By Jeffrey Overstreet (jeffreyo@spu.edu) | Photos by Matthew Sumi

When Chad Anderson was diagnosed at age 11 with an astrocytoma — a star-shaped tumor attached to his brainstem — doctors thought his future looked grim. After surgery, he might never walk again or breath without a ventilator. How long would he live? "Maybe a couple of years."

It's been 22 years. And Anderson, who lives in Seattle with his wife, Melinda, and teenage foster sons, Benjamin and Wilo, is still going strong — and thanking friends, family, and supporters worldwide. These people, says the 2005 graduate of Seattle Pacific University's Medical Family Therapy Program, are a key part of why he continues to live so fully.

It started with "Friends of Chad," a group of friends and family who gathered to support Anderson when he was a teenager in Wheaton, Illinois, undergoing weekly radiation treatment.

"Friends from church would invite me out, try to teach me golf, take an interest," he says. In these days before physical disabilities began to manifest themselves, volunteers drove him from Wheaton to Chicago for treatment sessions and stayed up with him at night during sleep studies. "That," he says, "is relational ministry."

And it's a ministry that sometimes gets overlooked. Short-term medical problems, like car-accident injuries, often draw friends and family to do favors in the moment. Patients with terminal illnesses turn to hospice care. But chronic conditions such as Anderson's — as well as diabetes, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and mental health diseases — are best addressed by a group of people with different strengths.

Such a caring, collaborative community can make a profound difference for patients who suffer from chronic illness, according to studies published in The Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The New England Journal of Medicine. With this kind of support, the data shows, patients get better faster and stay better longer — at a significant cost savings and with a higher quality of life.

"There is a huge need for extra people — counselors, clergy, volunteers, and others — to keep the human side of a situation like this in mind, to listen to emotional reactions, and to provide practical support for the family," says Melinda Anderson.

"Complex patient situations, such as diabetes, or diabetes combined with depression, don't respond well to just a biomedical intervention," says Tina Schermer-Sellers, who directs the MDFT program at SPU. "You need a team, including physicians, therapists, and pastors, with the support of family and friends."

Holistic, team-based care is the focus of MDFT — the program that inspired Chad to move to Seattle for graduate study. SPU trains therapists to treat patients from a perspective that reconciles biomedical and psychosocial dimensions of care, and even to attend to the spiritual aspects of living with a disease.

"The joke is: If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail," says Claudia Grauf-Grounds, professor of marriage and family therapy. "If you're trained as a physician or a therapist or a pastor, you're trained to look at illness through that lens. If you go to your Christian friends, they're going to give you 'Christian' answers: Read your Bible, pray. Most doctors are trained in only the biomedical part, and they don't often ask questions about the social, the psychological, or the spiritual."

SPU's MDFT program is one of only 10 in the country that teaches collaborative health care. And, says Sellers, "While most other programs are connected to their own medical schools, our students are going out to work in medical practices in the community."

"It seemed like a natural choice for me," says Anderson, who relocated to Seattle in 2002. "This is my life."

He wasted no time investing in community, even calling ahead to let the Rev. Eugene Cho know he wanted to get involved in Seattle's new Quest Church. Soon, he was on the church's missions board and leadership team.

A year later, Melinda — a friend Anderson met at Covenant Bible College — joined him on the West Coast just before the two were married. "Melinda's known me since before I had my physical disabilities" he says. "She's known the whole time what she was getting into."

During hard times, Quest has been a supportive community for the Andersons, providing services from home repair to grocery store errands. Melinda says, "There is a huge need for extra people — counselors, clergy, volunteers, and others — to keep the human side of a situation like this in mind, to listen to emotional reactions, and to provide practical support for the family."

Patients need more than prescriptions and advice, echoes Sellers. Sometimes they need a listener who can be still and attentive while they put suffering into words. "I've had people say, 'You held hope for me when I couldn't hold hope for myself. It wasn't that I told them about hope. It's that I could walk into the pain with them and not get swept away."

Patients need more than prescriptions and advice, echoes Sellers. Sometimes they need a listener who can be still and attentive while they put suffering into words. "I've had people say, 'You held hope for me when I couldn't hold hope for myself. It wasn't that I told them about hope. It's that I could walk into the pain with them and not get swept away."

To support those who struggle with chronic illness or other challenges, Cho says he believes the church must go beyond the important step of praying for someone. "When there's illness or financial issues or emotional or psychological issues, people often try to keep things private," he says. "But the church community can learn from that person."

He invited Anderson to speak to the Quest congregation about his journey. "We tend to avoid pain and suffering, but Chad has really wrestled with the Lord, and he's still at peace with God. That's very inspiring."

Through the MDFT program, Anderson counseled youth, adolescents, and — in an internship at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington — cancer patients. "They appreciated that I had experience, that I wasn't just doing this from books," he says.

The tumor's influence presents daily challenges for Chad, but it doesn't stop him. He breathes at night with a ventilator. A forearm crutch or a scooter helps him with balance. "If I'm in a dark room, I'll just fall down," he says, "I won't know which way is up."

As they rise to new challenges, Chad and Melinda clearly know which way is up. Married seven years, they are enjoying a whole new adventure parenting their two sons, who were born in the Congo. It's become a daily discipline of teamwork, and a model of compassionate relationship.

"I love that she loves me for all my foibles," Chad says of Melinda. "She's my biggest support and advocate."

Ministry Tips

Caring for Church Members With Special Needs

Listen Actively

Elise Thompson, an intern in SPU's MDFT program working at the University of Washington Medical Center, says patients need friends who can hear about feelings of anger and despair without making judgments or offering solutions. "Listen deeply, leaning forward, using eye contact, being present."

Be Physically Present

MDFT student Treesia Kan, whose internship is at the Swedish Cancer Institute, says relational care involves activities like "walking with people, cooking for them, taking them to a movie — so they get that the relationship is important to you."

Invite Them to Share Their Gifts

"We need to remember that everybody has something to contribute," says Sonja Whitaker, an MDFT student who assists a gynecologist in Federal Way, Washington, for her internship. "Give them roles to play in the church."

Make Worship Accessible

Melinda Anderson has seen candlelit services disrupt her husband's balance. She says, "Have conversations about the physical space in the church. Ask whether the church building is navigable for people with physical challenges."

Practice Contemplative Prayer Together

Studies show that mindfulness — meditation and contemplative prayer — can improve patients' health. Kathy Lustyk, professor of psychology at SPU, offers insights from both her research and personal experience of contemplative prayer in this Response web exclusive.