In the August print edition of The Christian Chronicle, Douglas Kashorek, minister for the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Church of Christ, reflected on the lessons learned from his wife’s cancer battle. In recent months, the Kashoreks’ son Timothy has faced a cancer fight of his own.

We reported in May on little Marlie Ruth McDonald’s cancer fight. In a new video, her family asks, “Please pray that Marlie will receive her miracle.”

Kevin McDonald, president and CEO of Medina, Texas-based Arms of Hope, has resigned effective June 1. McDonald and his wife, Nathalie, recently moved to Houston to care for their infant daughter Marlie Ruth, who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer, a press release noted.

As Charles Siburt battles cancer, friends and ministers mentored by him plan a day of prayer and fasting Friday, Feb. 3. Siburt, associate dean for ministry programs and services at Abilene Christian University in Texas, is a well-known leader among Churches of Christ.

Rebecca Stafford looks down to a purple block with white letters on a quilt draped over her frail legs. The 20-year-old, who was diagnosed with a bone cancer in 2009, begins to read the verse stitched into the quilt: “My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, But God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever.” Psalms 73:26. What does that mean to her? “It just tells me that God’s with me through everything, whether good, bad,” she pauses and smiles, then finishes with “or in between.”

The Oxford family — members of the Eastridge Church of Christ in Rockwall, Texas — are featured in a above video report by Fox 11 in Los Angeles. Eastridge elder Ray Hughes says of young Nate Oxford’s story: “It is a heartwarming example of how God responds to thousands of public and private prayers today.”

WSMV in Nashville, Tenn., features an interview with Sara Walker, who attends the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ with her husband, Brian, and their two sons, 5-year-old Camden and 3-year-old Scott. Walker, 33, received a double-dose of devastating news in December. After a healthy pregnancy, she miscarried a daughter. Weeks later, she learned that she has Stage 4 colon cancer.

“Don is sick.” These are the words of his wife, Carol. The message is small and short, quite unlike the man himself. Yet I dare say thousands of people are walking the earth right now with this sentence hanging over them like a dark cloud. Don is Don Vinzant, one of the ministers at the Edmond Church of Christ in Oklahoma. Sick is really, really ill. He has a rare form of cancer and a little-diagnosed and untreatable type of leukemia.

I got an e-mail from Kent Marcum, a longtime missionary in the South American nation of Ecuador, asking for prayers for his daughter, Jenny Reyes. Jenny and her husband, Erik, serve on a mission team in Sucre, Bolivia. They have two children — 4-year-old Zion and 2-year-old Mia. Jenny, 28, was diagnosed recently with Liposarcoma, a malignant tumor in her left leg.

Greg Perry, who helped launch YouthReach International in in 1993, has stepped down as a member of the ministry’s staff. The ministry, formerly known as World Wide Youth Camps, “provides positive adult relationships for orphans and at-risk children through mentoring opportunities with local Ukrainian and Russian … mentors,” according to its website. Greg will continue to serve on YouthReach’s board.