Willy’s Testimony

     I want you to know what having a loving Christian church family means to someone who goes through

 unexpected and turbulent times. To know that there are people who care and that will go to the Lord

in prayer for you is a very awesome feeling. I want to thank all of myChristian brothers and sisters

 both here in Virginia and across this country for their prayers, their calls to Linda and their calls to me.

The love and care that was expressed and given to us was just on time and what we needed to hear.

     First let me tell you how this sickness came about. One Tuesday night this past January I was hit

with a tremendous pain in my lower abdomen, it was so bad that I couldn’t sleep but I did the macho thing

and said nothing. Since my oldest granddaughter was going to get married on that Saturday I said to myself,

 “I’ll just tell Linda that it’s just a little discomfort and maybe the pain will go away and we can go the wedding”

but the pain never did go away and on Thursday I told Linda that I would lay down for a while, but when I got up

 the pain was agonizing and I told Linda to call my Doctor and make an appointment to see him. After he examined me

 he sent me directly to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I prayed to Jesus for healing and I told Him that

I believed that He was in control and I stopped worrying about the situation. At the emergency room they put me

through all the tests, X-rays, CAT –SCAN, blood, the works. It looked as if I had a ruptured appendix so they sent me

 right upstairs to surgery.

     When I woke up in ICU I didn’t feel too bad even though it was major surgery. My Surgeon and many of the nurses

 and technicians were Christians, so my hospital stay that first week was almost like being in church. At  the end

of that first week the surgeon came down to tell me that I could go home that afternoon but she said,

“I’ll be right back I have to get some more data,” when she came back to the room I felt that something was wrong. 

She told me that it hadn’t been a ruptured appendix after all but that the pathology report indicated that I had colon cancer

 and that I would need more radical surgery that was called colon resection.

     I’ve always known that the word CANCER was like a death sentence and it was something that I feared,

but at that very moment the peace of God swept over and through me and it was as if God had put His arm

 around my shoulder and whispered in my hear, “Willy I’m right here, just trust in me and everything will be alright.

” What a wakeup call, from that moment on I could feel His peace in my heart. I was having a Jesus encounter

and I knew that everything was going to be all right. After the surgery when I woke up in ICU and all I felt

was a little bit unsettled. From that moment on there was very little pain, very little discomfort. The head nurse gave me

 a little button for pain and told me that whenever I felt any pain that all I had to do was press the button and

it would shoot a narcotic into me and dull the pain. Well I didn’t use that button very much and doctors, nurses,

and visitors were all amazed that I looked and felt as good as I did. It’s been an eye opening experience for me

 because over the years I’ve gone to visit family and close friends in hospitals who have undergone major surgery

and they never seemed to look very good and many times they never got any better. Well I came home and then

went to see the doctor who was to put me under a Chemotherapy program. I found that he was also a Christian.

When he spoke with me he said that 99 % of the cancer in my body had been eliminated and that to put me

under such a radical procedure was like shooting a Chihuahua with a bazooka.  I know that it’s all under

God’s control. So I don’t have to undergo Chemo and according to all my doctors they have all agreed with me that

God is truly in control. I really began to believe that what God wants from us is His complete trust, (Proverbs 3:5-8) says

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him,

 and he will make your paths straight, Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring

health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” But it seems as if all of us just  say, “Yes Lord.”  But do we really mean it?

 Over the years there have been many times that the problems, tribulations and hurts of everyday seemed to want to bring me down

and I always seemed to want to take over and work the problem out myself even though I knew what the word of God says.

 I began to understand from good teaching, study and meditating on the word that Satan’s plan from the beginning of time to this very day,

 is that if he can get us to concentrate on our sicknesses, worry’s, tribulations and problems then he has been successful in taking our

 eyes off of God. Satan doesn’t care about us. We are just a means for him to wound Jesus. But when we realize that Jesus wants

 nothing but the best for us, then we begin to see that ray of light and we begin to understand the tender love

 that Jesus has for each and every one of us. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans for you,” declares the Lord,

 “plans to prosper youand not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future.”  No matter what we go through

we must never say, “I’ll do this or I’ll try to take care of this myself.” Just turn it over to God and He will deal

with whatever physical, mental or spiritual problems might arise in your life.

     As I sat there in that sickroom I began to have a new kind of communion with God and He became more real

 in my life that ever before. I’ve begun to pray in a different way and it was as if I we were sitting there in that room together

r and we were having a heart to heart conversation. I began to understand that we are not just a people that He uses but that

God would have us be active participants in His plan for us. We are not only to serve Him but that He wants us to work with Him

. God’s Holy Spirit began to touch my heart in such a magnificent way and He began to teach me that God and I are partners

 in everything that He would show me. In our prayer life,our worship and our praise. In church and everywhere in our everyday lives

 he wants us to be His children and His willing partners. In every part of our day, whether on our jobs, in school or in our homes

 doing everyday chores, shopping, in fellowship with our brethren or just hanging out. Whether you are young or old God wants

 to be one with us everyday. He is our Lord of everything. So my brothers and sisters look to Him and ask Him to show Himself to you,

 for I truly understand that He wants nothing but the very best for us and the only way that we will receive what He wants to impart to us

 is to truly place all of our trust in Him.

     Lately I’ve been sitting here just thinking about who God is and who I am and I begin to realize that God the Creator,

He who made things as large as the universe, the stars, the planets, the skies, the seas. Things as infinitesimal as germs, animals

 and man (me). (John 1:1-3)  That Almighty God, The Creator of everything, has given to us the gift of eternal life with him in heaven,

 wants to have fellowship with me. He wants me to spend quality time with Him. Just to think of that is to me absolutely mind blowing.

That Almighty God loves me and cares for me so much that He sent His Holy Spirit to live in my heart so that at any time I might have

special communication with Him.That makes me really ponder on who I am. I who am just a mortal human being who has God living

ithin me so that makes mea very special person. I suddenly knew that God had made my heart His Holy Ground.  Not that I am better

 than anyone else but I had been chosen by Almighty God to be His special child since before the beginning of time. Now I look

at my extended Christian family and see how they too are special indeed. We have been given a very unique relationship

 with our God and we must not put that relationship in the back of our minds like things that we must do sometimes. That’s like

something we pull out and use whenever life gets too be a little bit too much for us. We have been given a very unique opportunity

to be able to talk, question, explain and communicate with the God of all Gods. It’s that simple and yet at the same time as

mind blowing as anything that I’ve ever encountered. My brothers and sisters what has happened to me has given me

a new insight to what God in His word is trying to impart to us. God says to us over and over again, “I love you, I knew you

 while you were still in your mother’s womb, you are my children and I want to share every moment with you

 and I want to have a very personal relationship with you.”               

Amen                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

February 2008                                                                                                                                                 

  William Rademaker