One of the duties of a pastor is to minister to the sick, but what happens when it's the pastor himself who falls ill?

For the Rev. David Panther, pastor of First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St., his illness brought him a greater understanding of what patients go through, an appreciation of his doctors and church staff and a greater awareness of the presence of God in his life.

Panther was undergoing treatment for Lyme Disease in May when doctors found a more serious condition.

“I was wrestling with Lyme's, and I realized that something was wrong. I wasn't getting any better. I was in a lot of pain. It was my shoulders, my back and my stomach,” said Panther.

However, Panther said it wasn't until doctors at Butler Memorial Hospital had done explaratory surgery that they discovered he had lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, and it had spread to his gall bladder and testicles.

“I got excellent, excellent care at Butler Memorial Hospital,” recalled Panther.

“The oncologist came in and said 'I have good news and bad news,'” said Panther. “'The bad news is you have lymphoma.'”

“I've dealt with people for 37 years with cancer, and I didn't realize that lymphoma was a cancer. I thought, 'Thank goodness, I don't have cancer,'” he said.

“The good news, she told me, was that 97 percent of people survived. That was good to hear,” said Panther.

Panther said he began chemotherapy almost immediately at the Cancer Center in Butler.

However, Panther said, at the end of August, “One Sunday when I got up to get ready for church, I found I had lost sight in my right eye.”

Panther said his doctors first thought it was a stroke.

Panther said that his vision came back after nearly two hours.

Then the doctors learned it wasn't due to a stroke.

“But then, they discovered the cancer had moved up to the head, and they hadn't expected it to do that,” said Panther. He was transferred to Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh and started on a different regime of chemotherapy.

“They put a port in my head with a reservoir in there and it sprinkles chemicals through the brain,” he said.

Now he said, he spends one week a month in Shadyside Hospital undergoing chemotherapy.

The good news, he said, is his doctors said his cancer is in remission and that his current treatment will end at the end of November when he will switch to one day of chemotherapy every three months.

Panther said the chemotherapy has been very debilitating ,which has been especially hard on the self-described “strong, Type A runner.”

“It wears me out. I will have a good week, then a bad week when things are real low. Then I will start perking up again just in time to go back into the hospital,” Panther said.

In the meantime, others have had to take over his duties at his 3,000-member church.

“I have had a wonderful staff. They have looked for the gaps and picked up the beat,” said Panther.

He said the Rev. Pat Nelson, First United Methodist's pastor of congregational care, and Rob Gillcrist, director of discipleship, have stepped in.

Dean Ziegler, the district superintendent for the 85 United Methodist churches in Butler, Beaver and Lawrence counties, praised the efforts of Nelson and Gilchrist.

“In this case, I had very little to do but offer support,” Ziegler said, calling Nelson “a very, very capable female pastor” and Gilchrist “a capable preacher and teacher.”

“I show up and try to be part of the services, but I am not carrying a heavy workload by any means,” said Panther.

How has it affected him and his ministry?

“You know, I think the two things I realized is you can't underestimate the fear factor or the loneliness,”he said.

“Even people of faith have to wrestle the mind going to some pretty dark places,” Panther said.

“And people don't know what to say or do around you,” said Panther. “People who used to call or come around to do things, begin to taper off. It's because they know you are not feeling well and don't want to bother you.”

“Or people don't want to let people know they have cancer. They are afraid of the stigmata. I don't know how they do that, get by without a support system,” said Panther.

Panther's support system was in evidence Oct. 4 when he and 140 members of his congregation took part in the Light the Night walk in Pittsburgh.

Each year in the United States and Canada, teams stage the walk to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“I couldn't walk it, I have issues with my leg,” said Panther, “so I was in a Segway.”

“Now, I don't believe God gave me the lymphoma. I believe that God saw it was going to happen. I believe God could have stopped it if he wanted, and I believe for some reason God chose not to stop it,” said Panther.