When Pastor Leon Freitag was first told on April 5, 2014 that he had pleural mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, he resigned himself to the fact that his days were numbered.
"The doctor told me to gather my family, because I had 12 to 18 months to live," Freitag told Charisma News. "According to the doctor, I had no hope of survival."
Freitag has been the superintendent of the North Dakota District Council of the Assemblies of God since 1999. After being diagnosed with the sickness, he devoted what little time he had left to God and His work.
He told Assemblies of God ministers and members that God is going to work out a miracle on him, and he urged others to view his suffering as a lesson. "My heart aches because we don't see many miracles in our churches anymore," he told them. "If I have to walk through this valley in order to stir up faith to believe in a miracle, it's worth it."
Freitag also accepted the fact that although God does perform miracles on the sick, He does not always heal them. Still, one of Freitag's sons sought out the nation's foremost mesothelioma specialist, who practiced medicine in Boston.
The specialist doctor had a six-month waiting list, but thanks to a lot of prayers, the doctor decided to see Freitag in a week. He confirmed that there was no hope for Freitag to recover, but he could help extend his life, so he offered some medication. At the very best, they could hope for the tumour to shrink by 40 percent.
Even though the chemo treatments were very taxing, Freitag bravely endured it, all the while committing to his administrative duties. But for eight months, he was rendered too weak to preach or travel.
Things took a turn for the worse when the doctor told Freitag that he had to undergo surgery to remove dangerous tumours on his lung. Freitag's wife Dianne never lost her faith in God despite this ordeal, and even told doctors and nurses: "We're praying people, and we believe that when the surgeon opens my husband up, that you'll find that God was already there."
Dianne's words proved to be prophetic. When the surgeon opened up the pastor, he discovered that the tumours inside Freitag had all shrivelled up and died in just one day. In all of his years treating mesothelioma, the specialist said he had never seen such quick and extraordinary disappearance of tumours, and he was dumbfounded.
Now, Freitag is back to work preaching and traveling after being declared totally cancer-free. "I'm so humbled by what God did," Freitag said. "I now view every day as a gift. It's changed me from the inside out. When you're sick, you don't care where you live, what you drive, or about your job title. I've rearranged my schedule so that I spend more time with family and with my pastors."
