My name is Jamie Navarre and I am 34 years old. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in November 2010. On my last visit with Sister Dulce, we talked about being a witness and how I needed to approach my generation a little differently. I thought long and hard about how the Lord might be working with me instead of asking, “Why me?” I asked myself, “What is he using me for?” I knew that there had to be a reason why He chose me at this point in my life to be put in this situation. After speaking to two friends, without telling them of my thoughts about the Lord using me in a positive way, they both spoke about my exact thoughts.
A benefit was held for me at the end of January. After the benefit, I gave thanks and explained my spiritual experience as a post on Facebook. I received over 100 replies to my post, and at least that many more had read it. This all comes back to finding new ways to reach the younger generation. The younger generation is easily overwhelmed, so a subtle approach, in my opinion, would be more effective. Because the event was promoted on Facebook, I knew people who attended the event would heck my Facebook page. With 1500 people in attendance, I figured the day after would be my chance to express how I feel and have everyone’s attention.
This was my post on Facebook: “I look at my situation as a blessing. God has given me a chance to appreciate life to the fullest, I wake up every morning and thank Him for one more day and do the same at night. None of us are promised tomorrow! I hated going to work for 15 years, and now I smile all day because I sit next to people in the chemo room who can’t go to work, so I feel blessed. God has given me a chance to make our relationship stronger. And He has chosen to use me as a tool to help spread His love. People I know that didn’t pray, now pray. People that didn’t go to church, now go. Even if it is only a few, it doesn’t matter. Fifteen hundred people came together in an act of charity and hopefully came away with a good feeling. Some people had never even laid eyes on me before. Hopefully, they know now what that feeling was about. It is about God putting love in their hearts. I will never, ever be able to repay their kindness, so I will fight every to try to show that they made a difference. I will fight to show that God can work miracles, and, if He doesn’t choose to cure me, that you will look back at my journey and you will see that He was with me the whole time, carrying me. No matter what His choice, He has made me a better man and you can’t ask for more than that!
Jamie