The Great Physician Has the Final Word
But three months ago, Tammy, a nurse, saw that the spot had changed in color and shape. At long last, Roger agreed to visit the doctor for which his wife worked.
Their hopes sank as the doctor examined the growth, discovered a hole in Roger’s skull, and ordered a CT scan. He later called Tammy into his office where he intimated that the couple should brace themselves as they awaited the scan results: As a physician, he, too, feared the worst.
Ten years ago, after attending their granddaughter’s baptism at The Assembly Cabot in Cabot, Arkansas, a suburb northeast of Little Rock, the Gertsches became attendees at the church of 400, came to faith in Christ, and jumped into community life as assistant young adult life group leaders. They soon became beloved in the congregation.
Tammy, 64, describes Roger, 63, as “healthy as a bull and doesn’t see a doctor because he doesn’t really need to.”
But in recent years he’d had a big skin cancer removed from his forehead. And then came the growth of the flat spot that had manifest more than a year ago. Not only that but it also changed color and thickness.
When the doctor discovered the hole in his skull, he told the couple that it was “invasive to the bone but he didn’t know if it was invasive to his brain,” Tammy says. The question was how deep.
When the physician lanced the spot, the clear fluid within it collapsed and sucked back into the hole. That meant there was no pathology for analysis.
He sewed the incision and ordered a medical CT scan of Roger’s brain. The next available appointment was three days later.
Meanwhile, the couple waited. As believers in Jesus, they knew that God could heal the physical body in an instant. They also knew sometimes His healing is passing into eternity with Jesus. In between there may be suffering.
“My prayers were always, whatever this is, God, You have control—whether this is good news, bad news, hard news—no matter what the answer may be,” Tammy says. “We were fully preparing ourselves for what looked bad. We know God has the final word.”
Still in shock regarding what was unfolding, the couple shared with those closest to them, which included Greg Sanders and his wife, pastors of The Assembly Cabot, the church’s worship pastor, Megan, and her parents, Tom and Beth White, who lead the Gertsches’ life group. From there, news spread to the church staff that prayed for Roger.
When Sanders received the news, he grew dismayed.
“Everything in the natural looked bad, sounded bad. We were praying for a miracle report,” Sanders says.
In all of 2024, Sanders preached no more than a couple of funerals “and then I had three: boom, boom, boom,” he says. In the weeks just before Roger’s news, two congregants who seemed perfectly healthy suddenly died. Additionally during that time, the church’s youth pastor’s mother died. “I was praying for the best but scared for the worst,” he says.
At the church’s Wednesday night service, “I’m not sure we shared anything (about the situation) except Roger has tests this week we need to get a good report on,” Sanders says. “We have a culture of believing God for miracles. We were just really believing God to touch Roger.”
Thursday night before the scheduled scan, Tammy says, “We were scared. We talked before bed, God has done so many amazing things in our lives, and we knew this was going to be amazing, too.
“No matter the news, God was going to use it for good,” she says. “We had to have faith in that, that He’d carry us, even if Roger had to go through treatment. He was going to carry us through that, too.”
That night, Roger didn’t sleep. “I was just praising God and praying all night long.”
Friday the physician called Tammy into his office to prepare her. He said he’d felt these things before, and they never came out good. He told Tammy that this was not going to be good news.
“I said to him, ‘God would have the last word on this,’” she says.
Five days after his initial appointment—and even before the prayer need had a chance to be shared far and wide—the Gertsches celebrated Sunday morning with the congregation and shared their testimony: Roger had experienced just the miracle they for which they had been praying.
Although the report came back after-hours Friday, the doctor contacted them with the results: “I don’t know what happened, but it’s not there.” The spot was an ordinary benign cyst and needed no further treatment.
The clinic’s office manager connected the good report with their praying church family.
“God reminded us several times, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve had it before and I’ve got it now,” Tammy says.