The Village

Danny and I attend church at The Village Church in Flower Mound, or Dallas (depending on our travels after church lately). We are not what you would consider "covenant" members  of the church but it is definitely "our church." One of our goals for the year has been to attend church every weekend and so far...so good. =)We love going to the Village and we love Pastor Matt Chandler.  "Chandler" if you will is a young 35 year old who started his teaching/preaching/yelling in good ol' abilene. I was first introduced to his teachings through Grace Bible Study in Abilene at the Paramount in downtown every tuesday night my freshman year of college. Even then, like the rest of the college kids there, i was immediately drawn to how he preached.

Little did i know that almost 8 years later he would be the preacher of over  6,000 people (this includes danny & i), and  lets not forget about the HUGE percentage of people who listen to his sermons online world wide. I know most people who go to church usually do love their preacher, so on that note this blog is not to brag about matt chandler even though we seem to think he's pretty amazing and believe everyone should come visit our church but...i really wanted to write a blog about what is actually going on with Matt Chandler at this moment.

The past Thanksgiving, Chandler had a seizure. There in his living room on thanksgiving day in front of his wife and 3 kids (ages 7, 4, and newborn). He immediately was rushed to the hospital, to only learn that he had a small mass on his frontal lobe. This later was diagnosed as brain cancer, he has a tumor in his brain that is not contained...meaning it has branches meaning its spreading. Theres another really long technical word to describe his type of cancer but i'll spare you the 17 letter long name. His tumor is a grade 3. Grade 4 being the most aggressive type of cancer.  After learning this, he immediately had surgery to remove as much as they could, however since this type of tumor has those branches I was talking about...it is very likely another one will grow in its place.

Long story short, Chandler has been doing radiation and chemo for 6 weeks now...tonight being his last night.  the life expectancy of this disease, diagnoses, tumor whatever you want to call it is 2 to 3 years. Chandler is 35 years old, married with 3 children including a newborn and has reached probably millions through his teachings and.... he has brain cancer. On a more inspiring note... He has not suffered from one negative side effect from the chemo or radiation. he is bald. since the seizure and surgery he has preached every weekend except for 2 services and most importantly he is "suffering well."

 Recently, Eric Gorski from the Associated Press, wrote an article about Matt Chandler and his suffering, it was covered globally. It was on the front page of Yahoo.  I want to encourage you to read it. Also, if you want...every Friday Pastor Chandler post a video from his home updating and encouraging his church.

Heres the link to the article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_on_re/us_rel_the_pastor_s_cancer_1

as for now this blog is...to be continued.