Standing in the Storm: Living with Faith and Cancer [9781912726530]

Suffering is never pleasant or desirable. But what if we could learn something from our most bitter experiences that we would never have learned without having gone through them? During 2016, Matt and his wife experienced a time of intense suffering with the loss of an unborn child, complications around the sale of their house, and the discovery that he had stage four non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (cancer).

In this inspirational memoir, Matt deals with his experiences of loss and critical illness vulnerably and honestly while discovering that, if our hope is in Jesus, we have a secure foundation that will hold fast no matter how terrible the storm may be.

Standing in the Storm is a profound and heartfelt book that wrestles with faith and loss, and shows that even in the darkest moments, God is with us; that life is beautiful and is worth living well.

AUTHOR:Speaker, author, songwriter and worship leader, Matt McChlery was born in Zimbabwe. From an early age, it was apparent that he had natural musical ability. Shortly after his 13th birthday, at a ‘Penguins In Africa’ Christian rock concert, he committed his life to Jesus.

Following this, Matt started getting involved in his school youth group. With a little guidance, Matt taught himself how to play guitar and started facilitating worship at the age of 15. It was at Rhodes University, South Africa, where Matt’s songwriting really started to show signs of maturity and were increasingly used to bless his local church.

Songwriting runs in the family as Matt’s great, great, great grandfather, Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the classic hymn ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Matt believes that some of the anointing he carries is part of a generational blessing as well as an individual mantle and calling upon his own life.

After recording his first single in 2002 , Matt has won various awards for his music and blog and racking up airplay on hundreds of radio stations around the world as well as appearing on the telly a few times.

In early 2016 Matt was diagnosed with cancer (non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) so took some time out of performing and recording. However he continued to write his blog and chronicled his journey whilst battling the disease which has since become a source of insight and inspiration for thousands of people around the world. Later that year, shortly after finding out that he is now in full remission, his blog achieved ‘Finalist’ position in the Premier Digital Awards in the ‘Most Inspiring Leadership Blog’ category.

Matt has written two books ‘Songcraft’ and ‘All Things New: Stories of Transformed Lives’ which have led to Matt adding speaking and preaching to his repertoire which have developed and come out of developments already happening within his ministry in his local church. A new book, 'Standing in the Storm: Living with Faith and Cancer' is due for release in May 2022.

Matt lives with his wife Verity and their two children in the UK. In 2018 he took the decision to step away from being a Primary School teacher to purse full-time ministry.

He is an Overseer (Elder) at his local church, The King’s Church, Wisbech, where he preaches, leads worship and is working on the strategic development of the church.

Matt continues to write books and worship songs that he hopes will continue to point people to Jesus.