healing and testimony17-Jan-2014
2017 UPDATE BELOW!!!
Hi, my name is Fiona.
I’ve had Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for about 22 years.
The first 8 years were “relapsing-remitting”, and then it moved onto “progressive”, where each year it gradually got worse and worse.
By the beginning of 2013 I was spending about 90% of the day in bed. I could still walk small distances – from the bedroom to the Lazyboy in the lounge – by shuffling along with my walker, but I could no longer lift my feet. Speaking was really difficult and thinking was almost non-existent - if I tried to think about something it felt like my brain was cooking! I needed my husband to help me getting dressed and in and out of bed.
By then I was only managing to get to Church once every 4 or 5 weeks. Gavin would wheel me in, and help me into a reclining chair we had at Church. I never had the energy to sing or to concentrate on what was being said, but it was nice to be in the House of God with my Church family.
Sometime around the middle of 2012 when preaching, Graeme spoke out these verses:
Jas 5:14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Jas 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
The words witnessed to Gavin’s Spirit. A lot of people had been praying for me for years, and now, from then on, Graeme and Gavin made sure I was anointed with oil and prayed for every week at Church, or at home if I had been unable to get there. Every time Graeme anointed me with oil and prayed for me I would shake under the Power of God.
In March 2013 the shaking started getting more extreme. The men were always expectant that God would heal at any moment, but I confessed that, rightly or wrongly, I didn’t think God would heal me until I couldn’t cope anymore, until I’d had enough.
One week later, while Gav was putting me to bed, he suddenly shouted out “That’s enough!”.
Straight away I burst out laughing in the Spirit and couldn’t stop.
Healing had begun!
From Fiona's Diary March 2013
My MS Diary
Gavin kept a diary for me so he could write down any changes in my medication and to keep notes for the physio of when I fell over.
Now he started to write exciting things.
March 21-23 been awake and active more these last few days!
FACE! (apparently my face had changed)
March 28-30 still awake more!
April 4-6 continual "bettering"
April 8 still "bettering"
showering standing up! ( I didn't have the strength to stand for very long) in/out unaided!(Gavin had to lift my legs over the shower lip)
April 14 sometime :- stomach muscles have started working
speech improving, quicker - not repeating!
walking (with walker) picking up feet - not dragging!
As these things started happening my feeling was God had stopped the degeneration and started restoration. Hallelujah!, mighty, mighty God!
10th March -- Fiona's update - she is now writing this herself unaided!
Navigating Steps
On the days when I was able to go to church, one of the big problems was getting down our three front steps. I would hold onto the handrail with one hand, and the other arm would be over Gavin’s shoulders so that he could take my weight. He would then lift one of my feet onto the first step, then grab the other foot and bring that down too. He did that with each step, and then when we came home later, he would have to repeat the process going up. It was extremely tiring. Once I had had a couple of weeks of being more awake and feeling stronger, I decided I’d try to go down the steps by myself. This was the 7th of April. I held onto the rail with both hands and managed to drop my left foot down one step. I then dragged my right foot over after it. I was so excited. [Even though I still needed help getting back up later.] I went to church that night as well. It was the first time in a few years that I had been to two services. Later on in the evening, while Gavin was unloading the music gear from the car, I grabbed hold of the handrail with both hands and walked up the steps, each foot on a different step. I was so excited I was yelling, ‘Look at me, look at me!” I hadn’t been able to walk up steps like that for at least six years. Four weeks after that I managed to walk up the fourteen steps at my mother’s house. My legs have slowly been getting stronger all the time, and as long as I have something to hold onto, I can walk up and down any steps. It has been eleven months and I still enjoy the fact that I can walk outside the house whenever I want to. Thank you Lord!
21st April -- Fiona is getting better day by day!!
Life at Church [17 April 2014]
As I mentioned before, on the occasional mornings that I was able to get to church, Gavin would help me out of the wheelchair and into a reclining chair. I would sit up for as long as I could, [my body wasn’t strong enough to sit up for very long] then I would lie back and close my eyes for the rest of the service.
On the 7th of April 2013 I was feeling so good that I stayed sitting up in the wheelchair for the whole service. I never needed the reclining chair again.
I kept sitting in the wheelchair during the services as I needed to have arm rests. If my arms weren’t raised up a bit, I found it hard to breathe. After a couple of months, by body had got strong enough that I was able to progress to an ordinary chair like everybody else.
I also had enough energy\strength\breath to sing again. In the last six years, I only had a few days when I was able to sing in church. Not being able to praise the Lord with my voice has been one of the hard things of MS. I sing all the time now and can quite often stand up for two or three songs at a time.
Once I didn’t need the wheelchair I started using my walker, then my walking stick, and now I walk around church unaided. [Not always in a straight line, but quite stable.]
It’s such a freedom to be able to walk across the church to talk to people, or walk to the front to pray or be prayed for.
I am even starting to help rearrange small tables and chairs after our shared lunches. I’m probably more like a toddler getting in the way and slowing things down, but it’s a lovely, lovely feeling being able to do things again.
The Lord is very gracious.
9th April 2015
18 March 2015-03-18
It has now been two years since the Lord started healing me.
My arms and legs have got stronger, I can think and make decisions without cooking my brain, my double vision has improved AND I can get off the toilet unassisted!!! (No rails on the wall – No supports attached to the toilet!)
I still have tired/weak days but my ‘bad’ days are so much better than my ‘good’ days used to be that there is really no comparison.
My body still has a long way to go before it is completely healed but it will only take the Lord to speak two words “Be healed” for it to be completed. I know I’m safe in His hands and His timing is perfect so I just need to be patient.
Meanwhile, I’m cooking or organizing all of our dinners [I hadn’t done that for six years],
I’m back watching our son play soccer [I had a couple of years watching in the wheelchair then another couple of years not even going],
I’m going for bushwalks [I use a walker for long distances],
I’m sewing my own clothes and basically living life again.
My mother often says that God had given her daughter back to her.
Gavin’s perspective –
I have seen Fiona start being able to use her brain!
Cooking, making clothes, creating emails, and getting involved in discussions – all things that are normal to most people - are things that had been lost to Fiona. There is a saying – “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone” – which was a description of how Fiona was gradually disappearing. The miracle of God’s touch has been in the gradual restoration of these “lost” functions and abilities, a true “renewing of the mind”.
The ongoing challenge is for us to keep pressing into God in order to obtain the fullness of the healing, and not be happy with anything less, for He who is able is perfect.
2017 -- UPDATE
04/01/2017
I’m sorry it’s been so long since I updated this testimony. I seemed to plateau for about a year and didn’t
have anything new to add, and then slowly I’ve been living more life and writing was just way down on the
priority list.
About 18 months ago I felt I was getting well enough, and my thoughts were clear enough, that I might be
able to start driving again. I hadn’t driven for about 7 or 8 years.
I gave up driving when Gavin came home to look after me because my legs were so painful, and it wore me
out having to concentrate so hard. Gav would often take me out for drives in the country and over time, as
I got weaker and could do less and less, these were a lovely break in my boring days. I really enjoyed my
country drives but after a while they started becoming stressful. Too many cars coming towards us,
intersections and noise. I couldn’t cope with all that stimulation. I became a nervous wreck when I was in
the car so my lovely country drives had to stop. On the days Gav took me to church I would close my eyes
and I would be ok.
When God started healing me I quickly realised that the traffic didn’t bother me anymore and we were
able to resume our drives.
From the time I thought I might be well enough to drive until now when I can just hop in the car and pop to
the shops with ease has taken about 18 months. What with checking with doctors, sitting the theory test,
a few months of practising, sitting the final driving test twice [I failed the first time for speeding] and then
driving about once a week on my good days slowly building up my confidence, it has taken a while.
In the pre-service prayer meeting on the first Sunday after I got my licence, God showed me just what an
amazing thing He had done for me, so I asked if I could share it with the church. After I sat down again, the
next song our worship leader had already chosen was ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’. I cried all the way
through.
I still have weary days and days when my head feels full of concrete, but my good days are getting so good.
The other morning I hopped in the car, went to three different food stores, then came home and did some
baking. That’s happening more and more often and I get really excited every time.
The other weekend I went to Pauanui with some girlfriends and swam at the beach for the first time in
about 15 years. [I have swam in a pool a few times over the years.] The energy it takes to get undressed,
walk, swim, walk, dry and dressed had been too much to even consider swimming in the sea. Anyway, the
water was cold but I loved it! I couldn’t stop laughing.
It’s been a long, slow journey and sometimes I ask God “How much longer?”, but I’ve had so many
blessings along the way that it’s often more like an adventure.
The first times are SUCH A BUZZ!!!
The first time I walked outside the house and down the steps!
The first time I got off the toilet without any assistance!
The first time I went to the mall with my walker!
The first time I cooked dinner for the family!
The first time I drove all by myself!
The first time I swam at the beach!
I still get prayer and anointing with oil every week as I felt the Holy Spirit prompted me in the beginning.
I’m looking forward to what God is going to do in 2017!!!
Fiona
food bank 12-Dec-2013
We have a well-supplied food bank and give to those families and individuals who ask - this is a growing area of need in our communities. If you are willing to contribute either financially or by giving food that is always very well received. On the other hand if you know of needy people please communicate with us.
giving12-Dec-2013
This is our bank account details for direct credit of your tithes and offerings if you are part of House Of Prayer or if you feel led to give to the work of the Lord in our part of the vineyard.
ANZ 01-0202-0045565-00
prayer12-Dec-2013
Perhaps the most significant activity of our church life and which we believe is
our primary calling.
Pre-service prayer meeting 9:30 in the prayer room.
Sunday evening 6:30 a prayer and worship service.