much pain that he had to leave his job at a preschool on the seminary campus to visit a chiropractor. During the examination, the chiropractor noticed that Hampton’s back was misaligned.
“They put my back in the right position and everything was coming along with that,” he said. “But they couldn’t do anything with my hip. They couldn’t move it.”
An MRI was ordered on his hip, but Hampton was informed on the day of the test that he would have to pay $1,000 before having the procedure, and the total would be around $2,500.
Since he didn’t have the money, Hampton asked his Old Testament class to pray for him and his situation. Miraculously, by 5:30 that afternoon, his classmates and professors had raised $670 to pay for the MRI.
Greater still, after hearing about the deed of his colleagues, the doctor agreed to take only the amount that was raised.
“It was really awesome how God was working in that situation,” said Hampton.
“I went back and gave Ken (the technician) a tract and I told him, ‘I could never repay you for what you guys have done but I can give you the best thing and that’s a relationship with Jesus Christ.’”
The MRI revealed a soft tissue mass that appeared to be a tumor. But in spite of a bone scan, another MRI, a CT chest scan and blood work, doctors still could not
identify the mass.
Give, receive treatment
“I was examined by a doctor from New Zealand,” Hampton said. “He said he had never seen anything like this before. It appeared that my hip was frozen.”
Although his condition was serious and uncertain, Hampton shared his faith with everyone in his path. He began to see that he was there not only to receive medical treatment from the nurses and doctors, but also to give them spiritual treatment from God.
“I was sharing my faith with everybody, even in the situation I was in with the pain and medication,” he said. “God has really given me a burden for that. It’s really incredible.”
After undergoing a bone biopsy, Hampton was told that he had an unknown type of sarcoma tumor that was so rare only 100 to 200 cases are detected every year in the United States.
He was informed that surgery was not an option without amputating everything from the waist down, since the cancer was in both sides of his pelvis.
Instead, his doctors prescribed 16 treatments of radiation that Hampton finished in June and a series of chemotherapy.
“[My wife Jennifer] and my family began to cry, and I began to cry there for a moment and the first thing that came out of my mouth is that my God is not going to let me down,” Hampton said. “From that point on, I just had a peace about it. I just knew that God was in control of that situation.”
Hampton began to share Romans 8:28 with his specialist. The Scripture states, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
Knowing His will
“I knew that I had been called to that purpose,” Hampton said. “I knew that He [God] was going to take care of me and my wife. Even before I was born, God knew that we were going to have to face this and God’s Word tells us that He is not going to give us anything we can’t handle.”
Since the beginning of this ordeal, Hampton has seen God perform miracles every day in his life.
Even though doctors told him that it would take about a week for him to see any results from the radiation treatments, he was walking better after only three days.
In addition to improvements in Hampton’s health, God has blessed him spiritually, emotionally and financially.
The chiropractor who initially decreased the charge of Hampton’s MRI totally disregarded his
expenses.
“We had a $700 bill and they wiped it clean,” he said. “They said we didn’t have to pay a dime of it. They even gave me an envelope that had a large amount of money in it to pay on our medical bills. “The guy who did the MRI on me still calls to check on me and they didn’t charge me anything.”
Since his diagnosis, Hampton has been sharing his story every time he gets the opportunity. He has delivered his testimony in various churches and will be conducting a Disciple Now seminar in the upcoming weeks.
“I preached at my home church, Center Grove Baptist Church in Cullman, a few weeks ago,” he said.
“The night before I got sick, that morning I was sick and I got to church and I was still sick. As soon as I stepped up to speak and to preach I felt fine. God delivered me through that time to speak His Word.
“Every time I get up to speak, I feel so refreshed and so renewed. That’s why I do it all the time because that’s when I feel my best.”
Although doctors have told Hampton that he has only 18 to 24 months to live, he keeps a positive outlook on his life. Two of his favorite Scriptures are 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 and James 1:2–3 which instruct Christians to be joyful and give thanks in the midst of adversity.
“I give thanks to God in this situation because I know it’s His plan for my life to serve Him in this manner and I accept that,” said Hampton.
“A lot of people would get angry at God or be negative, but I’m going to take this in a positive attitude and know that God is in control and give thanks to Him even in the good days and bad days. I’m just excited that God chose me for this path.”
Faith frightens doctors
Hampton has been so positive that his doctors called him back in to make sure he understood the seriousness of their prognosis.
“It doesn’t matter what they tell me because they’re not God,” he said. “I know that through my life God is going to display His powers among the people, He’s going to perform a miracle in my life and He’s going to heal me. I just have an ultimate peace about it and nobody can change that.”
Hampton and his family are looking forward to receiving experimental drug treatment from M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, that has never been used on his type of sarcoma.
Meanwhile, he and his family are praying for and expecting their miracle.
“Jennifer and I and God made a commitment to see this thing through to the end,” he said. “If we’re faithful in spending time in God’s Word and spending time on our knees, I know God’s going to be faithful in blessing us and honoring that.”
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