Glorify the Lord With Me!

Hello dear friends,

I want to share with you my excitement and what the Lord has done! As you know, I went to South Carolina to visit friends this past week. When I was down there GOD HEALED ME! The short version is that some friends prayed for me I was healed. I called my doctor this morning and talked to her nurse. I have an appointment at Mayo Clinic a week from today (January 19th at 9:00am) and I wanted to see if I still had to go to this appointment. She encouraged me to go anyway and have them check me out. She also told me that "There is something going on though because the lab work you did came back really good." So please pray with me that on Monday I can go to the Mayo Clinic and get a clean bill of health!

For those of you who want the details, keep reading!

I flew to South Carolina on Thursday, January 1st. There were supposed to be 5 of us driving up to Virginia for the wedding of my good friends Andrew and Julie (congratulations guys!). However, two of my friends got stuck in Canada and couldn't get another flight out until after the wedding was over. Another friend got sick and so it was just Linda and I. She wasn't feeling the greatest and I was quite sore from my long flights. So we decided not to go to the wedding. We were so sad, but it was a good thing we didn't end up going. By Friday night I could hardly walk. Well, I rested and got back to "normal" which is pain, and being tired, but still able to get around. My joints were quite sore most of the week and we didn't do a whole lot, mostly stayed home and watched movies. We did a bit of shopping and went out to eat a couple times. Over all it was a great trip. The best was yet to come!

Before I left for SC, I was talking it over with God and I though that since this all began a year ago (almost to the day) when I was flying back to South Carolina from being home for Christmas that maybe this trip I would get better. Well, Linda and I were having lunch with our friend Sarah (see picture above) on Friday before I left. She asked me if we could pray for me before I went back home. She felt led to call her friend (Zack I believe) and ask him to come pray with us. We were filled with a sense of expectation and even told people that I was going to be healed that night. So we met that night at Sarah's place and when Zack (sorry if I got his name wrong!) got there he shared with us that God had called him to fast and he didn't know why. He brought his journal and read to us where he had asked God why he was fasting and yet he knew that there must be some reason. His girlfriend and her mom had been reading Isaiah 58 and shared it with him and he had been thinking about that when he was fasting. On Friday he felt at peace to end the fast, but when he ate he was very intentional about it and was still asking God why he had done it. They he got Sarah's text message asking him to come and pray for me! Ya, God is pretty awesome! So he read Isaiah 58 to us and then we had an intense time of prayer. He anointed me with oil and we prayed and prayed. All that day my knees had been very sore and I had heat wraps on them. I couldn't bend them very far and was sitting with my legs out. When we were done praying I could bend my knees and they didn't hurt anymore. I felt full of joy and strength and energy! The Lord had healed me!

We met some other friends for a movie that night and instead of being sore and stiff when the movie was over, I felt great. I was so excited I could hardly sleep that night. I got up a little before 5:00 the next morning and we left for the airport at 5:30. I had a new Ted Dekker book that I wanted to read so I started it at the Columbia airport. Needless to say I didn't get to sleep on the airplanes because the book was so good. I finished it about halfway between Minneapolis and Eau Claire. So by the time we landed I was exhausted. I was so tired and my eyes were all red, but I felt GOOD! My legs didn't hurt at all. I was just sore from sitting so long like everyone else on the plane! It is now Monday and I still feel good. I can bend my knees and I feel good! Praise the Lord! I am still a little sore and can't bend my knees all the way back, but I can kneel down and cross my legs and everything! I think I just need time to get my strength back and do some stretching as I haven't done much of anything this past year.

I know God has began a good work in me and He will bring it to completion. He may use the people at Mayo or He may completely heal me before I get there. Whatever He does, I am rejoicing! I feel alive again and full of joy. Praise the Lord with me, let us glorify His name together! Thank you all so much for your prayers. I know God has used them to heal me. I'm not sure why He chose to heal me now and not before, but I know He has a plan and I can't wait to see what's next! I want to encourage you to read Isaiah 58. I have included verses 6-14 below...be encouraged!

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.