The Other Side

Several years ago, in fact in April 2007, I was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer. (You can find several posts on this site related to this journey of illness, treatment, and recovery). I recall that there were hundreds (maybe thousands), of people praying for my recovery. I received communications, usually emails from unknown individuals with promises of prayer and support. During 2007 and much of 2008, the prospect of a long healthy life was a distant, and not certain, expectation. The difficult experience of radiation treatments and chemotherapy sapped my body of its energy and vitality. I had lost about 45 pounds from a top weight of 169. At about 5 ft. 6 inches tall I was reduced to my teenage weight.

There were not many hopeful people. During the episodes of excruciating pain while attempting to swallow, and the loss of appetite during chemotherapy, I often wondered whether I would soon leave a widow and orphans.

Today, I experience good health with an active lifestyle, biking, jogging, and occasionally hiking.

About one year following my diagnosis, and while the light at the end of the tunnel of recovery beamed in the distance, I received a call from a dear friend, a young mentee, who informed me that she was diagnosed with liver cancer. Cheryl was young, late 30's, recently married and a devoted Christian. I first met Cheryl while I was a PhD student at Indiana State University. A teenage freshman from Chicago, I picked her up every Saturday morning to attend church and she usually spent the day at our home - having lunch and bonding with our young children, whom she adored. After her graduation, she returned to Chicago but we remained in touch, always asking about our children, and once coming to Orlando to visit after I had competed school and moved south. In spite of numerous chemo treatments, natural remedies, and the ardent prayers by her church, her family and friends, within a few months Cheryl passed away. Why?

Several weeks later, I sat in church and witnessed a testimony of praise from someone who claimed that her prayers were answered as she expressed her joy of recovery from illness. A few years after I listened to the pastor's wife tell the church how God had answered the prayers of her family as He had intervened in the miraculous healing of her son and later her own healing from cancer. and I could only think of Cheryl and the many other Cheryls I know whose survival was not honored, whose prayers were not answered.

How do parents and friends feel when they listen to those who claim that God answered their prayers, but whose hopes were dashed as their pleadings were not heard? The infant tormented by cancer who finally passes away? The wife who prays for God's intervention into the life and wellbeing of her husband who is then brutally killed on the job by a mass murder?

Their cry: "I prayed and he did not answer my prayer!"

How do we understand prayer? Is it about God or is it about us?

Does God pick and choose the ones he wants to answer?

Do we need to pray? Won't God just do his thing anyway?

So many questions!

Please share your thoughts!

Time for all things

(Written in 2020 but remained in the draft folder until today - December 4, 2025. After writing this post I unretired in 2022 to accept a request by the President of the University of the Southern Caribbean, Dr Colwick Wilson to be the Interim Provost at the USC. The interim title was soon changed and I agreed to stay on as the Provost for the next 4 years.)

There is a time for everything, and for me, it is a time to retire after 45 years as a graduate student teaching undergraduate students or as a full time college teacher. I have been blessed to have mentored thousands of students students in the basic and life sciences - chemistry, biology, human anatomy, and human physiology.. Here, I share an article published by the marketing and public relations department in my honor.

My journey started as a teenage high school instructor at Harmon High School in my island home of Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. After leaving sixth form at Bishop’s High School I taught at Harmon High School, a Seventh-day Adventist high school, for two years before entering the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. I completed a BSc. in Botany/Applied Botany before spending another three years teaching, first at Southern Academy, an SDA high school in San Fernando, Trinidad, before joining the faculty at Caribbean Union College (now University of the Southern Caribbean).
As a teenager, I had developed an intense love of music and participated in numerous musical events. Born with extraordinary vocal talent, I became a member of an elite choral group, Music Amateurs, and a vocal quartet, the Archer Quartet. My desire migrate to the United States was strongly influenced by my desire to further my education but forged by my desire to join the other members of the quartet who had one year earlier began their graduate degree programs at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. After graduating from Andrews University in 1983, I was awarded a graduate fellowship to complete a PhD program in microbiology at Indiana State University. After spending almost 30 years at AdventHealth University, I retired as the Vice-President for Academic Administration and Academic Dean of Undergraduate Programs.

  
https://www.southerntidings.com/news/academic-dean-len-archer-retires/#

Trusting God

 

(PC-2025-03-12)

Scripture: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5–6 KJV

The Common English Bible translates it this way: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; don’t rely on your own intelligence. Know him in all your paths, and he will keep your ways straight.”

Trust is one of the most challenging yet beautiful aspects of our walk with God. We often say that we trust God. But it is usually demonstrated in the areas where we feel comfortable—but true trust goes deeper. It asks us to surrender even the parts of life we cannot control, the questions we cannot answer, and the outcomes we cannot predict.

When Proverbs tells us not to “lean on our own understanding,” it is not saying don’t use your brain, it is reminding us that our perspective is limited. We see only a moment, but God sees the whole picture. We see what is immediate and transient, but God sees what is eternal. Trust means letting God be God—allowing Him to guide, even when His direction doesn’t yet make sense. Its a mindset.

Consider a child learning to walk. They reach out for a parent’s hands, believing—even without understanding—that those hands are strong enough to hold them. And if they let go of your hand and stumble, they quickly reach out to grab yours.  In the same way, God extends His hand to us each day. He asks us not simply to believe that He exists, but to rely on Him, confident that His wisdom is greater, His timing is perfect, and His love is unfailing.

I’m sure each of you have had moments when you had to just give up on your own self belief and trust someone, something beyond what you could immediately comprehend. 

And then, you just let go and trust! Trust in God because there is no one you could trust!

Many years ago when my children, Lilly and Nick, were probably just about 6 to 9 years old, we sent them to a kids summer camp. The camp, Camp Timber Ridge located in central Indiana, was surrounded by numerous little caves barely wide enough to fit a small human. On the last weekend of the camp, my wife and a few parents from our little church in Terre Haute, Indiana, went to visit the kids on Sabbath afternoon. Nick and the other kids were winding their way through caves emerging several yards beyond. “Dad!” he said! “Come go through the cave with me!” I viewed the small entrance and said, “No, son! That space is much too small for me!” “No, Dad. I've been through it many times and you can do it!” He grabbed my hand and I followed him to the mouth of the cave with extreme anxiety but finally decided to give it a try. “Hold my hand and I’ll lead you!” he said. Reluctantly, I did. As he entered the mouth of the cave, the space narrowed with barely enough space for my narrow shoulders to pass through.  And as he winded his way, the cave became narrower and pitch black, and I became extremely fearful that I just couldn't do it or I might get stuck. “Just hold my hand, Dad! Don’t let go!”  I held his hand tightly. Light finally appeared as we thankfully emerged from the darkness.

Those words, “Just hold my hand!” 

We live in an age or time when it seems like there is failing trust of our institutions, our governments and the people who lead, and even our churches and church leaders! To some degree we must still maintain some level of trust to exist in society—trust in our leaders, our colleagues, our family, our friends if we are to survive this earthly journey. We can deeply trust only as they follow the will of God.

But we can place our ultimate trust in the God who has promised to direct our paths. 

Prayer:

“Lord, teach us to trust You with all our hearts. Help us to release our fears, our plans, and our desire for control. Give us the courage to follow wherever You lead and the peace to rest in Your promises. Direct our paths today, and help us to walk in faith, knowing that You are always faithful. Amen.