FRIENDS Christian Cancer Care A Cancer Care and Bible Study Support Group
Rev. Elizabeth Barnhardt, Cancer Overcomer
Vice President and Co-Founder of "FRIENDS" 
1375 Roberts Drive, Building B, Suite 100
Jacksonville Beach, Fl 32250
    904-241-4211 ext. 427      MAP   		  
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A PERSONAL NOTE FROM DR. MORRIS S. DEES, III

 Dr. Morris S. Dees III, Oncologist

 President and Co-Founder of "FRIENDS"

 The summer before I went to Medical School, I attended a lecture where I met a great Oncologist, George Selby, MD.

After the lecture, I spoke with Dr. Selby. He asked me if I wanted to attend his cancer clinics and help him take care of his cancer patients. It was then; I knew exactly where I fit. It was like being at home.

I loved the intense relationships with these patients who were fighting for their lives. I also loved evaluating the rapid pace of new life-saving treatments I could help them with.

However, I was puzzled why some patients with the same diagnosis did so much worse while others were healed and had so much more peace in their cancer journey. I prayed for the knowledge to help cancer patients in the way God wanted me to. It is funny how some prayers are answered. I mistakenly walked into an office and met a Radiation Oncologist. She asked me to sit and talk. To my surprise, she said she was moving and would I take over her cancer support group. Of course, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I said, yes!

I had learned group therapy during Graduate School for my Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. During Medical School, I went to the oncology floors in the hospital and asked patients to come to the support group.

It was there, I found the answer to one of my prayers. A charming woman with leukemia would come to every group with her chemo pole in tow which she called her ‘dancing partner.’ The effect she had on the group was profoundly uplifting. 		Her peace was always evident, even though she was dealing with a deadly disease. I asked her how she had such serenity and she replied, "God is my Physician and through Him I am healed."

Then and there, I knew that patients not only needed the very best medicine and medical care – they needed a spiritual focus as well!

Again, I prayed to God to help me find a way to treat the whole person: the body, the mind and the spirit. God listened and brought Rev. Elizabeth Barnhardt, a Minister and breast cancer patient to my office one day.

We prayed together for God to heal her and create something wonderful from her journey through cancer. I asked her to write a prayer for cancer patients. This led to ‘FRIENDS."

Our group is a special place where God’s healing power touches us all. We feel His love as we laugh and cry together.

Now we want the world to know they have a place to come for God’s comfort. We want everyone who is affected by cancer to know there is hope and peace through God’s Holy Word. Come and help us as we help others overcome and beat cancer once and for all!
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM REV. ELIZABETH BARNHARDT ON THE HISTORY OF HOW "FRIENDS" WAS STARTED

      Rev. Elizabeth Barnhardt

      Founder of "FRIENDS"

Eccl 3:1There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to speak, and a time to build,

a time to love and a time to heal….

 

“FRIENDS” was born in my heart on April 4, 2006 when I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. All of my family, including my only daughter, Nicole, lived out of town. From the very first moment of finding the cancerous lumps, my daughter and all my friends sacrificed and prayed for me. It included many trips to the doctor’s office with me to confirm the findings, biopsies, several surgeries, more doctor appointments, enduring radical chemo, radiation and hospital stays in ICU. It also meant spending the night with me, grocery shopping for me, etc. You name it; God surrounded me with “friends” to help carry me through when I was too weak and sick to do it for myself alone.

 

My main hope and faith has always been in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to heal me and bring me through this terrifying trial. However, the love of God shown through my daughter, family members, employer, and Pastor, co-workers plus the incredible care and excellence of the doctors and their staff gave me a confidence I was among “friends.”

 

God gave me a peace from the beginning my course in this life was not finished. It was my only desire that I would bring honor to God during this cancer journey and take His hope everywhere this trial would take me. God assured me through my inner peace and His Word He was going to take this hard and challenging trial of cancer and make something beautiful out of it. He certainly did!

 

From the beginning, I felt impressed by God to pray and quote His Word in…

 Ps91:1   HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him, I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! 3 For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

 

Every day I prayed and quoted this psalm in the Holy Bible with my mom and daughter. God had brought me through so many trials of life from losing my husband to every experience you can imagine and He has restored me fully. My hope was in God, but I soon found out the first week I also needed “friends” to help me, as I was too sick and weak to take care of myself alone.

 

On the very first visit to my Oncologist, Dr. Morris S. Dees, III, my daughter and I soon found out he was not your average doctor. Dr. Dees soon became not only my medical advisor, for Nicole and I, Dr. Dees became a close spiritual friend.

 

Dr. Dees had the exact same vision for healing through the power of Jesus Christ and he acknowledged that day, “I am just a vessel God uses and flows through, but God is the ultimate Healer.” We prayed together and discussed that the vital need for overcoming and managing cancer was spiritual well being; a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, “FRIENDS” was born!

 

It was all my friends standing with me and helping me that allowed me to concentrate on the goal and that was to get well. It is the desire of Dr. Dees and me now to take the message to the medical community and all those affected by cancer in the world, that “working together for health and healing through faith and prayer” is possible and medically proven vital for overcoming and managing cancer. Our “FRIENDS” group is making this possible!