Will’s Testimony
Will’s Testimony
You never really think it could happen to you, especially as a Word of Faith Believer. Then it does, and everything takes on a new dimension.
It sounded pretty quiet inside the steel walled ambulance. If the siren was on I didn’t hear it. Perhaps it was because the only sound I was interested in was my son’s breathing. The coughing amazingly stopped and he was beginning to fall asleep. I could still say only one word, “Peace”! I learned from KCM that the word peace means wholeness, nothing missing nothing broken. I wanted my son whole and well, and the only word I could say or even think of to say was PEACE. So I spoke it over my son the whole way to Hershey Penn State Children’s Hospital.
Earlier at the Carlisle Hospital Emergency room I was told that my son Billy may need emergency surgery once we reach Hershey. The CAT scan showed that there was a mass right next to his heart and esophagus that was causing the relentless coughing. They would have to release the mass away from his heart.
I don’t remember what I actually said to the doctors, but I was waiting secretly for God to show up and do a miracle. The miracle didn’t come as I expected, but we would experience many miracles throughout a three and one half year period.
The curtain made cubicle was in the corner of the ICU. Bill, my husband, stood by Billy as he lay peacefully sleeping. He was wiped out after three solid hours of non stop coughing. At this point he coughed only slightly now and then. I was making calls on the beige patient phone, first to my mom, “PRAY” I told her, then to my prayer partner Mary Ann, “PRAY” I told her, “We’re not sure.” Then to our new pastor, (we had just moved to Pennsylvania from Georgia a few weeks earlier), he was out of town, I left a message.
Then like removing the knife from my gut, came the relief of our first miracle. The nurse came in and said the doctor had looked at the CAT scan and said it was one of two things, lymphoma or leukemia, and he will be in to see Billy on his rounds in the morning around 10am, just let him sleep. No surgery, nothing to do with his heart, partial relief swept over me. My husband was crying. We hugged. All I could do was wait. In a numb daze, I tried to sleep in the chair with my head lying next to my son on the hospital bed. I still had just one word rolling around in my head; I knew the promise of PEACE to my children, (wholeness, nothing missing, and nothing broken).
***********************************************************
The doctor led us into a small room with several couches in a circle. After explaining the scientific aspects of leukemia and briefing us on the plan of treatment, three years of chemotherapy; I waited for the proper moment. Within the faith I had built for the past 15 years I spoke, “So doctor when my son is healed by God, you see I believe the Lord will heal him, will you be able to tell he is free of leukemia cells and stop treatment?” “No!” He said quickly and assuredly. “There is no way to tell. That is why we continue to treat for three years, to make sure it is all gone.” The doctor was a skinny guy, medium tall, serious face and worried eyes. Even though he explained the cure rate, which is very high in the 90% range, I was frozen inside. It was like I was trapped in an empty room. “Lord,” I said in anguish from deep within, “What are you going to do about this? They say he can’t be proven healed, what are you going to do? I sure can’t do anything.”
***********************************************************
The first few nights were like nothing I had ever experienced before. I was a born again Spirit filled believer with a huge gift of faith, I could believe God for divine health for my son, but even if he were healed right now the doctors couldn’t even tell. I couldn’t take the chance and even if I could, like one family I had read about, they could take my son away from me if I didn’t permit the treatment.
I stayed with my son every night; I slept in a chair bed next to his. As he slept I wrote:
Lord, I sit here waiting. I am waiting for you to move on Billy’s behalf. What do I do when the doctors come in? What do I do for my son? What should I be doing? Is there something I need to do? Pray in tongues non stop? Read the Word non stop? Sing Praises? Do Warfare? What? I don’t know what to do?
So I wait!
I will not discourage! I will not doubt that my boy will walk away from this whole and well and cured and healed. I take in the view out the window and see the whole picture. I will not bow down to worry doubt or fear.
Lord if you will only show yourself strong and let us give You the glory. Lord I pray for your Strong Hand, Your Miracle Power, Your Life giving Touch, Your Healing Power, You’re Awesome God, You’re a Big God Bigger and more awesome than I can think my King, my God, my Maker, Billy’s Maker, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Deliverer, Conqueror, Blesser, Healer, Restorer!!!
We did everything we knew to do. I had to stay at the hospital so my husband called everyone we knew that was a believer. We e-mailed and called different ministries, including KCM. There were people praying for my son across the country. One night as I looked out over the city of Hershey, warfare rose up inside me. Billy was sleeping, it was late, and the feeling of fighting off large bats was predominant as I spoke in the Spirit. I lunged at them spatting a language only God knows. This went on for quite a while and then I sat down and watched my son sleep.
Remission just means the leukemia is under control. The mass was gone and Billy was home two days before Christmas. It was a weird Christmas. We were thankful and we all drew close as a family. The battle wasn’t over in fact it had just begun.
Billy’s chemo was every week, then every two. He started out nauseous, lost weight, lost hair, and then he got really sick! Again we called everyone to pray. Fungal Pneumonia is a fungus in your lungs, it can spread and kill quickly, the treatment can kill you, sign this paper and we will begin treatment.
Billy lost more weight, and then they thought he had the fungus in his sinuses. Because it can get to the brain this one can kill you and requires aggressive treatment, which can kill you too. This was not happening. I had to be in a nightmare. Dazed, not taking on fear, we called everyone again to pray. The first CAT scan showed something in the sinus cavity, so they went in with a scope to look at it. During the scope the doctor called me from the operating room and told me she could see nothing in the sinus cavity. So they took another CAT scan. Our second miracle, what they saw the first time was gone.
We thanked the Lord and testified to all the doctors and nurses, however our doctor said it was a fluke in the CAT scan we prayed for his salvation quite often after that.
Propped up in the hospital bed, no energy, no real desire to do any thing, our son was skin and bones. I didn’t know what to do for him. My 11 year old boy seemed almost like he had no will to live. I wrote a confession for him to say. In his tired weak voice he would say it for me.
I have a will, that is my choicemaker.
I make my choices.
Devil you don’t choose for me.
Thank you God that you let me choose
I have already chosen you Jesus,
And I chose life.
I will live. I will eat well.
I will grow to be a strong healthy child of God.
Body listen up, I choose life and health.
Then before he took his medicine sometimes he would say another confession I wrote.
As I take this medicine I realize, God is my healer.
God, thank you for doctors and scientists who helped me.
I pray only good comes from this medicine. I refuse the bad. AMEN
After the 9 weeks of treatment for the pneumonia, which for whatever reason, didn’t go away miraculously, Billy gained weight. The steroids made him puff up like a balloon. Then after more treatment he could barely walk. The doctors didn’t know why, they decided it was just because he was weak from the treatments and from being so sick.
We were extremely limited in our activities, sometimes we got a wheelchair, even then he barely had enough energy to go out anywhere. Physical therapy was an option, but it was far away, so I got him a personal trainer at a local gym. She was used to children and rehabilitation. Week after week Billy tried so hard. There was no improvement.
One day I was researching online and I came across a blog about a boy who was my son’s age and who had the same leukemia. The article said he couldn’t walk either. The mother had a hard time getting the doctors to x-ray her son, however, after they did they found he had no ankle bone left, it had deteriorated. I took my son right in to the doctor and they x-rayed him. He had hardly any hip socket left; Avascular Necrosis caused by the steroids had deteriorated it. A visit to the bone doctor brought news of possible hip replacement and or a wheelchair, but not right away. He is young it might grow back, but it won’t be right. We prayed again and still! We know that the Word of God is healing to our flesh and health to all our bones, to all of Billy’s bones.
We were almost alone driving in the snowstorm, it was morning and the snow came down faster than the windshield wipers could clear it. Billy had a fever again so we trudged down the highway in the tire tracks of snow, listening to Janny sing “Stronger than before”. We talked the Word and believed it. Billy spoke his confessions again.
After the steroids were stopped Billy lost weight. He had been on a drug called megease to help him with his appetite, but it was a steroid too. Eventually because of his appetite loss, Billy came down with Anorexia of Malnutrition and had to be tube fed through the nose. After a full month of feeding he had only gained one pound. It made him sick every morning and he couldn’t go to school so he was tutored at home.
One day I picked up a book that Kenneth Copeland had sent to me for free called ‘The Makers Diet’. In the book shows a picture of the author unable to gain weight and very skinny, then after eating what he called black dirt, and changing his diet, he gained weight and became very healthy, overcoming several illnesses. After sharing this with the doctors and getting approval for Billy to take them, I bought some dirt pills. After less than two weeks of taking them, Billy gained a full four pounds. Thank you Jesus! Thank you Kenneth Copeland for sending us the book!
One evening the kids were playing in our backyard and they got Billy running and chasing them. My husband and I both started crying. Just a few months earlier Billy could barely walk. He got stronger and stronger. We would go to the clinic and the doctor would tell his interns about Billy and his hip sockets, then he would move Billy’s legs all around, and ask him if he had any pain. After he said ‘no’ the doctor would ask the interns if they knew why. They would shake their heads and then he would ask me why he doesn’t have any pain. I would say because of God and because of the stripes of Jesus, Billy has been healed.
Chemotherapy is over now, Billy has gained a few pounds, grown some hair, and he is getting his appetite back. Nevertheless, we are thanking the Lord in advance for Billy’s complete restoration. We are watching everyday as he becomes “Stronger than before”.