This Testimony given on 30 July 1989 at the Fountain First Assembly of God church, Fountain, Florida. (Carl and Cyndie are Baptist) Carl was returned to life after dying, and then was healed of cancer. He is still free of cancer as of the year 2000. Read about the many miracles that God performed.

 
CARL: GOD created man, Adam, then created Eve to be his helpmate, to be someone to help him and GOD gave me some of it and I couldn't honestly stand up here and tell the whole story of what GOD done cause I was unconscious during most of it, so will have to ask my helpmate to come up and help me. I would like to introduce my wife Cyndie.

(clapping)

CARL: A little background, on ourselves, I got saved in 1976 at the First Baptist Church, Green Hills- Fountain, (Florida) and then was kind of real active and interested in the Church and doing something for God. Then I joined the Navy, after high school and went off, did my thing in the Navy, as a Nuclear Machinist Mate and we'll get back in detail but just briefly during that time I met my wife (Cyndie) and we got married and we had our first child.

We moved to Idaho in the Navy, went back to here and there, bounced around the country finally ended up in New York (State). My wife got saved while she was there as well as my son. I say we will come back to detail with that, but to start out with what we're trying to tell you is that we're here to tell a story of what GOD's done through us, through me not what we've done but what GOD's done. We would like you to listen to him through us, and listen to what he is saying to you, and it all started with a promise.

It all started with a promise I made to my wife (Cyndie) that before and if she got pregnant, before she had that baby I would quit smoking. I was a pretty heavy smoker at the time. It didn't seem like something very easy to do, but I made that promise to her. Well I can do that but I made a promise to GOD. I made a promise to GOD that he's given us a baby that before we have that baby I would quit smoking and time went on and time went on, I tried and tried and realized I couldn't do it myself, so then I turned to the first promise before any of those promises. GOD promised me that what so ever he asked in my name that will I do. So I did it, I asked GOD to help me, I asked JESUS to help me and he did and were here to tell you a story of how he did that. I asked him to help me quit smoking. I didn't ask him how or when, but he certainly did it.

Now that the background is set. We are in New York a little town called Wilton, a little bit north of Saratoga Springs, that's where the big horse track is. I'd never heard of the place till I got there. For a long time, Cyndie and I had been discussing and she had been searching, she's a Catholic, she'd been searching for something, now for a church to provide something for her. There was one Sunday, that the two of us were in the kitchen, that she started crying, because she wasn't in a church. We stopped right there and I prayed for her and prayed with her that we would find a church that we would be able to go to. Now, meanwhile there's a fellowship of people that are gathering together and meeting in a grange hall, that are looking for a pastor. So they finally found a pastor to come up and fill the pulpit. He decided that they didn't have a visitation program, a door to door witnessing program. So he wanted to get something started, so him and his wife decided to go out on a Tuesday following that Sunday. You can probably gather by now that the first door they knocked on was ours. So from that Sunday to that Tuesday GOD worked that quick. Like I said I can't tell the whole story because it wasn't all me. So I'll let my wife tell you how she got saved through this experience.

 
CYNDIE: Now when he came knocking at the door, it was a payday, and we were running around trying to get things done and we had twenty four hours in one day and a hundred and one things to do. I'm running around cleaning house, trying to hurry up, I had my playtex gloves on and he came knocking at the door. I hid my hands behind my back and answered the door and he says I've come to share the LORD with you and all of a sudden I felt I had to listen. Well, he started talking to me and he asked me if I had been saved and I was under the impression that knowing JESUS, I was saved, so I answered yes. And a couple of weeks later at, the end of July, they had a vacation bible study for children. I went to it with my child to assist and they were gathering under a tree. They had Missionary visiting and he is telling the little children about LORD JESUS. It was there that I was listening to him that I came to realize that on July 27, (1987) that I didn't know JESUS in my heart, that I knew in my mind that I didn't know him in my heart. It was that same day that my son and I both got saved.

We started to attend the Church on a regular basis then, and I was like a hungry child, there was so much there and I just wanted to have it all. I couldn't get enough and it was a fulfillment that I felt that I could share with my child now, and I knew that GOD was leading our family in the right direction. At the time the LORD, (pause) I stated praying to the LORD, my husband was working eighteen to twenty two hours a day, coming home, and he just gobbled down something and just go to sleep. I asked him to go to church, but he was to tired, that he would go and he would fall asleep. So then the Lord used that, he started lessening the hours and he started to attend church, and sure enough he went back to the LORD. We are one family now and shortly after that things started happening, the LORD started using us.

 
CARL: We started going back to church and started coming back to GOD. Now, realize it had been nine years since I left here, since I left Fountain, (Florida), its been seven years before they came knocking on our door and before I started coming back. I came back to GOD, but he never left me during that time.

But now is the time that I really need him, because in late July it was the 27th of July of last year 1988. I had a smokers cough it was just normal I thought but it started getting worse and I coughed up a little bit of blood, so I figured, well. So on July 27th I went into sick call to see a doctor, they listen to my lungs, decided that they would try to get an xray, so I had a chest xray, and they saw what looked like to them, like pneumonia in my right lung. Gave me antibiotics and treated me for 10 days. Went back and took another xray. Whatever was there, got larger, so they decided well, this isn't an infection, now that can't be treated with antibiotics, so we better send him to a specialist. They sent me to Albany (New York) Veterans Hospital, and we had a pulmonary expert come in and look at the xrays and he saw right off the bat from the xrays that it looked to him like there was something in the right main stem where the bronchial tube branches off, and they go to each lung and on the right side it looked like on the outside of it that there was something pressing against it to block it off.

So they decided I should have what they call a bronchoscopy. Now a bronchoscopy is where they have a tube, a flexible tube, that they put in through the nose and go down into the air pipes and look at your lungs. It had a little camera on it, and they had an extra eye piece on it, so they let me take a look at what was blocking the airway. Thats the grosses thing I have even seen, but they didn't know what it was. So they tried to get a little snip of it. It started bleeding real bad, but they got enough to tell what it was.

They spent hours waiting for them to look at it under the microscope. At first they said we don't think its cancer. A little while later our pastor came down, and they told him before they told me. He came in an told me it was cancer. The first I thought, and the first thing I did when they told me it was cancer, I went over and lit up a cigarette, to calm my nerves down a bit here. You know, have a cigarette. Now I still had been praying the Lord would help me. He almost got me right there, my pastor almost strangled me, it upset him so bad, he was going to shoot me. But it took awhile, then they figured out what it was.

They really didn't know what they were going to do. So now its time to let my wife know, at that time she was very well into her pregnancy with our daughter. She was due in Aug, on my birthday, Aug 21st., and this the 1st. of July. The end of July that were finding out that I had cancer. So I told her, but cautiously because I didn't want her to have a miscarriage, she almost did, not a miscarriage but she almost had a premature delivery, what ever you call it. So she spent sometime in the hospital and promised the doctor that, this was around Aug 10th, promised the doctor that she wouldn't leave the immediate area. The hospital I was going to was 42 miles away, a little more then the doctor wanted her to travel. She promised the doctor that she wouldn't, but on Aug 15th. they had scheduled me, what they were going to do was laser surgery, they were going to go down through the same bronchoscope, with a laser, and cut out some of that cancer to keep the air wave open, because it was growing across the right air wave.

Now before surgery, if you've had surgery you probably know that they are running you all over the place doing this test and that test and ultra sound of your liver and spleen and check this and check that. So while they were running me around, Cyndie was up in my room on the 7th floor, or 5th floor, with my pastor, his wife, and another good friend of ours. Now, while they were running me around, her water broke, she had one of her friends that was pushing her around in a wheelchair trying to find me. Its funny if she tells it so I'll let her tell that part:

 
CYNDIE: While he went to get an xray, this was two hours before surgery was scheduled for. Our pastor went to inform the person that called him at the beginning of a prayer chain. We started prayer chain. His wife was with him trying to check on the children. My girlfriend Debbie stayed with me. I broke my bag, sure enough the labor pains came and the nurse walked in, and she looked at Debbie and says what are you doing? She (Debbie) said I'm counting her contractions. She jumped a foot off the floor and said get her off my ward, we don't deliver babies here.

She ran and got a wheelchair, they brought it in, and they had a girl who had only worked there two weeks wheel me around. I told her I'm not leaving this hospital till I find my husband and let him know I've gone in labor. So this girl wheels me around. We get on the elevator and wound up on the 8th floor in the Mental Ward, and my labor pains got to 3 minutes apart, we got back into the elevator, and she said I think the xray is downstairs near the emergency. We wound up in Radiation Therapy, and then I said we better go back to the emergency.

By now our pastor had ran past us and said I'm going to get the car and Debbie is still breathing with me, and were a minute and a half apart when our pastor's wife and the administrator, who had found Carl, and he comes running down the hall, carrying his IV pole, looking like a guy carrying the torch at the Olympics. Don't worry honey I'm on my way.

They put me into the car, my pastor, his wife and my girlfriend Debbie. They drove me across to the main hospital which is Albany Medical across from the Veterans, and there in the emergency room I waited, while he went back and they wouldn't release him so he yanked out his IV, and our pastor came back and got him so he could come and join me at the hospital.

He walked in and both Debbie's, our pastors wife is also called Debbie, we were all breathing so well he didn't know who was in labor. This woman walked in, a female doctor, and she had just delivered 3 babies and her and her assistant nurse walked in, she turned to her and whispered oh I'll bet she planned this. To which I got very upset, and Carl happen to over hear and he got upset, and then she decided to be rude, so my husband said I'm not having my child to be born in this hospital. I want her to be transported to our hospital back in Saratoga, (New York) our doctors waiting there. Then she said we can't get you an ambulance.

So we called our volunteer ambulance in Wilton (New York). They drove all the way down and picked us up and drove us back. Meanwhile my contractions have gone back to two minutes apart, and they stayed there and stabilized. We got into the ambulance and the good LORD was with me through out the pregnancy and he never left us. While I was strapped unto that gurney, traffic didn't want to move, it was during traffic time, people getting off from work. The ambulance was trying to get by and a semi decides to run a light and its coming head on at the ambulance. The ambulance had to dodge to avoid getting hit by the semi. So my body got twisted off the gurney to the right and the baby went to the left. So that shifted the baby out of the birth canal. So we got to the hospital they tried putting her back in.

Meanwhile were all praying and singing songs to the LORD. They didn't understand what I was on. They asked if I had gotten something to calm me down. I said no just the good LORD in me. Sure enough we waited awhile and when the labor pains got closer, but the baby wasn't coming, they decided to do a cesarean. Well, Carl got to make it, he had prayed that GOD would let him see that baby be born. Our 1st son had been an emergency "C" section, he couldn't see him. When Rebekah was born he was there. It was one of the glorious sights you ever want to see.

 
CARL: Ever see some one get cut open? Neither did I, but I thought was pretty neat, seeing blue skin and the fat tissue get moved aside and all of a sudden a little baby girl popped out. As soon as they told me it was a girl, everyone in that delivery room, operating room, probably had their ear drums shattered when I shouted out "Praise the LORD" because we were praying for a girl.

Meanwhile the cancer was put on the back burner, obviously, because the important thing right now is the baby. What we did was turn to the Bible, turned to 1st Peter, chapter 5. I'll read to you what we did, verse # 6 "Humble yourselves," let me get my place again, "Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of GOD, that he may exalt you in due time; Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." so we did, we humbled ourselves to the LORD. This is in your hands, nothing obviously we can do about it, its in your hands. He answered that prayer, and allowed me to be there to see the baby born.

Then we had to go back and take care of the cancer again. Now, it took awhile but they got me back down there to do the laser surgery. They did that four times, they went in with a laser and cut out part of it to keep that area open four times, and they decided at that time it was growing so fast they couldn't keep it open. So they decided to send me to a specialist. Now, aside from GOD, the best doctors in the world are probably at Bethesda Naval Hospital, (Maryland). Thats where the President goes, and yes, we saw him while we were there. So they decided to send me there. Now, being in the Navy that was no problem. Went down there and we stayed with my sister (Ann) and her husband (Jim).

Meanwhile my parents had driven up there. The first day again I went through a whole battery of test here and there and thats not a small hospital. By the time we got done my brother in law, Jim and I probably knew that hospital inside and out. Running back and forth inside those hallways. Now, they got to the point where they said they don't really know what we can do. But we want to admit you and do some test. They admitted me the next day. This is Sept 8th. We didn't really know if they were going to or not. They sent me down on orders for one day and return, but being as serious as it was, we kind of expected that.

 
CYNDIE: Now, 9 days later you got your first leave.

 
CARL: They did what you call,---------------,another fancy term where they did was made a little incision up here in my throat, not in the throat, but in the skin. They went in now instead of inside the air wave, outside to see whats there. They went in, they found a 3 inch, about the size of your hand, a 3 inch mass in the tube that was growing in the right air wave. It was starting to grow out into the mediastinum area, the chest cavity so they did some more blood test. They didn't know what kind of cancer it was, they knew it was cancer but the Cancer Society across the street knows of a hundred different kinds of cancer. So they didn 't know what kind it was, so they didn't know how to treat it. So they decided to do some more blood work.

While they were waiting on the results of the blood work nine days later, the 16th of Sept. they decided to let me out for ten days. They figured it would be that long before they knew what the results were. We figured thats great my parents are there to pick me up and we were going to go spend sometime with my sister (Ann) and her husband (Jim) and my parents, 10 days thats pretty good, a long time to be with them. We were getting ready to leave and were standing by the elevator, the doctor walks up to us and says I can't let you go for 10 days, we can only let you out for the weekend. That kind of broke our hearts, but GOD knew what he was doing. We were resigned to, okay that, we were only going to get the weekend off. We went out, had a good family time together. Had a barbecue, I think it was Saturday, this and that.

Late Sunday night I started hurting on the right side, the right chest, my arm, all down the side started hurting. So CYNDIE got some pain pills lift over from her "C" section. She gave me a couple of those, and thought nothing of it. Got back in the hospital Monday morning and they did another series of chest xrays and found out the right lung had collapsed because the cancer had gone all the way across the air way, thats why the pain, because the left lung had been pushing over trying to do all the work.

We talked on the phone, Monday, of course the football season, so could not talk to long, had to go watch the Browns get slaughtered, its not my favorite team anyways, of course the Dolphins are. We talked on the phone, I talked to CYNDIE and we prayed. There is a poem that was written by an unknown author, you probably heard of it, called "FOOTPRINTS" (copy included) where this man had a dream he was walking through the sand with Jesus and there were two sets of footprints, and he gets to the end of his life and looks back, in his dream and there in only one set of footprints in the sand. Well LORD, why did you leave me, you promised never to leave me, JESUS, turned around and said I didn't leave you, those footprints are mine. During troubled time, those hard times I was carrying you along and thats what I talked to CYNDIE about.

Aside from that I told her we didn't know what was going to happen, obviously, but I told her that I don't think that GOD wouldn't have let us have a beautiful baby girl, if he wasn't going to let me live long enough to see her grow up. So it was actually a fore shadow of what was going to happen.

We didn't really know now, another thing that happen prior to any of this was that we had both read a book thats called "Twice Given the Glory of God" written by Tom Williams. Don't know if you've heard of it, its about a pastor, his wife, a Church, they get together. They go over to Israel for a trip to the Holyland and while over their this pastors wife contracts Spinal Meningitis. This book goes through the whole ordeal of how prayers and GODs hand kept her alive, and how he did things and how he would pray with her, play tapes, the Bible on tape to her. A couple of other things which I think CYNDIE mentioned when we got there. We read that before and it turned out to be a preparation that GOD gave us to what was going to happen.

So now, I'm back in the hospital on Monday,(15th) on Tuesday (16th) morning, think it was around 6 o'clock in the morning, I was hurting again. I went out to the nurses desk and I talked to the head nurse and I asked him for some pain pills. He gave me some. We talked for awhile, I don't remember what it was about, but it was a bit long time. It was probably about my Dad's computer, or something. They were always talking, him and my Dad were talking computer stuff so, but. I went back to my room I laid down and I don't remember much but from what I was told, I turned to my room mate who was in there, who was having some pain and two Corpsman, its kind of like nursed aide.

The two Corpsman in there attending him to see if they could make him more comfortable. I turned to him and I said I can't breathe and at that time, of course GOD's timing, he had the doctor walk in the door. The doctor came over right to me and asked if I was all right. I remember looking up at him and I think with the last breath out of my left lung. I said Paul I can't breathe.

At that time my left lung got a tear in it, and my left lung collapsed. Now you can probably piece together that without either lung breathing, I wasn't alive. My heart quit. Both lungs are collapsed and I'd been qualified for CPR, I've never done it, but, now I know what it feels like from the inside. There was a time I recall, I looked up and they were pumping on my chest and there was a battle going on in my mind. That it was a real struggle to stay alive. My body was trying to quit because it didn't have any oxygen and yet my heart and my mind kept fighting back and forth, I kept fighting, do I want to live or do I want to die. Finally I resigned to say "ok, forget it lets just get it over with", let me die and be the end of this, but that wasn't GOD's will.

I was technically dead four minutes and it took them eleven minutes before they got enough oxygen in my body to sustain life. I guess from there I went to ICU. Thats where they called my wife (CYNDIE). I don't remember any of that, so its just from what people told me. So from that time on I was unconscious for quite awhile so I have to turn it over to her (CYNDIE) to tell what happen outside my body.

 
CYNDIE: Well like he said he was scheduled for surgery for Tuesday (16th) morning to try and open up the air passage, back into the right lung which now was totally collapsed, in that short period of time.

In those nine days while they were testing, the cancer had grown totally over the air passageway and had blocked off the air. They had scheduled surgery for Tuesday morning Sept 16, 1988 and he had gone to the nurses desk.

Now while this was transpiring over at the hospital, I was up already and had gotten the kids ready and was waiting for the in-laws to show up. We were going to be there when he got out from surgery. At that time I received a phone call, it was ten minutes to seven. Everything we told you had transpired in twenty minutes. They called and said Mrs. BARR we want you to come down right away, your husband has been taken to Intensive Care. I said excuse me he is scheduled for surgery this morning and he said no, your husbands right lung totally collapsed and his left lung tried to breathe for both of them and it has blown out. He has a tear in it. He has been taken to Intensive Care and we need you down here right away.

I hung up the phone and I gathered myself and I picked up the phone again and I reached for my family up in New York, my church family and started the Prayers. Our Pastor got ready and another Deacon from our church came down and while they were on the way I waited for my in laws.

They got there and we were on our way to the hospital. When we got there and I walked in sure enough there he was in Intensive Care with a whole bunch of tubes in him. They were instructing me on everything they had given him. They said anywhere from twenty two to twenty five drugs within an hour and half of everything happening. We started praying right away. Right away they told me of his chances not being good, but I knew that it was GOD's will. I knew that the night before that he told me that if I just held his hand and held on tight that GOD was going to carry us along through this and that one day we would look back and see only on set of footprints in the sand. I started praying and I turned to GOD. Sure enough he never left us.

The next thing that transpired, were making decisions. When your love one gets sick its a hardship on your heart to know their ill. You feel their pain but yet you have all those decision to make at that time. I had to make decision on what medication they wanted to try on him. He had just turned twenty six, a lot of the things they did for him was worth a try. They didn't have patients that young ever, who had gotten cancer and had grown at enormous rate. So at that time they told me that day they had decided they were going to try either radiation therapy or chemo therapy. So I asked why not try both? He said we never thought about that. So they discussed it and came to me and said we can try both, and I said I need a minute, and they said you need a minute? I said I need a minute to pray. So I turned and I prayed to GOD. I felt that we were making the right decision. So I signed the forms. They decided to do the radiation and chemo that day.

That evening I went home and I had to tell my young son that his father might not make it, but even in the wisdom of children, GOD can use them. They maybe young but the LORD can sure use them. He came to me and said, Mom, don't worry about it, if Daddy dies we will see him in heaven. Sure enough it gave me strength and I remember those little words. I read him a story, he wanted to read more, but I knew I had to get back to my husband. So I left him with his Uncle Jim while I went back to the hospital.

The next morning they came to me, around eleven o'clock in the morning and they said Mrs. Barr we don't think your husband will live till two o'clock this afternoon. Then I said well, if its the LORDs will, it will be. But I had more faith in GOD and I knew my husband would be just fine. So we went in and started praying. By now our pastor was there.

Then they came and told me that they couldn't do the radiation therapy. They could only do the chemo that day. His heart rate had dropped so low that if they just jarred the bed he would die. So they didn't dare move him. So the next thing we decided was to just do the chemo therapy that day. He lived past 2 o'clock and we praised the LORD and continued praying. The next day once again, "we don't feel that your husband will live past three, and once again he lived.

Then we continued praying, and then they came and told me they were going to medically discharge him. Well, naturally I got upset I said my husband has given almost nine years of his life to the Navy and now because he can't do his job they want to kick him out. I said it isn't right, I have a baby who is only going on six weeks old, and I have another child to feed and is something should happen to him, I need to be able to care for them. They said well, we are going to have to stop your pay as well. I didn't understand and I said why, they said we can't find the power of attorney papers that states that you are legally his wife, that you are entitled to his pay. So they stopped paying us. I said well LORD its in your will. I went back and we continued praying. Then they brought in some lawyers. We discussed it and they decided to try to medically retire him. So then they came in and they told me once again that my husband might not live past 10 o'clock tonight. I said well if its the LORDs will, then it will be done. But I had more faith in God, then you know, I know that he will live, and I turned to Dr. ENGLISH, he looked at me and said you know, we have some good Psychiatrist. I said I don't need one I've got one already and thats the LORD Jesus. He looked at me like I was in shock or I was loosing my marbles. I said you don't know the LORD like I know JESUS. He never left us and he won't leave us. Then the lawyers showed up thirty-five minutes later. They said we talked with Arlington (Virginia) and we decided to retire your husband, but he has to live one minute past midnight. Well, I just got told he won't live past 10 o'clock tonight so whats one minute past midnight.

He looked at me and said we just have to pray a little harder. So my pastor, the deacon, my father in law and I gathered around my husbands bed. We got on our hands and knees and we prayed. As soon as we got up off our knees, his heart rate started increasing a little bit. We continued prayers and I remembered that book. I remembered everything I read and I knew then this was just to glorify GOD and I knew that he was just using us. That we were just a tool and I remembered how this man had started prayers for his wife. How he had told in his story, that the soul needed the word of GOD. Even while unconscious that soul can still hear. So we started prayers around the clock and 10 o'clock came, he was still with us, a minute past midnight he was still with us. We rejoiced and praised the LORD. Then they came and they said well were trying to decide weather to do surgery on that lung to repair the hole. But we can't do anything because of the right lung being collapsed with the cancer. Right now we can't tell weather the cancer has stopped growing or has continued growing. About all we can do is continue with the therapy. I said well if its GOD's will, he will take care of him in his own time and in his own way. So once again, Dr. ENGLISH told me that they had a good psychiatrist for me. I said I don't need them, thank you.

So sure enough I went back in and this was 3 o'clock in the morning, I got on my hands and knees and I asked GOD, and I just looked up to him. I helped a little bit, I couldn't hold onto my husbands hand, because they had so many needles stuck in him. That, by now, one of his arms had blown so many times that now they had to start sticking his needles in his hips, because they couldn't reach any more veins. I held what little bit of his fingers that I could and I held on tight. I turned to GOD, and I looked up to him, and I said, Dear LORD, you put air into those lungs when you brought him into this world, I know you can do it again. They came in and said Mrs. _BARR_ we scheduled your husband for radiation therapy at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning. His heart rate has increased. I said okay, 9 o'clock came. I was there, 9:45 my husband wasn't there. I went back to the ICU unit and there he was. I said why isn't my husband getting radiation therapy and they said well, the machines are down. I turned to Dr. ENGLISH and I said Praise the LORD, and he said excuse me? your husband needs this radiation therapy. I said the LORD needs time to work on his body, and he said, you know, Mrs BARR I said yes, I know, but I don't need them. I said you know Dr. ENGLISH, you need the LORD, you need to believe, you need to have faith. He said, so you keep telling me.

He went on to his next patient at 1:30 in the afternoon they brought him downstairs for radiation therapy. While he was there, like they always do, they took xrays prior to doing the radiation so they knew where to aim the radiation. It was at this time that I heard all the doctors being paged. I had faith in God, but it was tested, its like all our faith, its always been tested. Its in times of trails that we really have to stick close to the LORD. Because others look up on you, when you are being tried to see how strong is your faith. I knew it was GOD's will if he wanted to take him. When I heard those doctors being paged, I felt he was gone, but I knew I'd see him again, and then they all came out 22 doctors and their all putting up his xray on those machines. They said Mrs. BARR you want to take a look, as always I took a look, and they said do you believe this? I said excuse me, if its the LORD's will, it will be done. He looked at me and said, MRS. BARR, we don't know what your talking about, your husbands fine. I said, well Praise the LORD.

Then he said both of his lungs are taking in air, and they were. I said its the LORD's will, and DR. ENGLISHlooked at me and said I gotta get to know this JESUS. (I talked with him and he is saved today).

A lot of nurses that didn't know the LORD, got to know JESUS. People who have walked away from God, came back to know the LORD. I remember a particular gentleman changed, his wife was due anytime, and he was excited about that baby coming, their first baby. he wanted a boy. I said wouldn't it be wonderful, that when that baby was born, that it had a home to go to. He said we have a home, and I said not a home with JESUS. He said you know, I stopped going to church a long time ago. I said maybe it s time to get back. Sure enough that Sunday they went to church and the following day that baby was born. He told me the next day when he came, that he rejoiced at how he got back to the LORD. How he wife was filled with joy, they were back to JESUS.

Meanwhile my husband got his radiation and chemo. He started improving. Now our Pastor had to go back and my in laws had to come back and their I was with my two children and their I was making decisions, but I wasn't alone. Then they decided they wanted to ween him off the machine. So we had to make more decisions. He started improving so we didn't know what condition he would be in. We feel he had a partial stroke. So he may be blind and he may be partially paralyzed. I said well, if this is the LORD's will? Sure enough he, when he woke up he couldn't see. Things were blurry and the left side of his body as well as his right arm, he couldn't move.

I remembered back to the book how the gentleman had exercised his wife's legs and he had put these high top sneakers on her to make sure the feet didn't drop. So I ran to the Navy exchange which is a big store right on the post. I asked the gentleman for a size 8 1/2 high top sneakers. He said we don't carry half sizes, and were about to close. I said please look, I need a pair of high top sneakers. He said ma'am? I said please just take a look. He went back there and he came out with a pair of high top sneakers. He said I don't know where these came from, we don't carry half sizes. But there's a pair of 8 1/2 size high top sneakers.

 
CARL: I am now the proud owner of a $30.00 dollar pair of brand name sneakers. Thanks to God.

 
CYNDIE I didn't have a lot of money at the time because I was budgeting, but the LORD had touched my in-laws heart and they had left some money with me. At the time the gentleman said, well it just so happens their on sale. I had plenty of money for them. I got to the cash register, the gentleman says we are closed. I said please I must pay for these sneakers and I have to have them today. He said Ma'am I'm closed. Please their for my husband, he said, well, can't he wait until tomorrow to go jogging? He's in Intensive Care. He said your going to buy him these high top sneakers. I said he needs them and the LORD has provided them. So I paid for the sneakers. I ran and I put them on him. I started exercising his legs and the next morning his right hand moved. He squeezed my hand and he started moving. A couple of days later he started moving his feet, and the nurses jumped for joy, and hollered for me out in the hall when he first crossed his legs. Then his left hand started squeezing, then he's always been a persistent man. I told him he needed to keep trying. Sure enough he got to feel that left hand. He got to holding a little tennis ball they gave him to exercise with.

So now, we were up on the ward, but they still couldn't repair the tear that he had in his left lung.

 
CARL: My vision was no better then seeing blurred figures. I could see you there in figures, but I couldn't see who it was. Weather it was a man or woman. Had to hear a voice before I knew who it was. Then, it wasn't long I was up there.

 
CYNDIE: In just a couple of hours and I had to trust the LORD. I had to make a decision. Now, that he was up on the ward, I had made that decision before in intensive care, that if something happens to him that they wouldn't do anything to prevent the LORD's will. I told them do what you can, but don't keep him on a machine just to keep him a live. Let him go to the LORD. Now, that he was back on the ward I had to make that decision again. I was feeling kind of lost and feeling a little uneasy. I figured I'd go down and get a cup of coffee, and I was in a blur, I could feel like tears were going to come out of my eyes. I paid for the coffee, and the lady gave back my change. I wasn't even paying attention and she said ma'am you forgot your change. I turned and said excuse me. She said ma'am you forgot your change and she handed me a dollar bill. It was through that glassy eyes that I saw red ink, and I turned that dollar bill up and I looked at it. It said "JESUS SAVED". I knew I wasn't alone. I knew he hadn't left me, and he gave me courage to go on. I still have that dollar bill today. JESUS saved.

I went back upstairs and I told them, I want you to do all that's possible to keep him alive. I knew at that time that GOD had given me the strength to make the decision. I decided I had to trust the LORD. I had to go to a motel that night. I went to the motel that the Navy had provided, the Navy relief were paying for and while there, it was 2 o'clock in the morning, I called and they said your husband's just fine. I talked to the head nurse and she said your husbands just fine. I had left him at one o'clock that morning. I had just put my babies to bed. I called again, she said he's just fine. It was quarter to three. I laid down and I said, well LORD, its your will and I'm going to trust you. Three o'clock that morning he had another attack, and at three fifteen the police officers came knocking on the motel door to get me, I grabbed my children out of bed, put them in the car and I went back to intensive care where they had him. Here we were again. Dr ENGLISH_, looked at me, the LORD's will right, and I said yes, the LORD's will. Your still glorifying his name. By now, Dr. _WISE_ had come into the scene, and he said, I knew about JESUS, but I have never seen all the work he done here. I never knew he could do so much. I said he can do a lot more, and the next day he started improving and he started getting better. Sure enough we started getting him back up and he started sitting in a chair. They started once again to ween him off the ventilating machine. Once again we were back up on the word, seventh floor. It was about five or six days later that he looked out the window and saw the first tree.

 
CARL: It was that late, September.

 
CYNDIE: End of Oct -- First of Nov.

 
CARL: So we were around the end of Oct. We started out in Sept. So were this far into. I was in ICU for 13 days the first time.

 
CYNDIE: Fourteen days.

 
CARL: Fourteen days the first time like, eleven days the second time, and now, were kind of wondering, ok LORD, what are we doing here. We went down there because of the cancer on the right side. Now the cancer at that time, they gave us a report that the initial treatment, that the cancer had shrunk by fifty per cent. It was half the size it was when we started. Something was going right there with the medicine. So we were working through that.

But I said we went there for the right side, now its the left side thats keeping us here. When the left side collapsed and when it all started they did what they call a chest tube. The lung is inside a cavity, in your chest. Its inside a cavity and its kind of stuck to the cavity wall so that is when your muscle contracts it expands your lung fills with air. When they got a tear in it all the air in that lung is going into the cavity between the lung, now the lung has shrunk and in that cavity, there's a bunch of air in it. So they put tubes in, they put one from the left and one to the right, one from the right, one from the left, to stick in around the left lung to suck that air out so they can get it expanded again. Before I left ICU the second time they pulled a couple of tubes. They pulled out the one from the right side, and now, I still had two one the left side. Now that was keeping them from doing any more chemo therapy. Because with the penetration their I could easily get an infection.

Now chemo therapy, it kills some good cells as well as the bad cells. So it knocks out your white blood cell count, so if you get a sickness or virus, you know, a common cold can kill you because your white blood cell is so low. So now we had to hold off on this tell the left lung got fixed, till it, stopped leaking, so they could pull the tubes out.

So each day my doctor would come in and ask me how my vision was. Each day it got a little bit better. I went to an optometrist, eye doctor, whatever you call them. They did tests and the head people, neurologist, did their test. Then they flashed things in front of my eyes. They said my eyes were working fine it was called cordial blindness, it comes from the cortex, the back of your brain that controls your vision. They figure that I didn't get enough blood -- that when I was dead I didn't get enough blood to the back and thats why I couldn't see as well. It had been getting better and this doctor asked me, and finally one day I told him that I had enough faith that I would be able to read my bible again and he said no, maybe a large print Bible, I said no, my Bible, sure enough, you just heard me read to you.

It went on and on, the left lung wouldn't heal, they were expecting it to heal itself and the only time that my faith falter even the slightest bit is when, one night I was so confident my faith was so strong that I believed that when I woke up in the morning that my left lung would be healed, GOD would just (snap of fingers) but that wasn't his will, when I woke up in the morning and it was still leaking the tube was still there, I falter just a little bit, but then I talked to my pastor and he gave me a little bit of reassurance and let me see that what I didn't pray for that night was GOD's will and his timing. That it obviously wasn't his will, because he had a lot more work to do there, but each day my vision started getting better, now I could see the cars driving by on the road out there, and I still couldn't see close up, I couldn't see who it was by the face, I had to wait till they spoke, in the case of my primary doctor the way he walk in, I could see his silhouette, the way he walked, he had a gait and I could tell who it was, but they decided that what they were going to do was ostasclorosis and inject tetracycline into a tube that was going into my left side, roll me around a little bit and try to cause that to go on the outside of the lung and scar it. Cause scar tissue to form over the holes and heal it up, I never felt so much pain in my life as when they injected that stuff in there, they rolled me around, and that was only a short time, maybe only fifteen- twenty minutes.

 
CYNDIE: And it feels like your bodies on fire inside, the skins burning up.

 
CARL: They took some xrays, came back in another day or two and took some more, and after a few days they decided it didn't work, so when they first did it I stopped before they did it and I prayed right in front of them, I asked GOD to give me the strength to do this, I knew it was going to hurt, I didn't know how much, I prayed that I wouldn't start shouting obscenities or some thing and if I said anything it would be Praise GOD, and I did I rolled back and forth, Praise GOD, Praise GOD, to just keep from saying anything else because it hurt. I told CYNDIE then and I told the doctors I never felt anything this bad, and I never wanted to do this again, I'd never do this again, don't ever say never. Because GOD had other plans, they came back two weeks later and decided they wanted to do it again. I said now wait a minute you know, have you ever had this done? Oh no -- well I'm here to tell you it really hurts, so well okay were going to give you some pain killer, valium, they pumped all kinds of drugs in to me to try to kill the pain, I don't think they waited long enough because I still felt it. At this time they rolled me from one side to the other, head up and head down, and each position was fifteen minutes, all together and this stuff burns. But it didn't work, so now they come down to the last possible thing they could do except sit their and wait for it to heal, was to go in surgically into that left lung and fine the holes and seal them.

And then I thought of how I asked GOD to heal the lung and he did, like I said, in his time and his way, but his way was to go in cut my side open and take out eight inches of my ribs and they actually pulled my lung out, turned it around , said ok, where's the holes at? They thought there was only one hole and they actually found three and when they pealed that scare tissue off they found three holes, so they got the staple gun out and they stapled them shut and put me back together again. Had forty some staples down my side and my back and I was thinking all right everythings, Honkie Dorry, we were getting ready to go, we still had some chest tubes in there, but, we knew once those healed up and once incision tried to heal they could pull the chest tubes out and they pulled the tubes out finally and got an infection up in the top of the incision and where one of the tubes was and what had happen was that the scar tissue that they put in there, that they had caused got infected, now I had infection on the inside as well as on the outside where they pulled the scar tissue out to touch the skin, so now I got an infection and now they started pumping antibiotics in me, say, I'm a heavy sleeper, but, I didn't get any sleep there, they woke me up at least, the most I got to sleep, was every four hours they woke me up, I think it was every two hours they had to come with another IV, take that one out, put another one in, put those antibiotics in there and the deciding factor now was when is that infection going to clear up.

We had to pray about it. We were praying continually now we were praying for that, this was in December the first of, when I got up their on the ward, after the surgery and my anniversary in Dec 21st, I mention that date, it rang a bell, my anniversary is Dec 21st, and I keep telling the doctors, I'm not going to be in this hospital on my anniversary. Right, my sons birthday is the 24th of Dec so we wanted to be there for him, I sometimes make promises I can't keep but I made a promise I'd be up in New York for his birthday, I was bound and determined, if its GOD's will I'm going to keep it.

The next day the infection was gone, they stopped the IV and as long as my temperature stayed lower the 100 degree then they would think about letting me go. If it got any where close to 100,-- if it got above 100 they made me get up and walk, walk the halls, holding a stack of towels up against my side because it hurt so bad and if I coughed it was tremendous and any time it got near 100 I was out their walking and breathing taking deep breathes, that would lower the body temperature and let the LORD do his work.

While I was helping him out. It came up on the 20th or 19th of Dec. and he said the infection is gone and your body is healing up, the only thing thats keeping you here is the paperwork, we had to get -- you see ICU they declared me incompetent because that way, CYNDIE could take care of my finances and all that, she got through the lawyers and got the money and all this. So now we had to get a letter saying I was competent before we left there otherwise I'd never get, I'd have to fight those people to get them to say something. So we had to walk around the hospital for two days, the 19th and 20th we had to walk around in my pajamas and robe from here to there all over the hospital, tracking down paperwork, getting them to make out this letter and getting this person to sign it, and talk to the psychiatrists and tell them I wasn't crazy.

 
CYNDIE: I got to meet them finally.

 
CARL: Finally we got out of there, but, right before we left, we had two things happen, one, a friend of ours called, a guy who used to work with me, called, he been trying to get in touch with us, he said he'd been praying that we'd be home soon and everything is going all right, we talked to him and appreciated his prayers. The second thing was we'd been praying that God would provide a place for us to live, because now when we went down there, and they stopped paying her, we couldn't afford to rent our apartment any more, so now, so the friends from our church, they went in and in a day and packed everything up, evacuated the apartment. Painted it and the whole works.

 
CYNDIE: Clean it up and painted it.

 
CARL: We didn't have a place, we new where our stuff was, it was in somebody's barn out in the woods. We learned then material things don't mean anything. It didn't matter where our things were, it didn't matter what we had, that 3 TV sets and stereo, this and that. There all material things which we didn't mean anything primarily we had GOD and we had each other and family. We had be praying that GOD would provide us a place, I told CYNDIE don't worry, we will have a place to live, right before we left, her friend Debbie called us and said they found a two bedroom apartment ready for us. We praised GOD. Everybody in the hospital on that floor probably heard us. Again another answer to prayer. So we got out on the 20th.

 
CYNDIE: And the head nurse got saved.

 
CARL: That's right, head nurse got saved and another nurse came back, she had been strayed away and she came back. In the time that we were there, I don't remember the numbers. Approximately we came in contact with GOD through us, with 292 doctors, 400 and some nurses and over a 1,000 corpsman's. All those people saw the light of JESUS coming though us. We saw many people get saved and many come back to GOD. And we saw many of them that didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on, or what we were talking about, start wondering and asking questions. So we won't know till we get to heaven how many of hose people were saved. So we got out on the twentieth, out for our anniversary. We went to the CHI CHI restaurant, Mexican restaurant, had a great time. If you have ever eaten at a CHI CHI restaurant they are fantastic Mexican joints. We started up on the 22nd.

 
CARL: No the 23rd. We started driving up there and its only a ten hour drive, eight to ten hours, depends on how many time you stop. It took us sixteen hours. We dove over one hundred fifty miles at twenty miles an hour, there was a heavy fog, you couldn't see two feet in front of you, we thought were never going to get there for my sons birthday, but we got there, walked into Debbie's house where my son was living, it was before midnight, it was about five minutes before midnight on the 23rd, I was there for his birthday on the 24rd.

Then we went over to see where we were going to live. We walked in the door, gave us the key, when you walk in the door the first thing you see is the kitchen, there were seventeen bags of groceries on the kitchen floor waiting for us. A ham in the refrigerator and a big butter ball turkey in the freezer. I hate turkey, hate turkey, Praise the LORD it was there. Then we went to the bedroom, the bed was put together, the beds were all made and ready for us to crawl in. A Christmas tree all decorated in the living room. Thats how wonderful our friends are in Christ at our church.

And thats about all of the story except the little things that have happen since then. Many prayers have been answered because of this, many people got saved. They called me down at the hospital one night, on a Sunday night, on a speaker phone, they wanted to sing my favorite song " Count Your Blessings ". Because he's done so many things for me and they sang it to me. Because of that, there was a young man got saved, that night there. Now he is one most actively growing people in our church and I think that as a result of this whole trial, we have both come closer to GOD. Of course for three and half months laying on my back, I had nothing to do but talk to GOD. I grew tremendously in my faith, my pastor sent the new testament on tape, I've read the four Gospels in part a couple of times but never really got as much out of it as I did when I heard them instead of reading. I can encourage you that if you get a chance to get the Bible on tape do it. You get much more out of it.

One of the greatest things that could have happen out of this whole trial. Before I left New York the first time I was in the hospital after laser surgery I talked to my Dad on the phone, and I witnessed to him, I talked to him about GOD an about JESUS and we talked, talked and talked and when I got out for the weekend down in Maryland, we talked some more, and it seemed like I couldn't get through to him, it was like he had the knowledge in his head but he was stubborn and he knew up there, but he just didn't want to do anything about it in his heart. I think this whole trial and a few other things led him to be saved this past weekend. Two weeks ago Dad got saved through this trial, another answer to a prayer and before we left, we had to delay. We were going to leave on a Monday we had to delay because I had to go back down to the VA hospital and we done chemo therapy and finish things off to satisfy them that there was nothing there. So when we got up there did the first Cat scan, there wasn't anything there.

 
CYNDIE: They couldn't find any cancer.

 
CARL: But they finished it off just to make sure there was nothing there. To please them I had to go back for a physical, they really wanted to see what they were paying for, compensation and during that time the guy shined a light in my eyes, they didn't respond so we had to delay our trip because I had to go back down there to satisfy them on Monday by seeing an eye doctor, he did all these test, he dilated my eyes, looked in there, did field of vision test, checked this and that, read that chart, (two weeks). My eyes went in two weeks time from not being able to focus fast, my focusing muscle didn't work right. I could focus on my pastor, preaching but when I went back to reading I couldn't focus that fast. In two weeks time before we left Monday, the doctor told us my eyes were 20/20, both eyes. I'm sure he's not done, he has to have kept me around for some reason when I left here.

I didn't want to go to college, I joined the Navy because I didn't want to go to school. Now of course in the Navy I went to school every day for eight years. But I didn't want to go to college, now the LORD has made it possible for me to go to college at home, my wife and I are enrolled in Liberty Home Bible Institute. Liberty Baptists College, Lindbergh, Virginia. Now, as many times as I have read the creation story of Genesis it has a whole different meaning when you start studying instead of just reading. I don't know what he has in store for us, but, we are willing to do what ever he wants. And if you take anything out of this. Take out that, GOD can do what for you what he has done for us and he will if your in his hand. But, I think you were saying this morning that if GOD doesn't answer a sinner, a lost person prayers, thats right the only prayer GOD answers is to get saved. That JESUS will come into your heart and you gotta have that before you can see and understand. Fully comprehend what GOD has done and what he can do.

 
CYNDIE: Well I just want to add, you can't turn your back when you meet a stranger on your path, you never know when that stranger can be your friend, he told us to love our enemies, well that person may not be your enemy, he may be a stranger, but even in a busy time you got to take the time to share. When my car broke down when I was at Bethesda, Maryland as well as many wonderful things that happen. This young man, this corpsman decide to help me out. He didn't know much about mechanics, he brought a friend who did, and he stood there and I said, shall we pray before we start looking at the problem, and he said, your a Christian, I said yes I'm a Christian, I believe in the good LORD and Praise the LORD for he is always with me and he said I know JESUS too. We have to pray right now that the LORD will just rebuke what ever the problem is. He started rebuking the car and everything in the car. This other gentlemen that was with him looked at him like you need to see a shrink. You been on the ward to long, and that gentlemen when we got through fixing the car was saved. So even in busy times, you can always fine the time to share with someone. Thats our mission in life is to be here to share with others, were here to please the LORD and to glorify his name. Even the smallest person and the tallest, even the persons whose the shyest, GOD can still use if he just humbles himself to the LORD.