United States of America
Where do I begin? There have been so many times when God has made the impossible possible. One of my powerful stories is our family’s teen challenge and a Christian-based rehab program in Brockton, Massachusetts.
My middle sister’s son got into terrible trouble with a friend of his. They were headed to jail. I prayed God would move the mountains, as it is written in scripture.
I went to court with both boys, explained about the teen challenge program, and not once but twice, the judge said, “Yes, they need to go there. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but yes”. God moved the mountains. What I specifically prayed for!
It was a time in my life that I believe He, the great I am, showed me Himself!
My relationship has grown deeper and deeper because I believe in the impossible.
United States of America
There was a time my husband told me he didn’t believe in God. This broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. He was brought up in a church his grandfather was a Methodist minister, yet he still didn’t believe in God.
He used to believe, but through misfortune we lost everything and he turned from God. He allowed the enemy to put thoughts in his head that if there was a God, we wouldn’t have lost everything.
His straying from God, led him to stray from his family and our marriage. At this time, I grew closer to God. What satan meant for harm, God turned into good.
In my journey with God, He out many wonderful God-fearing people in my life. There was much healing and growing that I needed to do. I needed to get closer to God. In this journey I learned to release my husband to God through prayer.
Not only was I praying, but as I shared my story, others prayer for my husband, our marriage and family. These prayers were heard and answered by God. He chased after my husband’s heart.
After many years of running, my husband accepted the Lord and was baptized. We were baptized together.
There are still many struggles, but little by little, much healing is occurring and a relationship is being built by my husband’s choice, not by pressure from me. A miracle!
Jennifer
Australia
Seeing God at work in the ordinary things of life
Our experience of leaving our home in South Africa in 1997 to relocate to Australia held many challenges. One of them was selling our house. It was during this time that we saw God at work for us, in a wonderful way!
Moving house is never easy. And leaving one’s home to go to new country is not for the faint hearted. The house went on the market, and we received an offer. The offer, however, fell through and so we started looking for another buyer. Time was marching on, and it got closer and closer to our departure date, and we had no one to buy our house. We were getting panicky. Our other option was to rent the house out, but to rent and be far away from your property is never a good idea, so we were hesitant to go down that path.
Finally, the departure date had been set. We were getting on to the plane to go to Australia on a Wednesday. The week before our departure, the removalists came to pack up all our goods. There were boxes everywhere, dust, packing tape and paper- it was a mess. The Friday afternoon before we were to leave, someone came to our gate. It was a lady with a bandage around her knee. She said she had visited the doctor for her sore knee, and he had told her that our house was for sale. He was a colleague of my husband’s, and they lived not far from where we lived. She wanted to see the house, but the house was not in a great state! I agreed she could have a look through the house, but did not hold out much hope that this would be the answer to our prayers. She hobbled through the house with her bandaged knee, walked around the property, and left. Well, I thought, that is the end of that.
But, to my surprise, we had a call from this lady over the weekend. She said, “I want to make you an offer on your house”! It turned out to be a very reasonable offer and a cash offer at that. We were delighted! On our way to the airport, the next Wednesday, we signed the papers to exchange ownership and received our money into our bank account. In our minds, this was a miracle. It could not have happened without God’s intervention. We were desperate, but he supplied our need. This experience remains one that strengthens our faith!
Deanna
United States of America
My father passed away suddenly three years ago. I have been pretty numb since then, having had a very complicated relationship with him. I loved him and miss him, but it’s been difficult to grieve. In looking back over the last year with him, it was amazing to see how the Lord orchestrated our last days with him.
The first thing I noticed in hindsight was that he spent a weekend with my daughter Brittney in Asheville in August of 2022. They had the best time together, so much so that she made a point of telling me how fun it was! My dad could be moody but the entire time he was happy and carefree and she noticed and was so filled in her soul with love for him.
The second marvel was that he spent Christmas with my family in December. We had not had a Christmas alone with him since I was 5 or 6 years old. All our holidays were spent with our stepmother and their children and were not fun to say the least. That Christmas was amazing! He was so grateful to be with us and we were amazed at how wonderful our Christmas was!
In February, one week before he died, my sister had a 50th birthday party for herself in Florida. My dad was not planning on coming but changed his mind at the last minute. The entire weekend was incredible!! There was so much laughter, love and joy! The whole family was there, except for Brittney, who couldn’t make it because of work. During the weekend, I noticed him talking a lot with my father in law, who is a devout Christian and I learned what they talked about a week later. I also marveled at the connection he made with my great niece, his great granddaughter. As I watched him playing tea party with her and giving her gifts, the love between them was so beautiful that it made me tear up as I took pictures and I had the faintest thought that this was the last time he would see her. On the last day of the weekend, we all went out to breakfast. As we were eating my dad felt overwhelmed with emotion and stood up and gave a speech…it was his goodbye but we didn’t know it. There was not a dry eye when he finished.
One week later my father had two massive strokes and passed away in hospice care on my deceased brother’s birthday.
During that time, my father-in-law told me what they had talked about all weekend. My dad was confessing his sins and Joe was ministering to him about heaven and assuring him that he would be going there when his time came.
I can’t even explain the goodness of God in the chain of events leading up to my father’s passing but it has kept me during this time of grief and it helps greatly to know that God orchestrated it all for one last year of restoration and healing with my dad and for my sister and I to know that he was with Jesus.
Jodi
South Africa
She was larger than life. People either loved or hated her. Vivacious, energetic, creative, loud, volatile, quick to forgive and forget, and oh, so giving.
As a young girl, Olga Eisner rebelled against her father’s drinking, which was always followed by abuse, and she left home to board elsewhere for high school. She became a teacher even though her heart yearned to be a social worker. She was good with the children, being firm, consistent, and caring. Her classrooms had enchanting nooks where children’s poems were created in art forms. Many were drawn to her lively dance classes, and she orchestrated the best school concerts.
Her first marriage was a rebound, which she said should never have happened, as he was such a kind and gentle man who didn’t deserve that. Having been told she’ll never have children, it was a surprise when she had her only child. As she was a creator of children’s stories that played on the radio, with all the creatures having the most interesting names, of course, she created a name for this creature of hers and named her Emra. She remarried when this little girl was a few months old, leaving her with her father, and reclaimed her three years later. Little Emra fearfully watched her mother’s explosive spirit rise up towards her new sister, the daughter of her stepdad.
It wasn’t long before the bonus dad, Pappie (Afrikaans for Daddy) Dykhorst, got a brain tumor with not long to live. Olga prayed and said “God, if you heal this man, I will search for You till the day I die”. That instant he came out of his coma and was healed. A miracle.
Emra became the witness of seeing God make what seemed impossible, possible. Not just the healing of Pappie, but in the decades that followed, the transformation of Olga’s person. She kept her promise to God, till her early death at age 65. She studied every religion and developed a relationship with God that seemed like breathing, it was so natural. You could see her up in the early hours of the morning, walking and talking with Him in the garden. Her restless nature, arguing with Him, questioning, pondering. Then into The Bible, digging for answers, debating with theologians. “Fanatical”, she was labelled. She didn’t mind – she was all in, had made a promise.
God healed her spirit from its hurts and pain, broke down her pride, tempered her anger, quietened her voice, gave her the gift of poetry and a passionate love for Him. When she unexpectedly left this earth, in 1996, Olga Dykhorst no doubt was worthy of the welcome, “Well done My good and faithful servant”. She pioneered the way for her child to love and live for God, to create for Him – how could Emra not be this, having seen the reality of God so tangibly.
Emra
