Hometown Miracle -Beating the Odds

This morning, I read about a miracle in our own hometown. It was in our local weekly newspaper, The Polk County Itemizer-Observer.  The article was written by Jolene Guzman.

In January of 2008, Tim visited his family doctor for routine physical.  Seemingly healthy, as a last minute thought, he asked the doctor to check his lungs because he'd recently developed a small persistent cough.  

Tim says, "He put his stethoscope on my chest, on my back, on my chest and on my back again.  And then he told me, 'You need to go to the hospital.'"

Tests and Cat scans revealed more than 20 tumors in his lungs.  Most were the size of dimes, nickels and quarters, but others were much larger. One tumor was even decomposing and was poisoning his body with toxins.

His diagnosis was illusive.  Because the doctors couldn't pinpoint the actual cause for the tumors, there was no treatment for Tim.  His wife remembers thinking that her husband was a dead man walking. 

"Right at the beginning we began to pray and ask God for healing."  For months, Tim, a tall athletic man who doesn't like to sit still, rested and waited upon God.

Tim called his doctor again in June.  He felt just fine.  A few days earlier he'd even stopped taking the pain medications he'd been forced to take to control his intense pain. 

Baffled, the doctor sent him in for another CAT scan.  The couple didn't get a phone call with the outcome for several days.  

The incredible reason for the delay?  Tim's doctor couldn't believe what he was seeing and had the entire case reviewed to make sure the results were real.  "The tumors have resolved," his Pulmonologist told him over the phone.  "You are getting better."

"God in His mercy reached down and touched my life and healed me," Tim says.

Miracles are happening all around us.  This dear couple's prayers and faith, resulted in God's mighty intervention.  Tim was healed.

What would happen if we sincerely prayed over the impossible things in our lives?  What if we prayed about what we see happening overseas, in our own country and communities?  Sometimes I forget to do that.  Reading this miraculous story in today's newspaper, I felt new inspiration to bring everything to God in prayer as I walk through each day.  

Then I shall look up and watch what He will do.  

Have a lovely day, sweet Friends!  Don't forget to bring all things--even seemingly impossible things--to God in prayer.  He is listening.

(Original News story, Miracle Man Keeps Beating Odds, was published in the August 20, 2014 issue of the Polk County Itemizer-Observer.  The article was written by Jolene Guzman.) 

Grammie's Precious Prayers

With Mother's Day so close, I thought a story from my talented Mom about her own dear Mother, would be a delightful way to celebrate the Holiday.

I had the privilege and honor of living in my Grandmother's basement for nearly three years.  She and I became best friends.  I still miss her with all my heart.  This amazing event happened in the weeks before she flew away to heaven--it is one of those miraculous things one cannot explain.

Here is my Mother's wonderful story:

As I chopped vegetables into little pieces for the soup, the phone rang. It was my friend Jane.  "I tried calling everybody on the prayer chain," she cried, "but you were the only one who answered.  Please, will you pray for my daughter, Alicia?  She's been in a car accident and she's in the hospital with a broken hip.  Her baby girl, due in three weeks, is coming right now.  Oh, Eva, please, please pray. They're doing a C-section."

We prayed together on the phone.  Afterwards I went into the kitchen and finished putting together mother's lunch. Alicia and her baby were still heavy on my mind as I walked across the field to mother's house and opened the door.  

There Mom sat in her wheel chair, wandering in her own little world, a folded piece of paper on the tray in front of her, a pencil poised in her hand.

She looked up, smiled, then handed me the paper.  I put her food on the table and took the paper, curious as to what she'd been writing. But this list was different from the one where she'd listed chocolate pudding ten times.  On this one was written just three words, "Alicia, Emerg. Pray."

Sudden goose bumps popped up on my arms.  "Did the phone ring," I asked my brother Dale as he came into the room. "Did she answer it?"

He looked at me strangely.  "She hasn't answered the phone in months, you know that.  Nobody called."

But I couldn't figure it out.  "Did someone come to visit?"

Another strange look.  He shook his head.  "She's just been sitting there all morning with me."

I told him about my friend Jane, whose daughter Alicia had been brought to the hospital and who, even as we spoke, was having an emergency C-section.  "She asked me to pray and I did."  

Then I pointed at the paper with the words only God could have given my mother, "Alicia, emerg. Pray."  

Later, when I told my pastor what had happened he shook his head in wonderment.  "God isn't through with your mother yet," he marveled.  "Just think, God loved Alicia so much He asked a little 95 year old lady with Alzheimers to pray for this girl and her unborn baby. And when she prayed, God worked a miracle of love and healing."

God's call is a very real thing; consider the coincidence of a frightened soon-to-be grandmother, calling her friend in another town who was preparing lunch for her shut-in mother.  Think about the little old white haired lady sitting alone in her chair, who, without talking to anyone, was moved by God to pray specifically for Alicia, a young woman injured in an accident and whose unborn child was in danger. 

Miraculous, amazing--there are times when God calls us to pray--Sometimes we don't even know why--but the burden is so heavy we fall to our knees.  It is only later we see His miraculous hand.  Our loving Creator reaches out through us and works His will and way in the heart of that one for whom we pray. 

Today Alicia's little girl is a happy eight-year old with shiny brown curls and a happy smile.

The Blessing of answered prayer continues on--moving outward like ripples on a pond.