Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Cancer can't steal a man's faith - By Paul Oberjuerge

Folks...below is an article by Paul Oberjuerge on my beloved Pastor, Chuck Obremski. It really captures the experience that we as a congregation have had...in seeing Chuck battle cancer over the past two years. It's been so rich and so deep in seeing God continue to use Chuck to reach out and touch people. Each day is a miracle and we are thankful for each day that God has granted us.

ANAHEIM - Terminal cancer has robbed Chuck Obremski of 55 pounds, half a lung, most of his hair and much of his energy. His faith remains unscathed. Which makes the Angels' team chaplain perhaps more inspirational than ever before. "I think Chuck is a saint," Kansas City Royals veteran Mike Sweeney said Sunday. "He's coming out here to talk to us even with cancer eating up his body."

Obremski, 48, has been the Angels' chaplain since 1997. Whenever the Angels have a Sunday home game, Obremski goes to a spare locker room to conduct 20-minute services - one for the Angels, one for the visiting team. Even while fighting an aggressive and mysterious cancer for almost two years, Obremski has missed only one Sunday at the ballpark. "If this is the end of my life," he said, "I'm going to do what I do till the very end." He has chosen to use his condition as "one more thing to use as a lesson to teach." Players are impressed. Even moved. "I wept the last time I was here," Sweeney said. Said Angels outfielder Garret Anderson: "A lot of people wouldn't react that way to a life-altering experience. He's practicing what he preaches."

During his Sunday session with the Royals, Obremski sat in a corner of the long, narrow room. Arranged before him were players sitting on folding chairs. A Bible and a single sheet with a lesson from the Bible - English on one side, Spanish on the other - were placed on each chair. "These bodies are collapsing tents," Obremski told a dozen players an hour before the game. "I never thought the day would come when I look like wh

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