In 1995, I felt comfortable in my walk with the Lord, but I still had a yearning to be able to witness to complete strangers as I had in high school in Joplin, MO in the early 1970s. Me in my bell bottom jeans, tie dyed tank top and my "Jesus" sandals and with a ponytail, no less. Even though I was attending a great church in Las Cruces, NM and was a worship leader with the Vocal Band, was a small group leader in a blended families ministry, and active in Christian drama, I felt that I still was not fulfilling the potential I had. I felt God had a special use for my ability to converse with complete strangers. I started reading a book by Jack Deere called "Surprised by the Power of the Spirit". In it he explains that he was raised in the Church, attended seminary and even taught at the seminary that miracles ended at the end of the "Apostolic Era", or when the last Apostle died. His book goes on to disprove this theory, but in doing so some of the people and situations he describes could be me. Especially about the lady who always asked for prayer for her illnesses, yet never really gave them up to God because they gave her an identity. My lack of faith was that for over two years I had asked my Church members to pray for me to witness to people, but I never really asked God to help me. That weekend in Bible study, I asked the people in class to gather around me and really pray while for the first time, I not just mouthed the words, but really asked God to open the doors for me and give me courage to talk to people.
My whole life changed. I was on the road for 6 out of the next 7 weeks, including the Promise Keepers meeting in Houston, which re-affirmed what Jack Deere's book had said. Everywhere I went, God opened doors and I stepped through them. In airports, on planes, in hotel lobbies, restaurants, everywhere I went God opened the doors. The more I did it, the easier it was. The one week I was home, I knew I would be flying out to San Jose and would not be singing that weekend, so I was going to miss vocal band practice on Wednesday night. I struggled with God over that, so finally I gave in and went to the Church. That evening we had a guest speaker at Church who was from Nepal. He gave his testimony on how God had provided for him and the orphanages he had set up. He told of how in Nepal if you share your faith it is 1 year in prison, if you attempt to convert someone it is 3 years in prison, and if you succeed it is 5 years. He had been in 13 prisons over 11 years. They had to continually move him because he kept converting the guards. His last prison was up in the Himalayas. The Queen of Nepal was so disgusted with him that she had him staked out in the snow in the middle of winter with no clothes and only a sheet to cover him. On the 13th day she had him released. He should have been dead, but only had minor frostbite to his hands and feet. Well, how was this going to affect me? That weekend I sat next to 2 Hindu students from India who were going to San Jose. I would not have been able to reach them if God hadn't had me go to Church that previous week. Things like this kept up for months. As you can tell, I'm still on my emotional high.
Well, here come the miracle part. In September I was scheduled to have my 5th operation on my right knee, to do a total rebuild and to push back when I'll need a knee joint replacement operation. 14 years prior I had an Army doctor put the x-ray in backwards and operate on the wrong side of my knee, doing nerve and ligament damage and then closing it without repairing it. This started a chain of operations. My surgery had been scheduled since the previous February. I thought it was so I would have my work caught up, not knowing it was God's timing to get me prepared for what and who I was to face. They were going to do a procedure called the Fulkerson (which is also our best friends from the Church in New Mexico). This entailed cutting ligaments and tendons, moving them and screwing them into my shin to help re-align my leg. They were also going to move the knee cap and clean out the joint and do bone grafts on the lower leg bone's knee joint to reinforce it. I was to be off work 3 to 4-1/2 months after a 1 to 1-1/2 week hospital stay. I checked into the VA Hospital in Albuquerque and had about 200 of my Christian friends praying for me.
They put me into the room with a man 82 years old. He was one of the meanest, nastiest, foul mouthed ex-Navy seals I had ever met. His name was Mr. Mooneyham. His wife was dead and he was mad at the world for it. He was so mean his family lived there in town and didn't come to visit while I was there. He was there to have both hip joints replaced, but his lungs were filled with fluid so they couldn't operate. The nurses were busy prepping people for surgery, so they didn't have much time for him. At this time I had my hair in a pony tail which I had grown back for my H.S. 20 year reunion, so you could imagine what he was thinking of this long-haired freak. From having been on crutches for so long I have a very large upper body(chest and arms), so he said I looked to healthy to be in the hospital. I explained I was having knee surgery. He said he sensed something else, especially since the nurses came in quite frequently to check on me. I told him that he was right, that I'm a diabetic, have high blood pressure, degenerative rheumatoid arthritis and supposedly end up in a wheelchair with my hands and feet gnarled up. Well, he asked the wrong question, "How could I be so happy?". That opened the door for me to witness to him. I don't think he listened much at first. He soon became uncomfortable and in much pain, but the nurses were to busy. I asked him what was the matter and he said it was ingrown toenails. God told me to relieve his pain. I'm like, "Do what?" God told me to humble myself before this man's feet just as Christ did for the Apostles. I went over and pulled back the sheets and looked at his feet. What I saw brought tears to my eyes. On eight of his toes, the toenail curved down the side, through the skin and most likely would have touched the floor when he walked. I found some cotton socks and wove them through between his toes so they wouldn't touch. I also propped up the sheets where they would still give him warmth, but not touch his feet. He asked me why I did this for him, and I explained that if Christ humbled himself before man, how could I refuse God. He looked at me with astonishment in his eyes and said, "You really believe this, don't you?". To which I replied, "With all my heart." Mr. Mooneyham, started being nice to the nurses, eating his meals, his whole demeanor changed that day after I told him I was going to pray for him.
I didn't get much sleep that night, with them constantly monitoring my blood pressure and blood sugars, but I had a great night in THE WORD and in prayer. I felt calm going into this and I could tell everyone was praying for me. When they wheeled me into the pre-op room, they asked me how I was doing, to which I replied, "Great." They said they had never seen anyone so cheerful going into surgery. I explained that I had the Master Surgeon doing my operation and they didn't know what I was talking about. So I explained that no matter what they did, I was in God's hands. The surgery took longer than planned, so my wife went back to the hotel to wait. When they brought me out of the operating room into post-op, I was out for another 30 - 40 minutes. From my previous surgeries I remembered that to get out of post-op you had to be alert and talking, and guess what my favorite subject is? I started witnessing to the nurses, until they would leave and get another one to replace them. Then I would try to wake up the others coming out of surgery to witness to them. Finally after 45 minutes they said I was OK to go back to my room. Later on a young African American female nurse came by my room to tell me that she appreciated what I did and hadn't been to church in years. Now it was time for her to go back to church.
That afternoon, when I got settled in to my bed and looked at the drain tubes out of the 7 inch incision on my shin. I then looked closely at the locking, geared knee brace they had me in. Of all the things to put on someone after surgery. It had the label "BLEDSOE" on it (bled so). In previous surgeries I had gotten hooked on the pain medication. That day I took one extra strength Tylenol and nothing after that. That's with 3 incisions on my leg and 2 each 1-1/4" screws in my shin. God sure answers prayer. The next day they removed me from my bed to change it and made the mistake of putting me in a wheelchair. Now I was mobile, so I went and visited other veterans in their room and sharing the Gospel. They finally hunted me down, caught me and wheeled me back to my room. The third day (sounds familiar) they pulled out the tubes and said I was healing so fast I could go home. I asked my wife to go get me some Christian Thank You note cards and made them out and delivered them to every department I had dealt with, and also to the Hospital Administrator. I received a call the next week from the people in Admissions during their staff meeting saying how they had been touched. After delivering the notes I turned to Mr. Mooneyham to say goodbye. I told him I would continue praying for him. His reply, with tears in his eyes, was "I'll keep praying for you too, son." The Angels sang and God smiled that day. Three weeks later I went back for my checkup. I went to see Mr. Mooneyham. They had moved him to another room, but everyone said how he was such a sweet kindly old man and how he never gave anyone trouble. My checkup went well. So well they couldn't believe it. Bone grafts and where they put in the screws were supposed to take 9 to 12 weeks to heal. They were healed at 3 weeks and I could bear weight on it and bend it almost to my pre-op status. They released me to go back to work with a cane at 6 weeks, and no brace. Of course I used this to witness to the nurses, doctors, and patients at the orthopedics wing.
When I returned to work it was on the same day in November that Marcy, a 39 year old co-worker was returning after having knee joint replacement that previous July. She saw me and looked at my leg and the scars and wanted to know how I had come back so quickly. I explained the miraculous healing to her and told her that all she needed was to get a relationship with God and I would recruit the people to pray for her. When I saw her on Friday, she was no longer in pain and was walking better. I asked her about it and she said it was strange, that on Wednesday night at about 9:00PM the pain subsided for the first time and she's been able to get some sleep. I then shared with her about the Vocal Band praying for her at 9PM Wednesday night. She's now a believer who's sharing with others. I worked out at an Air Force site on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, which mixing government and religion is a no-no. Word got around and others came to see me. Pat had injured her pelvic bone in a horse riding accident. Sis had a disease which was eating down to the bones on her hands, and not even the Mayo clinic could figure it out. Each time I got to share and watch as people were healed and became believers. The Site Commander came to see me one day. I had known Colonel Crain for about 2 years. He approached me about the rumors. I explained what was going on, not even considering my job was at stake. Charlie knew I wasn't lying. At that point he said, "I've had this problem with my shoulder for some time." I explained to him as I had the others. I saw him the next week playing basketball in the gym. He said it was the first time in several years. He later on allowed us to start a Christian Fellowship Luncheon, reserving a conference room for us himself, joining us when he could. The healing of situations and feelings between the different companies and contractors was tremendous.
I could continue on even more. I now live in the Kansas City area and have helped a small Baptist church start a Vocal Band and a Contemporary worship service. I have taught the H.S. youth in the Winter Bible. We are starting a Blended family support group for Step-families. I sing and give my testimony at churches and Promise Keeper events all over western Missouri. All I can say is keep the Faith, stay in the Word, and Pray, Pray, Pray. God knows what he's doing for us and with us. Jesus will always be the victor, so don't give in.
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