When I was very young and still in elementary school, I listened to my classmates talk about having family time at church and going places with church members to help other people, and I was curious. So, I asked my parents why we didn’t go to church, and my mom said we didn’t need other people to tell us what to believe and who to have so-called “faith” in. But, as a young child who had never been to church or even known what having faith even meant, I was very curious.
There was a church just up the street from us within walking distance, so I asked Mom and Dad if I could go one Sunday. So, not to discourage me, they said, “Sure, but you will have to go alone,” and that they would not go with me. I have a brother who is two years older and a sister who is six years younger than me. At this time, I was 12 and my brother was 14, so he went with me for our first time to a strange place, and we had no idea what to expect.
This church was huge, and we could not believe how beautiful it was. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by a young boy around 16, and he was from a different country called Guam. He had an accent that made me very curious why he was here in a little Texas town. He asked us if this was our first visit, and my brother said yes and told him we were curious what this church was all about. He said, “My name is Donovan, and my family travels to different churches around the world to spread the news about God and how good God is.”
Of course, my brother and I were like, “What are you talking about?”
So Donovan said, “Since you both are teens, we will go to the youth group classroom.”
We walked into a room with a kitchen, tables, chairs, a pool table and ping pong table, and a small stage with band equipment on it. We both just looked at each other in shock. Donovan said this is where we, as young adults, can still be kids-at-heart and worship God, and learn to understand who God is and what He does for us, at a level we would understand. We were just blown away.
After two hours, youth class was over, and we were thanked for coming. We were given a Bible of our own to take home and were invited to come back anytime. We walked home, and both of us were so excited and could not wait to tell Mom and Dad what a great time we had. Once we got home, we told Mom and Dad all about our youth class and the church. Mom started telling us, “Don’t believe everything you are told,” because God never did anything for her. Dad was more encouraging and told us we could go anytime we wanted, which was great to hear, and we did go every week for years.
I was one of those kids who had to try everything from playing football with the boys, climbing trees, and hanging upside down, to using binoculars to spy on the neighbors. I was always getting hurt, but I knew God was always with me because of what I had learned at church and read in my Bible that our youth pastor had given us — that God was always with me and would heal me.
I had been playing with my friend down the street and was attacked by her dog. My friend’s dog had puppies, and after she put a puppy in my arms, the momma dog attacked me and bit my face. She tore my face from top of lip to bottom of chin. I had to have plastic surgery to repair it.
After that, I continued as a child having accidents and getting hurt. I was just a normal, curious kid. In junior high, I ran track, and one day I tripped over my own feet, fell on my face, and tore my chin off. I had to have another surgery, but I knew God would continue healing me.
When my younger sister was old enough, we took her with us to church, but she did not like it as much as we did. When my brother went away for college, my little sister and I went every week. I soaked up all the knowledge I could about God and His wonders and my faith in Him and His promises. I prayed every day for strength and guidance, and that one day my parents would come to church, but that never happened. That did not stop me; my faith grew stronger. My sister stopped going with me. She said that if Mom didn’t need church, then she didn’t either.
Several years later, I was around sixteen, almost seventeen, and was in a very bad car wreck on my way to work at the Day Care Center. After the police and ambulance showed up, the police officers told my parents that I should have died in that crash and that I must have had angels watching over me; I only had some bruised kneecaps and some cuts and scrapes. I knew when I woke up in the seat of my totaled car that God had wrapped His arms around me.
I married at the age of 22 and got pregnant at 23 with a beautiful baby boy. Then I was blessed with another baby boy at age 26, but when it was time to give birth, there were some issues. I had gotten a severe blood infection that was not caught at the hospital, and was sent home with my new baby boy. Within six weeks, I was so ill I could not walk. I called my mom to take me to the doctor, and when she arrived at my apartment, I was unconscious. I “died” two times on the way to the hospital in the ambulance, and I was in the ICU for over two months fighting for my life. Then one morning, the doctors said, “I don’t know how you survived, but we think it is time for you to go home to your sons.” After checking me all out, they said it was a miracle I was able to walk out of that hospital.
When my boys were five and seven, I went through a divorce and was having some female problems. My doctor told me I needed a hysterectomy. I decided to wait a while for the surgery since I was not in any danger. Then I met the love of my life, my one and only soul mate, and he wanted to have children of his own. I told him about what my doctor had said. He was ok with it, but wanted a second opinion, so we went to a new doctor and had a checkup. The doctor stated, “You don’t need any surgery; all your body parts are in great shape to have more children.” That was a blessing and a miracle to us that God was giving me the chance to give my husband children of his own. We knew it was God’s doing that my body was healed. We had a boy in ‘91 and a girl in ‘94, both in perfect health.
Later in life, I had many other health challenges and was healed as well. Then one year we went to California to see our oldest son, who was in the Marines and had just bought a new house. We took a short vacation and drove to California to see him and help build a new fence for his dogs around his new home. Man, it was hot in California during the summer! It was so hot that I kept getting sick to my stomach, and that made it hard to go outside. When we returned home, I was so sick that I could not get out of the bathroom, so I told my husband that we needed to go to the emergency room because something was not right.
During my visit to the emergency room, which was not a good experience, the hospital sent me home and said I just had the flu. But that was not the case. The next day, we went to see my personal doctor, and she said something was wrong and sent me back to the hospital for a CT scan. They found out I was bleeding internally, and they admitted me to the hospital right away. Special doctors were called in and came to my room and told my husband that I had a blockage in my colon, and that was why I was bleeding internally. They were going to do surgery after they got my stomach pumped out from all the internal bleeding. Some of our church family came to the hospital and prayed over both of us.
After five days of having my stomach pumped and waiting for the surgery date, I was lying in a hospital bed, and I felt the warmest sensation go through my body. I looked at my husband and told him that I had an angel “just wash my body clean.” He said, “What?” I said that God just sent His angel to heal me and wash my body clean of the cancer; I had to have surgery for stage four colon cancer, and the doctors only gave me a 25% chance to live. They had to remove two feet of my colon and two and a half feet of my intestine. Two days after surgery, I told the doctor it was time for me to go home because I was healed. The doctor was amazed at how well I had bounced back after that difficult surgery that he did not expect me to pull through from. I was still advised to go through chemo for one year. I made a complete recovery and have been in remission since 2007. God is good.
My faith in God has always been strong, and I always give Him the thanks for all my many blessings. Recently, I found out that colon cancer was hereditary in my family, and I have watched four family members die from this nasty cancer. I believe the only reason I’m still here and they aren’t, is due to my faith in God. Each family member who has passed from colon cancer, including my mother, did not believe in God, and even after telling them how good God was and could heal them as well, they just gave up on life. I will never give up on God. He has instilled strength in me to have faith in Him, and I always will. God’s love is never-ending.
Heart of Flesh Literary Journal 