28 — Sunday, March 1, 1992 -- North Shore News

SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING

North Van man is sustained by faith

GEORGE WALKER is
terminally ill.
tribute — devout.

The North Vancouver resident,
well-known lIecally for his school
of dance, glows these days with an
inner light, despite being diagnos-
ed with inoperable cancer of the
liver.

““In May of 1990 | was
diagnosed with having cancer of
the colon and in November 1991 I
was diagnosed with cancer of the
liver and given no hope to live,”’
says Walker. But rather than fac-
ing it as a bleak prospect, Walker
has been buoyed up by his faith
and has experienced ‘‘only peace
and joy.”’

*““When the doctor said I may
have only six months to live | felt
an absolute presence of the Holy
Spirit, like I was in a protected
cocoon,”’ Walker relates wistfully.

It was not the first time he was
faced with a serious illness or
condition. Throughout his life,
from the time of his difficult birth
through his dancing career,
Walker has faced a bone tumor,
critical mononucleosis, a hole in
his heart, high blood pressure,
cancer of the colon, a removed
gall bladder and now cancer of
the liver.

Strangely enough, he found
himseif counting his illnesses while
he was in St. Paul’s Hospital
recently. When his wife, Cynthia,
came into the rcom to inform him
that the cancer was inoperable he

loquacious,

By Barbara Black
News Reporter

said ‘‘That’s alright, because I put
my faith in God.”

Walker says that God then
brought a scripture to him, Job,
chpt. 5:19 ‘tHe shall deliver thee
in six troubles. Yea, in seven there
shall be no evil touch thee.”’

“‘God seems to speak to us very
intimately. His word, his fogos,
when it becomes rhema, you can
be reading the bible and suddenly
something comes into your
heart.”’

“Rhema,”’’ by author Dr. Paul
Yongii Cho’s definition, is a
specific word from God to a
specific person in a specific situa-
tion. It played a large part in
Walker’s conversion to Christiani-
ty at 38 years of age.

He had felt an impulse to go to
church. Then after visiting a home
where ‘‘people pray and sing and
bring the presence of God right
into their living room, he says he
experienced God’s presence.
“The minute I walked out ... I
felt like I had walked from the
most beautiful cathedral.””

For the first time in his life he
wanted to talk about God.

“I went up to my room and
prayed a prayer that was from my

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light-hearted...and
But add to that list a very important at-

heart, but without knowing it, the
spirit of God was moving upon
me..I said, ‘Father, I sensed your
presence there...” And I asked
God to forgive me for my sins.”

Then, laughing he says he add-
ed, “But I don’t understand the
bible — it’s all begat, begat,
begat!’’

He then broke down crying. ‘‘!
prayed, opened the bible and the
first thing [ opened to was the
Pentecost (Acts, chpt. 2:3).”’

His eyes jumped to the line
which read ‘‘whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be
saved."

He shut the bible. The next time
he opened it he read ‘‘Then open-
ed He your (actually ‘‘their’’) un-
derstanding that you might under-
stand the scriptures.”’

“God made that very personal
for me that day,’’ Walker smiles.

When another scripture given to

him (Isaiah, chpt. 60:1 ‘Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee.’’) he felt heat pouring
through his feet in his body. ‘‘I
felt love and it was not human
love, it (was) agape love.”’

That divine love, he explains,
has stayed with him ever since.

Now he and his wife live every
day as it comes.

He looks out the rain-streaked
window to the predominantly grey
day. ‘‘l can look out there now
and see great beauty in the way
the rain sits on the leaves...This is
the day God made and I rejoice in
it."”

Then he happily confides ‘‘I
praise God for my liver ailment
because what He’s taught me in
the last two months is fike going
into warp five — if you’re into
Star Trek you'll know what I
mean.”’

NORTH VANCOUVER resident
George Walker.

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