The Faith Travels

If its one thing in this world that I love, it’s seeing God be glorified. I absolutely love hearing testimonies from people on how God brought them out of the impossible. This passion stems from some of my own life experiences. While I have quite a few testimonies that I will share at some point, the one I will share today is the one that took my Faith to another level in my journey with Jesus.

One day in 2015, I woke up tingling and numb on the left side of my body. I couldn’t sit upright without pressure and pain rising in my neck and head. My back had spasmed inward to the point where I couldn’t lay flat on any surface. I was in and out of the ER with no clue as to what was wrong with me. I couldn’t sleep in any position without pain. I had sporadic muscle weakness in certain parts of my body on the left side and shooting jolts of pain that came and went sporadically. There were days when my left leg would stop functioning and I’d have to drag it just to get to the bathroom in my own home. I couldn’t sit up or sit long in any chair without pressure rising in my head to the point I would get dizzy and have to lie down. I had random pain, swelling, inflammation and pulling in my face. I had days where my temples felt like they were going to explode unrelated to a headache or migraine. There were days where I woke up and my entire body felt like it was on fire. There were lots of days when my vision was extremely blurry. I even had days where I couldn’t even move and was home bound for weeks at a time.

I averaged 5 doctor appointments a week and sometimes up to 3 in one day. I had so many other unexplainable symptoms that ER, primary and specialty doctors all looked at me perplexed every visit, while making arbitrary guesses of what they thought it might be; Multiple Sclerosis being among the assumptions. This all resulted in a couple of ER visits, a team of 7 different doctors and specialists, 5 X-rays, 2 CT scans, 4 MRIs, 2 ultrasounds, and an EMG where they stuck needles in different parts of my body and made me flex to check for muscle weakness. Alongside all of that, I was given a nerve conduction study where they electric shocked me in different parts of my body to check for nerve damage, that was the worse pain of my life. I had a couple of blood work panels, 2 incorrect prescriptions of meds that led to side effects of insomnia, anxiety and emotional hysteria for a couple of weeks, a reaction to the meds that I was pumped with in the ER that caused my face to burn and throat to close to the point where I could barely talk for a few days. This all ended with several months of being unable to go to work or work period due to all of my restrictions. The several doctors appointments all concluded with no diagnosis and no clue as to what was wrong.

In and out of the ER for months but smiling because I knew God was bigger than what I was going through

The doctors couldn’t help me…But God!

All of this was going on and I still had peace God would work it out as He’d done so many times before. In these moments I didn’t just wait around for things to change, I prayed with expectation and went to God’s word that showed me all of His promises already proclaimed over my life. My favorite scripture, Jeremiah 29:11 showed me, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “They are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” I knew God had a plan for me and it was not my current situation. My cousin, Sylvia Grant, who was miraculously healed from Dystonia (See previous blog post for her story) showed me the stories in the Bible where Jesus healed the sick and shared with me that healing is still available in present day when we are open to receiving what’s already been given to us through the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.

God put the right people in place to help me through all of this even when I wanted to act prideful and handle it on my own. God sent friends, strangers, co-workers, church family and people I didn’t even know had my phone number from high school to cross my path in the moments I needed it the most.

The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but God has come to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). I received my full healing and restoration back in March of 2016! I went from barely being able to move to dancing before the Lord at my church. How, you ask? Well you will just have to stick around for Part 2 to find out.

Until the next faith testimony…

When I was praying about who should be the first faith story feature on the blog, I heard God say, “Start from where it began”. After I heard that, I immediately thought about the first person I called after I had encountered countless doctors who had no idea what was wrong with me, after one day waking up with the left side of my body tingling and numb with jolting sharp pain, among other severe issues.

It was a particular Facebook post written just months prior to my issue, talking about being healed from Dystonia (autoimmune disorder said to have no cure), that I recalled from Sylvia Johnson Grant that led me to call her and ask her…“How did this happen? How did God heal you?” She told me how she read the stories in the Bible where Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, healed the blind and the lepers, and the sick among Him. She shared with me that same healing is still available to me today. She told me how she meditated on Hebrews 10: 35-36 and the book of Job who in this Bible story, went through a series of tumultuous events but never cursed God for what was happening to him. Job ended up receiving twice as much as he had before.

You see on that day, she gave me so much more than conversation and is part of the reason that I am alive today. She gave me Faith in Jesus to believe and keep trusting God because His plan for me was not my current situation, it is so much greater and so much bigger than me.

The testimony below is that of Sylvia Grant and is such a reflection of the healing power of Jesus and a testament of receiving twice as much as she had before.

“I grew up knowing about God and I’ve spent my life trying to please him. But in March 2009, I came into relationship with Jesus Christ. I was a lonely college student whose fervent prayer of death consumed the night. I wished anything would take my life because I believed that direct suicide would cast me into the pits of hell. But in March, my final months of college as I cried in my dorm room I felt the presence of the Lord and heard a voice say “I’m your friend, talk to me.” Jesus Christ was now not only the God I knew about but I knew him as my comforter. Years later I’d know he was the God who heals. Which brings me to 2014. I am a Bible believing Christian who spends their days teaching middle school science and ministering to children and their families. I thoroughly enjoy it, but now I can feel the toll that life has taken on my body. Year after year I have visited the doctor trying to figure out what was going wrong with me. My energy is drained, my body tremors, and now I feel the most excruciating pain day after day. And finally after years of test my health issues have a name: Dystonia. “Dystonia is a neurological disorder that causes excessive, involuntary muscle contractions.” And it had progressed in the worst way. I couldn’t even walk anymore let alone stand in front of my class. By noon I had zero energy. But God I’m serving you I thought day in and day out. The doctor prescribed a medicine and if I use the medicine every 3 hours I would have some control over my movement. The medicine I was prescribed was the same medicine given to Parkinson’s disease patients. But if I take this medicine I could walk, I wouldn’t be dizzy, and as long as I go to bed every night I could get rest. I was thankful to God that he had given my physician team the answers to help me. It took months, but I could live a better life with the medicine. My heart was broken. I had already lost my teaching position. I had to step away from all of my assignments in ministry. But yet, I knew that God was good. But what I didn’t know was that he wasn’t finished yet. Every day I read Hebrews 10:36 “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” I could feel The enemy wanted me badly. He wanted me hurt, lonely, and most of all he wanted me offended. Separated from the very God that gave me a free gift of salvation. But God had given me strength to stand on his Word. On Sunday, June 28, 2015, before going home to Savannah, GA forever, I felt the healing power of God go through my body. But I was still sick when the pastor who prayed for me released his hand. I went back to my seat thinking this is it. My journey in New Orleans is over. I’m going back home where I can serve God but be surrounded by family. My time here is up. I didn’t allow my thought to consume me. I sat there in the service and believed for others breakthrough. Then I heard “you’re being healed.” 7 days later, I was back home with my mother running on the park and it didn’t occur to me how awesome I felt immediately. But when I got back home I remembered that I forgot to take my dystonia medicine. Wait, I forgot to take my medicine. God help me. I ran upstairs to my room to grab the bottle of pills and I heard a voice again. “You don’t need those.” Ok, but I read that you’re suppose to take of the medicine slowly by a physician or you could die. “You don’t need those.” So I put the bottle away and here I am today. Healed, delivered and no one can tell me that God doesn’t heal. I was not only healed physically that day but emotionally. No one can reject one whom God has already accepted. God isn’t finished with me yet.”

Sylvia is now married to her loving husband and a mother of a handsome 1-year-old baby boy. I witnessed both her wedding and the birth of her first child and her life has always been a constant reminder to me of just how faithful God is. Slyvia continues to walk in purpose and shares her faith in Jesus at every opportunity. I’m so thankful she chose to witness the Good News of Jesus Christ to me that day because it literally saved my life.

Stay tuned for more Faith Traveler testimonies…