Big Faith!

I have frequestly been asked to share some of my Big Faith stories.  Having been saved since 1975, there are many, but here are three.  I pray they  help you in your faith walk too!  Our God is SO big and He wants to grow your faith as big as He is!

The first came shortly after I was saved.  We had another young mom who lived in our mobile home park who was bold enough and learned enough, that she shared Christ with about 10 of us young moms and we all trusted Christ within about  four months.  She would disciple us three times a week for an hour each day.  Of course I wanted desperately to share my faith with my beloved hubby, but he was not yet receptive.  One day he came home early and the descipling was going on at our house.  Brenda was telling us about the Rapture.  Dick caught just part of the conversation...the part about us meeting Jesus in the air.  He thought for sure I had gotten mixed up in some cult and it scared him.  After everyone left, he told me I would have to choose between him and this new "Jesus of mine".  As you can imagine, I was flabbergasted and did not have a clue what to do.  I went for a walk and started praying.  I ended up at Brenda's.  She told me that if my husband was ordering me not to have anything to do with church, listening to cassette tape sermons, reading my Bible and reading descipleship literature, that I should pack it all up and give it away and should never mention the Lord to him again.
THAT took BIG faith! 
I went home and told Dick that and he said that was exactly what he wanted.  So, I started packing everything up and praying.  About 15 minutes later, Dick came out in tears and told me he did not have the right to tell me that, but I was not to mention Jesus to him again or show any religious activity while he was home.  God was showing me, through my unsaved husband, 1 Peter 3:1-2.  Three years later, Dick came to trust Jesus too!
The second happened when Lance, at 9 years old, had both his kidneys out to get him ready for a transplant.  Everything they warn you can happen, and you sign for, before surgery happened to him.  He had 3 surgeries in a week, had massive infections that osmosted through his diaphragm into his lung cavity causing life threatening pneumonia.  The doctors had done everything they could and came to tell me that I had to make him take deep breaths or he would die.  I cried out to the Lord in desperation.  What was I supposed to do?  I wasn't a doctor!
It was just before Christmas and I found myself in the book store at the hospital.  I realized where I was and wondered why I was there.  I happened to look down at the children's books that I was standing in front of and saw a book of Christmas Carols.  I thought, "Lance really loves to sing and loves music, maybe this will cheer him up."  I took the book back upstairs and showed him.  He was so sick, he showed little interest.  I put my head down next to his on the pillow there in ICU and started softly singing carols to him.  I asked him if he wanted to sing along and he said, "I---can--'t---sing---I---can--'t breathe."  I told him that was OK and asked him if he wanted me to continue.  He nodded.  I was praying all the while asking God to either take him home and out of his misery or at least show me what to do to help him get better.  I started singing "Silent Night".  Then I heard this tiny breathless voice beside me...Si-i-lent night.  Ho-oly-night.  We sang all of the verses!  I was in tears, I turned to see all of Lance's nurses and doctors, who had done all they could to help Lance, standing around in tears as well.  From that time on, Lance grew in strength.  He was in intensive care until the end of January, and came home just before Valentine's Day.
THAT blew my faith up SO BIG!
The third time, involves Lance as well.  Two years later, I was to give Lance one of my kidneys.  We had gone through an intensive 2 years of testing etc.  At the time they took Lance's kidneys out we had great compatibility, but because of the incident in his last surgery and having to have many units of blood, the day before the surgery was to happen, they came to me in  my hospital room and told me that the compatibility was no longer there, but they had a new procedure they wanted to try.  They took blood from me and gave it to Lance.  We had gone through so much and Lance's hopes were so high that he would no longer have to come to the treatment center 3 days a week for 4 hours of dialysis, and be on an insanely strict diet; the thought of having to tell him that all of it was for naught broke my heart!
Again, I went to the Lord as a broken mom and pleaded with the Lord for His best for Lance.  Later that night...around midnight, the doctor came to me and told me that compatibility had been restored.  We did the transplant the next day and 10 days later I came home to recover.  Lance had to stay.  About a week later, Dick came home one night very distressed.  He said that Lance was extremely ill and the doctors thought that the kidney had died.  He said we would both have to go to the hospital the next day, as they were going to do a biopsy.
I remember going out on our porch on the crisp September night, looking to the sky and saying, "Lord, if this is a test to see if I not only trust You for my salvation, but also trust You with my son...I trust You.  If this kidney needs to come out, so be it.  You know best, I do not."
The next day, we were headed up in the elevator to the 6th floor of Strong Memorial Hospital.  At the fourth floor, I heard a kid singing at the top of his lungs, "Jesus loves me this I know".  I turned to Dick and said, "That's Lance!"  He looked at me with tears and said, "Honey, don't!  You have no idea how sick Lance is.  He can't even lift his head off the pillow and has tubes running out of him everywhere.  That can't be him."
The door opened just as Lance was being wheeled down the hall in his bed, propped up on one elbow.  He said, "Hi, Mom and Dad! I'll be back in a bit." and started singing again!
Our God and Savior is SO big!  Bigger than we can ever imagine!  My faith grew exponentially!
The kidney was sick, but not dead.  Miraculously, he could have another round of steroids and radiation treatments.  He kept the kidney for a year before they had to take it out.
There are SO many more stories...