Monday, March 14, 2011

A brand new purpose in life...

My life has been forever changed. The big weekend that I've been working on for months and months is finally over, yet I find myself still lingering in the sweetness of each moment.

I haven't written too much in my GodWatch 365 blog these past 5 months, because I have been totally consumed with everything CCSVI. Friends have asked me, where have you been? Well, ever since my liberation last August, and my subsequent idea to move forward with an educational seminar and the first official walk for the CCSVI Alliance to help others learn about CCSVI, my world has been turned upside down, that's where I've been!

Not that I have forgotten about the Lord's presence during these sometimes trying months. Not for one second. He was there, beside me each step of the way, His Hand was clear as He opened each door and cleared each obstacle along our path.

This being the first fundraiser for the Alliance, there were, of course, the usual challenges, hurdles and obstacles. We moved slowly and deliberately, because we all wanted the foundation to be laid correctly for this first one. We did have some slammed doors, but not for long, because each time one was slammed, it seemed that the Lord opened up another one ever wider. Totally a God-Thing as I like to say.

We worked hard during these 5 past months, but the success of our weekend of events, were for me, clearly not due to my efforts, or to the efforts of Michelle Brown, my cohort at the CCSVI Alliance, but clearly because we had someone else helping behind the scenes, to order everything into perfect place, the Creator of the universe.

Early on in this process I told Michelle that I felt confident about the success of this because I had been praying and asking God for His guidance and felt sure that He was going to take care of every little detail. I knew if we worked hard, He would honor that. I had total confidence in that and had a tremendous about of peace because of it. Michelle was not so sure, but rather had a we'll see attitude, let's just keep plugging away, she said.

She became a great and now life-long friend. We celebrated each victory, and cried on each others shoulders about the failures and the frustrations of putting together something of this magnitude with basically just the two of us doing the bulk of the work. We did have a few other people helping us along the way on certain projects, and I had my other friend Michelle who was cheering me along the way and driving me everywhere I needed to go, but basically, we put the whole thing together, duo & duo.

My dear friend Ellen, who I've known forever and worked with for 25 years at Mill Pond Press has been involved in event planning on a grand scale many times said "I can't believe that the two of you put all of this together, just two people. There are normally about 15-20 people handling something of this magnitude." I've thought about that and in retrospect, I thought she's right, how did we put something like this together with just the two of us? But, then I remembered, we had the Mighty Hand of our Helper guiding us along the way.

I have truly felt that the reason that God has been healing me through CCSVI was to do things just like this-to help other people with MS. He too, was sick and tired of me being sick, he's done with me feeling lousy all the time, and He wants me to help other MS'ers end their suffering and improve their lives too.

I went into my procedure back in August of last year, claiming my miracle and telling the Lord that I would do whatever He wanted me to do if I could just get a little bit better. I knew that this surgery wasn't a cure, but I also knew that God would be the one to heal me, not the doctors. He would use them and their knowledge, but any healing I would receive would come from His Almighty Hand. I knew it, I believed it and I claimed it! He totally delivered and now after 5 long months of hard work, I've delivered on the other end of the deal! I knew He work honor our work, because we were doing it in love and compassion for others.  

Our weekend really did go off without a hitch. Yes, we worked very hard to make sure that happened, but there could have been a thousand things that went wrong, but they didn't. The weather was absolutely beautiful, we had great attendance at both events, everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the weekend and they learned much good information about CCSVI. There were lots of great questions, interesting conversations and tremendous connections made between others suffering with MS. I know that some lives are going to be changed for the better and I am so thankful. The doctors were AMAZING. What a wonderful group of guys. So compassionate are this group of men who are treating us, we are all very blessed. I think the Interventional Radiologists of the world are a special breed of doctors and I am happy to have a new disease, CCSVI, which is TREATABLE!

All I can say is Thank you Jesus! Thank you for helping us open more people's minds to CCSVI. Thank you for ordering this wonderful weekend, start to finish! I know it all came by your Mighty Hand, just as Dr. Zamboni discovery came, as an answered prayer, straight from you!

This whole past year has been totally a God-thing. Start to finish. Help me Lord to continue with your work. Let me take my renewed health and bring Glory to you! Help me to have another fantastic year in Your Service!

My verse for today is one of my favorites about suffering from 1 Peter 1:6
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may be to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith- of greater worth than gold- which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in Praise, Glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

My prayer for today:

O Holy God

Thank you that my many years of suffering are over. Thank you for my continued healing. Thank you for giving me the energy to accomplish this monumental task that was set before me. Thanks for a glorious weekend that I hope brought joy to you, as we set about helping others learn about CCSVI. I pray Lord, that you will open new doors for me as I step out in faith, knowing that my life is always in Your hands.

In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen