Where Are They Today: Slone
Hello April 23rd, 2021
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Just over a year ago, Slone Kays’ life was going as well as anyone could ask for. A recipient of the Tim Tebow Foundation’s W15H program back in 2012, Slone had battled cancer earlier in her life. The treatment, though long and painful, was ultimately successful, and in time, she returned to the life she had imagined for herself as a little girl.
In 2018 she landed her dream job as an elementary school teacher in her current hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Teaching second grade at a Title 1 school in the city, Slone got into the profession because of the difference she knew she could make in the lives of some of the children who need it most. “I love getting to teach them family values,” she recently shared with TTF. “It’s not just about helping them make good grades or learn the material. It’s about teaching them things like kindness, generosity, and self-worth. I love to make them feel special…because they are special.”
With her career firmly on track, Slone’s future looked even brighter when Drew, her boyfriend of five years, proposed in 2019. Acquaintances since childhood, the two had lost track of each other for some time, but reconnected online in 2016. “Drew is the strongest person I know,” Slone shared. Having lost his brother to brain cancer a few years back, Drew was well-acquainted with the long and arduous road the disease forces many to travel. And his experience was something Slone has leaned upon over the past year after her doctor told her the words no cancer survivor ever wants to hear – “it’s back.”
The year that followed was one of struggle in every way. From the chemo that caused intense side effects, to the extreme restrictions that had to be followed in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19, Slone found herself in pain not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. "I can't explain it any other way, but I was in a dark cloud for a while. I didn't even want to wake up some days. I knew God was still there, but I didn't know why He would allow this to happen.”
But Slone refused to give in. Taking things one day – sometimes just one moment – at a time, she kept pressing on. “I knew the Lord had some purpose. I didn't know what, but I knew there had to be something. And since then, He has given me opportunities to love on others and help them get through their dark times, and that makes it worth it."
Just a few weeks ago, Slone returned the hospital, this time for scans. The news was good – her tumors are stable. It’s an update for which she is thankful, and yet at the same time can’t help but feel slightly disappointed. The chemo this time around has been as intense as ever before. “It feels like my body is being torn apart,” she recently shared with TTF. Even so, Slone remains adamant that everything she is going through is for a bigger purpose. The truth is, she doesn’t know entirely what that reason is right now. But like so many of us, she is resting in the fact that God does. We can trust with our whole hearts that He sees the whole picture even when we do not. And even if that’s all we ever know this side of heaven, it is – and will always be - enough.
TTF family – As you go through the next few months, would you come alongside us in continuing to pray for Slone? Knowing that with God, all things are possible, we are praying for a miracle – for a complete disappearance of the tumors inside her body. We are also are praying that the Lord would give her supernatural strength and joy as she continues to be a light for Him - from the hospital to the classroom, and everywhere in between.
