“God has promised strength as our day, rest when we labor, light on the way, grace for our trials, help from above, unfading kindness, undying love.”1
I HOPE IF YOU’VE read this far with me, you’ve built your faith in knowing that God is on your side and wants to get involved in your circumstance. I believe that Josiah is a living, walking miracle today only by the grace of God. Because of His goodness my hope and desire is that you feel a renewal and sense of refreshed hope in God’s covenant and promises with you. When God is involved in your situation, “it’s not over”! I hope that this book has, in some small way, turned your heart into making this statement personal. Faith builds faith. When you read the victories of other people and see they are just like you and me, it builds your own faith.
There is a story you may remember in the news not too long about Jason McElwain, a high school student with autism. Jason served as one of the managers for his basketball team and became a favorite icon for not only the players but also for the fans with his often encouraging half-time pep talks. Jason loved basketball, but due to his illness, he and his parents never expected to him to play in a game. In the television spot that aired sharing Jason’s story, the narrator says, “Who knew hope wore a blue shirt and black tie? Who knew hope spent hours shooting baskets in an empty gym? He worked all his life for a slim chance to play in just one game. Who knew hope would come off the bench with four minutes nineteen seconds to go?”2 Yes, in the last game of the senior’s season, Jason was called from the bench to experience what it felt like to play as an actual player. The stadium, his peers, and teammates went ecstatic. Hope was given a chance!
Jason’s first shot was an air ball and missed the rim by a mile. There was desperation in the air as all eyes watched Jason experiencing a lifelong dream; he was actually playing in a basketball game after serving as the manager for the duration of his high school years. But playing in the game wasn’t enough. Everyone wanted to see Jason make a least one basket. Another attempt and another miss. Time was running out. Jason was passed the ball for another chance, as he stood just outside the three-point circle. Amazingly, Jason shot and scored! The crowd went crazy. Basket after basket, Jason kept sinking three-point shots. In fact, Jason came out the high scorer that night with twenty points! Hope proved powerful in the life of an autistic high school senior.
Jennette and I love reading biographies of people who have successfully made it through difficult and tough situations. I’ve asked a few friends to share their stories of victory, triumph, and faith. Some are very personal and real, and I salute their bravery for sharing with you and me. Read their journeys and be inspired to finish strong, and know when God is in it, there is no limit, and when God is in it, “it’s not over.”
TILL DEATH DO US PART
It was a beautiful summer morning, and I was sipping my tea and reading my Bible. What an amazing story when Jehoshaphat and his people won a great victory against three enemy armies that attacked them. How exciting. Such a victory. As I read, a verse jumped out at me, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you” (2 Chron. 20:17, NIV).
I had a strong sense that this verse was for me. But I wasn’t in a battle. Life was good. As pastors we were in a good place, having just bought a new church building. After twenty-six years of marriage we had a happy home, living life to the fullest with our four grown children. We even had a grandchild on the way. “No, Lord, we’re not in a battle,” I thought to myself. But I couldn’t shake it. I had been warned; enemy forces were gathering, and this verse was going to be my lifeline.
Months passed, and I became increasingly uncomfortable with a friendship my husband was forming with a lady in our church. I confronted him, but he assured me it was innocent. I took him at his word against the intuition within me. I asked the Lord to show me what I needed to know. And He did. Just two weeks before Christmas I logged into our computer only to find his e-mail account open, and my world came crashing down. He was having an affair. Not a one-night stand. They had gone away on a weeklong vacation together.
It was over—our ministry, our marriage, our family. I confronted him, and I called my sister. I was leaving. I was done. I met with my two oldest daughters and told them what I had to do. Being at heart a godly man who spent his adult life devoted to his ministry and family, he begged me to stay and promised he would cut all ties with this woman. I agreed to allow our children to have Christmas as a family and then make the decision. We began to pick up the broken pieces, and the pain started to heal. But unbeknownst to me, the battle was still raging.
It became clear to me that my husband wanted his ministry, his children, his life—but not with me. That’s a hard reality to deal with. I was devastated, and my instinct was to get as far away as I could. But that verse kept rising in my heart. I pictured Jehoshaphat in his battle. How impossible it must have looked. How terrifying to be surrounded on every side. Yet God gave him a strategy for victory.
I prayed, “Lord, I can see no way out of this but total ruin of our ministry and our family. But I want Your will for our lives. Give me the strategy to get through this, and I will do it.”
You may wonder why I didn’t just expose this sin and let others deal with it. I knew the sin had to be dealt with and that there would be consequences, but I needed to get God’s mind on the whole situation first. I knew what people would advise me to do, but I had to hear it from Him. And I did. He repeatedly painted a picture of victory in my heart.
He led me strategically in three areas and kept reminding me, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
The emotions attached to betrayal can be overwhelming. Pain surges through your heart every moment of the day and snaps you awake in fear in the middle of the night. You can’t sleep or eat. You feel a weight pressing down on you that makes you want to lie down and never get up again.
If I was going to do this God’s way, then I had to stand back and realize that this was not about what an inadequate woman I was, nor was it about the younger, fun-loving other woman. This was a battle Satan was waging for my husband’s life, our ministry, and our children’s legacy. When I realized that, strength rose in my heart. I was not about to stand back and have the enemy decide our future. God had a plan for victory in a battle that only I seemed to see clearly. I had to shake off discouragement and replace my fears with faith. It was do or die.
Yet God said, “You will not have to fight this battle.”
So what could I do? As I read on, I saw my part.
“Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you.”
I know my position. In Christ I am more than a conqueror; I am well able. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. So I took my position and stood firm on God’s Word. I walked our house rebuking every demonic force that would try and stop God’s plan for our lives. I boldly declared God’s promises over our lives. That was my part, and God promised to do His part.
The second strategy the Lord gave me was to overwhelm my husband with love. I went out of my way to please him throughout the day and in the bedroom. I knew that if I withdrew from my husband sexually, I would be giving the devil the final foothold he needed. You may be thinking that is an act of desperation, but I knew that saving my family was worth it. The scripture kept coming to my mind, “A woman’s family is held together by her wisdom, but it can be destroyed by her foolishness” (Prov. 14:1, CEV).
My husband had promised to stay away from the other woman even though he was struggling with his feelings, but he also felt so guilty and responsible for her that they stayed in contact. Only God kept him from walking out on me for good.
I made so many mistakes and faltered along the way. I lost my temper and did things out of desperation. There were many days when it looked like our marriage was over. One afternoon I came to the end of my rope and told him to leave, that I was just giving up. I was exhausted, finished. It was over. At that moment the phone rang. I answered it to hear the voice of a friend who knew nothing of our situation. She told me she was praying for me, and the Lord had told her to call and give me a word. She proceeded to prophesy that now was not the time to give up, that my prayers were working and victory was around the corner. She said I had a unique gift, and my place was significant alongside my husband. I laid my head on the kitchen counter and cried as she spoke. Once more God was telling me loudly and clearly, “It’s not over!”
I knew that I had scriptural grounds on which to leave my marriage, and I knew that if my husband refused to repent completely, I would do it. I heard some wise advice that one should never get divorced because of emotions, rather to take time to deal with the anger and hurt before pulling the plug. That way you could look your children in the eye and say, “I did everything I could,” and move on with no regrets.
I had been stopped from issuing an ultimatum on a number of occasions as the Lord directed me. In hindsight I think an ultimatum at the beginning of this saga would have short-circuited God’s plan. Once I had done all I knew to do, I told my husband that I loved him with all my heart and honestly believed it was the will of God that brought us together. I then gave him a date that I would be announcing our separation and told him I had consulted a divorce lawyer even though it was not what I wanted.
The result was a total turnaround. My husband said he felt like a veil lifted off his eyes. He wept and repented, and we began to repair our marriage. He repented before the church, and we dealt with the consequences. We’re so grateful that so many people have rallied around us and offered forgiveness.
This is a very personal story of our private pain, sin, and struggle. It’s not easy to share, but we know something without any shadow of a doubt. When God says it’s not over, it’s not over!
—ANONYMOUS PASTOR’S WIFE
BUILT TO LAST
As the son of an Assemblies of God minister I grew up watching my dad pastor small churches across the East Coast and work as a residential builder on the side to take care of the financial needs of raising a family of six. My father taught me the trade and industry of construction, and we worked together until 1975 as a small building company. At that time my dad retired from building and pursued full-time ministry. With a family of my own, my wife, Sally, and I started our own construction company.
Our company grew and became very successful, but in 1987 the Lord started dealing with us to sell the company and make a drastic change in our lives. Both my wife and I had grown up in Christian homes, but we had a longing to experience God for ourselves. We both felt like God was asking us to make a change in our direction—a drastic change. We knew we were being called to leave everything behind and move to Oklahoma in order to attend a Bible training center to see for ourselves if all we had been taught as children was true. In May of 1988 we moved our family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in September we started attending school.
In order to facilitate this move and drastic change in our lives, my wife and I were able to solidify a buyer for our company and made an agreement with the new owners regarding our compensation. The new owners agreed to pay us monthly installments for the following five years. We thought we were financially set and had made fiscally responsible arrangements to cover our monthly needs while in school. But a turn of events left us in a so-called “wilderness experience” that truly tested our faith.
During the late 1980s the United States faced an economic crash when the government formed the Resolution Trust and radically altered the banking and finance industry. The results had a similar effect as that of our current economic situation. The new owners of our company were caught in this economic downturn, and the results were a bankrupt company. After receiving our monthly installments for over a year, the money instantly dried up, and we were faced with no money and the decision whether we should stay in Bible school. But we knew in our hearts it wasn’t over.
We believed that the answer was to continue the path we had started and finish school. Looking back, those were two of our best years and, yet, two of our toughest years at the same time. During those two years, we literally lost everything financially. We were so excited about what we were learning in school and how we were growing in God, but with two children the bills were quickly piling up. Sally and I both looked for jobs but couldn’t seem to find one anywhere. We wondered what to do and were desperate for answers! We were nearing the end of our second year of school when the pastor of the church associated with our Bible school asked us to stay and build their new church facility. An answer to prayer—a job! It was to be a 250,000-square-foot church, which was the largest building we would have ever built up to that time. This was a huge blessing in our lives. But due to the collapse of our previous business, we still had multiple debts that continued to grow, until we were up to over $100,000 in credit card debt alone! We continued to believe it wasn’t over.
After the completion of the building the pastor asked my wife and me to stay on salary and manage all of the facilities on the one-hundred-acre church campus, remodel the buildings, and run one of the largest ministry departments at the church. However, even with the salary we were making, there was no way outside of a miracle for us to even touch our mountain of debt. But it was a job, and we believed it was God opening a door. We decided to put our hope in the Lord and accepted the position.
Still swallowed by our sea of bills, we cried out to God for direction, and He showed us in the Bible where it says He would give seed to the sower. This was our answer! We had always paid our tithes and given offerings, but we knew this was God leading us to trust Him and give beyond what even seemed possible. With finances already tight, tithing was already a struggle. What difference would a little extra struggle be except an exercise for our faith? We decided to put God’s Word to work and committed that the first $5,000 we could get our hands on, we would give it back to God as seed. In the natural this was one of the hardest things to do, because we desperately needed that money to put toward our debt. But we knew that if we obeyed God, He would see us though. It wasn’t over!
We were obedient to sow that extra $5,000, and it wasn’t long before we received a call from another pastor in our town. Their church had been hit by a tornado, and he said the Lord told him to call me to come manage the reconstruction of their church. I was excited and scared at the same time. I wasn’t sure how my pastor, who was also my boss, would respond to the news that I wanted to moonlight on another job across town. I did not want to lose my steady income for this one project that would pay bills for a year or so but then leave me without a job again when the construction was complete.
I was sick thinking about what would happen, but in my heart I knew I was supposed to rebuild this other church. I finally got up the courage to talk to my pastor, and, only to the glory of God, he said he too believed I was supposed to build that church, and he said that they would keep me on salary and allow me to work on the other church while still maintaining my current duties on staff! That was the beginning of God moving our $100,000 mountain of debt before our very eyes. It wasn’t over!
I began building the church across town, and, ironically, it just so happened that there were also some other buildings across the street that were also hit by the same tornado and was in need of repair. When they found out I was helping the neighboring church, they asked me to rebuild their buildings as well. Amazingly, building jobs continued over the next couple of years, and God kept providing seed in our hands. By this point we were able to put 100 percent of the construction profits toward our looming debt! By 2002 we not only had all of the credit cards paid off, but we also were able to pay off our house and cars as well! To this day we are completely debt free! It’s still not over!
In the course of God paying off all of our debt, He was also setting us up to go into business full-time building churches all over the country! We now own Churches by Daniels Construction, and people all over the United States worship in buildings built by our company that started on nothing but faith and God’s Word! We have seen the hand of God move in miraculous and mighty ways, and we firmly know that when you include God in the mix, no matter what it looks like, it’s not over! All it takes is one word from God, and He can turn your situation around! No situation is too big for God. No matter what you are facing, you must know, it’s never over! If it is His will for you to do it, He will make a way for it to happen!
—CHARLIE DANIELS
CHURCHES BY DANIELS CONSTRUCTION
BROKEN ARROW, OK
BREATHE AGAIN
Our family was in a season in our lives where we knew that we were in the center of God’s will. Everything just seemed to be falling right into place, like no other time we remembered. A new job. A new city. A quick and profitable sale of our home. Finding the right new home. Expecting our third child, our first boy. It was going so well, and we were in a state of awe with all God was doing to us and through us. However, all the smiles would quickly fade and questions enter our minds in a matter of just a few hours.
Our family met for dinner, and my wife, Amanda, at seven and a half months pregnant, was feeling a lot of discomfort. While she tried to chalk it up to normal pregnancy discomfort, we both knew that something was happening. After talking with her doctor, we decided that a late night trip to the hospital would be best to put our minds at ease. Leaving the house, we never expected what was about to hit us.
Amanda began to experience intense labor pains. As the medical staff examined her, it became apparent to all that the baby was going to be born very soon. The doctors began to worry about Amanda’s health and the health of the baby. Despite attempts to hold off delivery, at 6:43 a.m., Austin William Rearden entered this world via an emergency cesarean section, six weeks early.
As any parent can recall, the birth of a child is a joyous occasion. That was certainly the mood in the ER; however, it quickly changed when it was clear that Austin was having a very difficult time breathing. Being born early had not given Austin’s lungs enough time to develop properly. I could see the concern on the faces of the nurses and doctors, which was confirmed as we quickly rushed from the ER to a place where we would become all to familiar, the neonatal intensive care unit.
A flood of emotions ran through my mind: Will he live? Will he be severely handicapped? What can I do to make this right? How did God allow this to happen? What are we going to do? All I could do was turn the situation over to God. Austin was in the care of the nurses and physicians trained to help him, but I knew he would need a touch from Almighty God.
I was quickly ushered out of the NICU so the medical staff could work without interference. All I could do was pray. Our son was lying in the hospital clinging to life, and it was totally and completely out of our hands. Nothing makes you feel more helpless and inadequate than when you are unable to help your children.
I left a baby in that room who was needing serious medical attention but otherwise appeared to be perfectly normal. He had a head full of hair, tiny feet and hands, baby soft skin, and features that proclaimed a perfect mix of mom and dad. I returned to a baby who was incubated, sedated, and monitored. He had been placed on a ventilator, many monitoring probes, and an arterial line to feed him. My heart was broken. While I had to be strong for my family, I would secretly slip away to cry, beg, and plead with God for my son’s life.
We were still in the hospital over the Thanksgiving holiday, and though we had lots to be thankful for, we could not help but wonder what was going to happen to our new baby. He was on a ventilator, and we were holding out hope that his lungs would start to develop. Austin needed to be given several doses of surfactant to help this process along. We were starting to see some improvement as the initial doses were beginning to work.
Amanda was discharged from the hospital about four days after Austin was delivered. Nothing could prepare us for the emotions that we experienced as Amanda and I drove away from the hospital with a car seat and no baby. We had to leave Austin in the NICU, still hooked up to all the machines and clinging to life. He was making progress, but we remained desperate for God to touch him. We would make the drive back and forth to the hospital many times over the next few weeks. A little over a week after Austin was born, Amanda was finally able to hold her son. He was still hooked up to monitors, but nothing compares to the feeling a mother has when she holds her baby for the very first time.
I remember one Sunday morning, I took my other two children to church and desperately prayed for Austin’s healing. My specific prayer was that Austin would be strong enough to come off the ventilator, as that would be a big sign of his road to recovery. I desperately needed to see our family and friends at church, as they had been a constant support of love, encouragement, and prayer. But I would be lying if I told you that I was not crushed that Amanda and Austin were not with us in that service. I wanted my family to be together and completely whole. That morning our pastor preached a message about being an overcomer, and I latched onto that word for my son and my family. I was determined that no matter what the situation, we would continue to honor God because He is truly faithful and He has all of our lives in His control.
Following church I went to the hospital hoping for the best, but honestly expecting the status quo. I went through the normal routine of preparing to visit Austin, which included a thorough scrubbing of your hands and arms up to the elbows. As I was going through the scrubbing process, I noticed that the machines around Austin’s bed were different from the ones that were there just hours earlier. I could also see the respiratory therapist working around him, and I just knew that God had answered our prayers. The ventilator had been removed, and Austin was making significant progress!
Austin continued on the road to recovery, and the feeding tube was finally removed. As the days passed by, Austin began to make a full recovery and was released from the hospital after several very long weeks in the NICU. Today he is a happy and perfectly healthy baby boy. He has suffered no ill effects from this rough start, and we know that God has a special plan for his life. Just when we were at the darkest hour of Austin’s young life, we were made well aware that “it’s not over.”
—MATTHEW REARDEN
ORLANDO, FL
WHEN GOD IS IN IT
The Lord asked Sarah in Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Another scripture states, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37). Whatever it is, He can and will do it if we put our trust in Him. Whether it be salvation, deliverance, healing, meeting financial needs—whatever it is, God is able.
What a wonderful surprise that after two boys God sent us a precious beautiful daughter, Julie Christina Meares. Two hours after Julie was born, the doctors awakened me in the wee hours of the morning to tell me that she had been placed in intensive care, possibly with pneumonia. From that time on it was a continuous battle with medical problems. Julie’s blood count was abnormal, and her body lacked immunity.
When she was seven months old, Julie had a severe seizure brought on by an extremely high fever. We rushed her to the hospital where a concerned staff of doctors treated her and advised us to take her to her pediatrician in the morning. When we took our daughter to the doctor’s office the next morning, we waited for what seemed like an eternity while he examined her. When he returned from the examination room, he told us that she had a severe heart murmur and that she should be taken to a heart specialist at Children’s Hospital immediately.
We prayed, and I truly had peace that there was nothing wrong. The words that kept repeating over and over in my mind were, “The Lord will not give you more than you are able to bear.” From that time on those words continued to be, and still are, implanted upon my heart.
After numerous X-rays and examinations, we were told that Julie needed surgery to correct some heart valves and possible small holes in her heart. Without surgery, the doctor cautioned, she would live only a few years, possibly three or four.
Little Julie sure needed something. She cried all the time. The doctor said this was due to the intense pain she was experiencing. The left side of her heart was the size of a three-year-old child’s heart and caused tremendous pain for our little seven-month-old daughter.
After a three-month waiting period to enable Julie to gain weight and strength, she underwent successful surgery. But about seven days later, she began to dehydrate and was placed in isolation. After a while Julie seemed to rally and was able to come home. We thought all Julie’s medical problems were solved and that we were back on the course to leading a normal life.
A few weeks later, however, she developed a fever of 109 degrees that lasted for over five hours with seizure after seizure following. The doctors and nurses were at a loss as what to do, and, as parents, we were puzzled as well. But then God let us hear His word again, “I will not let you experience more than you are able to bear.” Julie’s attacks were so severe that she had to be packed in ice when she stopped breathing many times and turned completely black from lack of oxygen. My husband, Virgil, stayed in the room holding Julie’s hand and praying while the doctors and nurses were running back and forth with medications and oxygen. Julie’s life was in the balance. Virgil spoke God’s Word and prayed, “Lord, this child is in Your care. We have dedicated her to You, and she is Yours. We place her in Your arms.” Julie’s body began to relax, and she began breathing normally and slept a peaceful sleep for hours that night. Praise God!
Though we thought we had conquered Julie’s health concerns, she still experienced problems with her health, some serious and some mild. Julie stopped breathing many times and was taken by ambulance to the hospital over and over during the next few years. Each time was a battle for her life. But the peace and victory came one night while Virgil and I were completely exhausted. We had been taking turns for months watching Julie to be sure that she would not smother herself or have another seizure during her sleep. One night I had a dream, and I heard God tell me these words while I slept, “Julie is healed. Not an instant healing, but a gradual healing. Peace, be still and sleep, for my angels are watching over her.”
Praise the Lord! From that night on, my husband and I slept peacefully, with no fear that Julie would smother herself or have a seizure. Praise God for His grace and mercy.
God will meet you when you feel all is lost, when you feel that you can bear no more. He is there, not tired and worn out as we had become, but strong, alert, and waiting for us to say, “Lord, we need You, and we know by Your wonderful power that You are going to meet our need.”
Julie is a living testimony that God heals. She graduated from college with two degrees in four years: one degree in international business and another degree in French with a minor in German. Julie speaks fluent French and German and has led teams on missions trips all over the world, including Africa, the Philippines, and other countries. Julie is able to say without a doubt, “God is a healer!”
—JANNIE MEARES
UPPER MARLBORO, MD
LOST BUT FOUND
I was married, and I had just had a brand-new baby. I had my college degree. I had a dream job, a beautiful home, and life seemed great! But in one moment it all changed. Unbeknownst to me my then husband was selling drugs out of our home. I had been home from the hospital three days with my precious baby girl when the police came and raided our house. They kicked the doors down. There were drug dogs, and they aimed a fleet of guns at us. It was a scene from a drug task force episode. My world was spinning, and in those few short moments I couldn’t grasp what was happening to me. I threw my body on top of my infant baby and prayed to God that if the police fired their guns, the bullet would hit my body only and not my baby’s.
As the daughter of a well-known pastor, my life was lived very publicly. As you can imagine, this story hit the nightly news, was all over the papers, and blasted on the Internet. It was horrific! Life as I knew it was over.
My then husband also decided that he no longer wanted to be married, so while awaiting trial, he moved back to his home state and began living a very single lifestyle. I was betrayed in the worst ways a woman can be, and I also had a legal issue pending that had potentially grave punishments.
My soul was broken. My heart felt as if it could no longer beat. I was mad at God. I felt betrayed by Him. I felt even God had left me. I pulled away and secluded myself into a darkness that cannot be described.
Though I was unaware of my husband’s crimes, I stood before a judge with a possible life sentence for the many charges brought against my husband. I asked for mercy, and I had many letters written on my behalf from people who were willing to vouch for my actions and behaviors. Regardless, I felt it was over. Everything I thought I accomplished and loved vanished. I felt alone, betrayed, and lifeless. I stood there to be sentenced, with one parent on each side, numb, terrified, and hopeless. The judge ruled for probation and ordered a gigantic fine, along with a heavy load of community service hours. In that moment of escaping prison time, I couldn’t see how God was holding me. I still felt my life was over and that it would never be the same.
I was right about one thing—my life would never be the same! It was soon to be better than before! One year after the sentencing and hearing, I realized I needed God. I decided to embark on a forty-day journey of fasting, prayer, writing, and seeking God. It started with these words, “Here I am, God; I need you!” I’ll never forget the day I was driving in my car listening to the song “Moving Forward” (by Ricardo Sanchez and Israel Houghton). When I heard the lyrics, “You make all things new,” something inside me broke and I began to weep. From that moment on God has restored back to me years that I lost. I love deeper, I sing louder, I pray harder, and I celebrate waking up. I celebrate life. I am on a mission to destroy the devil and share my story. Although there are so many other layers, details, twists, and turns to my story, the message remains the same: even when I couldn’t pray, even when I couldn’t see a future, even when I couldn’t sing, even when I felt no hope, God was there with me. He was writing my story.
I am now remarried to a worship pastor. He is amazing and represents restoration. He is my true love, and I would go through this all over again to find myself carrying his last name! He is my strength, my godly counsel, and he embodies what a godly husband is. I never knew the life that was waiting for me on the other side of this trial. I should be dead. I should be in prison. The world says I should be a lot of things, But God says I am His child. God says, “It’s not over for you, Nicole.” There are truly no limits when God is carrying you. The darkest, most devastating hurt and pain, the most lonely, lifeless season I was in, was truly what I believed was my end. But my setbacks only propelled me into my comeback.
I am in eternal love with the Most High. He is the lover of my soul and the reason I sing. He is the reason I live and the force that drives me. Do not let go. Hold on! The darkness has to come before the morning, but the morning is coming. God is faithful. And when He restores, it doesn’t go back to the good place you were in. God makes it better than before. Don’t quit. What if today is the day your breakthrough comes!
—NICOLE RICHEY
DECATUR, AL
WHEN SUDDENLY HAPPENS
The day started out normal. Justin, who was two at the time, went to school and came back feeling fine and then lay down for a nap. Jay, my husband, and our older two boys, Josh and Jace, were out of town at a tractor show in South Florida with my dad.
Justin had slept for a really long time this particular Wednesday, and I had checked on him several times. Justin had no fever and was sleeping well, but when he had been asleep for almost six hours, I knew that something was not right. When I woke him up, he was not able to stand well. He would walk kind of sideways as if he had vertigo. He was just whimpering and looking through me. You could tell there was something going on, but it was hard to pinpoint any immediate triggers. I reached in and got him out of his crib. Immediately Justin started throwing up—a lot.
As I attempted to place him on the ground and in the light, it was obvious he wasn’t able to stand at all. As I spoke to him, it became very clear that his speech was not normal based upon his usual habits. Through trembling, I called the doctor and got in touch with the triage nurse who asked me, “How fast can you drive him to Scottish Rite Hospital?” My heart sank. Scottish Rite is known to be one of the best children’s hospitals in the country, but we live about one and a half hours away. Without hesitation I told her that I was on my way. Justin was still throwing up, but I put him in his car seat, and we took off. I was praying as I drove. I knew something was seriously wrong with my baby. I began to cry out to God. Praying, crying, praying. When we approached the city limits, I felt hope was in sight. But Justin went unconscious still about thirty miles away from the hospital. Though we weren’t at Scottish Rite, we happened to be next to another hospital, and I rushed Justin into the emergency room.
When I walked in with Justin, the ER was overcrowded. There was no place to sit or even stand, but they took us immediately back to see a doctor. Justin was whisked away for a CT scan of his brain. I had no idea what was going on. The doctors and nurses began to act with an intense urgency, but they still hadn’t given me any indication what was going on with Justin. They were rushing and bustling. They called an ambulance to come and get him, and off we went to Scottish Rite.
At this point I still had no idea what was going on. I knew that it was not something normal, but there was a steady peace that ran through my spirit. I was concerned but had a serene calm in my heart. It was almost not even real. I sat there watching doctors and nurses buzz to and fro. I was there, but I was unaware and aware all at the same time. By this time we had arrived at Scottish Rite, and there were doctors buzzing about, and we were actually moved very quickly from the ER to a room—a room in which we lived in for a total of a month. Doctors had no idea what was going on with Justin. They thought at first that he had been poisoned, but blood tests ruled that out immediately. Then they thought it was meningitis.
No one really could identify anything specific in regard to Justin’s condition. They ran all kinds of tests—spinal taps, twenty-four-hour urine catches, MRIs, lots of blood work, and other physical tests. His condition was getting worse. He was not able to hold things. He seemed to be having nonstop, palsy-type jerking movements in one hand. The other hand was not as usable. His face was drawn, and he did not seem to know much about his surroundings.
By this time my husband was at the hospital with me, and we both felt it necessary to continue to praise God even though we didn’t understand what was going on. We weren’t praising God because Justin was sick; we were praising God because we knew, no matter what was causing this ailment, God was Justin’s healer. Finally we were told that Justin had a brain tumor and that he would not be going home with us for quite some time. The doctors told my husband and me that Justin was in very, very progressed stage of illness, and this was going to be the end for our youngest son.
Prayers were covering Justin and our family from every direction. We had church pastors and staff praying over Justin. We had friends and family praying. People from other churches and other states were praying for Justin. Pastors from other communities were coming to pray and stand with us during this trial.
Despite the dismal report the doctors repeatedly told us, my husband I continued to speak life over Justin’s body. The medical staff even sent grief counselors to help my husband and me deal and cope with the reality they thought we were avoiding.
Then one amazing day, out of the blue, Justin stood on his own and shocked the doctors. Though Justin’s steps were feeble and wobbly, I was shouting and running to get everyone’s attention. This was major progress for Justin. Then, little by little, Justin began to regain strength, mobility, and the use of his extremities.
After several months of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, the Lord restored Justin above and beyond. To this day the doctors are unable to provide an explanation for what happened to Justin. To God be the everlasting glory! Justin is now at home, running, playing, and giggling with his two older brothers, his dad, and me. So, yes, I can say with absolute confidence, our God is good!
—MELISSA REEDER
GAINESVILLE, GA