Today I cry tears of thanksgiving to my God who has healed me of over 14 diseases since my husband and I “stepped out” in total desperation and journeyed to Be in Health™ in Thomaston, Georgia. This is the story of my despair and my joy.
One week after my wedding in January, 1991, acute appendicitis put me in the hospital for nine days. I had no idea that this would also launch me into 13 ½ years of “incurable” illnesses and chronic pain. Grounded in a Full Gospel church that preached and taught healing as “the children’s bread,” I tried to partake of this healing promise, but the harder I tried, the worse things became. Chronic symptoms led me down the popular path of alternative medicine. Fearing over-medication and subsequent death at the hands of traditional doctors, I politely heard their diagnoses, threw away their prescriptions, and then sought the advice of alternative practitioners. Countless hours in medical and chiropractic offices severely depleted our income, all to no avail.
As bills and disappointments multiplied, my pursuit became fiercer, and I became sicker. Stress and anxiety stood as my closest companions: strife and resentment attacked my marriage. We were spirit-filled, Bible-believing, lovers of God, and I knew in my heart that the tension and strife deeply grieved our Father’s heart, but we seemed powerless to overcome. We thought perhaps God was allowing the trials to teach us something. The confusion, financial pressures, physical pain, and the toxic relationships in my life drove me to get on my face every day and literally sob in tears asking God to help us and heal my body. A prayer army of family and friends rallied for our miracle as I attended many healing services and prayer meetings believing for the “suddenly” of God to manifest.
Despite my physical and spiritual pursuits, darkness prevailed. I spent two weeks of every month either in bed or housebound with excruciating pain from endometriosis. The other two weeks I spent recovering from the narcotic pain medication addictions. The monthly scenario continued after multiple, fruitless surgical attempts to remove the endometriosis failed. I had all of my female organs removed in 2002…and we never did conceive a child during those stress-filled years. In May of 1991, I developed chronic daily headaches and years later the doctor’s told me that a lack of serotonin was the culprit. After years of headaches, migraines became a regular issue accompanied by severe sinusitis, and chronic bouts of hypoglycemia that I had experienced since childhood. Also joining the litany of ailments, a persistent itch on my arms forced me to seek relief by sleeping with blocks of ice. The practitioner told me this was tied to grain allergies. The migraines, the itching, and severe joint pains severely hindered me year after year.
All those torments dominated me, and yet I have told you only half the story of my desperation. Systemic candida joined the cast of my personal plagues, undaunted by two years of Diflucan. My entire face itched, and a blood test revealed massive amounts of internal fungus. Treatments costing $150.00 each, shelves of supplements and herbs, up to 75 pills per day---nothing worked. Food allergies multiplied, and daily bouts with diarrhea led to irritable bowel syndrome. No doctor could untangle the mess and one likened it to rooting out Al Quaida. We sold our home and moved to a small apartment and spent most of the equity on surgeries, and supplements.
The subsequent stress in selling our home, which neither my husband nor I could handle, led to chronic infections, insomnia, and chronic fatigue syndrome. I had TMJ and this furthered my inability to eat. I was habitually visiting a chiropractor for jaw, head, and neck pain and developed back pain. When a third member of my extended family committed suicide in 2001, the heaviness in my heart precipitated fibromyalgia and the insidious Multiple Chemical Sensitivity/Environmental Illness that callously locked the door of my prison. I resigned from my beloved children’s ministry, and due to the debilitating effects of perfume and other odors, I rarely attended church, and if I did go, I had to spend two days in bed recovering. Perfume and cigarette smoke also kept me away from dear family and friends. Extreme dizziness, heart palpitations, anxiety attacks, and breathing difficulties became the norm, while critical fibromyalgia brought so much pain that I could barely lift my arms after 11:00 each morning. I avoided people and could not answer the phone. I do not know which was worse…the screaming pain in my body or the stinging pain of isolation. Each disease was, likewise, another building block in the wall between my husband and me. He grew angry, distant, and hopeless---secretly enslaved to a hideous addiction, living in a fabricated world that rarely included me. We could not reach over that wall and no one else really understood our pain. A pastor in our church, although seeing only a tip of the iceberg, loved us unconditionally, counseled and prayed with us, and helped us endure. My hopes increased as I began to see the love of the Father
healing my husband.
The story of my joy, the reason I now cry tears of thanksgiving, is that the prayers of our pastors, family, and friends, and my prayers of desperation, were answered indeed. My diminishing world that had almost vanished in hopelessness suddenly began to turn around when my mother sent me a book titled A More Excellent Way. My husband and I stood amazed as we saw our horrible journey mirrored in the pages that beckoned us to Thomaston. We gave our pastor a book and he, too, was convinced I needed to go. Pressing through physical weakness and emotional weariness, I mustered the courage to travel from Pennsylvania to Georgia. In a last minute attempt to stop us, Satan, knowing his time was short, sent me to the emergency room three times in one month; however despite the devil’s malice, my husband and I headed south in September, 2004. I simply told God, “I will put one foot in front of the other. I will do this in faith.”
The most difficult thing I have ever done also proved to be the most rewarding.
Without the prayer support of our family and church, we would not have made it. We spent two weeks in “For My Life” classes. The personal relevance of each class astounded us, and as we both “put one foot in front of the other,” Father met us every step of the way. I was very ill when I went there, but it was amazing how each day I grew lighter and stronger. Father’s love flowing from staff members, permeated the ministry atmosphere, and in an explosive time during our first Saturday at Be in Health™, God exposed the generational bondages and roots that had entangled me. I will never forget it---the beginning of a new life!
My spirit continued to bear witness as I read about the roots of diseases that had plagued me for so long. One of my greatest freedoms came with my deliverance from those daily headaches. All pain left when I recognized and repented of inner and relational conflicts and received release from the associated guilt. And no more chiropractors! Then, a second trip to Be in Health™ resulted in freedom from back pain and costochondritis. For six years I was visiting the doctor’s office at least one to three times a week…now I only have to go once a year for a check up! Praise God!
To this day, I still stand amazed and grateful as the Lord continues to expose roots while searching my heart and confirming His truths. As I am working through additional issues in my life, I praise God daily for the truths that are setting me free, and I am loving the intimacy I have with Him through “Walk-Out.” What freedom, life, love and peace in the process of sanctification and repentance! My husband says he has a new wife, and I indeed have a new husband. He, too, has experienced a transformation and the principles we have learned have not just revitalized, but revolutionized our marriage. The Lord has removed the lid of limitation, allowing us to open our hearts to Him more and more and confirming His calling to serve Him, to further His kingdom in the earth, and help others recover themselves.

“The Lord brought me into a large place. He delivered me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19

A trip to Thomaston and a “For My Life” class is the best gift anyone could ever give someone. God is no respecter of persons. What He did for me, He will do for you. He showed me a more excellent way! To God be the glory!
LS, Pennsylvania