The daughter of Calvary Chapel’s founding pastor Chuck Smith issued an urgent prayer request for her father as doctors upgraded his lung cancer status to Stage 4.
Janette Smith Manderson posted a call to prayer on Facebook Saturday for her father, who is 86. She asked that supporters engage in what she called a “spiritual battle.”
“It is time to put on your armor and fight in the spiritual arena. Dad’s doctors just upgraded his lung cancer from Stage 3 to Stage 4, due to the fluid in his lung. This fluid contains cancer cells,” she said.
Though the fluid has already been removed for a second time, Manderson said her father will enter the hospital on July 1 for continual draining.
Doctors should be able to detect whether his lung is expanding after the fluid removal and a CAT scan. The process will take about two days, she said.
“If his lung does not expand, he will have to have a catheter installed in the lung area to help him to empty the fluid at home,” she explained. “They will put talc into his lung to keep the fluid from forming. The talc procedure is simpler and preferable for various reasons.”
Smith first announced his diagnosis to his church New Years day 2012.
“I wanted them to hear it from me and know the confidence that I have in the Lord,” he told journalist Dan Wooding then.
In May, doctors advised him against surgery. The family publicly asked for prayer that God would give them wisdom in choosing an alternative treatment.
With her father’s latest setback, Manderson requested that those praying join her in asking the Lord, “for His perfect plan for Dad to be accomplished.”
“We trust our Heavenly Father to know best. Thank you eternally for praying,” she said on behalf of the family.
Pastor Smith is well-known for fathering the Jesus People Revolution in Southern California. He’s also founded Calvary Chapel, which has grown from 25 to 10,000 members.
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