Radio Brings Jesus to the World – Wayne Pederson
Updated: 6 days ago
On this episode of Amazing Greats, we talk with Wayne Pederson a life long Christian, and career broadcaster. We'll hear about his early conflict between his faith and his passion and how they ended up merging. At 16 years old he had an "AH-HA" Jesus moment that shaped the rest of his life.
Wayne's life work centers around bringing the name of Jesus to remote areas of the world to people who had never been exposed to Christianity including some of the most religiously repressed countries like Russia, North Korea, Mongolia, Indonesia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa. Not through one time mission trips, but through ongoing live radio broadcasts and live streams. The work he has dedicated his life to, now reaches millions of people every day with the message of the Gospel.
Wayne currently works with Far East Broadcasting Company and is focusing his life on "Finishing well".
Check out the tree largest organizations that are bringing the Christian Message to millions of people all over the world via radio and streaming.
WAYNE PEDERSON AT A GLANCE
Christian Broadcaster • Global Media Leader • Ministry Speaker • Evangelist
Topics
Christian broadcasting • Cancer • Prayer • Healing • Miracles • Faith • Global ministry • Fitness • Finishing well
His Faith Journey
Lifelong Christian → Christian broadcaster → Global media leader → International ministry → Cancer diagnosis → Prayer and healing → New season of ministry
This Episode Explores
Wayne Pederson's rare cancer diagnosis
The tumor that ruptured in his abdomen
Finding treatment at MD Anderson
The five-hour surgery and heated chemotherapy
The pathology report that brought unexpected hope
Hundreds of people praying for his healing
Facing the possibility of death without fear
Recovering through fitness, nutrition and perseverance
Returning to ministry and international travel
His desire to “finish well” and “finish strong”
Questions Answered
Who is Wayne Pederson?
What happened to Wayne's health?
What kind of cancer did he have?
Why was his cancer diagnosis so serious?
How did he get to MD Anderson?
What happened during his surgery?
What is heated chemotherapy?
What did the pathology report reveal?
How did prayer affect Wayne's journey?
How did Wayne respond to the possibility of dying?
What is Wayne doing now?
What does “finish well, finish strong” mean to Wayne?
Podcast Transcript: Wayne Pederson on Cancer, Prayer, Miracles & Finishing Strong
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Ric Hansen
Hi there, Ric Hansen here with Amazing Greats.
And I know what you're saying. You're saying, “Well, have you been slacking a little, Ric? Because we haven't had a podcast up for a while now.”
The holidays kind of got in the way, and then I had shoulder replacement surgery, which took me down for a little bit. And I'm also hip-deep in a Christian charity event called Night to Shine. It's a prom night for people with special needs, so that's been taking some time.
But we're back. Season Three is underway.
And here is our first episode of Season Three with a guy you may already be aware of, because he was on the Amazing Greats podcast just about this time last year.
With us today is a gentleman who has been with us before, and we're going to get an incredible update on his life over this last year.
Our guest is Wayne Pederson.
Wayne came to us one year ago on the Amazing Greats podcast. It was actually January 26 of last year, Episode 26. And so, one year later, we're going to get an update on this amazing man's journey through the past year.
You're a broadcaster, a lifelong Christian, a career-long broadcaster. You've merged the two. You've put FM and AM and shortwave signals to work, and then the internet, to bring the Gospel all over the world in places where it's tough to get to.
Wayne Pederson, welcome.
Wayne Pederson
Well, thanks, Ric. I enjoy Amazing Greats. You've done some great podcasts over the years and some significant ones. I love the one with Pat Boone. That was absolutely amazing.
And then the whole God Winks thing that you did — that was incredible. I ordered the books and all of that. So I'm good. I love following your great podcast and your great stories.
Ric Hansen
Well, thank you for being here today.
I guess everybody kind of looks back on their last year and asks, “What was 2022 like?”
But your story stands out as being the most incredible story in a lot of ways — a tragic story that turns into something not so tragic.
Let's start with what spring of 2022 brought you. You got some tummy pains, right? Is that where it all started?
Wayne Pederson
Yeah. I was at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention and had a nice Italian dinner with some friends. I got up from the table and had this terrific pain in my abdomen. It bent me over.
I went to my room and was very bloated. I didn't know what was going on. I've never had tummy troubles in my life.
That bloating continued for some time, so I went to my primary care physician. She said, “Just take Tums and it'll be fine.”
So I did that. It didn't help.
I went back and said, “I'm having problems.” They prescribed Prilosec, which is kind of an anti-gas medication. I did that for a while, but that didn't help either.
Finally, the third time I said, “I'm concerned there's something very seriously wrong here. I've never had these kinds of problems.”
They ordered a CT scan.
A week and a half later, the diagnosis came to my gastrointestinal specialist, who had a very serious look on his face. Very somber. Very sad.
He said, “Wayne, this is very serious. You have appendiceal cancer.”
I'd never heard of cancer of the appendix.
He said, “I've only seen this once in my 40-year medical career.”
We came to find out that only one in a million people get appendix cancer, and nine out of ten are women. So, apparently, one in ten million men get this.
He said, “This is very serious. It's life-threatening. You need to get help right away.”
So we began looking around. I live in the Naples, Florida area, and we met with a couple of surgeons. They said, “I've never seen this. I don't know. It's way above my pay grade.”
We ended up, through a series of miraculous steps, getting into MD Anderson in Houston.
MD Anderson does cancer. That's what they do.
A friend of a friend who was on the board of trustees of MD Anderson got me in.
Now, MD Anderson was out of network for my insurance. Another series of miracles happened, and my Medicare Advantage insurance got me in and got my coverage.
They said my surgery would be 10 to 12 hours.
They would cut me from stem to stern, all the way from my sternum down to my groin, open me up, take out the cancer of the appendix, and remove what the swelling came from.
When there's cancer, it produces mucin. It's a mucus that the tumor spreads.
The tumor had burst. Actually, that's what I experienced painfully that night in Nashville — the tumor on my appendix burst.
The appendix is about the size of your little finger. The tumor was the size of a baseball, and it finally burst and spread this mucin throughout my abdomen.
That's why I was so swollen. It threw off my intestinal and digestive system and everything else.
So they scheduled the surgery for 10 to 12 hours.
They tell you the night before all the things that could go wrong and all the complications. Legally, they have to do that, but it scared the bejeebers out of my wife.
They said I'd be in the hospital about 10 to 12 days, and then they wanted me to stay in Houston for another two weeks to recover.
That was what we went into the surgery on August 18 expecting.
They said when they had me open and removed the tumor, they would look to see if it had spread to the kidneys, liver, digestive system, bowels, and other areas.
They even prepared me for a bag if they had to do a resection of my intestines and all that nasty stuff.
Ric Hansen
Oh my gosh. Wow. What horrible news.
Wayne Pederson
Meanwhile, we have a wonderful church here in Naples.
They were praying for me — specifically praying that when they opened me up, they would find no spread of cancer.
I serve on several boards, including the Joshua Fund board and others, and they were praying for me that the cancer would be gone when the procedure took place.
So Willie, my wife, and I went to Houston.
The surgery was August 18.
And the surgery was not 10 or 12 hours. It was five hours.
They did take out the spleen and the appendix, and then they put the chemo wash in.
It's hot chemo. They put it into the entire abdominal cavity, move it around, shake it around, turn me upside down, slosh it all over to cover all the internal parts for any microscopic tumors they might not have seen.
Ric Hansen
This is the first I've heard of hot chemo, man.
Wayne Pederson
It's a new thing that MD Anderson had pioneered — a new way of treating cancer where they don't put chemo through your entire body. They put it just in the affected area, which was the abdominal area.
So I didn't lose my hair or any of that kind of stuff. I didn't get sick from it.
It was a new methodology that MD Anderson had used, and now a number of other hospitals are using it.
They came out and told Willie, five hours later, “This is the best possible outcome.”
They saw no further spread of the tumor or cancer to other body parts — the liver, kidneys, or any other critical organs.
They said, “This is the best possible outcome.”
I stayed in the hospital for eight days.
The surgeon came in and said, “You look like a guy that doesn't need to be in the hospital anymore.”
Those were long eight days, because when they put that chemo in, your whole digestive system shut down. It took seven or eight days for my organs to start working again.
By the eighth day, he said, “You're discharged.”
An hour later, he came back with a piece of paper. It was the pathology report.
He said, “This is the lowest possible grade tumor.”
He didn't even use the word cancer.
He said, “This is the lowest possible grade tumor. The 70 men that have had this treated here, none of them have come back. Your chances of this returning are nil.”
He said, “This is the best possible outcome.”
We said, “Well, we have another name for it. It's called a miracle.”
Ric Hansen
Ric Hansen here with Wayne Pederson, lifelong Christian, broadcaster, and a recipient of a God miracle in this last year.
Wayne Pederson
God had truly done a miracle.
They were so sure it was cancer in the diagnosis, and that came back with a total clean bill of health.
And we said, “God answered those prayers.”
Ric, I believe God answers. God heals, and God heard and answered those prayers and healed my body.
Ric Hansen
Wow.
Such an incredible story.
Well, God's blessing number one was finding the right place to go. Number two was getting in there. And then number three was having all of these things take place and learning at the end of all of that that you're basically cancer-free at this point.
Incredible.
I have to go back and ask, because I think people want to know — it's something that goes across my mind.
When you're actually faced with something as dramatic as that, something as life-ending possibly as that, where does your mind go?
How are you feeling about that?
Tell us a little bit about the emotional roller coaster you may have been on at the time.
Wayne Pederson
Yeah. I went to that appointment alone, not expecting those kinds of diagnoses.
But when I saw the look on the doctor's face, I knew this was really serious.
So I walked out of there.
First of all, you're kind of numb.
“Whoa. This is going to change things.”
To realize that this could be life-ending — that kind of diagnosis and that kind of look on the doctor's face — was pretty life-threatening.
Ric, you come to that point where you dig down deep into the foundation of your belief.
Do I believe what God says or don't I?
God says that He does hear and answer prayer, and we know that. But you absolutely throw yourself, your whole weight, upon the Lord.
You also have to come to grips with the fact that you may die.
And am I okay with that?
The Apostle said, “If I live, I live for the Lord; if I die, I die for the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.”
And I can say, obviously there was concern and a real adjustment in thinking that I may not live to be age 90.
“This may be it. This may be the end of my journey.”
But also the fact that I had no fear.
I didn't have fear or panic.
I said, “Well, Lord, if I die, I want You to be glorified in this. And if I live, I want You to be glorified through this. You choose, and I'm ready to go be with Jesus.”
I have a lot of reasons to continue living.
I have a wonderful wife, a wonderful life in Florida. I have kids and grandkids, and I feel I have more to do for the Lord.
But I said, “If You're ready to take me home, I'm ready for that. If You choose to heal me, I want You to get the glory in all of that.”
So we prayed fervently.
Ric, one of the benefits of working in ministry for 50 years and in global ministry is that we knew there were hundreds — literally hundreds — of people praying for us and praying for our healing directly.
I was anointed with oil a couple of times. People placed their hands on me according to what the Bible says.
I believe that process was biblical and God-honoring, and God answers those activities and prayers on our behalf.
I have a very good friend, one of my best friends in Minneapolis and here in Naples. He said, “I've been around Christians all my life. I've seen answers to prayer, but I can truly say I've never seen such an amazing healing miracle in all my years.”
He said, “This is definitely the hand of God, and I've never seen anything like it.”
So I feel very privileged. Very blessed.
Ric Hansen
Wayne Pederson is on Amazing Greats with me, Ric Hansen, here as we talk about his miracle of 2022.
I follow you on Facebook, and you're bouncing around and doing teachings. And you were in Jerusalem, if I'm not mistaken, and you were in Puerto Vallarta.
Tell us about those trips and what those were all about.
Wayne Pederson
Well, it did take a while to get my energy back and to sleep well.
I lost about 15 pounds, and you and I don't have that much weight to lose. We're already skinny.
But I have gained the weight back.
I had to be careful. I couldn't eat large amounts at one time. I had to eat frequent, small meals throughout the day.
But now I'm back to regular eating.
We still eat very carefully and avoid meat and do a lot of fruits and vegetables.
We believe in exercise, so I walk every day and swim frequently.
The doctors did say, “Okay, Wayne, your age is working against you, but your fitness is working in your favor.”
And it definitely did help in my recovery. There's no doubt about it.
But after a month or two, we were ready to hit the road again.
And, Ric, I believe that with the healing and with the pathology report, God has given me more time to serve Him.
I want to be a good steward of whatever years He gives me.
If it's 10, 15, 20 years, I'd love that.
So as doors open, Willie and I are asking, “What's next?”
We serve on several ministry boards. I'm doing speaking, podcasts, radio interviews, that type of thing, and traveling.
Having — you mentioned — Puerto Vallarta, I had an opportunity to speak to a church there, a Mexican tourist church in Puerto Vallarta.
On that same trip, there was a group of young missionary leaders who were gathered there, and I had a chance to speak to them.
We traveled to Israel a couple of months before that and had an opportunity to minister to some organizations, churches, and pastors there.
So we're ready to serve God, whatever.
We don't know exactly what that is, but I want to continue teaching, preaching, and reaching whatever days God gives me.
Finish well. Finish strong, right?
Absolutely.
And that's my theme.
I've even written a little book of memoirs. I'll send you a copy of it.
The Lord led me to kind of journal some of these things, and I did it mainly for my kids and grandkids, but also for some special friends like you.
I'll send you a copy of the book so you can read firsthand about how God is faithful through the good times and the hard times.
And through my life, I've had plenty of both.
I've had wonderful times, but there are times that are hard too.
And as you know, anybody in ministry, God did not promise it would be all roses.
He said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.”
Ric Hansen
Yeah.
Just jumping back — and I do encourage our listeners, if they haven't already, to jump back and listen to Episode 26, because that is kind of your life story.
And one of the tragedies in your life was losing your wife to cancer several years ago.
Getting through all of that has been a challenge.
And then to get the diagnosis yourself must have been like, “Wow,” a smack in the head for sure.
Wayne Pederson
It did.
Ric, it did bring back some of those memories.
It was nine years ago that my wife passed away from ovarian cancer.
If somebody had asked me, “What's the worst thing that could happen to you?” I would have said losing Norma.
We'd been married 45 years.
And God — well, God doesn't cause cancer. I think cancer is of the enemy. Those are enemy attacks.
But fortunately, we have a place to go when the enemy attacks, and that's straight into the presence of Jesus forever.
So Norma is with Jesus, which is way better than being with Wayne, I can tell you.
And then God brought a wonderful woman into my life, Willie, and we're able to enjoy this new season together.
So in all the trials, God is good.
Ric Hansen
Yeah.
Let's end with that.
God is good.
In fact, I have this little band that a church person gave me — a pastor gave me — from his church, Resurrection Church here in Gig Harbor.
It says, “God's got this” on my little wristband.
It's a constant reminder, right? That He is there and He's a part of it.
Wayne Pederson
So I love that — “God's got this.”
All the time we felt God had our back on this.
And we early on, as Ephesians 6 says, took up the shield of faith that we may extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one.
And God certainly did shield us with the shield of faith as we went through this.
Ric Hansen
God bless you, Wayne.
Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story.
I'll look forward to the memoir. I would love to have a copy of that as well.
Wayne Pederson
Yeah, thank you.
Send me your mailing address and I'll get it off to you.
Ric Hansen
All righty.
Have a great, great day, and God bless.
Wayne Pederson
Thank you, Ric. Always a pleasure.
God bless you.
Thanks for all you're doing.
Ric Hansen
So awesome to get an update on a great guy that we did an episode with last year, Wayne Pederson.
Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Amazing Greats.
So we'll see you again in another two weeks, right here.
Thank you.
God bless.
Comments