Community rallies behind Bar Nunn family battling rare, aggressive cancer

CASPER, Wyo. – With her acoustic guitar slung over her neck, Ashley Martin carefully adjusted a microphone before leading the small band into the next song. Her husband, pastor Tyler Martin, was winding down part of his Easter Sunday sermon while slowly handing the stage back to Ashley for praise and worship.

The scene reflects generations of Southern Baptist services that effortlessly weave together music and words of inspiration. Aside from her complete hair loss, Ashley’s confident and energetic command of the craft hides the fact that she’s battling for her life against a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

The cancer treatments sap her energy and are exhausting, but she still continues to do what she does.

“There’s no stopping her,” said Tyler. “She’s tough beyond measure, and over and over again I would say that she’s my hero.”

Tyler and Ashley met while attending East Texas Baptist University, and quickly became close friends. “We had a bunch of classes together, and she’s the first friend that I ever dated,” he said. They married on the same day they graduated.

Tyler earned a masters in seminary school, and after serving as associates in other churches, they decided to embark in starting their own. In 2019 they moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to Bar Nunn specifically to start a new Southern Baptist church. They went about meeting residents, hosting backyard BBQ’s, movie nights and other events, and steadily becoming involved in the community. Their first service attracted 44 people, and now routinely brings in 115 each Sunday. “We’ve always called ourselves a church in Bar Nunn for Bar Nunn,” he said.

They now have three children, ages 7, 5 and 3, and feel deeply connected to their Wyoming community. “Texas isn’t home anymore,” said Tyler. “That’s where our family lives, but Wyoming is home, and Outfitter Church is our baby.”

That connection has been made even clearer since Ashley’s cancer diagnosis, which was eventually discovered after a doctor’s visit for what they thought was a simple UTI last October.

Tests found that she did indeed have a UTI, and was suffering pain from a kidney stone. An MRI was ordered to locate the stone, but doctors also found a large tumor in her bladder. After it was removed late in December, samples were sent to three different labs before a specialized facility in Texas was able to land the diagnosis.

Ashley has a rare and aggressive form of cancer called undifferentiated round cell sarcoma that can develop in soft or hard tissue.

“This cancer spreads so fast, that if it had spread to more than two places in the body, the only data they have is that it does not respond to chemotherapy,” said Tyler. “The fact that we caught it this early is just unbelievably remarkable.”

In February, Ashley started chemotherapy treatment at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.

Every other week, the family travels to Salt Lake for Ashley’s treatments, which alternate from one-day treatments to two-day treatments with five different drugs. She requires supervision in the hospital the entire time, said Tyler, so the family stays at a nearby hotel. “We’re down in Salt Lake about 10 to 14 days out of the month,” he said. This will go on for eight months, and will include six weeks of radiation on her bladder along the way.

“Physically she’s very tired, but I would say she’s doing unexplainably well,” said Tyler. “She’s just tough.”

“She’s said, ‘there’s plenty of time to cry, there’s plenty of time to process the grief, but right now we’re gonna fight and gonna get after it.'”

Tyler knows that thousands of people are praying for them within the Southern Baptist world. They’ve also felt the love and support of their own community, as even non-churchgoers have reached out to help raise money and awareness.

“Wyoming as a while has some of the nicest, most down-to-Earth and genuine people we’ve ever met in all of our travels,” he said. “When we saw the outpouring of support from our local Casper and Bar Nunn people, it was unbelievably humbling and overwhelming.”

Tyler and Ashley do miss some Sunday services because of her treatment schedule, but he says they’re extremely grateful for other church leaders who’ve stepped up in their absence. Their faith has also been instrumental in making sense of it all.

“I think this has brought so much more depth to our view of God, regarding suffering and His sovereignty,” he said. “I’ve preached about God being sovereign and good for 13 years, and it doesn’t change anything now that it’s hit home…it has just deepened it.”

“What Ashley said is, ‘why not me, Jesus went through literally more suffering than anyone, I’m a follower of Jesus, so why would I not also have to go through suffering.'”

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Casper firearms retailer Gunner-Industries has launched a raffle to help the Martin family thanks to numerous donations from the community. Information can be found here at their Facebook page.

Tyler Martin posts updates on Ashley’s progress, as well as ways to help fund their cancer fight on his Facebook page. He also publishes an online newsletter, which can be found here. Outfitter Church’s website can be found here.