According to those who attended the “Prayer Night Against Cancer” event Tuesday, prayer and faith is considered to be all that is needed to cure those affected by cancer.

“I believe that God can heal me of a headache. I believe that God can heal me of a hangnail, but when you speak the word cancer, oh my, it just seems so grey and overwhelming,” Pastor Ken Bulgrin of the First Apostolic Church of Tallmadge said.

“And so if we understand that God can heal a headache and a hangnail,” he said, “we know he can heal cancer.”

Journey Campus Ministry of Kent hosted a night of prayer in support of those fighting cancer on Tuesday in the Kiva. Around 20 people came to the event to pray and give faith to those who had, still have or know anyone affected by the disease.

The audience cheered and sang along in praise as Kent State’s Voices of Testimony, and the Barberton Praise Team sang gospel songs of healing and faith throughout the event. A representative of the American Cancer Society told the audience about the latest cancer research, information and statistics.

Bulgrin tried to give those afflicted with the disease hope that they could be healed with his own testimony of how he was cured of cancer by prayer and faith.

“When I was 28 years old, I developed a growth on the side of my face that grew for three months. Next thing I know, another one formed,” he said.

The doctors told him he had two cancerous tumors that needed to be removed. Before he got the operation, his pastor formed a prayer line for him where 50 people prayed for his cancer to go away.

“The next morning I woke up, the first one was gone and the second one decreased by half. God can do anything,” he said, as the audience cheered.

Freshman fashion design major, Darlene Laster, attended the event for healing for her fiancé, who suffers from cancer.

“He was diagnosed five years ago with leukemia and he’s in remission,” she said. “Then we got engaged last year and then he found out that he had lung cancer.”

Because of her fiance’s illness, Laster said the wedding has been pushed back, but she said she will never leave him no matter how bad it gets.

She said she came to “Prayer Night Against Cancer” to pray for his healing and strength for herself to be able to love and take care of him.

Laster is no stranger to dealing with a loved one who suffers from cancer. She said that her father died of throat cancer in 1985, so she knows that prayer, patience and love is the way to care for someone with cancer.

Olivia Manda, a member of Journey Campus Ministry, said that the purpose of the event was to increase the community’s faith in Jesus and in the power of their prayers to him.

“I felt blessed, anointed, and the love from all the people who came out,” she said. “It was such a beautiful time.”

Contact Ashlyne Wilson at [email protected].