Nabeel Qureshi, the popular Christian evangelist who revealed eight days ago he has stage-four stomach cancer, is praying for a miracle so he can continue with God's work in the world.
A convert from Islam, he says he was already being told: "People are saying: 'Look at Nabeel, he left Islam and because of that, Allah has cursed him.'"
This diagnosis came on exactly the 11th anniversary of his accepting Christ.
"I have spent a lot of time in prayer. A lot of time in prayer... just asking God, pleading with God to not take me away from my wife and from my daughter, to not undo the work that's been done," he says. "I knew I needed a miracle. I know still that I need a miracle," he says in his first vlog about his illness.
"This is kind of a scary disease in so far as nobody saw it coming, not even my doctor.
"So back in December I started getting a little bit of indigestion."
He did not regard this as a big deal and took some tablets to ease the discomfort.
A few months later, the pain started to get worse. He went to see a doctor who gave him some more pills and told him to return in a month if they did not work.
"I was studying for exams which you were praying for, thank you so much for praying for my exams, they went very well."
The pain was still there so he decided to return to the doctor, but only after his exams, meaning it was three months before he went back.
The doctor said he looked healthy, his blood was healthy and he had just lost a little weight. However, he decided to send him to a gastroenterologist, just in case.
This surgeon was also confident it would not be too big a problem but said he would "scope" him just to be sure.
"When they scoped me was two weeks ago. That's when they saw something 'very concerning'. Cut to four days later and the diagnosis was stage four stomach cancer."
The prognosis of survival for another five years is four per cent.
He says he is spendig a lot of time praying the Scriptures, especially the Pslams, and studying theology around God as a God of love and order.
He said it was a "huge relief" when staring death in the face, to know "that Christ has died on the Cross for our sins". This confidence has "kept me buoyant" in the last two weeks, he said.
He added:"I will not take refuge in statistics. I will take refuge in my God." He says he believes he will make it. He has been told that it is a "time of refining" and he will come out of this much stronger. "I believe. I believe in my God. I believe that he hears prayers. So many of you have lifted me up in prayers. I believe there is more than hope here despite what the numbers say. That's where I will take my stand, on Jesus Christ, the loving God."
He closes with prayers, promising to do another vlog in about a week. He starts chemotherapy next week.
