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Reflections- the outside looking in


5 Year Cancerversay!

Today, August 7th 2019 is Joanna’s 5-year Cancerversary of stage 3b metastatic melanoma.  Just typing that, overwhelms me with emotion. I bet she has a blog coming today as well, but for now I’ve taken over.  I wanted to allow others to explain the amazing impact her life has had over the past 5 years.  She will be the first to tell you, this has nothing to do with how amazing she is (although, I do think she is amazing!) but has everything to do with submitting her life to Christ and allowing Him to work through extremely hard circumstances.  

To the right is the then and now picture.  A few weeks after Joanna was diagnosed, a friend called us and offered to take our pictures before life got intense.  So this past week we had the photo recreated.  It is fun to see how we have grown up as a family, but it is incredible to see how even through that hard, terrible diagnosis God has been good, he has a plan and he loves us!
Kevin 

To be free in Christ is a profound gift rarely seen. While surely Jo has troubles, she operates effortlessly in living out the gifts God has given her. For in her strengths exhibited in life, she isn’t bashful about boasting about the One who has made her strong. Then, in her weaknesses, she’s quick to remind us all that in Christ her value is secure and unending. The freedom to know each day is a gift from the One who made the stars is rare. Sure. I’m incredibly proud of Jo for her efforts at Radiant Hope, which has given life and hope to immeasurable amounts of people directly and indirectly. Yet, it is her freedom in Christ that lies in her wake that has likely made the greatest impact. Her freedom to live fully, boldly, and joyfully will leave in indelible mark on what her children dream about for their lives; the same for her extended family and friends. For in God’s gift to Jo of life over the past 5 years, each of us that know her has had a front row seat to watch God show us that we, too, can trust that freely and love life that fully. Jo’s life has helped me (and all of us) dream bigger dreams and embrace each day, come what may, knowing we are free in Christ. In trying to define a life well lived, I can’t imagine a greater legacy. Happy year 5, friend!
Ryan Keith

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One of the greatest privileges in my life is serving with Jo on the Radiant Hope leadership team.   I met Jo just after her cancer diagnosis while I was walking alongside my mother in law and my dad in their cancer journeys.  

I watched a broken Jo as she endured almost a year of hard, hard treatment.  Even during her toughest days, I’d find a text from her encouraging me or she’d call to check on our many oncologist appts.  Even early on in her diagnosis, she had such courage to surrender to God and allow Him to write her story – to use her pain, her heartache and her fear to comfort and encourage others fighting cancer.

When I’m with Jo loving on people battling cancer at the Hope Lodge or sitting in a hospital room holding the hand and praying with a RH recipient during their hardest cancer days, I’m in awe of Gods plan for Jo’s life.  He has given her the gift of empathy and the courage to just “show up” and show His love to people in the midst of the battle.  In what I could never have imagined becoming beautiful, God had proven himself good!
Jen Metz

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Your valiant fight to survive and live to serve the Lord, love your Kevin and raise your babies was and is an inspiration. Psalm 73.25-26 ~ " Whom do I have in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever...".  These 5 yrs. cancer free have blessed so many and birthed ministry that ONLY God could design, you have been His hands and feet.  Your faithful obedience to His call on your life brings us Great Joy ~ 3 John 1.4.  We are grateful and proud ~ Mom and Dad
Tom and Dianne Wilkinson

I will never forget this day 5 years ago. Jo texted me and told me the doctor called and said it was melanoma. I ran down to her house as fast as I could, holding back sobs. It’s the phone call you never want to get. The one that when it comes, it changes everything.

The days, the hours, the minutes those first few months…were HARD hard hard. Excruciating at times. Waiting on more results. The worry, the fear, the uncertainty. You don’t just get cancer. It comes with all of these things too.

But that was the breaking.
Witnessing God putting it back together. 
Just. WOW.

Watching my friend use her story to touch people - broken and hurting and hopeless people. She cries and says “He chose me. Why did I get to be the one?” And I cry because…. she is grateful.  She has been chosen to live out this story. And she is grateful. 

Joanna Dennstaedt…. you are touching the world for Jesus. You are living out your calling and it is inspiring and encouraging and life giving to everyone who comes into contact with you. What you have done with what you have been given. Oh, how proud Jesus must be of you. The sacrifice. The selflessness. The days spent packing, sending, and praying over boxes. The hours loving on people at Hope Lodge. Listening to people’s stories via messenger, over coffee, while they lay in their hospital bed. The tears you’ve cried over your people that you have lost…. I could go on and on and on. What a GIFT you are my dear friend. 

You and Kevin have let him make something so beautiful out of your story that was and is still filled with so. much. hard. A life lived to fulfill his purpose for you here and to bring him glory. And we have had the privilege to be able to sit back and watch it all happen. Blown away and so stinking proud - those words only come close to doing justice as to how we feel.  We love you friend!!!! Can’t wait to see what God does next.
Tara McIntire

I met Joanna in the winter of 2018, when I took the Bible Study she was teaching at our church. My father-in-law had passed away just six months earlier, due to colon cancer. His death had rocked our world, and left behind confusion, hurt, pain, and grief. Although I had always been a Christian, I had no idea how to deal with this new normal, this upside-down life I now lived in. In God’s perfect timing, He brought Joanna and I together, after she had just come from the same season I was now entering. From that class, and many conversations since Joanna has taught me about faith in the hardest times. Faith that God has a plan to work our hard for good. Faith that He is always good. Hope in the darkest times. Joanna’s darkest time, and her trust and faith in Christ led her to form Radiant Hope, a charity that brings hope to other cancer patients in their battles. In the fall, Joanna asked me to be a part of Radiant Hope, and it has changed my life to be able to share Christ, and His hope, with others. I’ve learned through serving beside Joanna that, when there isn’t anything else left, we have hope in our Father. I’m thankful every day that I have been blessed with a friendship with Joanna, and that I get to celebrate this momentous occasion with her! Happy 5th Cancerversary Jo. Love you friend.
Amy Anderson

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It’s not hard to think of the many ways God has used Joanna’s cancer journey to impact others. It’s easy to see at this part of the journey the blessings that have come from it. I think of the recent Radiant Hope event and seeing the amazing ways God has woven Joanna’s story into the lives of so many others; the way their children and their friends’ children have caught that vision of caring for and serving others.  But in the beginning, she had no idea what was to come, I think the most impactful thing to me was to see the way this young couple took to heart advice sent to them early on by Jo’s dad. Jo shared with me an email her dad sent her right after her diagnosis in which he referenced an article by John Piper called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”.  I have been in awe of the way Kevin and Jo have lived out that advice throughout this whole journey. I was privileged to be in their home during many treatment days that first year and so I could see first-hand the toll this took on their family. Jo’s choice to be open and transparent about these very real physical, emotional and spiritual struggles (both in conversations with friends and family and on her blog) opened up an avenue of ministry to those who were in the midst of their own struggles as well as lessons to be learned and tucked away to ponder later by those of us who were in comfortable places at the time.  And it was her decision to “choose joy”; to be grateful for that yellow box that arrived in the midst of her treatment that became the seed for Radiant Hope. And then when things began to smooth out for her, instead of just going back to life as “normal” she kept on listening to God’s call to use this for good for others and stepped out in ways very new and uncomfortable.  In the very first blog post when Kevin let people know about the cancer diagnosis, he wrote: "Most importantly, pray that we would be faithful to God's call on our lives in these new circumstances.”  So, what has impacted me most is seeing the way they have done that together for these last 5 years! 
Shirley Dennstaedt


Joanna sent me an email on August 13, 2014 that said I am counting on you to help “hold me accountable to Gods promises and truth, and mostly remind me that this is my life given to me for his purpose and glory.”  The email went on to say, “Don’t let me waste my cancer” and had an attachment with an article from John Piper:

"You will waste your cancer if you do not believe God designed it for you.
  You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
  You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
  You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
  You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
  You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
  You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen relationships with manifest affection.
  You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
  You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
  You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.”

And 5 years later, it is such a blessing to be able to say that Joanna you have NOT wasted your cancer.   Your cancer has been used to help and heal, encourage and support, give love and hope, and to be a witness to so many that God is real, and his promises are true.  God’s story is always better than the one we can write for ourselves, thank you for using your story to glorify our God.  
Heather Condrige

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Joanna is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever known—and when she reads this sentence she will say “noooo, it’s all Jesus, I’m a mess” … but that just makes her more incredible. She is funny, gracious, honest, comforting, beautiful, and sincere. She gets down on her knees to pray. She laughs with you and encourages you. Hearing “yes, friend!” out of her mouth is one of the most uplifting things—it makes you feel like she hears you; she sees you; she understands you; she is in it with you. And she really is, even when her life is so hard or when yours is. In fact, that’s when God makes Jo really shine, when you feel like the whole world is crashing down around you…which is how I really came to know her.

It was fall of 2016 and my mom had recently been diagnosed with stage four lymphoma. She was days away from dying and had ended up in an extremely critical state in an unfamiliar hospital. I was a wreck—I was terrified and upset and mad—and I didn’t know who to call. Though I’d heard bits of Jo’s story before (her battle with melanoma, the ministry that she started as a result), I didn’t know a lot. Still, she was one of the only people I knew who had made it through the awful, devastating, painful encounter with cancer and hadn’t lost her life or lost her faith. I called her weeping, needing direction on what to say, how to act, where to go. Gosh thinking back on it now, how did she even have time for that? She has four kids, a husband, a life. And she dropped it all that day to talk to me, to tell me in her reassuring, empowering way that it WAS okay, that we WOULD get through, that the Lord DID have us—no matter what. I can’t even count the number of times Jo called and texted me over the next two years of my mom’s lymphoma rollercoaster, but I can tell you that each and every time meant as much to me as the first and that Jo was God’s perfect gift to me in a season that I never thought I’d be in.

The thing about all of this is, I’m not a unique case. Jo is this person to many people—it truly boggles my mind. The tragedy in the stories she’s heard, the pain in the voices she’s listened to, the grief in the tears she’s wiped away…she is strong for others even when her own body and mind are exhausted. She finds the time to be there for others—always. My favorite part about Jo, the part I find most incredible and inspiring, is that she says she wasn’t always this way. I didn’t know her pre-cancer, but we have talked numerous times about how frustrating and controlling both of our sinning hearts can be when we’re caught up in ourselves and not dialed into His plan or His people. But through her battle, through the hurt and questions and anxiety and change, He made her new again. Just like her body is different now—scarred, scanned, a bit slowed—so is her heart—wise, selfless, kind. And she’s constantly diving in deeper, letting Him shape her into who He needs her to be on this earth.

This is getting long, but I have a hard time putting into words 1) how much Joanna means to me and 2) how wild it is that despite the horridness that is cancer, that it is ultimately what brought us together. Had I seen it coming for either of our families, I certainly would have chosen the “hard pass” option. But that’s why I’m not God. He saw, He knew, He planned. Joanna is one of my best friends because of cancer; so even though we all hate it and fight it and hope for a cure for it, I’m also thankful for the unbelievable lessons I’ve learned from it and the irreplaceable people I’ve gained through it.
Heather Patton

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I first met Jo on the lacrosse turf at Messiah College. She was a dream to coach – as the daughter of a coach herself; Jo personified hard work, had a deep knowledge of the game, was tenacious, a constant team player, and was a leaders in word and deed and would do whatever it took to assist her team in their efforts to win.  As I coached from the sideline, she would respond to a quick glance, strong words, or a soft quiet suggestion. Often times I felt like she knew what I was going to say before I said it – she was fully in the presence of every game and she was a game changer. She consistently made those around her better.  She did not let altering circumstances (bad calls, in climate weather, a tough opponent, an outstanding goalie, a double-team, etc.) throw her off of her game and the task at hand.  The characteristics and qualities that I saw on the turf, I have seen once again over these past 5 years as she has battled against the fiercest competitor she has faced, cancer.  I have seen her work through the challenges personally, remain committed to winning and fight through challenges and exhaustion.  She has led by her example bringing others along with her. Through her actions and kind words of encouragement she has made her” team” of fellow cancer battlers stronger.  We used to have a team slogan on the lacrosse field, “No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets.”  This slogan motivated the team to work hard on the field. As the coach of the team, my hope was that this slogan would to their time on the field, but also to other areas of their life once their years of playing collegiate lacrosse was long behind them. Jo has personified this slogan in her fight against cancer and her support of so many others. I imagine that if you spent any time with her, she has inspired and encouraged you to live your life with – No Reserves, No Retreats, and No Regrets.
Rob Pepper

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Jo, it’s clear, God chose you to carry out His plans these last 5 years.  I know on August 7th 2014, you would not have chosen cancer, but God clearly had you picked out to be His vehicle to help impact so many lives around you. Your obedience to Christ has enabled you to live a life of joy assured of your eternal place in God’s everlasting kingdom!

I love you!  And I thank you for the amazing example you have been to me and our children.
Kevin

To 5 more years!



 








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