Faith Over Fear: Jake Curry
In late January 2023, Jake Curry began complaining of stomach cramps. “On a pain scale, it’s a seven out of ten,” Jake, then 14 years old, told his mom, Tanyl, a longtime registered nurse. That got her attention, and after a quick assessment, she ruled out appendicitis. But, she felt a lump in his abdomen.
Jake said he had never noticed it before and confirmed it was the source of the pain. Given that he was a high school swimmer who had recently started weight training, Tanyl initially suspected a hernia.
She brought Jake to an emergency room physician colleague at Lane Regional Medical Center, who quickly ruled that out. His instinct was a hematoma, but imaging was needed to be sure. The following day, an ultrasound raised new concerns. When the technician said she needed to consult a radiologist, Tanyl knew it wasn’t good news.
Their worst fears were confirmed two days later, when the radiologist called to confirm the mass was a tumor. Meanwhile, Jake’s pain was growing sharper and more relentless, alleviated only in short stints by Ibuprofen. Surgical removal was scheduled for 7 a.m. the following morning, and the mass would be sent for pathology.
Surgery was successful and Jake was sent home the same day. “Then came the hardest part: waiting,” Jake says. “To this day, it remains the hardest challenge I have ever faced. Pressing pause on my life to deal with something completely out of my control was overwhelming,” he says. “The most difficult part…was not knowing if I had a future at all.”
Tanyl says that from the day they got Jake’s tumor diagnosis, his faith that God was going to heal him was profound. “Days shy of 15 years old, he looked directly at me and said, 'Mom, faith over fear,’” Tanyl recalls.
The Curry family are longtime members of Fellowship Church, where Jake began serving as a worship leader for the youth ministry his freshman year. Tanyl put the call out communitywide to all prayer warriors, and they were flooded with prayers and encouragement. “The community support during this time was so much more than we could have imagined,” Tanyl says. From the pastors and church community at Fellowship, to the Zachary Community School District Superintendent, to Jake’s teachers and members of his swim team, Jake and the Curry family were surrounded with support and prayers.
“They came when he was sick and laid hands on Jake to pray for God to heal his body. Everyone that prayed over him believed he would NOT have cancer. We would have to wait 5-7 days for results, but we knew that God healed him when the tumor was removed,” Tanyl says.
On the morning of February 8, both Tanyl’s and Jake’s birthday, the family received the call they had been praying for: the tumor was benign and would require no further follow-up from St. Jude.
Doctors explained that the growth, a schwannoma, was exceptionally rare in children and even more unusual in the abdominal muscle.
When Tanyl called her husband Josh, who was already at work at the Zachary Fire Department, he laid down on the ground in front of the station, overwhelmed with emotion and praising God for their son’s healing.
For Jake, weeks away from school, sports, church, and friends were more than an interruption. They were a turning point. Without the routines that defined him, he gained a deeper appreciation for time, health, and the people who guide others through uncertainty. The experience reinforced Jake’s childhood dream of becoming a doctor, not just to heal, but to be present in moments of vulnerability. As he looks ahead, Jake carries resilience, compassion, and a commitment to turning hardship into purpose, healing into hope, and fear into faith.
