This is a great book for anyone who has cancer or is on the journey with someone who does. 'Notes from the Valley' is an inspiring and powerful book based on the author’s journey through the valley of Cancerland as he battles with Stage IV colon cancer. It’s very real about the ups and downs of life with cancer and there is honest insight into the author’s own struggles, fears and frustrations, BUT it is also infused with humour, truth, grace and the hope we have in Jesus no matter how far in the valley we are and whether or not our cancer is cured.

There are simple, life-breathing, biblical teachings to guide us. To know that our suffering is for our good and God’s glory and is one of God’s “choice tools for shaping our character and deepening our faith”. It helps answer many of the questions and doubts we may have, but the other perspective is that you don't have to have cancer to enter the "Valley". There are many other difficulties and struggles in life that can leads us into the valley and this book offers great insight and direction to handle the challenges.

This book is a travel guide to spiritual depths I want to experience. To be filled with confident hope and prepared with fresh faith and joy to live for God today in view of eternity, longing to love Him with all my heart, and to love others in spite of (“nevertheless”) whatever is happening in my life. The author puts into words what is the greatest blessing in a believer’s journey through suffering: "I discovered under fire what I had always secretly hoped would be the case before the going got tough. And that is that following Jesus Christ is an adventure made more joyous, not less, by an increasingly difficult terrain."

This is a GREAT read for all of us, because we all venture to the valley at some point or another in our lives. It is also a very helpful book to offer friends who are suffering and in need of a companion and guide to point them to wonderful Biblical truths that God is with us and God is for us. Be encouraged, be comforted and be challenged to focus not on the temporary and trivial but on the eternal and important.

The theme of 'Notes from the Valley' is summarised beautifully on a card received from a young cancer sufferer: “GIRL, GOD’S GOT THIS”. 

This book is available to purchase from ICM Books.

Ali Macdonald, Smithton-Culloden Free Church