A leader of a Christian ministry, someone I deeply respect, published a column today encouraging other ministries to prepare for a possible health emergency or other catastrophe that would remove one of their organization’s key players from the mix for an unknown period of time. It’s good advice and he offered many practical tips as part of his wise counsel.
That made me want to share my story:
In 2018, I went to work one day with a sore throat and left with a Stage 4 throat cancer diagnosis.
(No, the irony of a guy who makes a living with his voice, and who never used any tobacco products or drank, getting viral cancer on and IN my tongue is NOT lost on me.)
My employer covered all of my time off during treatment, including the three months I had to move to Houston to be at MD Anderson. They allowed me to work, as I could, from home during my nine months of recovery. Some weeks, that was quite a bit. Other weeks, it was just a phone call to tell them I was still alive … sort of.
Then, when the feeding tube that kept me alive for eight months was removed and I could safely leave home, they let me return to work one, then two, then three days a week. I wasn’t back in the office full time for 21 months.
ONE of my radiation treatments would have been $77,000 out of pocket without insurance. (I had 33. I’ll let you do the math.) Then there’s chemo, antibiotics, immunotherapy, emergency room visits, a tiny apartment in the medical district in Houston for three months, Ubers, and, and, and …
My employer never stopped paying me. Their incredible health insurance covered all but a few thousand dollars of my multi-million dollar treatment costs.
Who was that employer?
A small, satellite campus of a public university.
If that secular institution can take care of its employees THAT well, what should a ministry professing the name of Jesus Christ do?