I was born and raised in a conservative Chinese family. As both sides of my grandparents were born in China, we held Confucius as our way of life. It was my English tutor who taught me about Jesus when I was studying at 4th grade in Singapore. She taught me how to pray, and that was the first time in my life I said Amen. She didn’t teach me for too long, and I didn’t pray to Jesus after her departure.

I studied my secondary education at a Christian school in Surabaya, where I had to have a bible, go to church on Monday mornings, and learn about Christianity. Then, I continued to study at a Catholic high school. But a year later, I decided to study at a university in California.

I realized I learned more about Christianity than my own religion, yet it didn’t attract me. I always thought all religions were equally good as they all taught us about goodness. I believed God wouldn’t mind if we worship Him in different ways because after all we were born in different cultures. The most important thing is we believe there is God; we obey and are faithful to Him. I was offended by my Christian friend whom doubted my belief in God because I wasn’t a Christian.

In 1992, I married a Christian, but we lived by different religions. Every Sunday morning, after sending my wife and our 2 kids to church, I went to the gym for a workout. At nights, my wife would read the bible; I would read my newspaper.
In July 1999, one night my eldest son, 5 years old, cried in our room while my wife and I were having dinner. When asked why, he said he was sad I couldn’t go to heaven because I didn’t go to church. I was surprised but then thought it was just a kid talking.

2 months later in late Sep, I felt bad pain on my left shoulder. It went on for 3 days that forced me to see an internist. After examining my stomach with an ultra-scan, he didn’t see any problem. He then advised to have x-ray on my left shoulder. Before leaving his clinic, I told him I had minor irritation on my throat and asked for a cough prescription. Instead, he asked me to have x-ray on my chest as well. Next evening, I went to see him again with my x-ray films. He was stunned to see a white patch as big as an orange on my upper lobe left lung. After being explained the horrible disease I might have, my wife and I flew to Singapore on the next day for 2nd opinion. Having gone through several unpleasant diagnostic examinations and anxious waiting for the results, I was confirmed to have an undifferentiated non-small cell lung cancer at stage 3B, which was unoperatable.

I was very sad and thought I would die soon. I worried about my 2 small kids and wife’s future. I couldn’t understand why I got it when I was at 34. I didn’t smoke, drink, take drugs, nor was I exposed to pollution. I thought I had a good life and good family relationship. I told myself something was wrong. Then I remembered about my son’s worry that I couldn’t go to heaven. I believed God was punishing and wanted me to join my family to worship Him. That night my wife called Pastor Jeff, and they prayed for me.

Having seen 3 oncologists, we found a young but famous one with whom we had confidant to cure me. He said he could cure me, and I had 70% chance of survival. He also said I needed 4 following factors to win this war: doctor, patient, tumor, and God. We then knew that he is a Christian and saw a bible stacked together with his medical books on the shelf. On Oct 2, before taking my 1st of 6 cycles chemotherapy, my mother in law proposed to pray together. Thank God the chemo went well.

We went back home to Surabaya. On that Sunday, I went to church with my family. I accepted Jesus into my life and had Pastor Jeff prayed for blessing and healing. Since then a lot of our church members and friends showed their concerns to me by praying, lending Christian books and tapes, and sending emails.

3 weeks later, we went to Singapore for my 2nd chemo cycle. My oncologist asked me to have chest x-ray before chemo. While I was anxiously waiting for his comment on my film, he suddenly punched on my arm and said: “Cheer up. Look, 80% of your tumor has gone just by 1 chemo cycle. I don’t know why God is so good to you. Keep on praying.” I believed God made miracle on me.

By this time, my hair started to drop very fast, and my face plumped. One evening when I was washing my hair, bundles and bundle of it dropped on the floor. I just couldn’t stop my hand from grabbing it off my head, and finally took a razor to shave it off. At church, I got compliment on my “cancer” look. Ivan and Mike said they liked my new hairstyle. I asked myself: “What hair?” Pastor Jeff pointed to his head and comforted me: “Don’t worry, Willie. I am losing my hair, too.” I told myself: “I would rather to lose my hair than to have cancer.” I appreciated their greetings, which made me felt comfortable.

Due to dramatic improvement just by 2 chemo cycles, my oncologist told me I might not need to complete the whole 6 chemo cycles. He asked me to get ready for operation after the 4th cycle, which would be around Christmas. He further said that usually chemo’s effectiveness would subsequently decrease. I was happy but also frightened to hear it as he said probably my whole left lung would be removed. I prayed everyday and asked God to eliminate the remaining tumor and cancerous cells, so that I didn’t have to go through that horrible surgery. I also planned to visit MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, where he had been trained, for another opinion before having surgery.

On Christmas Eve, as my c.t. scan showed continuous improvement, my oncologist advised to finish the whole chemo cycle. After having 5 chemo cycles, I began to feel uncomfortable. I had diarrhea often, fatigue, mouth ulcers, and frustration. My stomach also puffed up quite big. I was scared to go for the last cycle because I might suffer even worse.

Final result of chemo was even better. It has shrunk the tumor from a size of an orange to a tiny dot. For following treatment, my oncologist advised me to go for surgery rather than radiotherapy. The reason was because of my young age and less risk to develop complication. I told him I wanted to go to MD Anderson before surgery. He respected my decision, asked me to act fast, and kept him informed.
My mother would like to accompany us, as I planned to have the surgery at MD Anderson. Getting an American visa wasn’t easy, but I knew Pastor Jeff would be glad to help me if our applications had been rejected. Thank God we got it easily. Our church member, Mike who was from Austin and lived in Houston before, recommended me places to visit, best Mexican restaurant to eat at, and of course Indonesian pastor whom I could contact for help. Julie also gave us her parents’ phone number in Houston.

We went to Houston on Feb 13, 2000. As the journey was very far and could be tiring, we stopped over in Beijing for 5 days to see some doctors there and San Francisco Bay area for 3 days to visit our old friends. Both the Chinese and MD Anderson oncologists were amassed to see the result of my chemotherapy. They suggested radiotherapy for my following treatment. In fact, MD Anderson’s tumor boards, consisted of different specialists, didn’t believe that I had lung cancer. They said based on their experience, chemotherapy wasn’t effective for lung cancer. I might have had other kind of cancer. Their thoracic surgeon, considered one of the best in the world, wasn’t interested to operate on me. He said there was almost nothing to be removed in my lung. I was very happy but also confused with their diagnosis, which was different from the 3 Singaporean oncologists’. MD Anderson claimed they were the 2nd best in cancer treatment and research in the States.
As radiotherapy would take 5-6 weeks and the cost was expensive, I decided to have it in Singapore. We spent only for 1 week in Houston. Julie’s parents and my cousin studying there kindly brought us around the town.

In early March, I went back to see my Singaporean oncologist. He accepted MD Anderson’s recommendation. I immediately started to get the radiotherapy which took everyday and lasted in early May. Since then I had to see my oncologist every 2 months for follow up check. When I asked him how to avoid cancer, he just smiled and said: “Be happy. Leave everything to God.” According to statistic, the 5 year life expectancy rate of a stage 3B lung cancer patient is 15%-25%. I don’t care about this statistic anymore. I agree with my oncologist. I’ll stick to God and leave everything to Him.

Wielianto Setyono