God is great – He gave me my voice back

An open market in downtown Johannesburg

During the South African mission we are asking members of “Arise O Man,” the name of the combined choruses, to share stories or thoughts about how God is great, what God has done in their lives, how he has provided a way to participate in the mission, or what has made the biggest impression on them during this this mission. Here is one of those stories.

God is great – He gave me my voice back

By Ronald Sithole, South Africa


In 2007 I developed a cancer of the lungs. During that year I went to the doctor, because I thought that I was having the flu, and my voice was dying out, and the doctor said he didn’t see anything. In 2008 I then went to an ENT doctor, a specialist. He checked my ears, he checked my nose, he checked my throat. When he checked my throat he said he found that my left vocal cord had a pimple. By then I was not talking; I couldn’t talk, my voice was gone. 


During that year, 2008, I went for a surgery and they removed my left vocal cord. Sure enough they find out that the pimple was cancerous. 2008 went by and I couldn’t speak. And I went under radiology. They did my throat (radiation treatment) until 2009. I couldn’t speak the whole of that year. The doctor said to me they were very lucky that they found it early, but he couldn’t guarantee that my voice would come back.  


To my surprise it was in September of 2009, the end of September, we were doing evening prayers and my daughter was the one who was having to preside over evening prayers, and every time she asked a question, out of nowhere I said to her, “Look, I’m going to answer the question.” I don’t know where, but I was talking. That moment she dropped her book by surprise; she screamed, “Daddy can speak!” I said to myself, “Wow, I am speaking.” 


It was then that we knelt down and praised God. My voice was back. Today I can sing the part that I never sang before – I can sing the first tenor. The highest voice in the male voices, first tenor. When I talk, people say I’m hoarse; my voice sounds like I have a flu. I say, “No, I have only one vocal cord.” And I’m cured; I don’t have cancer anymore. It was only that pimple on my left vocal cord. The doctors removed it and I have not had it again. 


That is how God is great. Having cancer, and being cured; not by anybody, but God did it. I did go to the doctors, but God did it. I thought my voice would be gone, but now I am singing back to where I was, and even more. God is great.


That is my story: I sing because my God gave me back my voice.