Welcome to my blog! If you are a new reader, I encourage to go to my first installment, "When God Spoke, and the Lost Memory", as that begins this chronicle of an amazing time. You might consider this installment "Chapter 4". Since nobody really should start a good read at "Chapter 4", I encourage you to go to "Chapter 1". If this blog blesses you, please share it with as many others as possible - encouraging them to read it. I pray it touches as many people as possible.
Much has happened over the years since that Big Move across the Country in 1982-3. I worked for the "Write Your Congressman" until my father insisted I leave the company to come to work managing his sewing machine business. I did that for a while - all the time praying and praising God, and fasting for His intervention and leading.
I left my father's business to enter into full time ministry, working for a local Christian Radio station and also working in children's ministry; specifically, working in a puppet ministry.
I eventually married a man who faked his salvation experience in order to marry me. He was a college science instructor. I thought God was speaking because several people in the church had come to us and told us that they were sure God was telling them that we needed to be married. I rushed - too soon - into that marriage with a man eighteen years older than myself, and ignored the warning signs. He moved us to Moses Lake, Washington, and instantly changed personalities, turning from a nice sweet guy into a vile tempered, vindictive man. The day we stepped out of the moving van he saw my kids playing on the lawn, turned to me and said, "I don't know when it's going to happen, but some day I'm going to divorce you".
He repeated those words to me weekly, and often daily, for the next seven years. I couldn't do anything to please him, and he often was abusive not only to me, but also to my children. I was at a loss as to what to do. I was trying to serve God and be obedient, but seemed to have lost my direction.
In 1993, just before Christmas, he served me with divorce papers, denied Christ and spoke adamantly for New Age concepts. I found that he had locked me out of all the checking accounts, including my business accounts, and I had no source of money. When the children and I sat down at the table for dinner, he came in to get some of his things, saw our last jug of milk on the table, picked it up and took it out the door with him.
Again, I fell on my face before God, praising and thanking God for a seemingly impossible situation. And again, God provided, supernaturally, with contracts, with business, with commissions.
When I received my divorce settlement in 1994, I purchased a partnership in a publishing business with a local businessman. He also was a Christian. As we built that business together, we eventually fell in love and married. He was kind to me, kind to my children, sweet tempered and loving. I am still married to him until this day.
The business didn't survive, and we moved 13 times in 13 years as my husband found jobs in various places, did well the first year, petered out the second year, and then found something else. I couldn't get into a ministry and stay, because every time I would try, we would move - again.
In my first installment, "When God Spoke, and the Lost Memory", I refer to meeting back with an old friend. By this time my husband and I had moved my 83 year old mother in law in with us, and I was rehabbing investment properties in Southwest Idaho. I had severe carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand with additional joint issues, a continual pain level of around a 7 to an 8 (on a scale of 1 - 10), had spent two years in a wrist brace, and was told by both doctors and chiropractors that surgery was my only option. My functionality with that hand was little more than a claw. My husband, after 14 shoulder dislocations and 3 surgeries, was having more shoulder issues and facing yet another shoulder surgery, and my mother in law suffered from painful arthritis in her hands and had astronomically high cholesterol, which we wanted to control through diet - if we could. I was still praising and thanking God for all things, but felt frustrated and unfocused.
The friend with whom I had reconnected was by now a Captain in the US Navy, who had returned from Iraq and had moved, with his family, to Southeast Idaho. They had gone into a nutrition business. It wasn't just any nutrition business though. He told me about how he had ruined his knees and feet while overseas, and how his wife had such bad back pain from a herniated disc that she hadn't been able to walk for more than a short distance before the pain became overwhelming. He told me how they had taken this product and how they both had become pain free, and how his wife had become st pain free that he had been able to dance with her for the first time in close to 20 years - and how she had outdanced him!
I spent three months researching that nutrition company, sure that it was some sort of snake oil thing. I found that they had (at that time) 7 US patents on their products, and never had a lawsuit (Since then, I guess a couple of the patents have dropped off - expired - and they now have 5). They had thousands of success stories of people with various health issues and a great approach to nutrition: Perfect balance, they said, designed to help the human body regenerate healthy cells. I heard stories of people with horrible health issues - fibromylagia, MS, cancers, Chron's disease, and even things like just acid reflux problems and sleep issues - all regain their health and become symptom free.
In September of last year - 2007 - we decided to meet with my old friend, for the first time since 1981, and look at what he had.
It was a both and emotional and a joyful reunion, and we talked and talked and shared and shared. And he showed us about his business.
Since they had a money back guarantee, I agreed to try his products, and purchased two weeks' worth.
I gave it to both my mother in law and to myself. She said she seemed to feel a little more stamina, and I felt my hand seemed to be a little better.
We didn't have any more money for any more of his products, and were getting ready to move to Washington State, so I told him we would look at this further when we arrived in Washington State and were settled in.
So we moved up to Washington State.
I, by this time, was in a spiritual and emotional upheaval. No longer in ministry, my real estate investment business had gone into the toilet, we had moved 13 times in 13 years, and I felt that every thing I had done had gone upside down. In frustration, I wrote a letter to God, listing everything that had ever happened, and everything I was questioning. I kept the letter private, hidden on my computer.
The following Sunday, we were looking for a church, and found a little church in Othello, Washington. We walked in and sat down during the praise and worship service. After worship, the pastor walked to the microphone and said, "I know this sounds a little weird, but the Lord has given me a word for somebody and I have to give it. I don't know who this is for, but here it is!" He then described exactly what I was feeling, and listed every single thing I had written in that letter to God, right on down the line in detail! He then said this, "Here is what the Lord says to you: be patient and wait, and in due time all will be revealed".
I was floored. I had not heard anything so specific from God in many many years.
My nature is impatient, but I decided to follow what God had said, and settle down.
We also decided to get into my friend's business, since we could see no downside to it.
In November of last year our first products arrived. We started taking the products, and in the first week, I told my husband I thought my hand was better. He said it was all in my head and I was brain washed. I decided to take my wrist brace off in faith.
Within 6 weeks, the pain level in my hand had gone from a 7-8 down to less than a 1. The lumps and joint issues in my wrist had all but disappeared. The flexibility was starting to come back into my fingers.
About the same time, just before Christmas, my mother in law - by now 83 years old - came upstairs wiggling her fingers and talking a blue streak. When I didn't pay much attention to her, she chided, "Don't you see what I'm doing?" I absent mindedly replied, "Yeah, you're wiggling your fingers." She almost shouted, "My hands don't hurt! My hands don't hurt!" The arthritis in her hands had subsided to the point that she could move her fingers and she was almost pain free! She went to work crafting and made over a hundred "wallpaper boxes" to sell to a local gift shop. As an aside, we had her blood work done the prior September and her cholesterol was at 279. In February we had it done again and it was at 231 - a 47 point drop in the 90 days or so we had her on this nutrition without her taking any medication for it! I was amazed.
By March, I had all my flexibility back and was 100% pain free in my hand. I am presently enjoying unprecedented good health and energy. I am 55 years old and feel better than I did in my 30's.
My husband was the skeptic, but in February he realized that all the pain in his shoulder was gone and he had his flexibility back, too! It had happened so slowly, he said he hadn't even noticed it. So far I figure these products have saved us two surgeries.
What about the old friend? He and his wife have become two of our very dearest friends. I treasure their friendship more than any other. They are Godly people, honorable, full of integrity, patient and sweet spirited. I feel incredibly blessed by their friendship and thank God daily for bringing them (back) into our lives.
The name of the nutrition company they introduced us to is called Reliv. I have not intended this chronicle to be in any way a sales thing, but this is something that the Lord has simply done with us. He used these people to influence our lives, and He used these products to bring us amazing health. We have decided to pursue this as a business, so as to help others with their health.
As for the prophecy, where God spoke yet again, I am still being patient and waiting - to see what else the Lord is going to reveal in due time - as I feel that that Word of Wisdom/Knowledge is still unfolding. I am delighted and blessed that He is not done with me yet, and that He saw fit to speak once again. I feel humbled by His love, His mercy, His leading.
And I pray that He uses these words to bless you, the reader of them.