Miracle Stories- May

1st Story

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I was married for seven years before coming to WCF.  It had been rough from the very start.  After our first child, my marriage had declined, and I found myself in a severely-controlled situation experiencing verbal abuse.  I was invited to WCF, where I learned how to trust God with our situations, that God was merciful and loved us personally.  I prayed for our marriage to be restored.

Guess what?  It got worse.  (I hadn’t thought that was possible!)  I was so confused that I was beside myself.  After one year of prayer, I asked God that if He didn’t want me to remain in this marriage, would He release me from my vows?  (I wasn’t sure God did things like that, but I was at a loss.)   Things started changing immediately.  My husband was still abusive, but I was able to think, and to plan.   I felt blessings everywhere I went.   I garnered an inner strength to distance myself from his unwarranted behavior.  When he became abusive to our daughter, that was the last straw.  I moved without looking back, and had all the paperwork that I needed.

For that whole, second year, as I prayed to be released from my vows, I prayed for a sign, “casting a fleece before the Lord.”  In my simple faith, I wanted to know if I was doing the right thing.   After all, my marriage vows were made to God, and I didn’t take them lightly.   I had asked for orange roses if I could be released from my vows.  Now, for a whole year, I saw orange roses everywhere: storefront windows, church, etc., but never received them. 

One month after I moved out, my husband begged me to return because some college girls, friends of the family, were coming to visit.  (He didn’t want anyone to know we were divorced, and he was embarrassed.)  I said I would come to help out and cook for the girls, but wouldn’t pretend we were together.  When I returned, it was my birthday, and to make a big scene in front of the visitors, he bought me a bouquet of huge, long stemmed, gaudy, bright orange roses!  What a sense of relief from all the guilt, anguish and feelings of failure rushed over me.  If nothing else, I learned not to tell God what to do, but to ask God what is His will.

Divorce is an unnatural situation.  When a man and woman are married, they become one, according to scripture.  God has joined them.  So, when a divorce is forced, I’d compare the pain to a severing, just like an amputation that has to be done when a limb is damaged beyond repair.  It’s only done in dire circumstances, in order to save the rest of the body.

As if the emotional pain were not enough to handle, I had to simultaneously plan and make critical decisions, all the while working and taking care of my family.  The biggest financial issue for me was what to do about the house.  I knew I couldn’t afford the mortgage on my own, working part time and taking care of my toddler.  I thought about roommates, but that was risky.  The attorneys I interviewed said to stay and kick him out.  Well, the fact is, no one understands what it’s like to live with an abuser, unless you’ve experienced it.  It’s like walking on eggshells, being slowly coerced and manipulated over time, with “peace at any cost.”

When I had to go, I left, taking the bare essentials.  What I wasn’t prepared for was all the rejection I continued to receive from well-meaning people.  After I moved, some people could not understand why I moved out instead of asking him to leave or change the locks, etc.  They didn’t comprehend that when someone is volatile, you don’t push them over the edge, and if you did, you’d invite hostility and confrontation, causing a huge drama scene.

I wrote a prayer and planted it in the ground.  I asked God to provide us with a place that my daughter and I could live in peace, and stay comfortably in a stable environment.  If God wanted the house to sell, or wanted the ex to keep it, it was up to God.  I didn’t care, and I would not be tied to material things.  I wanted a happy, healthy family and home-life.  The miracle is that two years later, we got the house back, and I could afford to live there.  In addition, the marriage was eventually annulled, and I was free to move forward in my life.  Praise be to God.

2nd Story

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On New Year’s Eve day, I saw a rainbow!  I thought what a miracle!  God has given me a sign of his faithfulness.  He had been faithful in 2005, and I know this colorful sign in the sky symbolized His love and faithfulness in 2006.

This rainbow also reminded me of the miracle that occurred in my husband’s life fifteen years ago.  It was in February, 1991, that my John was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  An immediate surgery was needed and many prayers went up to the Lord.  His name was placed in the Women’s
Christian Fellowship prayer basket and our priest gave John the anointing of the sick.

I remember the waiting room that day of his surgery and filling the time with fear, prayers, magazine articles, more fear, prayers and hope.  The surgery took extra long.  When the doctor came out, he assured me that John would be all right, but he also said it had been an intense surgery.  John had more cancer in his bladder than he had ever seen.  He was amazed to find out that it was the least invasive form of cancer and he was so pleased that he was able to save John’s bladder.  The doctor explained how any other doctor would have taken his bladder right out.  What could have been the worst of the worst scenarios became the miraculous.

Over the years there were more bladder surgeries and there were many more touches of God.  John came with me to a WCF meeting to listen to Fr. Barham.  The priest asked those to stand that wanted a deeper relationship with Jesus.  John rose from his seat, and while he was standing, he felt an amazing warmth go through his entire body.  He knew it was God’s healing, miraculous touch.

At one point in John’s medical journey, his doctor ordered two 45 minute consecutive CAT scans.  Everyone was anxious because he’s a large man, 6’5” tall.  The major concern was that he’d be claustrophobic and not hold still in the tube.  He proceeded with the scan but was especially equipped with a powerful tool—The Jesus Prayer, which is:  “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”  When I finally saw John, he told me something miraculous had happened while he was in the tube.  He felt the arms of Jesus around him holding him the whole time.  It was truly a blessed, merciful miracle.

The last supernatural grace I’ll share came through my friend and prayer partner, Karen.  The Lord had given her a prophetic word for me.  It came at a time when I was so scared and sad for my husband and worried about our future.  These are the words she received while praying for John:  “Do not fear.  I am the God of miracles.  I am the God Most High.  I am the Almighty and I love you beyond measure, beyond reason, beyond anything you can imagine.  Do not doubt.  I love you.  I am with you.”  Karen also saw a vision of a rainbow with these words, “I will give you a rainbow.  It will be beautiful.  I will take care of you.  Don’t forget to tell your husband that I love him and I am with him.”