What Became Of It

I had a normal childhood up until a point. I went to grade school, came home and horsed around, and got into mischief like most boys do when they are young.

When I was young, I remember throwing finger jello up on the ceiling. What surprised me was that it stuck.

In 1987, when I was 8 years old, I could hardly wait for school to get out for the summer. When it did, I had fun like most kids do, that is until I started getting sick. For 2 weeks I had what my mom thought was the flu. The last and final symptom started the beginning of a change, not only in my life, but my family, friends, and my surrounding community.

The final symptom was double vision.

I was taken to the community hospital in the city next to where I lived. An MRI was done, and a brain tumor was revealed. I was then flown to a bigger hospital. During the flight I went into a seizure. Things were bad. I found out much later that I almost died during the helicopter ride. Once at the hospital I was rushed into immediate surgery where a shunt was surgically placed against my skull to release the fluid on my brain. 2 days late the tumor was removed.

I was then in remission for about 1 year. Then another tumor showed up in the same place.

This was when my parents decided to take me Rochester, Minnesota for treatment. The Mayo Clinic and the biggest hospital in the world resides there, plus the hospital has a whole floor for kids with cancer.

I went through 1 year of alternating 2-week sessions of chemotherapy & radiation.

While on the cancer ward, I made many friends my own age. What shattered me, was when one of them would die. This is when I would think that I would die too. Due to all of this I was tortured emotionally, and this caused heartache and deep emotional scars.

This was so much to handle as a young child. I was only 9 years old at the time.

The chemotherapy that I was given was an extra strong dose. This was in order to kill the cancerous cells. This did not only take a toll on me physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

The chemo made me gain a lot of weight. Before the chemo I was skinny, and afterward I resembled the Pilsbury doughboy.

After the year of torture, I went home and back to school. After all I had been through, you’d think I could catch a break. Once back to school I was relentlessly bullied about my weight. My self-esteem was pounded on. There was a period where I cried begging my mom to let me stay home from school.

My last brain tumor was removed in 1997 towards the end of my senior year in high school. My last surgery changed my life for many reasons. The most important reason is because afterward, God revealed Himself to me.

After my last surgery I had a feeling like pins and needles were being stuck in and out of my feet. I had this feeling for 4 days and 5 nights. I got no sleep due to the pain.

During this time, 4 or 5 doctor’s examined me and they couldn’t figure out why this was going on. One of the doctors stated, “This goes down in the record book because we have never seen anything like this before”. Remember, this was the biggest hospital in the world.

On the fifth night of excruciating pain, I yelled out,

“God take the pain away!”

Next thing I know, I was waking up. I was scared because I didn’t feal any pain in my feet. I swung my legs across the edge of my bed and put my feet about an inch or 2 above the floor.

I was scared to put my feet down because I was afraid that the pain would come back. Thank God, it didn’t. I stood up and walked around because the pain was gone.

This was the 1st time God had touched my life, but I didn’t realize this until after I was saved. I was reading my Bible and God revealed to me Luke 5:17-26, Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man. This passage is very similar to what happened to me.

I have learned that everything, good or bad, happens for a reason. Like up above, God performed a miracle in my life and now I use it to preach to people about what God is capable of doing for them.

Just because a miracle happened didn’t mean that everything was going to be perfect in my life.

After my last surgery, manic depression took over my life. This caused me to go in and out of psych wards for 3 years.

Things got so bad that I attempted suicide. I ended up spending my 21st birthday in a psych ward.

I am not crazy. I just had severe problems due to the aftereffects of everything.

When I was 22 or 23, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and I was reborn. If you don’t know what being ‘reborn’ means, go to the book of John in the bible and this should help you.

At the present time I am on disability and unable to work, but God is using this to have me work for Him as an evangelist. For those who don’t know what an evangelist is, it is a person who tells others about Christ. I minister to churches, schools, and to individuals when the holy spirit moves me to. Presently God is using my gifts through the internet, as well as in other ways.