Hello ACF family, my name is Jennifer Meyer. I grew up in a small village in Michigan, left at the young age of 18, got married, and traveled around the world as a spouse in the military for over 30 years. We landed in Alaska as our retirement plan and found ACF a year later. As a young military wife and mom, I was building a life, raising a family, and doing what I thought I was supposed to do. But the truth is, for a long time, I didn’t really have a relationship with Jesus.
Have you ever looked back at your life and realized that God was there, even in the moments when you didn’t have a relationship with Him? I knew about God, but I really didn’t know HIM. That changed for me in 2003. And I wish I could tell you once I found Jesus, everything became easy. But that wasn’t my story.
Life brought some hard things: divorce in 2003, loss in 2012, and eventually cancer in 2017. I experienced the kind of loss that changes you forever. I lost my son, Jeremy, when he was only 22 years old. And then 5 years later, I faced stage 4 cancer. There were moments when I had to ask myself, “God where are You in this? What happens if I don’t get through this?” And honestly, when I looked death straight in the face, I started looking at life differently. I could’ve allowed fear to define me or allowed my loss to make me bitter. I could’ve asked why me over and over again. But somewhere along the way, God began showing me something different. Hope isn’t the absence of hard things, and it’s not found in our circumstances; hope is found in Jesus! There is a Scripture in Hebrews that has become especially meaningful to me as we have been going through Hebrews: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). I think that is what God was teaching me through those seasons. I couldn’t see the outcome, I couldn’t see how everything would work out, I couldn’t understand why some things were happening, but I chose to trust the One who could. I didn’t always understand what God was doing. I didn’t have all the answers. But I began to understand that I didn’t have to. I just had to trust Him.
Through loss, cancer, and some of my darkest seasons of my life, Jesus became more than someone I believed in. He became the One I could hold onto. Today, I can look back and see that God didn’t waste any of it. The pain didn’t disappear. The losses still matter. But God has used those experiences to give me compassion for people who are hurting and to remind me that there can be purpose on the other side of pain.
Nine years later, cancer-free has given me a perspective I don’t want to take for granted. If I could sit across the table from someone today who is walking through something hard, I would ask them: What do you do when you can’t see what’s ahead? Do you hold onto fear? Do you try to control the outcome? Do you ask, why would God allow this?
Or could it be that, even in the middle of uncertainty, God is inviting you to trust Him? Because I’ve learned something I never want to forget: Even when I couldn’t see a way forward, God was already there. And even when I was afraid of what tomorrow would bring, He was reminding me that my story wasn’t over, even if the journey wasn’t on this side of Heaven. That instilled a joy that is indescribable.
My story isn’t about surviving cancer or loss. It’s about discovering that Jesus is faithful in the middle of all of it. I believe He can bring hope and faith into your story, as well. Maybe it’s not about what comes next; maybe it’s all about trusting God with what we cannot see.
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Hello ACF family, my name is Jennifer Meyer. I grew up in a small village in Michigan, left at the young age of 18, got married, and traveled around the world as a spouse in the military for over 30 years. We landed in Alaska as our retirement plan and found ACF a year later. As a young military wife and mom, I was building a life, raising a family, and doing what I thought I was supposed to do. But the truth is, for a long time, I didn’t really have a relationship with Jesus.
Have you ever looked back at your life and realized that God was there, even in the moments when you didn’t have a relationship with Him? I knew about God, but I really didn’t know HIM. That changed for me in 2003. And I wish I could tell you once I found Jesus, everything became easy. But that wasn’t my story.
Life brought some hard things: divorce in 2003, loss in 2012, and eventually cancer in 2017. I experienced the kind of loss that changes you forever. I lost my son, Jeremy, when he was only 22 years old. And then 5 years later, I faced stage 4 cancer. There were moments when I had to ask myself, “God where are You in this? What happens if I don’t get through this?” And honestly, when I looked death straight in the face, I started looking at life differently. I could’ve allowed fear to define me or allowed my loss to make me bitter. I could’ve asked why me over and over again. But somewhere along the way, God began showing me something different. Hope isn’t the absence of hard things, and it’s not found in our circumstances; hope is found in Jesus! There is a Scripture in Hebrews that has become especially meaningful to me as we have been going through Hebrews: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). I think that is what God was teaching me through those seasons. I couldn’t see the outcome, I couldn’t see how everything would work out, I couldn’t understand why some things were happening, but I chose to trust the One who could. I didn’t always understand what God was doing. I didn’t have all the answers. But I began to understand that I didn’t have to. I just had to trust Him.
Through loss, cancer, and some of my darkest seasons of my life, Jesus became more than someone I believed in. He became the One I could hold onto. Today, I can look back and see that God didn’t waste any of it. The pain didn’t disappear. The losses still matter. But God has used those experiences to give me compassion for people who are hurting and to remind me that there can be purpose on the other side of pain.
Nine years later, cancer-free has given me a perspective I don’t want to take for granted. If I could sit across the table from someone today who is walking through something hard, I would ask them: What do you do when you can’t see what’s ahead? Do you hold onto fear? Do you try to control the outcome? Do you ask, why would God allow this?
Or could it be that, even in the middle of uncertainty, God is inviting you to trust Him? Because I’ve learned something I never want to forget: Even when I couldn’t see a way forward, God was already there. And even when I was afraid of what tomorrow would bring, He was reminding me that my story wasn’t over, even if the journey wasn’t on this side of Heaven. That instilled a joy that is indescribable.
My story isn’t about surviving cancer or loss. It’s about discovering that Jesus is faithful in the middle of all of it. I believe He can bring hope and faith into your story, as well. Maybe it’s not about what comes next; maybe it’s all about trusting God with what we cannot see.
Written by
Story Sunday Guest Contributor
Eagle River Campus
16620 Brooks Loop
Eagle River, AK 99577
NE Anchorage Campus
Regal Tikahtnu
1102 N Muldoon Rd B
Anchorage, AK 99504
