June 19, 2025 • 15 mins
Piet shares personal and professional updates as Season 3 comes to a close, including recent cancer treatment developments and exciting new projects on the horizon.
• Recent visit to Mayo Clinic revealed a "suspicious spot" on Piet's bladder requiring follow-up in August
• All other cancer tests came back clear, showing last year's surgery was likely effective
• Launching 90-day health and fitness challenge with Otto Hernandez comparing vegan vs. meat-based approaches
• Follow the challenge on Facebook group "Keep on Healing with Piet Van Waarde" with daily themed updates
• YouTube content now organized into five channels: Sidewalk Conversations, Pocket Prayers, The Cancer Pastor, and Piet's POV
• Studio renovation planned for July, so join us for a pre-recorded series call the "Genius of the And" with Shaina Zavala that is releasing during the upgrade
• Successfully completed first 16-week "Building Resilience Against Cancer" course with applications open for the next cohort
Support for these initiatives available through the Van Waarde Foundation via Patreon
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Piet Van Waarde (00:13):
Hey friends, we are coming up on the end of
season three and it has beensuch a great time and thank you
for joining us, and so I thoughtit would take some time at the
end of the season to share acouple of thoughts about things
that are going on in my life,things that are going to be
seeing happen here at SidewalkConversations, and so this will
(00:33):
kind of give you a little recapon where we've been and what
we're thinking about for thefuture.
So let me just begin with apersonal update.
Some of you who've maybefollowed some of the work that
I've been doing and the thingsthat I've been experiencing on
other channels know that Irecently just got back from Mayo
Clinic.
I've been dealing with cancernow going on five years, and a
(00:58):
year ago I had a pretty majorsurgery where they took out my
kidney, my ureter, where theytook out my kidney, my ureter,
my prostate and lymph nodes, andduring that surgery they tried
to capture all the cancer thatwas in my body.
And for the first severalvisits now this year so that was
in May of 2024, the first fewvisits this year in 2025 have
(01:20):
been really encouraging and I'vebeen essentially cancer-free,
but in this last visit that Idid just a few months ago
actually just a month ago now,it feels like a few months, but
just a month ago I came back andthey discovered that there was
a spot on my bladder that theycalled the suspicious spot or
(01:41):
pimple, and they are a littleconcerned about it.
And because of things that hadalready been going on with my
bladder, they didn't want to doa biopsy until they had a little
bit more evidence because itwould create some more
challenges for the bladder.
And so in three months, in thefirst part of August, I'm going
(02:02):
to be going back to Mayo and Iam asking for people to pray
with me that that littleinconvenient news would be
nothing more than hey, it wasjust a scar or a pimple and
there's nothing to be concernedabout.
So I would definitelyappreciate prayer on that front.
I do also want to rejoice,however, because there were so
(02:25):
many other good pieces ofinformation I don't want to lose
sight of that.
So all the other tests andscans came back clean.
So my urinalysis, my bloodtests, my PSA, the PET scan that
they did all of that were clearand gave me a lot of reason for
hope that the work that theydid last May was indeed
(02:46):
effective, and the kinds ofprotocols that I've been
participating in since then haveserved me well.
So thank the Lord for that andthank you for joining me in
prayer during this last season.
So that's the personal update.
Now, when I got back from Mayo,I decided, okay, I'm going to
need something over these nextthree months to keep my heart
(03:09):
and mind occupied on somethingthat's both fun and positive,
and so I want to tell you abouta little 90-day health and
fitness challenge that I'm doingwith my good buddy, otto
Hernandez, and so essentially,what we've decided to do is that
we are going to go head to head, using different approaches to
(03:33):
deal with health and fitness.
So over the years, both Ottoand I have had a little running
conversation, maybe even debate,about what's the most effective
health and weight managementapproach.
So Otto is essentially on thevegan side of the equation, so
he's 80% vegan, he allows helpmeat every now and again, and
(03:56):
I'm on the other side of theequation.
I'm very meat heavy and am lowon carbs, and so we thought,
well, this would be fun.
Why don't we take the 90 daysbetween when you got back from
Mayo and when you're going backto Mayo and use it as an
opportunity to do a little testto see which approach is best.
And we'll throw a littlecompetition in there.
(04:16):
We'll make fun of each other alittle bit, and so that's what
we are doing.
So we started on June 1st this90-day challenge and if you want
to follow that littlecompetition, we are kind of
posting the results of variousthings on a Facebook page called
Keep on Healing with Pete VanWard.
(04:37):
You can easily join that groupand then you can get a daily
update on the things that we'redoing.
So we have a measurement Monday.
So we took pre-dietmeasurements of our waist, our
chest and all the various things.
So we have that review everyMonday.
Then we have Tally Tuesday,where we're looking at our body
fat composition, weigh-in.
(04:59):
Wednesday, of course, whenwe'll be doing our weigh-in.
Tiny man Thursday, where we'llbe talking about our diet,
exercise and our diet plan andshowing different pictures of
the meals that we're doing.
And then Friday is Fun FactFriday, where we'll be sharing
our exercise routines, and soevery day we'll have something
we're posting and we're reallyexcited about it.
(05:20):
In fact, if you'd like to be apart of the work that we're
doing on the side.
We've created a little GoFundMepage, and so we're calling this
the Purpose Driven Health andFitness Challenge Pete and Otto
Against Cancer, and so you canvote for the various approaches.
Like, if you're more on thevegetarian side yourself, you
(05:41):
might say, hey, I'm voting forOtto, and you can do that
through a contribution.
Or if you're like, no, I'm ameat guy too, I'm all about keto
, you can do a vote for me, andthen we'll just kind of use all
those resources to help fund thework that we do with other
cancer patients.
And so if you want to be a partof that, you can check it all
out on Facebook, on my ownhomepage, pete Van Ward, or on
(06:04):
the group page, and I'll putthose notes down on the bottom.
Keep on healing with Pete, allright.
I also wanted to let you knowanother thing that we have
another project that we'reworking on that I'm super
excited about.
Some of you may be aware that Ihave a variety of initiatives
that I've been working on,particularly in the area of
(06:26):
video.
So I have a podcast, I dopocket prayers, we do something
called the Cancer Pastor, whichis a day in the life of various
scenes and various parts of theprocess of dealing with cancer,
various environments and then,finally, something that I just
recently added called Pete's POV, where we talk about faith and
(06:54):
relationships and culturalissues, and all of that now is
found on my YouTube page.
So we have five differentchannels to represent all those
various points of focus, and mywonderful brand strategist,
doreen Jenmark, has done a greatjob in organizing that page and
making it look veryprofessional, and I want to
(07:17):
invite you, if you haven'talready had a chance to check
that out, to go ahead and lookat it.
If you would like, you cansubscribe.
We are posting content prettymuch every day in one of those
channels and so you can keep upwith all the things that we are
producing, and then you can havean opportunity.
If you feel like there'ssomething there that's valuable
(07:39):
to share with others, you canuse that as a chance to share
some content that you hope willbe an encouragement to them,
because that's a whole lot ofthe reason why we are producing
this content we want to be ablessing and encouragement to
people who are dealing A withcancer or just need help with
prayer or are interested in avariety of perspectives on
(08:02):
cultural, relational andministry-type challenges.
So love for you to check thatout, subscribe, share and like.
That'd be awesome.
Also wanted to let you knowabout the studio that we are
getting ready to transition.
So we have been in this setupfor a number of years now and I
(08:25):
have a great team of people andthey've been saying hey, pete,
what do you think about doing alittle update?
How about kind of bringing itup into the next century?
No, no, I'm not saying thatThey've been great, but they
said you know, maybe a littlerefresh would be good.
And so I've talked to somedonors who have been willing to
help me create a new stage setupor a new studio setup, and
(08:51):
you'll get a chance to see thepicture that we've kind of using
as our sample and this is goingto be what it looks like when
we're done.
So we're going to take themonth of July to reset the
studio.
So we are bringing in some newfurnishings, we're bringing in
some new lighting and some soundabsorption panels and the whole
(09:12):
thing.
So we're going to kind of raiseit up a notch and hopefully
provide an even better and morecompelling environment for the
conversations that I know manyof you found so meaningful.
Now, fret not, because eventhough we will be down in July
with this setup, we havepre-recorded a set of interviews
(09:33):
that I am so excited aboutpresenting to you.
My good friend, shana, is aperson that I work with at
Shoreline.
She was the creative pastorthere at the same time I was on
staff.
She's just a fun, articulate,thoughtful person, and she came
(09:53):
up with this idea of how do wenavigate the black and white
either, or kind of mindset thatis so prevalent in the world
today, and so we have come upwith a series of four sessions
where we talk about the geniusof the and it doesn't have to be
(10:16):
either, or it can be and and wetalk about all kinds of things.
We talk about this in thehealth and fitness space.
We talk about it even in thespace of dealing with racial
challenges.
We talk about it in ministry,and so I'm hoping that you might
tune in for SidewalkConversations in July, and in
(10:38):
the time slot where we normallypost these interviews, you will
now find that interview fourdifferent sessions around that
same topic, and I've alreadyseen the previews of that, and
it is super interesting, if Idon't say most of myself, and I
think you will really enjoy itas well.
So tune in July for Shana andPete on the genius of the, and I
(11:05):
also want to talk a little bitabout the cancer resilience
course that I just finished up.
This past spring, so we had theinaugural run of a 16-week
course called BuildingResilience Against Cancer, and
it's a course that provides avideo segment that you receive
(11:28):
every Monday.
It's a seven to 10 minute videosegment on a varied set of
themes related to what you dowhen you have cancer and how do
you deal with it, how do youtalk to your family, how do you
pray, how do you fight with yourdoctor, all those things and if
you know somebody who might beinterested in participating in
(11:50):
the next round.
We are now receivingapplications for that course,
and so I want to encourage you.
If you have some interest inthat, you can message me
personally, and I will put myemail in the notes.
Or if you want to contact methrough a messenger on Facebook
or Instagram, you can certainlydo that as well.
(12:12):
Any one of those platforms willget you to me, and I would be
glad to help you get moreinformation about what that
entails.
I can just tell you that the 16weeks we just completed.
Every single person said thiswas life transforming.
It was what they needed at theexact time they needed it.
(12:35):
Now, a lot of times, cancerpatients particularly those with
like a warrior mindset feellike they have what they need,
with family and friends tosupport them in the journey, and
certainly that's reallyimportant.
But there's nothing like beingin community with fellow
warriors, people who get it,people who you don't have to
(12:58):
explain it to or apologize to.
They'll let you be sad,frustrated, mad or rejoice when
you have good news or whenyou're struggling with what to
eat or how to use a protocol.
A lot of great information inthat group and I heartily
encourage you.
If you have any interest at all, please check it out.
(13:20):
I think you will really beblessed and helped by it.
Finally, I want to invite you toconsider supporting the
foundation that makes all ofthese resources available.
The van ward foundation hasbeen set up to provide the
resources needed to continuedoing the work that we do.
So you can imagine, with allthe resources that we've been
(13:43):
creating, there's a great teambehind the camera that is doing
a lot of the work to make thislook good, sound good and then
to distribute it in all theplaces it needs to be.
I could not do that, butthankfully God has been very
gracious to provide me a teamthat helps put the content
together, and that team isfunded through the Van Ward
(14:04):
Foundation.
It also works with all thevarious projects that we have
going on, whether it's thestudio refit or any of the other
projects that we do in thecommunity, the pastoral care
that I provide individually tofamilies.
All of that is made possible bythe Van Ward Foundation, and so
if you've been at all helped byany of these resources, or you
(14:27):
just want to say hey, I'd liketo make sure that these
resources get to the rightpeople, then you can support the
foundation, perhaps bestthrough the Patreon website.
So you can look me up onpatreoncom, slash Pete Van Ward,
and that will take you to thepage where you can make monthly
contributions and also one-timedonations.
(14:49):
So thank you for consideringthat.
All right, that's a wrap onseason three.
We have a couple of moreinterviews before we break for
the summer, but thanks forjoining us.
I'm so grateful that you'rehere.
God bless you and look forwardto seeing you again.
Hey friends, we are coming up on the end of
season three and it has beensuch a great time and thank you
for joining us, and so I thoughtit would take some time at the
end of the season to share acouple of thoughts about things
that are going on in my life,things that are going to be
seeing happen here at SidewalkConversations, and so this will
(00:33):
kind of give you a little recapon where we've been and what
we're thinking about for thefuture.
So let me just begin with apersonal update.
Some of you who've maybefollowed some of the work that
I've been doing and the thingsthat I've been experiencing on
other channels know that Irecently just got back from Mayo
Clinic.
I've been dealing with cancernow going on five years, and a
(00:58):
year ago I had a pretty majorsurgery where they took out my
kidney, my ureter, where theytook out my kidney, my ureter,
my prostate and lymph nodes, andduring that surgery they tried
to capture all the cancer thatwas in my body.
And for the first severalvisits now this year so that was
in May of 2024, the first fewvisits this year in 2025 have
(01:20):
been really encouraging and I'vebeen essentially cancer-free,
but in this last visit that Idid just a few months ago
actually just a month ago now,it feels like a few months, but
just a month ago I came back andthey discovered that there was
a spot on my bladder that theycalled the suspicious spot or
(01:41):
pimple, and they are a littleconcerned about it.
And because of things that hadalready been going on with my
bladder, they didn't want to doa biopsy until they had a little
bit more evidence because itwould create some more
challenges for the bladder.
And so in three months, in thefirst part of August, I'm going
(02:02):
to be going back to Mayo and Iam asking for people to pray
with me that that littleinconvenient news would be
nothing more than hey, it wasjust a scar or a pimple and
there's nothing to be concernedabout.
So I would definitelyappreciate prayer on that front.
I do also want to rejoice,however, because there were so
(02:25):
many other good pieces ofinformation I don't want to lose
sight of that.
So all the other tests andscans came back clean.
So my urinalysis, my bloodtests, my PSA, the PET scan that
they did all of that were clearand gave me a lot of reason for
hope that the work that theydid last May was indeed
(02:46):
effective, and the kinds ofprotocols that I've been
participating in since then haveserved me well.
So thank the Lord for that andthank you for joining me in
prayer during this last season.
So that's the personal update.
Now, when I got back from Mayo,I decided, okay, I'm going to
need something over these nextthree months to keep my heart
(03:09):
and mind occupied on somethingthat's both fun and positive,
and so I want to tell you abouta little 90-day health and
fitness challenge that I'm doingwith my good buddy, otto
Hernandez, and so essentially,what we've decided to do is that
we are going to go head to head, using different approaches to
(03:33):
deal with health and fitness.
So over the years, both Ottoand I have had a little running
conversation, maybe even debate,about what's the most effective
health and weight managementapproach.
So Otto is essentially on thevegan side of the equation, so
he's 80% vegan, he allows helpmeat every now and again, and
(03:56):
I'm on the other side of theequation.
I'm very meat heavy and am lowon carbs, and so we thought,
well, this would be fun.
Why don't we take the 90 daysbetween when you got back from
Mayo and when you're going backto Mayo and use it as an
opportunity to do a little testto see which approach is best.
And we'll throw a littlecompetition in there.
(04:16):
We'll make fun of each other alittle bit, and so that's what
we are doing.
So we started on June 1st this90-day challenge and if you want
to follow that littlecompetition, we are kind of
posting the results of variousthings on a Facebook page called
Keep on Healing with Pete VanWard.
(04:37):
You can easily join that groupand then you can get a daily
update on the things that we'redoing.
So we have a measurement Monday.
So we took pre-dietmeasurements of our waist, our
chest and all the various things.
So we have that review everyMonday.
Then we have Tally Tuesday,where we're looking at our body
fat composition, weigh-in.
(04:59):
Wednesday, of course, whenwe'll be doing our weigh-in.
Tiny man Thursday, where we'llbe talking about our diet,
exercise and our diet plan andshowing different pictures of
the meals that we're doing.
And then Friday is Fun FactFriday, where we'll be sharing
our exercise routines, and soevery day we'll have something
we're posting and we're reallyexcited about it.
(05:20):
In fact, if you'd like to be apart of the work that we're
doing on the side.
We've created a little GoFundMepage, and so we're calling this
the Purpose Driven Health andFitness Challenge Pete and Otto
Against Cancer, and so you canvote for the various approaches.
Like, if you're more on thevegetarian side yourself, you
(05:41):
might say, hey, I'm voting forOtto, and you can do that
through a contribution.
Or if you're like, no, I'm ameat guy too, I'm all about keto
, you can do a vote for me, andthen we'll just kind of use all
those resources to help fund thework that we do with other
cancer patients.
And so if you want to be a partof that, you can check it all
out on Facebook, on my ownhomepage, pete Van Ward, or on
(06:04):
the group page, and I'll putthose notes down on the bottom.
Keep on healing with Pete, allright.
I also wanted to let you knowanother thing that we have
another project that we'reworking on that I'm super
excited about.
Some of you may be aware that Ihave a variety of initiatives
that I've been working on,particularly in the area of
(06:26):
video.
So I have a podcast, I dopocket prayers, we do something
called the Cancer Pastor, whichis a day in the life of various
scenes and various parts of theprocess of dealing with cancer,
various environments and then,finally, something that I just
recently added called Pete's POV, where we talk about faith and
(06:54):
relationships and culturalissues, and all of that now is
found on my YouTube page.
So we have five differentchannels to represent all those
various points of focus, and mywonderful brand strategist,
doreen Jenmark, has done a greatjob in organizing that page and
making it look veryprofessional, and I want to
(07:17):
invite you, if you haven'talready had a chance to check
that out, to go ahead and lookat it.
If you would like, you cansubscribe.
We are posting content prettymuch every day in one of those
channels and so you can keep upwith all the things that we are
producing, and then you can havean opportunity.
If you feel like there'ssomething there that's valuable
(07:39):
to share with others, you canuse that as a chance to share
some content that you hope willbe an encouragement to them,
because that's a whole lot ofthe reason why we are producing
this content we want to be ablessing and encouragement to
people who are dealing A withcancer or just need help with
prayer or are interested in avariety of perspectives on
(08:02):
cultural, relational andministry-type challenges.
So love for you to check thatout, subscribe, share and like.
That'd be awesome.
Also wanted to let you knowabout the studio that we are
getting ready to transition.
So we have been in this setupfor a number of years now and I
(08:25):
have a great team of people andthey've been saying hey, pete,
what do you think about doing alittle update?
How about kind of bringing itup into the next century?
No, no, I'm not saying thatThey've been great, but they
said you know, maybe a littlerefresh would be good.
And so I've talked to somedonors who have been willing to
help me create a new stage setupor a new studio setup, and
(08:51):
you'll get a chance to see thepicture that we've kind of using
as our sample and this is goingto be what it looks like when
we're done.
So we're going to take themonth of July to reset the
studio.
So we are bringing in some newfurnishings, we're bringing in
some new lighting and some soundabsorption panels and the whole
(09:12):
thing.
So we're going to kind of raiseit up a notch and hopefully
provide an even better and morecompelling environment for the
conversations that I know manyof you found so meaningful.
Now, fret not, because eventhough we will be down in July
with this setup, we havepre-recorded a set of interviews
(09:33):
that I am so excited aboutpresenting to you.
My good friend, shana, is aperson that I work with at
Shoreline.
She was the creative pastorthere at the same time I was on
staff.
She's just a fun, articulate,thoughtful person, and she came
(09:53):
up with this idea of how do wenavigate the black and white
either, or kind of mindset thatis so prevalent in the world
today, and so we have come upwith a series of four sessions
where we talk about the geniusof the and it doesn't have to be
(10:16):
either, or it can be and and wetalk about all kinds of things.
We talk about this in thehealth and fitness space.
We talk about it even in thespace of dealing with racial
challenges.
We talk about it in ministry,and so I'm hoping that you might
tune in for SidewalkConversations in July, and in
(10:38):
the time slot where we normallypost these interviews, you will
now find that interview fourdifferent sessions around that
same topic, and I've alreadyseen the previews of that, and
it is super interesting, if Idon't say most of myself, and I
think you will really enjoy itas well.
So tune in July for Shana andPete on the genius of the, and I
(11:05):
also want to talk a little bitabout the cancer resilience
course that I just finished up.
This past spring, so we had theinaugural run of a 16-week
course called BuildingResilience Against Cancer, and
it's a course that provides avideo segment that you receive
(11:28):
every Monday.
It's a seven to 10 minute videosegment on a varied set of
themes related to what you dowhen you have cancer and how do
you deal with it, how do youtalk to your family, how do you
pray, how do you fight with yourdoctor, all those things and if
you know somebody who might beinterested in participating in
(11:50):
the next round.
We are now receivingapplications for that course,
and so I want to encourage you.
If you have some interest inthat, you can message me
personally, and I will put myemail in the notes.
Or if you want to contact methrough a messenger on Facebook
or Instagram, you can certainlydo that as well.
(12:12):
Any one of those platforms willget you to me, and I would be
glad to help you get moreinformation about what that
entails.
I can just tell you that the 16weeks we just completed.
Every single person said thiswas life transforming.
It was what they needed at theexact time they needed it.
(12:35):
Now, a lot of times, cancerpatients particularly those with
like a warrior mindset feellike they have what they need,
with family and friends tosupport them in the journey, and
certainly that's reallyimportant.
But there's nothing like beingin community with fellow
warriors, people who get it,people who you don't have to
(12:58):
explain it to or apologize to.
They'll let you be sad,frustrated, mad or rejoice when
you have good news or whenyou're struggling with what to
eat or how to use a protocol.
A lot of great information inthat group and I heartily
encourage you.
If you have any interest at all, please check it out.
(13:20):
I think you will really beblessed and helped by it.
Finally, I want to invite you toconsider supporting the
foundation that makes all ofthese resources available.
The van ward foundation hasbeen set up to provide the
resources needed to continuedoing the work that we do.
So you can imagine, with allthe resources that we've been
(13:43):
creating, there's a great teambehind the camera that is doing
a lot of the work to make thislook good, sound good and then
to distribute it in all theplaces it needs to be.
I could not do that, butthankfully God has been very
gracious to provide me a teamthat helps put the content
together, and that team isfunded through the Van Ward
(14:04):
Foundation.
It also works with all thevarious projects that we have
going on, whether it's thestudio refit or any of the other
projects that we do in thecommunity, the pastoral care
that I provide individually tofamilies.
All of that is made possible bythe Van Ward Foundation, and so
if you've been at all helped byany of these resources, or you
(14:27):
just want to say hey, I'd liketo make sure that these
resources get to the rightpeople, then you can support the
foundation, perhaps bestthrough the Patreon website.
So you can look me up onpatreoncom, slash Pete Van Ward,
and that will take you to thepage where you can make monthly
contributions and also one-timedonations.
(14:49):
So thank you for consideringthat.
All right, that's a wrap onseason three.
We have a couple of moreinterviews before we break for
the summer, but thanks forjoining us.
I'm so grateful that you'rehere.
God bless you and look forwardto seeing you again.
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