Ya Ya, a Soul Survivor...

Ya Ya, what a nickname! My nephew coined my sister that when he was little. He couldn't say her name, Rosel; it sort of came out Ya Ya. Ya Ya, it is! All the kids and most of the family started calling her that, too. She loved kids and they loved her! Maybe it was the child in her, maybe it was because she didn't have children of her own, maybe it was just her gift. I've asked for this Victory Call to be posted on this date in hopes it might be a WAKE UP CALL.

My sister had a lot of love in her heart, but she also had a lot of fear. So much so, it held her captive for a year, one year too long. She'd felt a lump in her breast and was afraid that it might be cancer. For one year she lived with this fear, and this lump. It didn't seem to go away, as I'm sure she'd hoped it would. Finally, she did go for an exam and x-ray and was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. The doctors offered a plan of treatment, which she did, that included a lumpectomy as well as chemotherapy and radiation. However, the doctors also explained that while there was treatment, the possibility of reoccurrence was very high. The cancer was treated and for a short time went into remission only to return fairly quickly and with a vengeance.

Perfect love casts out fear... that's the verse that came to my mind one day while visiting her in the hospital. She was pretty well medicated, but that seemed to grab her attention. "All fear"?, she asked. "Yes...all fear."

"Where'd you get that from?" "The Bible." "Where in the Bible? What version is that?" Oh, my goodness this woman was enough to drive anybody crazy! And she did sometimes! "I'm not sure what book the scripture is from but I'll find out and tell you. It's definitely in your Bible, too, it doesn't matter what version, NIV, NKJV, whatever, it's in there." "Let me write that down." She couldn't really write at that point so I wrote it on the back of a bank receipt I had in my purse. (There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment., 1 John 4:18a) Come to think of it, that was really a very appropriate place for something she/we could bank our souls on, God's Word! Amen?

I'm thrilled to say she did do just that. While Rosel was a very religious woman, she had yet to fully place all her trust in Jesus Christ ALONE. But praise God, just a short time afterward, the Lord used my sister Lisa to lead Rosel to Himself.

Ladies, sisters, I don't enjoy my yearly visits to the doctor. But I go. I don't want to hear any bad news. But I go. I don't want cancer. But I go. I'm asking you today to please remember to go! God holds my life and my soul in His hands...and someday I will die, unless He returns first. But while I'm here, He's given me the gift of life and I believe He wants me to take care of me.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO TAKE CARE OF YOU, AND PLEASE GO!

Ya Ya went home to be with the Lord one year ago today, January 29th 2009. She was 48 years old.

I wish I could say she was a breast cancer survivor; I can't. But I can say she is a Soul Survivor!

Dina Seaton