It was a rough start and 2006 was gonna be long. I was waiting on the results to come back on my liver. Come to find out they diagnosed it as a non-alcoholic liver disease. True to the statement since I was not a drinker. It had started to form a fatty outside, and if I wasn't careful could turn out to be full blown liver disease. Cure? Nope. Just had to refrain from any drinking, eatting certain foods, and take certain vitamins hoping it would cure itself. The liver can do that. I had to keep getting my blood tested to check ALT levels and everytime they would be off the chart. At one time they was close to 200. If you know anything about ALT levels you know that is bad.
I continued going to work. I worked on the days I could and stayed home when I was drained of all energy and sick. The pains were still there and I figured they would just be something I would just have to learn to live with. The bleeding continued and by now I have missed so much work that my job was getting a little worried if I could continue to perform. But I pressed on the best I could and tried the best I could. Luckily they never fired me. I praise them for that till this day.
2007
The start of the year was here and I knew God was building up to something. I don't know why He would still want me, I had left Him a long time ago through the process. Never stopped believing, just stopped believing He remembered me. I was making New Year resolutions, when He began to speak. I can remember the feeling when He asked me why I still hurt? I can remember saying its because I was never healed. Then I fell to the ground crying and screaming at Him.
"Why did I live in such pain and why did You let this go on?" I said
Then just like that, I can remember a warm feeling just like warm water being poured on me. For the first time in years I felt like running. Running as far as I could like you did when you was in the second grade. I felt awesome. No pain, no hurts. I cried harder. I can remember hearing His voice saying "Now that I have your attention, sit still and listen." I was healed. I had never experienced that kind of feeling before. I knew the second the pains left my body. Goodbye pains...Hello God!
I laid completely on my face shaking at the sound of His voice. It wasn't loud and no one could hear it but me. If Jennifer would have been home she would have thought I had lost my mind. She was at her grandmothers that night sitting by her side as she passed away. I was alone and still and He had my full attention.
He began laying out a plan. A plan much more greater than me. It included traveling. Hey I like to travel. It included speaking. No problem there, I like to talk. It included loving the worst of the worst. Oh...not my strong point. That wasn't too much of a problem I just didn't want some AIDS victim kissing and hugging on me thats all. I'm not a germ freak, but diseases I don't do. That would change.
He told me he was gonna send me overseas with a group of people I had never known before. Jen was gonna stay home He had a different plan for her to do. I listened and sat real still. Go for a long time, no, just a short journey. The more and more I sat there Israel kept coming to mind and I was thinking no. But it wasn't going away. The more and more I kept trying to not think of it for days, the more and more signs of me going was popping up. I didn't want to go there. Too much trouble in the Middle East. But there was something He wanted me to experience and see. What? I love history so I know the sites of the bible are gonna be cool, but what experience will I get? That's not a mission trip. Its a vacation. But it was a true eye opener to what would happen on this trip. I would experience something that most Americans or others of this world would never get to experience.
I told Jen of the whole sit down talk God had with me and she agreed God was stirring. He had filled our house and He was definately working.
By now its April 2007 and while playing soccer with the youth I fall in a hole tearing the cartilage in my left knee. The same knee I tore in highschool playing football and already had 3 operations on. Not good. This was not in the plan. I go see the doctor and they need to do surgery. I explain to work what needs to happen and since my thoughts of leaving soon was going to happen, they asked I go ahead and resign and go home. Really not good. I couldn't blame them. I mean I was gone more than I was there. But wait. How am I going to get to Israel now? I have not job. Definately not good! But God had it planned the whole time.
I thought I was off to Israel, untill the whole job situation came up. Wrong! So God sent Jen to Honduras instead and I'm sitting at home with a bandage around my leg. Why? Did I hear incorrectly? Did I not follow through with God's will? When will be my chance to go?
While Jen is in Honduras she is calling me everynight explaining what a awesome group Mission of Mercy was and how she fell in love with the people who lead the trips. Who knew one of them would become my best friend years later, and his wife becoming just like a sister to me? God did! I had been searching for trips to Israel to fit my budget. I was not going to let God down again. He told me to go and I was going. When Jen arrived home she looked me in the eye and said. "No matter what it takes, you have to go to Israel just like God wanted you to". I agreed. The next day she came to me and said "Here it is, Mission of Mercy is going in October 2007 and also will be in Jordan...you are going". It was all God. No one can write or make this stuff up. His plan was coming together and He was showing himself through Jennifer. He was uniting us and building us for a greater plan.
I signed up and honestly to this day I don't know where the money came from, but He provided. In October 2007 I'm on a plane headed to Israel/Jordan for two weeks. What will I see that He wanted me to see? What will I experience that most never experience? What experience will change my life forever?
...stay tuned for the rest of 2007 and see where God uses Jen and I both in 2008!
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