‘God isn’t finished with me,’ Baptist Homes’ Harrison says
JEFFERSON CITY – When a life crisis hovered over Rodney Harrison, he was settled into “going home” to be with Jesus. But prayer changed everything and allowed him to serve His Savior in many more ways.
In June, 2017, Harrison was dean of doctoral studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and interim pastor at Parkway Baptist in Kansas City.
Harrison had a 105-degree fever. The medical community was treating him for a dangerous brown recluse spider bite, but treatment wasn’t working. The fever caused him to pass out in his car with the motor running, and it was some four hours before he was found. After about a week in the hospital, on June 22, 2017, tests showed he had undiagnosed stage 4 cancer, which had metastasized in the blood marrow, kidneys, liver and lymph nodes.
“‘We’re going to refer you to end-of-life palliative care,’ the medical staff told me. They offered any pain-killers I wanted. Mike McMullens (MBTS faculty) had a daughter who was an oncology nurse. One oncologist, Dr. Flanagan, had an experimental treatment, and on June 24, 2017, about 48 hours later, he began the treatment,” Harrison said.
Rodney Harrison, president, Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries
“He was hoping for functional remission, perhaps for a long time. God used that,” Harrison said of Dr. Flanagan.
Meanwhile, the MBTS faculty, staff and students prayed. Pastors prayed. His mother and father even prayed for blood work to be normal.
The latter is significant, because since 1970s, Harrison had liver enzyme problems from excessive Tylenol, before it was discovered to be toxic to the liver. The cancer, brought blood issues, too.
“I didn’t particularly pray for God to heal me. I was ready to go home.”
Harrison started in healthcare in 1978, and in 1982 became an RN, then he got a degree in healthcare administration. He was also a church planter using medical offerings in the work, and in 1993 became full-time with the North American Mission Board. Then there was the cancer diagnosis.
Since then…
“Who would have thought God would give me a new experience in healthcare?”
Harrison became the president and CEO of the Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries, where he has overseen growth in facilities. He also served for several critical months as the interim president of Hannibal-LaGrange University.
“I’m a huge advocate of higher Christian education,” he said.
“On Dec. 22, 2022, my oncologist said for the first time in five years, my blood work was normal. On January 5, 2023, for my annual physical, for the first time in my adult life, my liver enzymes were normal, too. They hadn’t been like that since 1979, when I was injured in a car accident at age 18. It is the power of prayer.”
The “readiness to go home” during cancer treatment when he was planning palliative care talks with family, friends and his church, persists.
“This (present life) is not my home, but God isn’t finished with me,” he said.
“From March to October of 2020, we had no COVID cases at the Baptist Home. I wrote an article for The Pathway. A week later we had one of the worst outbreaks. That doesn’t change my faith or my understanding of seeing the opportunity in every crisis. God is God and he has permission to do what He will. I had the same conviction, molded and shaped by my cancer fight. God was up to something greater. It doesn’t mean it was a waste of time to pray nor did it mean we prayed inappropriately.”
“What makes it easy is the peace of knowing I’m ready to go home. There was amazing support for the church and the outpouring of Missouri Baptist team members. It’s different facing these things in the family of faith. What is it like for those that have to face this alone?
“I had no idea I’d be healed. I was determined to fight and live as long as I can to be a testimony. Paul wrote, ‘To live is Christ and to die is gain.’ I read it as one knowing my time is short. It’s a beautiful perspective. It’s the beginning of the journey God equipped me for and prepared me for since day one.”
Harrison recognizes some people do not recover from cancer or other serious diagnoses, and he doesn’t try to explain away the mystery of this reality. “God may have a different assignment and plan” in these situations, he said.
But, about his own life, one thing is certain: “The Lord,” he said, “has put me here for such a time as this.”