In the second of a two part interview, Heather Bellamy spoke with her mother-in-law, Viv Bellamy, about her 25 year battle with cancer



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I cannot know the way that lies before me
I still can trust and freely follow His commands
My faith is firm so it's He that watches o'er me
Of this I'm confident I'm in His hands

In days gone by my Lord has always proved sufficient
When I have yielded to the law of love's demands
Why should I doubt that He would ever more be present
To make His will my own I'm in His hands.

I don't know what the future is; all I know is that I'm in His hands. The present at the moment, the breast cancer is there again, along with the ovarian. The breast cancer is in the bone cancer in my leg, but I know that my hope is in God, I'm in His hands. My hope is in God, it's not in my healing, because my healing might fail me, but God will never fail me. He's always there and that's the most important for me. Life is precious; live life. Every morning I wake up I choose life; I choose life because it's a precious gift from God. If we just give it to Him He'll do it. He promises that we will have trouble, but He promises us that He will never leave us or forsake us and He has never left me. I know that I'm in His hands. Whatever the future holds His blessings are abundant and the future is in His hands. That for me is the most important thing. That's the love of God, the love of a Father. I may have cancer in my life; the world calls it the big C; but hey I've got an even bigger C in my life and that is Christ. Cancer might have my body but Christ has my life and I know that in Him I am fulfilled.

Heather: You found out a couple of weeks ago what your name means, which is quite profound when we've just been hearing your entire story from your birth through to your cancer. Can you just share that?

Viv: It was amazing because I looked it up and it means LIFE! How awesome is that Heather, right up to today. From 71 years ago when I was born early to find out today my name means life.

Heather: The way you choose life every day is quite awesome isn't it, in terms of how you serve Cross Rhythms and other people; designing books or designing brochures and all that while contending with your health. Just tell us about your approach to life.

Viv: My approach is that I know that on my own I can't do it. When something comes to me I may not understand, but I know no different than to place it in God's hands and say God I don't understand this, but I know that you will take it on board and He does and it's awesome the way that He reveals. You think, 'Oh I know how to do this', then all of a sudden you've given it to God and He comes up with a totally different way and you think, 'I would never of thought that way', but it works out so much better. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.