A Stroke of Faith

On January 14, 2007 I was attending church with my family at the First Baptist Church located in Uvalde Texas. The singing worship part of the service had just ended and the preacher had just begun his sermon titled “CAMOFLAGE CHRISTIANS” he came out dressed in camouflage suit and began to talk, at that time I felt a tingling around my lips and I thought nothing about it, after all “ I was in Church” what a better place to be! and I continued to listen to the sermon and after 2-3 minutes the tingling went away so I didn’t to tell my wife, after all I knew what she would say, and I didn’t want bother her, so I continued to listen until the sermon had ended with no other abnormal feelings, until I realized that I couldn’t stand up after the service, something was wrong. My wife had gone up to see one of her friends that had sung during the service and Chris had gone with some of his friends and neither one had didn’t notice that anything was wrong. People started moving around and began talking, my wife came back and noticed I was just sitting there and that was not normal and she said let’s go, I told her that I couldn’t get up and she started yelling for help, several men came over to assist me if they could and began asking me questions, I told them that I thought that I needed some fresh air, after all it was rather hot and balmy in the church and I asked them to help me to get outside and I told them would be fine, so they helped me out the front door and I didn’t get any better so, I asked them for their help to get me to the van that Debbie & Chris had pulled over from across the street and with their help I was able to get in and sit down, I was feeling weird all over at this time, Debbie asked me do you think you should go to the hospital? At that time I told her “YES” I had never had feelings like this before and we sped off in that direction.

We arrived at the hospital about six or seven minutes later, I don’t remember the ride at all but, when we got there I couldn’t get out of the van, so I asked my son Chris to help me and he got me a wheelchair and wheeled me to the emergency room as fast as he could, the nurse took one look at me and took me back where they started taking my blood pressure and listening to my heart and saying nothing and a Doctor came in and told me they were going to run some test on me, that was the last thing I remember, until the next morning at about 5:30. When I woke up with someone was poking me in the arm drawing blood and I asked her what was going on, where was I, she told me that I was in the ICU and I had a stroke, that my blood pressure had been 301 over 199 and my blood sugar was 287 and she didn’t know why I was still alive, she told me that most people would have died! And I drifted back to sleep. I woke up around 8 am and tried to get up but, I couldn’t, my right side wasn’t moving, I thought it was because they had several IV’s in my right arm and I continued to try to move without success but, my right side wouldn’t move! Surely there was some explanation, after all I had never had these feelings before, at that time the Doctor came in and asked how I was feeling and I told him that I felt ok, but, I had a headache, and I wasn’t able to move my right side! He the explained what had happened to me and said the feeling would come back in time, he told me he wasn’t sure, but then he asked me a question that I didn’t expect to hear “ARE YOU TO BUSY TO HAVE A STROKE?” he asked me, he said that I had several strokes before and have I noticed anything like this before? I told him NO and he said they were going to watch me and for me to try to get some rest and he would see me later. Different people came in to my room over the rest of the day and all were all amazed that I was feeling OK other than having a headache and I was very sleepy. Physical therapy came by to try to work with me but, they told me that my blood pressure was still too high and they would see me on the next day on Tuesday, not much changed for me until Wednesday, I started trying to move around, but I still couldn’t move my right side, and this bothered me, as I am right handed, and now I had to use my left hand for everything, I had to lift my right hand up with my left hand even to do the simplest of things. I had always been able to do everything own my own with no help from anyone. Now, I couldn’t even eat! The nurses continued to try to help me, with no results.

But on Wednesday night, my life would change forever, I could smell the food from the nurses station, it was carne guiseda tacos and it really smelled great, after what they had to try to feed me and I started to wonder if I could ever have this again, why this had happened to me and I asked God why? I asked God why did he do this to me, I had served him since I got saved in 1998, I had been on staff at Cornerstone Church, I was a cell leader(home ministry), I had been on the hospital ministry, I tried to help everyone that asked me to, if I could, I thought I had served him well. I thought I had done everything he had asked me to do. WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? AT THAT MOMENT, GOD answered me, just like he was sitting in the room listening to me, he told me that I had done all of those things but, my blood pressure had been 301 over 199 & my blood sugar had been 287, I SHOULD BE DEAD! But, I SPARED you! He said, He then told me the two nurses out of the five that were taking care of me, not to worry about them he was looking after them, but the other three that I wanted to fire, they were the ones I should be concerned about. But, there was only one problem, I hadn’t told anyone about my feelings; God had been there all the time listening to me, waiting for me to say something to him. He told me that he wasn’t finished with me yet. He didn’t say anything else to me but, I knew what I needed to do! So, I thanked God for sparing my life and I told him that I would serve him all the days of my life! And I fell off to sleep, as if nothing had ever happened. The next morning I started talking to anyone that would listen to me or even if they wouldn’t, I still kept talking about the greatnest of God! I began to have a tingling in my right hand, I was able to get out of bed and walk more than two steps, to the amazement of everybody. I started getting feeling back in my right side again. I kept talking and people were starting to listen to what I had to say, it didn’t matter what their situation was, God filled my mouth with the words I needed for everyone. I told them they were not my words, but the words came from God, he was just using me. By Friday I had people from all walks of life started lining up at my door, nurses, custodians, social workers, preachers, even the preacher from the hospital came in to see me, asking what I thought and God guided me through every need. They moved me on Saturday to a regular room about noon and the people found me and still kept coming! I met a nurses-aid that day just as they moved me and she immediately began to ask me about her problems with her kids, I had just changed beds, a minute earlier, then the next day she brought her children to meet me, my wife was there and she couldn’t believe the things that were happening! I could go on and on with stories, but the important thing to remember, it was God, not me, that was giving aid to these people. He was helping them with their problems, whether or not they realized it. I was getting better, my blood pressure started to go down to a normal reading, my blood sugar was under control, I was able to walk over 200 steps, where on Wednesday I could only take 2 steps, and I continued to improve with Gods help.

On Monday my Doctor told me they were starting to think about letting me go home, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this was great news, only eight days after I had my stroke, he was thinking about sending me home and I knew that it was only because God had been with me, helping me, there was no other explanation and I new it.

I continued to improve and Tuesday morning they started talking about letting me go that day and the time came to start thinking about the process of getting out, and my wife started to worry about the bill, that she didn’t know how we were going to pay the hospital?
I told her not to worry, that it would work out. About an hour later a man came in to my room and asked me How was I going to pay the hospital the nearly $22,000 bill that I owed, I told him I didn’t have any insurance or any money but, I would see that they got paid, at that time he said he would be right back, and he left, we didn’t know where he went and if I had said anything wrong, he just walked out, but about 15 minutes later he returned, and explained that every was alright, that he didn’t know why he hadn’t thought about a program they had but, my bill was Paid in Full, not to worry about it, also any further things that the Doctor might want to do would be paid as well, including Physical Therapy and any and all treatments the hospital could offer me. I knew that God had taken care of everything, so my wife went down to check me out and the social worker had heard about everything that had gone on while I was there and she asked Debbie where our church was located, that she wanted to come visit, when she told her that I didn’t have a church, she couldn’t believe it!

I left the hospital about 1:00pm that day not owing a penny to the hospital, Doctors, or anyone else that helped me, except for God for giving me my life back!

I am serving him now and all the days of my life!

I encourage you all to do the same, you never know what God will do for you until, and you give him a chance!

“by his stripes we are healed“

Isaiah 53:5