Me and My Mother's Testimony

To all those who labored with us and shared with us in prayer my mother wrote this message to you. Let there be no doubt our God is real, and there is no thing great or small that he cannot do, if it is His will! Thank you, each and every one who have lifted my daughter and me and our family in prayer. We know prayer can move mountains. It certainly lifted me and Kelly. I am grateful to you, the faithful. I have limited means of expressing my thanks and how your prayers and scriptures, suggestions and sharing lifted me and Kelly. Again, My God is Real and to God Be The Glory! Beverly Spence

I too join in with my mother in thanking each and everyone of you who said you would and were already praying for us. If you took the time to come by my desk to hug me or say kind words or share in my sadness at that time, I thank you. If you emailed me, I thank you. For any expression or thought towards me, I thank you. The day I shared by email with everyone what was going on and asked for you to pray as well as sharing with you what I was praying for specifically, I began, on that day, to feel your prayers in my body. I know the power of prayer and faith in God for the outcome. I began to be lifted because of your prayers, literally, so I truly thank all of you. Love, Kelly.

Now, I must document what God did for us so that you may know and not doubt that our God is real and is still in the business of showing up and showing out in our lives! I choose to write it so that you may know the full story and so God will be Glorified through it all! As you read, you will know why it was important to write this.

Starting with Monday, the day of my mother's scheduled surgery, I called my mother that morning to read her the devotional message for the day because it cracked me up with how it lined up with what we were about to go through for the day. It was titled, "Go With The Flow." The scripture reference was "Brethren, for this reason, in [spite of all] our stress and crushing difficulties, we have been filled with comfort and cheer about you [because of] your faith (the leaning of your whole personality on God in complete trust and confidence) Amplified Bible 1 Thessalonians 3:7

"Go with the flow, and stop being anxious about things that may never happen. If you really trust God, you don't need a backup plan. Faith means that you have peace even when you don't have all the answers. Life will always be stressful if you constantly try to rearrange it... Grow in wisdom, and place high priority on keeping your peace in spite of any jams you get into today."

So here we go...,

When me and mommy arrived at John's Hopkins on Monday, I told my mother to go ahead of me, and I'll meet her at the front entrance because I was trying to get all of the stuff out of the car. Once I was walking toward meeting my mother, I was walking from the parking lot across the street. While I was still proceeding, I began to look around for my mother and didn't see her anywhere. While looking and still walking across the walkway, this man across the street pointed to me and motioned, sternly, for me to come to him. At the time, in my mind I was thinking maybe this man knows where my mother is, maybe she told him to tell me. Of course it doesn't make any sense, but that's what I was thinking so I went over to him. He was in the middle of helping this elderly lady in a wheel chair. He stopped everything and stood beside me and began to speak a word to me. The word he spoke was a personal word to me that he could not have known, and it was specific! God had spoke to me about that very thing two times prior to that day so when the man said it to me, I immediately knew it was being confirmed and that this man was a man of God. While he was continuing with me, my mother appears and walks over to us. The man then begins to speak words to my mother. He said to her, "He will never leave you nor forsake you. He's by your side. I don't care what they say. I don't care if it's cancer or what it is, it's not what they say that counts, it's what He says that counts. Increase your faith."

This is the word this complete stranger spoke to us on Monday. We both began to thank him, and I thanked him for his obedience and told him we were believers so I receive those words. At the time, I received it as God letting us know that she will come through her surgery fine! We were concerned about how my mother responds to anesthesia so the worst we were thinking was whether she would come out of the anethesia. Of course we had no way of knowing how true the man's words would be when we received the report that my mother was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer while still on the operating table.

The surgery she was there for was not about cancer, but while on the table they found material that they had tested to see if it was cancerous, malignant or benign. Well, on Monday, the doctors of John's Hopkins came to me in the family waiting room and took me to the consultation room and told me that my mother had an aggressive form of cancer. They showed me the xrays and everything and informed me that her uterus and bladder, etc. would have to be removed. Needless to say, you can imagine what I was feeling for her to have gone from one type of surgery to now she has cancer and this will have to happen and that will have to happen! When I was able to see my mother, she was still under the affects of the anesthesia, so when she would wake up for a few minutes or so, she would ask if they told me like they told her that it was cancerous, and I said yes. She would go back to sleep for a few and wake up again. Then she began to speak the words the stranger outside the hospital spoke of how the Lord would never leave you nor forsake you, it's not what they say that counts, it's what He says that counts. I was like, he sure did say that, and I'm going to hold on to that.

I stayed overnight in the hospital so on Tuesday, I went outside to get something out of my car. As I was leaving out of the hospital, the man who spoke the words to us on Monday was there again and motioned for me to come to him. He asked me what was going on, and I said, it's not good. They told us that she has cancer. He looked at me and motioned for me to stay beside him. For about 10 min. or so, he proceeded to have an inner conversation with God, and I just stood there and waited. He would shake his head and say umm hmm... okay.... etc. as if he were on the telephone with the Lord. Then he turned to me and said, "This is for you and your mother, "It isn't so, that report, it's not so..." In so many words God was telling him to tell me not to believe that report. The man spoke with such conviction. Once again, I thanked him and said to him that I was a believer and that I receive that.

I didn't tell anyone, including my mother, what the man said, determining that I would testify of his words once God did it! By Wednesday, I returned to work. At some point during Wednesday, I felt lead to share with everyone, by email, what was going on and to ask for everyones' prayers. I also shared some of what I was praying for and called my church to add my mother, myself and my family to our prayer list. Well, I began to receive all these email responses and messages of which I decided to print out to copy and give to my mother to encourage her so she could see how many people were praying for her. One of the messages came from my friend Laraye. She told me that for 10 years now, she writes down her prayers and put them beside the scripture Matthew 7:7 and suggested that I do that. So I immediately did that!

Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." And this is the prayer I wrote down and layed in my bible next to the scripture. "Dear Lord, I pray that mommy will be healed of cancer, I pray that it is isolated and hasn't spread. Lord, I pray that she will not have to have her bladder removed and if there's a way to just take the diverticulum out w/o removing all of the other areas that you reveal it and make it known to the doctors. Bless them with wisdom from on high. Bless mommy with long life, robust and healthy. Allow her to live and be retired and enjoy her grandchildren. Lord this is my prayer. I believe that if it's your will it can be done plus more. So if it's your will for it to not even be cancer there when they go back, I pray for your touch and your miracle work! I have faith and no doubt. May I accept your will and be strengthened during this season! I love you Lord, and thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. I also pray that you bless mommy with the best doctors for what she will need. May they come from you and you alone! In Jesus' name, Amen.

This is what I wrote and layed it in my bible at my work desk. Thursday evening, I felt lead to pick up my written prayer and take it with me. On Friday, me and my mom went back to John's Hopkins for them to tell her, her options, percentages and schedule her for surgery to have her bladder, uterus, etc. removed. Well, when they called my mother's name to go back, I was supposed to go in the room with her so I could hear everything too, but they said she was going to be examined first of which my mother wasn't aware that she would be examined again. So I told her to tell them to come and get me when it was time for the consultation.

Not long after, my mom came back in the waiting room smiling and telling me she had good news. So once we left out of the waiting room and was walking down the hall, this is what my mother said. "I don't have cancer. The doctors said they were fully prepared to schedule me for surgery for removal of my bladder and uterus...but the head doctor at John's Hopkins felt pressed upon to get a 2nd opinion of what it was. And they found it to be precancerous, but not cancerous. So now they are able to do the 1st surgery I was supposed to have on Monday." She said they didn't have to examine her as they were going to do. Once she told me this, I began to share with her what the stranger told me on Tuesday, and when we got in my car, I read her my written prayer.

My mother does not have cancer! On top of that because of where the diverticulum is in her body and how it looks, etc. she will now have the best team of doctors in John's Hopkins working on her and with her when they proceed with the surgery she was supposed to have on Monday. She will also be a case written up in all of the major medical books, etc.

Remember what I prayed. I asked that when they go back that if it's God's will that it not even be cancer. I also asked that she receive the best doctors for what she will need and that they would come from the Lord and Him alone. He answered that prayer. The doctor said he felt pressed upon, he felt pressed upon because he was being prayed for and God pressed upon him to do this. The doctor said he felt pressed upon to the point that he had another, bigger lab get those results to us by the time we came for the consultation. None of this was suppose to happen. It takes at least a week, usually. Plus we didn't come that day for that, we were there for her to hear her options and then to schedule the option she planned to take. GOD stepped in! Lastly, don't forget the words the stranger spoke both days. So GOD used a stranger, someone not involved with any of this to speak a word that came true.

The stranger that spoke words from God was there on Monday and Tuesday and Friday when we went in the hospital. When we left on Friday after receiving the good news, the man was not there for us to tell him the outcome of the words he spoke. He was no where to be found.

BELIEVE AND NEVER DOUBT! HE'S THE SAME GOD THAT PARTED THE RED SEA, MADE BLIND EYES SEE, HEALED BODIES AND RAISED THE DEAD. THIS IS THE SAME GOD!!!! There's a story in the bible where Peter, one of Jesus' disciples was put in jail. Well the people began to pray for Peter to be released. While they were yet praying, Peter knocked on the door. The person who answered the door told Peter that it couldn't be him. The person did not believe the very prayer they were praying. When you pray, believe and not doubt and at the same time whatever the Lord chooses to do, accept. May He be glorified in this testimony and may you be encouraged in your walk with Him today!!!! He works all things together for them that LOVE HIM and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).