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.) 

Freeway Angel -SkyWatch Friday

Time for another Angel Story.  A few years ago, our good friend Ken was driving a truckload of pipe  down highway 16, Washington State.

A man pulled alongside, signaling something was wrong with his load, so Ken slowed and stopped on the shoulder of the highway.  The man also stopped and together they tightened down the ropes holding the pipes in place.  Suddenly Ken didn't feel very well and he had to sit down.

Then he lost consciousness.  Ken was having a major heart attack.  His helpful new friend called 911 and began to administer CPR.  Later the paramedics couldn't recall what the man looked like, or where he went once they took over.  He and his vehicle simply vanished.

Ken's family was heartbroken when the doctors told them tests revealed that there was no brain activity.  Ken was moved to hospice where they expected him to die. But my husband and I and hundreds of people all over the world were praying for a miracle.

He was in a coma without any brain activity for quite a long time.  Then came the day the family was approached about organ donation.  The doctors told them Ken would never recover because he was brain dead.  But the family decided to wait.  Weeks went by, we were all afraid he was going to die.

Meanwhile, his youngest daughter had been feeding him ice chips.  When she would place the ice in his mouth, he would swallow the water.  The nurses discouraged her from doing so, they said she was prolonging the inevitable.  But that dear girl kept on giving her Dad the ice.

I'm not sure how much more time passed, but one day when the family came to visit they found an empty bed.  They feared the worst.

Imagine their astonishment when they found Ken alive and well in the small hospice cafeteria, eating mashed potatoes, gravy and turkey.  He could walk and talk--he knew his family and he was hungry.

He actually had to stay in Hospice a few extra days because there was no paperwork in existence to check someone OUT of hospice!  We all had a pretty good laugh over that.

We still see him from time to time--he is healthy, hale and hearty.

If that man hadn't signaled something was wrong with the load of pipes, Ken wouldn't have pulled over.  He could have had a heart attack while he was driving.  Others could have been hurt.  If the man hadn't been there to call 911 and administer CPR, our friend might not have made it.

An angel?  I believe it is possible.

To be called brain dead one day and yet awaken with one's brain intact is miraculous.  God is still in the business of miracles! 

If you love clouds as much as I do--join Skywatch Friday to see all the amazing things to be found by looking up.  Have a lovely day and Happy Skywatch Friday!

Mysterious Tears

I was ten years old when I created this chalk drawing on black construction paper.   I can still feel the way the chalk felt in my fingers, as I drew it across the paper--I can see the lighting of the room and I remember I knew exactly how to draw this man's face.  Mrs. Young, my teacher was amazed.

Mom loved it so much she hung it on the wall of the stairway which led to my sister and my room.  It hung there until I was in my late teens and I found a frame for it.

Thirty years later, I took the drawing out of its frame to scan it into the computer, to upload it onto an art website I had at that time.

That's when I noticed the tears.  I was floored.  There were what looked like tear stains dripping from his eyes and tracing down onto his cheeks. 

I was astonished and more than a little in awe.  If you click to enlarge the picture, you can clearly see where the tears trickled from his eyes through the chalk.  I often wonder about those tears.   I wonder.  I do.  So many miraculous things have happened in my life.

Today the drawing hangs on my office wall.  It reminds me that mysterious, miraculous things really do happen.

Sometimes miracles occur through the innocent hands of a little child wielding a piece of chalk against a thick piece of black construction paper.