Celebrate the amazing story with us

From a Devastating Cancer
to Graduation

I can clearly remember 18 years ago walking into the Wilgers Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa where Matthew was admitted once again. He had been in and out of hospital several times with high fevers. His parents William and Shirley were there believing for a miracle so they could take Matthew home.
The only challenge was that this time, Matthew was diagnosed with JCMML – (A rare form of malignant bone marrow cancer that occurs in children). Without urgent medical or supernatural intervention, he only had a few months to live.

I just returned from a mission trip from Mozambique where we saw significant miracles of healing and deliverance. After the Mozambique experience, I felt in all my arrogance that Matthew’s condition was not a problem. We would pray, the Lord will heal him, and we will all go home. I took little six-month-old Matthew in my arms. His little body was weak, and frail and his fever were extremely high. Everyone in the room gathered as we prayed for him.

Urgent application was made to St Jude’s Hospital. It was a huge discouragement when they came back and informed us that they would not take Matthew on unless we were able to pay for the procedure. The estimated cost would be R3 million (South African Rand). The hospital in the UK estimated their cost would be around R4 million (South African Rand), that is if you added the cost of air travel and accommodation for Shirley who would have had to accompany him.

Finances was a major issue for William and Shirley. The Medical Insurance would only cover a small part of the international medical cost. Even if the extended family sold all we had, we would not have been able to afford to go the international route. William had closed his business, Xtreme Solutions three months before Matthew was born to join the World Mission Centre team.

The only vague possibility was to approach a Professor in Cape Town who did Bone Marrow transplants on adults. I remember sitting with William and Shirley in the professor’s office. He listened intently to the plea from Matthews parents to help them. Eventually he told them that he has never done this procedure on a child especially on such a young child. But he agreed to take on the challenge but told William that he would have to sign a document that would state that Matthew would only have a 20% chance of survival.

While all this was happening, Matthew was in quarantine in our apartment in Pretoria. Only his parents, who then stayed with us, and his grandparents were allowed to see him. Every precaution had to be taken that he did not get a virus of any kind.

Prayer was the biggest focus for all of us. Shirley’s parents, Greg and Karey Mitchell gathered a group of people in a weekly prayer meeting and constantly got prayer requests out to all they knew. Lydia and I mobilized the World Mission Centre’s intercession base and sent prayer requests to all our friends and partners around the world asking them to storm the gates of heaven on behalf of Matthew.

In one of our early letters, we sent a picture of little Matthew and requested all the pastors to put his picture up on the screens in their churches and ask their members to pray for God’s intervention and stand in faith with us for Matthew’s healing.

Back in the professor’s office in Cape town, he insisted that another Bone Marrow test had to be done before he would proceed. It was a hard decision, especially for Shirley, because she knew the intense pain that Matthew would have to endure again. The test was done, and the professor had the specimens sent to two laboratories in South Africa and one in Washington State in the USA.

About three weeks went by before the results came back from the laboratories. Looking at the results and the previous tests they felt Matthew’s condition had not significantly digressed. The professor suggested that the procedure should be put on hold for a few weeks. Matthew was referred to the Oncologist that took care of him in Pretoria for observation. He had to undergo blood tests and see the Oncologist every two weeks. If the blood counts became worse, the Professor would go ahead with the procedure.

Looking back to this “moment of hesitation” I can only wonder if it was a sign that the Lord was working behind the scenes on Matthew’s behalf.

Back in our apartment, Shirley was doing all she could to keep Matthew’s fever down and make him as comfortable as possible. When she had to go to work either Karey or Lydia would step in to help.

A significant observation to us was that whenever Matthew was awake and sitting up, he would point up to the ceiling. When he did, he seemed to be happy. He obviously was seeing something that we could not see. The only explanation we could come up with was that he must have been seeing angels. 

Was this yet another sign that the Lord was working behind the scenes on Matthew’s behalf? 

Weeks and months went by. Matthew’s condition did not get better but also did not get any worse. Intense prayer and prayer requests continued to be sent to friends at home and around the world.   

The medical bills were heaping up and eventually necessitated William to sell their own home. At the end they lost almost everything they owned. 

About a year and a half into this difficult time the Oncologist said that there seemed to be some improvement in the blood-counts and tests. The visits to the Oncologist moved to every six weeks and then every two months. There was great relieve in the family.

Was this another sign that the Lord was working behind the scenes on Matthew’s behalf?

Through all this, William was leading the Research and Development team of the World Mission Centre. In 2000 they recorded the Live School in a studio and then proceeded to reduce the curriculum from large broadcast quality video tapes to DVD format. 

It took almost five years and cost around $1,9 Million before we could launch the English version of the Live School in 2006. The launch was an amazing celebration that we hosted in the Sheraton Hotels in Pretoria and Cape Town. 

Since those days, the Live School has gone on to become an incredible mission/leadership training tool. It’s curriculum of 242 hours has been translated and dubbed into 12 international languages. Today the World Mission Centre, through the Live School has a presence in 97 countries and around the world. 

A few months after the Launch sweet Cayleigh, Matthews little sister was born. Meanwhile, Matthew was allowed to come out of isolation and the family was able to move into a rented apartment.

Around the time of the English launch of the Live School, the Oncologist said that he only needed to see Matthew every six months. 

Today it is obvious that Matthew and his parents were the focal point of a massive life-threatening spiritual war. The enemy tried to do all he could to frustrate the development of the Live School.

About two years after the Live School launch when Matthew was almost five years old, the Oncologist made another announcement; that he did not have to see Matthew anymore. He blood-counts were normal. Matthew was healed!! What an amazing day that was!

The Lord had worked behind the scenes on Matthew’s behalf. The Lord chose to work over a period of five years, what I thought would take a minute after prayer in the Wilgers Hospital. 

In 2010 William and Shirley together with their family were transferred to the USA to establish an International Research and Development department for World Mission Centre. Today, William leads the international team of World Mission Centre. 

Matthew started his schooling at the Oak Point Primary School in Irmo, South Carolina. From there he went to Dutch Fork High School. In his final years he joined the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program of the school.