A Texan worship pastor and his beloved wife, parents of two young children, are both fighting back against deadly forms of cancer while trying to raise their young children, a 10-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son.
The pastor is Mr. Cory Schibler, the worship pastor of Bryan, Texas’ Beacon Baptist Church and director of the Association of Baptist Students at Texas A&M University. He has been fighting Follicular Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma for years. His wife is now fighting cancer as well, having been recently diagnosed with her own version of the deadly disease.
Speaking to the Christian Post about his wife’s battle with neuroendocrine cancer, Mr. Schibler said, “My wife has told me multiple times that she would have peace about it if this is the end for her. Me and her closest friends, we don’t have peace about that.” Continuing, the pastor and father noted that his family remains firmly committed to the Christian faith and praising God, saying, “we really do have faith that God is bigger than our circumstances and so just trust that whatever happens, we’re going to continue to praise Him.”
Mr. Schibler then noted that he only found out about the disease by “divine intervention.” That occurred when, in 2012, he was in a car accident just the day after getting engaged to his now-wife. It was in the emergency room after the crash that he found out about his lymphoma diagnosis. Explaining the background to his diagnosis, Mr. Schibler said, “The day we got engaged, we had a car accident, and in the course of receiving treatment in the emergency room, the doctors found what they thought was cancer.”
He then explained why it took years for the hospital to start fighting it after first discovering it in 2012, saying, “My treatment plan was officially ‘watchful waiting’ which is medical speak for ‘we won’t do anything until it starts trying to kill you.’ I remained in that care plan until December of 2020. Over the prior few months, I had begun having difficulty swallowing,”
Then, commenting on his wife’s treatable neuroendocrine cancer and his spreading lymphoma, Mr. Schibler said, “Well, we just don’t know yet. My doctor wasn’t comfortable making any decisions until he saw the actual pathology report. Most likely, I’m going to be going to a bigger Cancer Center to get an opinion from them. Probably MD Anderson in Houston, because it’s the closest to where we are, but he was waiting until he got the full results back before he made a referral to them for me. That’s most likely what we’re gonna do next.”
He explained the dire nature of the battle in a post on GoFundMe, writing, “Unfortunately, the biggest fight is yet to come. My wife and I have both been experiencing a lot of health issues recently. For the last year, my wife has been working with her doctors to discover what is causing a few different issues. Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a large mass in my neck that had me concerned that my cancer had returned. This morning, Saturday November 11, 2023, my wife and I received the news from our scans that we had yesterday, with the news that we dreaded we would hear. I have multiple lymph nodes in my throat and upper abdomen that are consistent with recurrence of my cancer. Obviously, not great news, but it is at least confined to a small area. However, my wife’s scan showed that she also has cancer, which has metastasized to multiple areas in her body: lungs, abdomen,etc.”
Continuing, he added, “To say that we are gutted would be an understatement. This was about the worst possible news that we could receive this morning. We have faith that God is good, but we would be lying if we said that we understood what He was up to with what we are now going through. We are starting this fund because we are still trying to pay off bills from my first round of chemo, plus all of the diagnostic tests that have led up to us finding the results which we received this morning. We appreciate any help that you are able to provide, and we greatly covet your prayers. We will use these funds to pay for medical expenses, and should the news from the doctors next week be what we hope they are not, we will also use them to make the most of the time we have with our two children. Thank you all, we love you. God bless.”
In a positive update about his wife’s treatment in late November, Mr. Schibler added, “Prayer Request: We met with the Radiation Oncologist again today to do the preparations for radiation treatments and she informed us that Crystal’s primary tumor has SHRUNK since yesterday morning’s exam. She said there is a possibility that when she exams her on Monday before beginning radiation therapy that SHE MAY NOT NEED RADIATION AT ALL! Please pray that the tumor continues to shrink and Crystal does not need to go through radiation. We have had some kind of appointment or treatment every day this week and Crystal is very tired. If she doesn’t have to do radiation, then we will have a break from treatments over the next two weeks so she can recover before she starts her next cycle of treatment. We serve a God who is a healer, please continue to pray that the tumor continues to respond to the treatments.”
