God Cares about the Smallest Things, March 2007
Last Thursday our family traveled to Hilton Head. We spent the night at a hotel halfway there and when I woke up Friday morning, I was in a very bad mood. I was angry and snapping at the rest of my family. I knew I was doing it, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.

As we started driving, my daughters (Kate 6, Paige 4) asked to watch a movie. I put the movie in the DVD player and it wouldn't work. I was messing with it, trying to get it to play when Kate said "God told me we don't need to watch a movie." I thought that was a cute comment from a child, but kept trying to get the movie to play (I admit I was a little dense on what God was trying to do!). I was trying everything to get it to work, but the DVD player was completely frozen- it wouldn't do anything – it would not even turn off.

Needless to say, the fight with the DVD player was not making my mood any better. Kate said again, "God told me we don't need to watch a movie." Finally, the light went off in my head and I stopped fighting the machine, and put worship music on. By the 2nd song, tears were flowing down my face. I was so overcome with love and gratitude for Jesus and His love and sacrifice for us. All the negativity in my body left and Gods love, peace and joy replaced it.

When the music was over I KNEW the DVD would be working again... and it was; I didn't even have to push a button, the movie just started. It continues to amaze me that God knows exactly what we need (even if it's just to get in a better mood) and that He cares enough about even the smallest things to intervene in our lives and help us. God is sooooo awesome!!

P.S. I later asked Kate about God telling her that and she said, "I was praying the DVD player would work and God just told me that we didn't need to watch a movie." Again, I am overcome with emotion and am amazed that the Lord of heaven and earth, the maker of all things, is talking to my daughter!! (I guess He is really just talking with HIS daughter!)

- Cara Tomallo

What a Zoo! July 2007
The kids and I were headed to the parking lot after a long day at the zoo. I was pushing all 4 of them in the stroller (that in itself was no small feat). As we are heading out, I realized “I have NO idea where we are parked, and there are about 2 trillion cars to choose from!” I immediately prayed, "Lord, I need you to show me where my car is. Please point me in the right direction."

Sure enough, He took me exactly where I needed to go. It was a YAY GOD! moment for me. 

- Kristen Scherer

A Speck of Sand, July 2007
A speck of sand seems like nothing, until you get one in your eye.

I was at our regular Sunday night volleyball game at the church. After the game, I was at home washing my face and somehow rinsed a grain of sand into my eye (not smart). It was actually quite painful. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get it out but was not successful. About this time, my wife, Jen, came in to see what was going on. She prayed over me and tried to help me get it out. After about 30 minutes it was still in there, and I was starting to get really mad (I am aware this is not how Christ would have acted, but I have yet to attain perfection). I decided it was time to go to the emergency room. Jen asked if she could pray once more before I left. Of course I was glad she did that. After she prayed I could feel that it was definitely not gone. I got in the car and headed toward the hospital. When I was in the car my eye started to tear up and my eye kept blinking, which was painful. About halfway to the hospital, those tears God provided flushed the grain of sand right out the side of my eye. Praise be to God!!

- Sam Costello

God’s Protection, August 2007
A few years ago, my brother and his wife came to visit us for a week from their home in Grand Cayman Island. They'd recently bought a 2nd car and their first condo, which they'd completely furnished in Chinese antiques. While they were with us, a hurricane destroyed almost everything on their island. What it didn't destroy, the looters took. They lived with us 5 months before being able to return home to start over.

Last Sunday service, I asked for prayer for the islands in Hurricane Dean's path and specifically for Grand Cayman and Darren and Nancy. They were again off island visiting Chicago and glued to the weather channel in prayer. The weather reports had their island in the center of the hurricane path.

It was Adventure Sunday at Zion, and our group decided to walk and pray through Powell and then head to brunch. I was blessed at brunch to sit next to Jen Costello who told a story from Bill Johnson's church in Redding, California. They do worship painting and someone had painted something, but no one could figure out just what it was. The next day the entire church was asked to pray for a group of their missionaries on an island that was expecting a devastating tsunami. Jen said the entire church faced the direction of the island and prayed a wall of protection from God around that island. Upon finishing the prayer, the pastor ran to get that painting. It was a huge wave with a wall around it! The tsunami didn't touch the island.

Having heard that story, we prayed for a wall of protection for Grand Cayman Island. Yesterday, I received this email from my brother:

"Dearest Family & Friends, Just a quick note to let you know that we are well. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. God has been so very good to us! We'll be returning to Cayman tomorrow and yes, this time we do still have a home to return to!! We lost our dock and sea water poured across the road and spilled into our drive but stopped inches from entering our home. We have been told that 15 foot waves came crashing into South Sound. We are relieved and very, very thankful."

How AWESOME IS OUR GOD! Praise our Glorious Father and thank you all for your prayer support. How grateful we are for having Almighty God answering our prayers.

- Danna Testa

Sunday Healing, February 2007
As many of you know, I injured my hip last week in a marathon. Since then, I have been hobbling about with a considerable amount of pain. Every few hours I needed to stop to apply ice and take the weight off of it. Walking upstairs or downstairs presented quite a challenge. I'm sure it made for an interesting sight. The physical therapist here at school took a look at it and she did some measurements and found that there was 1/2 inch difference between the length of my legs. I had been told this before about the discrepancy but never followed through with the orthotic whole process. She thought this could be what was causing the problem.

I went to the doctor and he did the X-rays and MRI and gave me the diagnosis of bursitis/tendonitis and informed me that I would need to have physical therapy for the next six weeks and it would be awhile before I was running again. This of course caused great sadness for me.

Sunday morning during worship, there was a time for prayer and so I hobbled to the River to receive prayer. Two individuals on our prayer team started praying for a miraculous healing. As one of them prayed for me, they touched my hip and I felt the strangest sensation and my leg began to shake (it was a weird feeling). I walked back to my seat and sat down and didn't feel the pain any more. I wanted to check it out so I walked back to the restroom and moved it around and bent down and stretched and jumped - no pain! I was so excited I could hardly sit still through the service. After church I thought I'd check it out again so I ran to the car (I hadn't run since the marathon the week before) and again no pain.

Later that day I was out shopping with my daughter and we were out for a several hours and I had no pain and no need to sit down and rest. Then I got home and needed to do the laundry that I was unable do before because I couldn't navigate the steps very well. I carried laundry downstairs, brought my sewing machine upstairs and no pain. I realized I forgot something downstairs so I ran back down to get it without thinking, and there was no pain!

I had already scheduled my physical therapy evaluation for Monday morning so I decided to keep it to confirm the healing God did. The PT asked me what are your goals for PT and I told her what happened at church and that I'd like to confirm that and check for leg length discrepancy. She looked at me like I was a little off my rocker. She measured once and then again and said both legs are even at 87 and both have equal strength. So God not only healed the pain but fixed the discrepancy and strength. This gives me new meaning to the "joy of the Lord is your strength"!

I also had a massage scheduled Monday to help alleviate the pain which was by then no longer there. I went anyway and she was so amazed at what God had done. She gave me a massage the day after the race and was very familiar with the injury and where my pain was and the condition of the muscles. She continued to comment on how different everything felt around the hip joint and she said "Praise the Lord!" Today at school (where I am a teacher) I have been telling everyone what happened – it’s so much fun to watch their faces!
- Christine Buchanan

Paid in Full, February 2007
This is one of those things that happens to other people, but not to me - until yesterday.
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Shawn (my husband) and I are on the last legs of remodeling our house and yesterday Mr. Vic Smith came over to lay the carpet in the basement and the family room/office. I have been SO looking forward to getting this carpet put in because my office has been in our dining room with no way to stay organized and not much room for the industrial-sized color copier. I had to wait just a little longer because of the snow storm, but when I got home at 1am from a work related trip to Kokomo, IN I went straight to the office and took in the beautiful sight.

Then, this morning Shawn and I were vacuuming the room and I mentioned something about paying Vic. Shawn said he didn't pay for it - someone else had. In disbelief, I said that I'd seen the receipt and I knew how much he had to pay. Shawn said again that, in fact, someone else had paid for the carpet to be installed. The bottom on the receipt read "Paid in Full."

Those are miraculous words to me today. Thank-you Jesus and anonymous carpet-installation payer.
- Joy & Shawn Ercoli

Father's Protection, February 2007
Hi, it's Kathy and Mike from not-so-sunny Florida. Early this morning about 3am, this area was hit by an F-3 tornado. As I am writing this 13 hours later you can hear the helicopters circling overhead observing the destruction and looking for people that need help.

The storm headed from west to east taking whole buildings and homes with it as it went. Our house was one street north of its path. We did not lose even one shingle from our roof! I woke up at 3am because the screen door to our lanai was banging open and closed. It was raining and the wind was blowing, but I had no sense of the destruction that was being done one street over. I latched the door and went back to bed. The other three people and two dogs in the house were peacefully sleeping (we had guests).

When we got up about 8:30am and took the dogs outside the neighborhood was all gathered together in the street. That is when we found out what had taken place. We got into the golf cart and drove up the street in shock at what we were seeing.

Cars turned upside down in the street. Houses collapsed entirely. Houses with only a roof, no walls. The furniture all thrown together in the middle and the lights still on. Palm trees that were a foot in diameter, snapped in half. The one sight that keeps coming back to my mind is a hundred-year-old Florida oak tree. You know how those are huge and their branches just sprawl out forever and Spanish moss hanging in all the branches. Well, this oak had no leaves. Most of its branches were only half as long and in place of the Spanish moss were strips of sheet metal hanging off of it.

As I sit here and write this I am feeling very humbled and grateful. Grateful because I have knowledge of the one true God. Grateful because I know Him and have a relationship with Him. Grateful that I have had mentors in my life that have taught me about Him, His promises, His protection and all that He died for. Grateful that I had called down that covenant of protection on this property and us in it. Grateful that He is a man that does not lie and a God that honors ALL of His promises. Awed at the knowledge that with what was going on around us, all I had was peace in the midst of the storm and went back to sleep. Grateful for the praying people that have been in my home and prayed for it. Grateful for the opportunity I had to witness to the guests we had by praying together and thanking the Lord for His mercy and protection.

We shared with them that our home was dedicated to the Lord and before we even moved in, we asked Him to protect it. I sit totally humbled by His mercy and grace.
- Kathy and Mike McKenzie

Back Healing, December 2006
Every Wednesday morning, there is prayer at the church at 6:30am. I have been going most weeks and it has been a good discipline to get with God at a time when I would normally be sleeping.

This past Wednesday, it was just Don Kirkham and me, and he started off by telling me that he had a bad back pain for a few days from lifting something heavy and pulled something, and asked me to pray for him. I got excited about the opportunity to see something happen, so I made up some communion, and simply started talking about how Jesus paid the price for our sins and diseases AND pain. He bore them for us, so why should we accept them as part of our lives...EVER? So we took the communion and then I laid hands on Don's back, and just a few seconds later, after a simple prayer, he opened his eyes and smiled, exclaiming that the pain was totally gone. He popped up out of his seat marveling that he had not been able to move like that in a while, then saying he felt like going for a run.

I'm not satisfied anymore that when I pray for someone, they don't see the healing, so I am learning more and more to expect the things to happen that I pray for. It is awesome to see these things happen, and I am willing to step out of the boat to see the miraculous!
- Ryan Meyers

Basketball Healing, November 2006
I absolutely love to play basketball. I love the competition and it’s a great way to exercise. I've played with the same group of guys for five years. I recently realized what a great opportunity this is for ministry. Besides, I would love for God to keep blessing me with opportunities to play so I thought I should probably bring Him with me! Seriously though, I do play a lot and it doesn’t make sense for me to take a vacation from God and His glory when I'm there.

The other day a regular was going up for a dunk and planted his foot on another player’s foot. His weak ankles gave out and he rolled it severely. If you’ve ever sprained an ankle, you know it is often better to break a bone because that injury heals quicker and doesn’t hurt as bad. While he was on the bench icing his ankle, I decided to seize the opportunity to begin a basketball ministry. He gave me permission to pray for his ankle and I prayed for a relief from pain and for the joint to be restored to its original condition prior to any injury. It was awkward but I was happy to know God was there.

Two days later, he was back playing basketball without a hesitation in his step.

All the glory to God! I praise him for his faithfulness and being there for this young man. If we are willing to step out in faith and take new ground, he will be there with miracles. I’m so excited to see where this leads and I'm guessing it will be amazing!
- Ron Scherer

River Healing, August 2006
At church last Sunday, Agnes Kawesky, an intercessor for Zion gave a word of knowledge that the Lord wanted to restore and heal people’s feet. Since I am on the prayer ministry team, I immediately began praying and laying hands on those coming forward for healing. What everyone didn’t know is that I had hurt my left ankle playing soccer the day before. When I was done praying for people I walked back to my seat and realized that I had no pain in my ankle.  I jumped around on it just to make sure all was well.  What do you know, it feels 100%!  You have to love getting healed when no one even prays for it.  God Rocks!!
- Sam Costello

Migraine Headache, August 2006
I woke up this morning with a terrible headache. I thought my only option was going to be to lie in bed all day, but I was called to work at my construction job. I finished my project around noon; my head was getting worse as the day progressed. Pastor Steve called to ask if I wanted to meet him and a youth, Jacob Epling, for lunch. Instead of going home, I decided to go and have them pray for me. Right at Quizno’s, with the lunchtime crowd listening in, they started praying for my healing. My migraine was gone in 20 minutes – completely gone! Praise the Lord!
- Shawn Ercoli

Lower Back Healing, June 2006
My lower back pain started when I was 13 years old after a day of “tubing” behind a speed boat with my cousins. From that day forward, I have had horrible, debilitating pain in my back. I have been through countless CAT scans and MRI’s and the doctors have never been able to explain the severity of the pain or how to alleviate it. Their only solution has been Rx drugs, which I have refused.

Almost every memory in my life includes severe back pain. The day I graduated from college, my wedding day, the day I gave birth to our first child...
Fast forward almost 19 years and I am at the Harvest Network International (HNI) Conference in Minnesota. I woke up that morning and told my sister, Jen, TODAY IS THE DAY. I WILL receive healing. I am a child of God. There is no back pain in heaven and I will NOT receive it here on earth. Jesus covered this pain in the atonement. I spoke this over my back all day long. At the conclusion of the conference that night, the keynote speaker, Pastor Bill Johnson, spins around in his seat, points at me and says, “What is the miracle you want?” I tell him and he prays for me. It is only later that I realize the Holy Spirit is working BIG TIME as there are more than 200 people in the room and Pastor Bill has singled ME out.

He prayed over me and the pain IMMEDIATELY left my body. IMMEDIATELY. Now, I should explain here that I almost left the conference about an hour earlier because it’s very painful for me to sit in a seat for long periods of time (or stand, or walk...) and the pain I was feeling that night was out of this world.

I didn’t leave because I kept saying, “Today is the day!” JESUS - YOU ROCK! You are our healer. I am overwhelmed at your goodness and mercy. About 24 hours later I started to get a small amount of pain in my back. I thought, “this can’t be, I’m healed.” We had just started the evening session and the band started the worship. I got up and worshiped and the pain IMMEDIATELY left my body!!!! This has happened numerous times since that day. I will start to get pain and I will immediately worship the Lord. I will throw on my I-tunes or put on a healing CD or get out the Word. The pain goes away. IT’S TRULY AMAZING! I can’t put into words how much I have learned through this experience. I have had numerous opportunities to pray for others’ healing and Father has given me a boldness that I never had before. I am SO not satisfied with anything other than the supernatural. - Kristen Scherer

Inner Ear Healing, June 2006
During my childhood I suffered several ear infections.  Now the doctors have told me that the scar tissue that resulted from those infections have caused a malfunction in my hearing and eventually that I would have to have an operation to repair it.
 
Last month at the Harvest Network International (HNI) Conference, I received healing prayer for that left ear.  I believed that God in His mercy healed my ear and the evidence of that healing came when one of the prayer warriors snapped her fingers beside that ear and the noise was so loud that it sounded like a drum!
 
God is so good!!!  Even at the conference I prayed for two other people with hearing problems, and God in His mercy brought heaven down and healed them!
- Pam Johnston

Texas Sized Healing, January 2006
My brother’s daughter was 7 months when we found out she was having brain aneurisms and, if unchanged, would have a large aneurism that kills her.  In a nutshell, her artery hadn’t formed all the way and was more like the size of a vein.  The vein couldn’t handle the blood flow to support her growing brain so pressure was building throughout her little brain.
 
Her first surgery went well and a shunt was inserted in her brain to relieve the pressure.  The surgeons also performed a “procedure” that would hopefully enlarge the vein to accommodate the blood flow. 
 
The procedure didn’t work so Tatum’s second surgery had 2 objectives:  Find out “why” the procedure hadn’t worked, and plan and prepare for the 3rd surgery.  The 3rd surgery was a very technical and very tricky procedure that if successful, carried a 90% chance of mental retardation and, because the surgeons had to go through the leg to get to the brain, a 100% chance of leg deformity, possibly amputation when she was around middle school age. 
 
INSERT GOD HERE!
Those of us at the hospital said prayers of healing over Tatum and then the doctors took her away for her 4.5 hour surgery.  45 minutes into the surgery the nurse called and said the doctor wants to talk with us.  We were thinking the worst since 45 minutes into a 4.5 hour surgery couldn’t be good but she assured us she had good news.  We SPRINTED down the hallway. 
 
In the weeks prior to surgery, the doctor had proven himself to be cocky, egotistical, cold and never at a loss for blunt words about Tatum’s diagnosis, treatment and life after the surgery.  So, as we run up to this doctor who looks bewildered and a little pale, we hear him stuttering/stammering about how he’s never seen anything like this and there’s only 4 recorded cases in the world of this ever happening. . . We asked him what he was talking about and he simply said “We can’t find anything wrong with your daughter.  Nothing.”  THANK YOU JESUS!  GOD HEALED TATUM!  Everyone within 50 feet of us knew God had performed a miracle.

The doctors went to her brain through her leg and couldn’t find any bleeding.  They looked all around and there wasn’t even damage from the previous aneurisms.  She went home that night! 
 
This wasn’t a case where we “thought” something was wrong or we were “hoping” for a wrong diagnosis.  Medical science had proven Tatum was in serious trouble.  God proved that He was (and always is) in total control of the situation!  I still get chills thinking about it. 
 
When I’m feeling distant from God, I think of this story and the Holy Spirit puts me right back in that hospital hallway.  It was the most powerful, raw feeling of joy, followed by thanks I’ve ever known. 
 
Thank you God!
-Mark Tomallo