Author of ‘Shout to the Lord,’ fought cancer

Hillsong worship leader Darlene Zschech had spent her life lifting spirits, but when breast cancer struck in 2013, she needed her own spirit lifted.

“What I found in my ‘valley of the shadow of death’ is the presence of God,” she says on a CBN video. “I realized you can only have shadow if there is light. It’s just a fact that God doesn’t leave us.”

Famous for her 1993 song “Shout to the Lord,” Darlene led worship at Hillsong Church from 1996 to 2007, after which she and her husband founded Hope Unlimited Church in 2011 in New South Wales Australia.

Amazingly, it is estimated that “Shout to the Lord” gets sung by 30 million church-goers every Sunday.

A television star from childhood, Darlene developed insecurities after her parents divorced when she was 13. As a result, she fell into bulimia for about four years.

“It took a long time for that (the wounds from the divorce) to heal,” Darlene says on SWCS Australia. “But now, I have got a real compassion for kids in that situation. It is now the rule, not the exception. Our next generation is definitely going to need answers. Divorce can definitely leave scars.”

When her dad returned to church, he took Darlene, who at 15 accepted Christ. She met and married Mark, and the couple worked as youth pastors in Brisbane. Mark felt called to Sydney, while Darlene didn’t want to go because she had just rekindled her relationship with her mom. Read the rest: Darlene Zschech cancer battle

Healed from cancer in Santa Monica

When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, Lori Ayala was first horrified.

Then she gathered her courage and faced it with faith. She did surgery and treatments — and she prayed and strengthened herself in her faith in the church. She didn’t waver, even when it recurred a year later.

Lori Ayala, healed of cancer, with some of the kids she cares for.

“I wasn’t afraid because I knew God had healed me,” said the 51-year-old director of the Lighthouse Christian Preschool in Santa Monica. “I don’t know why God wanted me to go through this. It wasn’t an immediate victory.”

I remember coming back from Guatemala for a break from missionary work one year and talking with Lori. She was laughing about how wonderful it was to have cancer because everybody in the church cooked meals for her. Her attitude made a profound impression on me.

Today, Lori is a source of joy at the Lighthouse Christian Preschool. And she is a great testimony of how to not cow in fear before the C-word.

With her husband, who has stayed by her side through thick and thin.

For the hundreds of people like her facing daunting disease and pain, the Lighthouse Church is staging a healing crusade at the John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica at 7:00 p.m. this Saturday. It’s free. In past healing crusades, notable miracles have been performed. Why not give it a try?