Gail’s Testimony

I was born in 1955, and grew up in a sleepy, little town in Connecticut. I was the oldest daughter (and the second oldest child) of 7 children- 5 girls and 2 boys.

My mom took all 7 of us children to church and Sunday school every week. In fact, we had perfect attendance for 11 years!

Life was wonderful for me until age 9.

That was the year that my dad died, on the day after Thanksgiving to be exact. And it was the year that I grew up. Mom needed help with the younger children, so I had to help her.

Life was hard for me. I missed my dad terribly, and grieved for him for many years.

4 years after dad died, mom remarried. My step-father was a kind man, when he wanted to be- which wasn’t very often! Not to us kids anyway. He was very nice to others, but no one had any idea what he was really like, except for those of us who lived with him!

By the time I was 16 years old; I had had enough of him and left home to become a live-in nanny for a nearby family.

I dated the same boy all through High School and married him in Jan. of 1974, 6 months after graduation.

He didn’t treat me very kindly, but he was surely not half as mean to me as my step-father had been, so it was okay. Or so I thought.

4 years (and 2 children) later, I filed for divorce.

(I realize now that I was really just looking for a man to replace my dad- but I surely didn’t know it then.)

I remarried in 1979, soon after my first divorce became final, but that relationship turned sour after our son was born a year later. We divorced in 1988, after 9 years of barely tolerating each other.

By now, I was only 33- years old and my life was in shambles! My oldest son, who was almost 13, decided that he wanted to go live with his dad (my first husband) in Florida. That devastated our family beyond belief. He left in May and the other 2 children and I cried for months.

I had been running a very successful state-licensed day care center at our home for 12 years, but I was sick and tired all the time. I could hardly get out of bed sometimes for weeks on end, but then I would be fine for months!

I had been born with asthma, and had started smoking cigarettes at 18-years old (right after I got married for the first time) just to be “cool”!

Now, here I was, 33-years old and dating someone who introduced me to illegal drugs for the first time in my life!

I enjoyed the ‘high’ that I got from smoking pot; and it also helped alleviate the chronic pain that I had in my left foot from surgery-gone-wrong many years earlier; surgery which had left me permanently crippled! (I walked with the aid of crutches and had to wear a surgical shoe on that foot because the big toe wouldn’t bend and I couldn’t put a regular shoe on!)

Some very close friends of mine pointed out to me that the illegal drugs that I was doing were ruining what was left of my life; so I threw out those- and the boyfriend, too!

 

I met “Mr. Wonderful” in the fall of 1988, and married him in 1989, on the 1- year anniversary of our first date.

But my chronic fatigue and intense, chronic pain- which had now spread throughout my entire body- were almost too much for me to bear at times. I attempted suicide no less than FOUR times- thank God that I didn’t succeed!

I had gone to many doctors over the years- complaining of intense, almost unbearable pain; insomnia; bowel and bladder problems; and so many other ‘symptoms’ that the doctors were all baffled as to what was wrong with me. The most frustrating part of it all was that the ‘symptoms’ would come and go.

Finally, when I was 34, I was diagnosed with something called Fibromyalgia, and something else Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome! (I wouldn’t have cared if they had told me that I had AIDS, I was just so relieved to find out what was wrong with me!)

The doctors decided that it had probably been caused by all of the medications that I had been given as a baby, because of the asthma that I was born with! (And I am sure that smoking, drinking and doing drugs hadn’t helped, either!)

December 15, 1993- a day that I will NEVER forget.

I was 38- years old and, despite being so sick, was able to run a sewing business and a daycare business from home.

I had been sick for many months, but was too busy doing craft shows to bother going to the doctor. By the time I finally got there, on Dec. 15, he told me that I had an incurable, (in those days, anyway), lung disease called bronchial asthma, which was similar to emphysema. He told me that the bronchial tubes in my lungs were slowly closing up and that I would eventually suffocate to death. He informed me that if I quit smoking immediately, I might have 5 years left; but if I continued to smoke- well, he didn’t know…

So, of course, I quit smoking. I had tried for over 20 years to quit, but nothing had worked. Well- this death sentence surely did!!!!

I was understandably upset, but bitter at the same time. Life had dealt me so many blows- now this!

I didn’t tell anyone, except my best friend in the whole world, that I was terminally ill. As the months rolled by, I went into a complete state of denial, and decided that the doctor had made a mistake, and I was going to be just fine.

But as the months turned into years, I got sicker and sicker. There were times that I could hardly breathe at all, and I needed inhalers and a nebulizer machine just to get through each day.

“Mr. Wonderful” turned out to be “Mr. Horrible”, and I divorced him in 1996 while he was serving time in prison for trying to kill me!

Finally, in Jan. of 1998, with less than a year left to live, I decided to move to North Carolina.

I had always wanted to go there to live; now I decided to go there to die. My children were all grown up, and I had a granddaughter who was now 2-years old! (They still didn’t know how sick I was. I kept it a secret!)

So I hired a man from North Carolina to travel to Connecticut and drive my moving van down there for me.

The first time that we talked on the phone, he asked me if I was a Christian- and I informed him in no uncertain terms that I definitely was! (I could only guess later on that he figured out by the cuss words I used that I was surely NOT- but I insisted that I was!) When he asked me how I knew that I was a Christian, I told him that I went to church every Sunday, that I did good things to help those in need, and that I tried to be nice to everyone.

He then told me about Jesus Christ, and how He had shed His blood on the cross so that MY sins could be forgiven. And that is where we parted ways! I got downright angry and informed him that I was not a sinner, that I was a nice person! (In fact, I was SUCH a nice person that I hung the phone up on him because he called me a sinner!)

He called me right back and asked me to please hear him out; and before I hung up the phone the next time I had prayed with him to ask the Lord to forgive me of my sins. I had also accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior!

That was on Jan. 5, 1998!

We met in person on Jan. 10 and he asked me to marry him. I said, “Yes.” (Although I didn’t even know him, I also knew that I didn’t have much time left on earth, so I figured, “What’s the harm?” And I needed someone to take care of me since I was too sick to take care of myself.) Shame on me!!!

We talked on the phone a lot, and I moved to North Carolina on Jan. 26, 1998, only 3 weeks after meeting him! We were married in Feb.

I attended his ‘church’ and it didn’t take too long for the people there to realize that I was very sick.

His Pastor told me that God could heal me, and I disagreed with him. I politely informed him that there was no cure for what I had.

By now my entire body was a mess.

• I had permanent lower back pain- from years of abuse;
• My left foot was STILL crippled and I could wear only a surgical shoe on that foot. This caused me to walk with a severe limp- as the big toe on that foot wouldn’t bend. I used a cane for normal walking- but still needed crutches for long distance walking;
• I had inoperable carpal tunnel syndrome in BOTH wrists and wore braces all the time- except to bathe or wash dishes;
• I had chronic neck pain;
• My peripheral vision was gone and my eyes were really bad;
• I was so sensitive to light that I wore prescription sunglasses all the time- even indoors;
• I had such a bad case of TMJ that my jaws were severely crooked- and were just bone-on-bone. I had chronic ear pain and problems eating because of it;
• I was taking 14 different medications, some of them 3 times a day;
• I had such bad insomnia that sometimes I couldn’t even fall asleep until almost morning;
• I had severe digestive problems- which left me unable to eat most foods;
• I had such bad bladder and bowel problems that I needed to be near a bathroom most of the time;
• I was allergic to many different things- and my lungs were now so bad that I could hardly breathe;
• Etc…etc…etc…

(I honestly cannot even remember some of the other medical issues that I had- but I know that there were more.)

The Pastor seemed completely undaunted by my insistence that prayer would not help me, and he and some of the other members of the congregation prayed after the service one morning for God to heal me.

What happened next was unbelievable!

I felt a warm heat sensation flowing through my wrists while they prayed, and I just knew that the carpal tunnel syndrome was healed! I took off my braces and I had strength and feeling in my fingers again, for the first time in years!

The same warmth was in my face, and I could almost feel my jaws going back into place! It was just amazing! I knew then that the TMJ was also healed, and I went home and ate like a pig!

But the miracle continued.

I went on a women’s retreat 2 months later with some fellow Christian friends, and while there for the weekend God supernaturally healed me from EVERYTHING else that I had suffered from since birth.

A woman on the stage looked around the room and started telling us, “God is healing someone up there- or over there”, and people were getting healed left and right! Every time she pointed in my direction, she said, “God is healing asthma, chronic back pain, a crippled foot, etc…”, and I would feel that same warmth that I had felt months earlier when that little congregation prayed for me. Furthermore, even though she had never met me before, she was calling out all of the things that I had suffered from for so long!

I knew that God was healing me, and I walked out of that building and went home totally and supernaturally healed of EVERYTHING that I had suffered from for most, or all, of my life!!

ALL PRAISES AND GLORY GO TO GOD!!!!!!!!!

I threw out my breathing machine, inhalers, cane, crutches, surgical shoe and ALL 14 medications!

Months later, when I ended up at the doctor’s office for job-related stress, I asked him to test me for asthma. But I didn’t tell him why. He gave me a little machine to blow into and said, “Your lungs are fine! What makes you think you have asthma, anyway?” I never answered him. I just smiled, thanked him and left. And got a different job. (That was in Oct. of 1998, and I haven’t been to the doctor since.)

My marriage didn’t work out and we ended up divorced a few years later.

I FINALLY decided to stay single- just Jesus and me! After 29 years of being married to the wrong men, I was through with marriage!

And that was when God gave me the right husband. We met in a hospital room and have been together ever since!

We have been married since 2003 and are very happy! When GOD gives you a spouse- you KNOW that it is the right person to spend the rest of your life with.

To read more about our little ministry, please go to the about us page.

Today, I am healthier at 57- years old (in 2012) than I was at 27!

I often tell my husband, “Happiness is being married to your best friend!”

And, of course, having Jesus in charge!