Tim Keller asks for prayers two years into battle with pancreatic cancer

Pastor Tim Keller, the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and City to City, remains positive as he battles cancer. “God has seen it fit to give me more time,” he said, but a “a rigorous and demanding” procedure awaits him.

The 71-year-old author and speaker recently shared on social media that this month he is  “celebrating the two-year anniversary of my diagnosis with pancreatic cancer,” explaining that he can call it a “celebration with justification as the chemotherapies have reduced the stage 4 cancer that was found and God has seen it fit to give me more time.”

In December he tweeted “It is endlessly comforting to have a God who is both infinitely more wise and more loving than I am. He has plenty of good reasons for everything he does and allows that I cannot know, and therein is my hope and strength.”

In his most recent update Keller says, “we are also moving onto an immunotherapy trial at the National Cancer Center in Bethesda, Md., as of June 1. This has shown great promise in potentially curing cancer, though it is a rigorous and demanding month-long program (that will need updates up to six months).”

Requesting prayers for him and his family, the now-retired pastor further shared that his wife, Kathy, and he will be “displaced from our home and separated from one another, as I will be an inpatient.” He asked his followers to continue to pray “for truly miraculous effects of the procedure and minimal side effects.”

Keller was diagnosed with cancer in May 2020. In a health update to supporters last September, he wrote, “I was granted a ‘chemo holiday’… and was able to get out of town with my family for several weeks. On Aug. 23, I had a scan and the primary tumor had not progressed. However, a mystery lump underneath the May surgical scar was removed and proved to be cancerous. Pancreatic cancer is able to learn how to evade medication, so it is only God’s power that we look to for complete healing.

“Please do pray that I will be able to fulfill my teaching and other obligations, and that the neuropathy and other side effects will be minimal while the medication will be effective against the cancer, and that we will run the race God has set before us with joy.”

–Lee Hartman | Metro Voice