I was saved at the Billy Graham Crusade in Portland, Oregon on September 25, 1992. (You can read that miracle story here.) My friend Barbara was an integral part of God’s plan for me and was the one who took me to the crusade. She and her husband, Milton, mentored me for the first year after I gave my heart to Jesus. I began to attend their church the same weekend we went to the crusade. It was a twenty-minute drive from my apartment in Beaverton. It was a small church and a safe place to grow in Christ in my first year with Him.
Several months went by and I began to feel like I should attend a church in my neighborhood where I could be more involved. I was also listening to Ron Mehl on the radio and soon found out his church was only about a mile from my apartment. I began to pray and seek God for whether or not I could go there. I continued to hear a solid no from Him so at some point, I quit asking.
It was at this time I had gone in for my annual physical and the nurse practitioner saw something she did not like. She ordered tests and later that day I received a call from my doctor’s office to come in for an appointment they had made for me the following day. This being an HMO, I knew a next-day appointment meant it was serious.
I left work the next day to go to my appointment and found out my right ovary was the size of a football. They had already scheduled my surgery for a week away if I remember right. I was understandably overwhelmed. I was single. I had just started this job, yet God brought me there in just enough time for my insurance benefits to have kicked in. I worked as a floater covering other people’s days off in eleven different clinics. I was not going to be scheduled for work since they knew I was out for surgery. I would have no income for six weeks and I fell through every crack for assistance.
I didn’t know how this was all going to turn out. On my way back to work from the appointment, I realized I might have cancer. It hit me hard but I didn’t have time to break down – I was on my way back to work. I was still a very young Christian and I prayed, “God, whatever happens, let me be a strong witness for You.” I say I was a young Christian because my faith and fire were fresh. I only hope I would have the same response now. I also hope I will not have to find out.
I had the surgery and with insurance benefits, I paid one dollar for my medication on the way out the door. That was the total cost to me. I went home to my lonely apartment to recuperate and wonder how I was going to pay my bills, but all I could do was worry about getting better. My sweet little church I drove twenty minutes to attend rallied around me. They made sure I was taken care of through the six weeks of recovery. I was so very blessed by them.
The Saturday before I returned to work was a beautiful Fall Day. I was out for a drive when I found myself driving by Ron Mehl’s church, Beaverton Foursquare. As I was passing by, I looked longingly at the church campus but did not ask if I could go there. I assumed God’s no answer from a few months ago was a permanent one.
“Go!” I heard audibly from my passenger’s seat. I whipped my head around fully expecting to see Jesus sitting there but I saw no one. The door was now open to go. I realized later if I had begun attending Beaverton when I was first asking, I would have gone through my surgery alone. I would not have asked my new church for help because I was shy and I would not have asked the old one because I had already left. God made sure I was in a position to receive care from some very loving people.
I went to the eight o’clock service at Beaverton the next morning and when I sat down, I felt like I was home for the first time in my entire life. I felt a belonging I had never known. When the service was done, I went to my other church twenty minutes away for their service and afterward announced I would not be returning. They were all very encouraging and I stayed in touch with them for many years following.
The holidays came quickly and I’d had no income for six weeks. I was wondering how things were going to go. My bank required a savings account in order to have a checking account so I had the obligatory five dollars in savings and lived paycheck to paycheck from checking. When I had gotten my next bank statement it reported a thousand dollars in my savings account. There was no record of it begin deposited and there was no explanation for it, but the bank assured me it was there. I reconciled my statements several times and somehow it kept coming out with enough to pay my rent, put food on my table, and buy Christmas gifts for my whole family. God is so good. He cares about the details of our lives and He provides for our every need.
“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mat 6:30-33).