David Baker had stage four melanoma. A tumor on the side of his face had grown so huge he couldn’t see out of his right eye, and he could barely eat. Doctors said there was nothing they could do for him.
David was suffering more and more, day by day. Still, he managed to get to church on Easter morning, and that’s where he received a miracle.
“When you’re going to the doctor and you hear nothing encouraging, that’s when your faith, it’s going to have to stand,” says Jerilyn Baker. In November 2020, her husband David started having constant nose bleeds. Doctors removed a polyp from his sinus cavity. But soon after, things got worse.
Jerilyn remembers, “When his face began to swell I thought, he’s got an infection. And I told him, ‘We need to contact the doctor quickly.'”
The results of a CT scan shocked the family. David’s brother-in-law, Chuck Denny was there. “They told him he had stage four nasal cavity melanoma,” says Chuck. “They said surgery wasn’t an option. Cause of the facial disfigurement would be too massive.”
Jerilyn felt hopeless, “They told us that, that there was really nothing that they could do. Chemo wasn’t for that type that he had.”
Chuck says, “I’d never seen anybody healed of cancer. Every time I heard the word cancer, it was a death sentence. And I feel like unless God moved, I feel like David wouldn’t, you know, he wasn’t gonna make it.”
“You know my first thought was in my teaching is that we need to move into a fast and seek God and see God heal,” says Jerilyn.
David’s face rapidly swelled to the point where he couldn’t eat or see out of his right eye.
Pastor Marl Gilbert remembers the many prayers from multiple church locations and beyond.
“Both church families was praying for David and there was a multitude of other people. It wasn’t just our churches. David used to be a pastor himself. So there’s a lot of people that he knows. It was praying for him in different areas of the country, just believing God for the turnaround in his life,” he says.
“Several times a day we would pray together,” says Jerilyn. “And there was times that you felt like you were just lost for words. You felt like that you were only repeating yourself because you were worn out. You were worn down from this sickness.”
“His condition just kept getting worse,” says Chuck. “But the prayers at that point, we didn’t see much.”
“This was swelling inside of his mouth, as fast as it was on the outside,” says Jerilyn. “And he couldn’t hardly eat. It was just terrible. And we knew that we were facing a horrible storm in life.”
On Easter morning, Dr. Tom Renfro and his wife, Sid, were visiting their church for a special prayer service. Remembering her husband’s own miraculous healing from cancer, Sid was moved with compassion to pray for David.
Sid remembers, “When I prayed for David, I don’t touch people’s head. I, I normally just touch their shoulders, but I did touch his face because I, I wanted to be very specific and very direct.”
Jerilyn watched, “I remember standing there and I thought that’s going to come off in her hand because you could feel such a presence of God’s Spirit.”
Sid continues, “I prayed the prayer that my dad had prayed. ‘By this time tomorrow, this side of your face will look like this side of your face’ because that prayer had worked for my dad.”
The day after Easter, something amazing happened.
“He said, ‘There’s a change in my face. Do you see it?’ I said, ‘I’ve already seen it,'” says Jerilyn.
David smiles as he recalls, “I looked at my wife and I said, ‘I see a change in my face.’ She said, ‘I do too. But I was afraid to say anything.’ So, we decided to go eat with our family again. And we said, ‘Well let’s just see what they have to say.’ And they all seen me and they said it, ‘That thing’s shrinking.’ And it was just a matter of days. It was gone.”
David’s tumor vanished and doctors later confirmed that he is now cancer-free. The Bakers are forever thankful to God for answering their prayers.
“There’s many people that has got a diagnosis like David and I feel like they saw death,” says Jerilyn. “Maybe they prepared for death, but I’d say don’t give up. I’d say take His word into your spirit and I’d say believe it with everything you’ve got because that’s what we done.”
“What I witnessed with David up close and personal with him, I mean, it just boosted my faith,” says Chuck. “I mean I know God can do anything big, little, it don’t matter. He can, he can move in anything.”
Sid smiles, “I felt jubilant when I saw the picture and the tumor was gone and he had a normal face.”
“When I see David now, I think about the benevolence of God, the mercy of God, that God in this state of David’s life in his older years, that God has proven His faithfulness to him,” says Pastor Mark.
“Well, I’m thankful that you know what happened that God healed me,” says David. “I’m thankful for that. I’ve never doubted what God was capable of doing. I’ve always believed that He’s the healer, that He can heal cancer, He can heal heart attacks, He can kill anything that’s affected me and He can take care of it if we’ll just believe Him and walk in His word and not let doubt and unbelief in ’cause that stops the hand of God. I’m very thankful.”