The greatest love story ever told

The Bible is God’s love story to us. But how can we share his love story with those who are yet to hear it? For 92-year-old Les John, it’s as simple as listening to God. He’s felt guided by God’s hand to help the people he’s met along the way over his lifetime of ups and downs.

The retiree from country Victoria is putting his listening (and writing) skills to use to support and uplift a dear family friend with a cancer diagnosis. At a time when many nonagenarians may feel their helping well is running dry, Les is using the power of words to encourage Courtney, 42, as she battles stage four cancer.

Every day Les writes to Courtney from his home at the Heywood Rural Health hostel north of Portland, Victoria.

‘I pray every time I go to write an email to her for God to give me the strength to support her through the messages, and he has never let me down once’, he says. And Les says it is never too late to hear God’s will for us. As he says: ‘This story is all about love.’

Les and his late wife Marjorie met Courtney in 2006 when Marjorie was recovering from a stroke, and Courtney came to clean the windows of their Portland unit. Courtney became an instant friend.

After Marjorie’s passing from cancer in 2018, Courtney reached out to visit Les in his Heywood hostel. ‘Courtney virtually became a carer to me – taking me out for drives and coffees’, Les recalls.

Then in 2020, COVID-19 appeared, and hostels went into lockdown, so their visits to one another stopped. Soon after, Courtney rang Les to say she’d been diagnosed with cancer.

So, Les started to write to Courtney every day. ‘As my wife had cancer, it gave me the opportunity to be aware of what she was going through’, he says. ‘Every time I sit at the computer, I believe God whispers in my ear what he wants me to share.

‘I am just sharing the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and we’ve had long discussions about that.’

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