Cancer Left Her Emotionally Dead, But God Brought Her Back to Life

“Everything that breathed in my house was gone in a matter of months,” Lynne Alfe said.  “Depression was horrible. I was beginning to see my coffin. I was beginning to see an early grave. I was beginning to see the end is near.”

Lynne lived a joyful life with her husband, Mike, in the home they’d built together. That was until a series of heartbreaking news began following her.

“I got a phone call from my doctor,” Lynne said. “He tells me, ‘I'm really sorry, but your test results show that you have lymphoma.’ And I'm sorry, but there is no cure for lymphoma.’”

Lynne battled her cancer while leaning on her husband for strength. Then one day while Mike was away on a fishing trip, she received a surprise visit from a coroner.

“He asked me my husband's name,” Lynne recalled. I told him, ‘He’s not here, he's on a fishing trip.’ And he just looked at me, didn't say a word, and it took a moment before I realized that he wasn't asking to speak with my husband, but he was notifying me that my husband passed. That was like having the world pulled out from under me. I felt like I was just falling in this endless pit, and suddenly I'm all alone and I'm dealing with cancer. I was watching my life go downhill, every shoe that dropped was another nail in my coffin. I was planning my own funeral.”

Lynne struggled with severe depression for months after, all the while her cancer worsened. She knew that God existed but didn’t think he would answer her prayers. Despite this, she still called out to him.

“I had nowhere to turn, I had nothing, I was sinking,” Lynne said.  “I was barely able to keep my head above water at this point. I sat in the corner of my sofa crying, and I looked up in the sky, and I said, ‘God, is anything good ever going to happen in my life again, or have I seen the best that there is? Is it all downhill from here?’ And it was a couple of days later when I had a friend call me and ask me if I wanted to go to church with her.”

For the first time since she was a child, Lynne hesitantly agreed to go to church. What she encountered there surprised her.

“It was full of joy and people singing loudly, and I thought, ‘Well, this isn't church like I remember church,’” Lynne said. “I heard my pastor talk about Jesus in a way I never knew. It was the first time that Jesus seemed real to me. I left there with hope for the first time in probably forever. I don't know the last time I had hope, and I thought, ‘I need to come back and learn more.’”

With each service Lynne attended, she felt her depression lessen. Instead of despair, her heart was now filling with happiness even as her cancer progressed. Then, after one particular service, she felt the urge to answer an altar call and have someone pray for her.

“I stepped up, and I had no intention of doing this, but she asked me what was going on with me, and I just let it all out,” Lynne said “I told her about the death, the destruction, the disease, the depression. Everything just came out. And then she said, ‘Can I pray for you?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ I had no idea that prayer was real. That prayer that I said on my couch, I didn't know that God heard that. I didn’t know that He answered prayers. So, she laid her hands on me, and she prayed a healing prayer for the cancer. And then she stepped back after a few minutes. She said, ‘Would you like to accept Jesus as your Savior? And I said, ‘Yeah.’ This is the one thing I remember her saying that I will never, ever forget. I know it came from the Lord. She said, ‘God lives inside of you now, cancer can't live where God lives, so you go home, and you thank God every day for your healing.’ And that was like a life raft that I clung on to.”

Lynne continued to claim victory over her cancer in faith. By the time she went to the hospital for her next scan, she knew what the outcome would be.

“The CT technician says, ‘So, you're here for your lymphoma scan?’ I said, yeah, but you're not going to find any cancer in there anymore. God lives inside of me, and cancer can't live where God lives.’  “She looked at me like I was crazy,” Lynne said. “I didn't care. I was ready to witness. I was like, ‘I know I'm healed.’ I had that scan, and the next day I came back to get the test results from the doctor. He looked at my scans, and looked at my old scans, my blood tests. He looked at everything, and he turned around and looked at me. He said, ‘There's no sign of cancer in your test results.’ Hallelujah! I knew it, I knew it, I knew that I was healed. This was a miracle. It was all God. There was no treatment. The doctor couldn't explain it. Only God could do something like this.”

Wanting to grow more in her knowledge of The Lord, Lynne attended and graduated from Bible college. Today, she is part of the healing ministry at her church. There continues to be no signs of cancer on any of her health screenings, and God has filled the void left by the loss of her husband.

“God heals broken hearts,” Lynne said. “And that's what He did for me. He healed my broken heart. He changed my life entirely. I am not the same person. I can look back now at my pre-saved life and not be sad. I can have memories without the sadness. I can remember my husband without the sadness. God healed more than just sickness, He healed my soul. He gave me a brand-new life.”