page 1 of 1
Rejoice! A Savior is born Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Love, Steve, Wendy, Chris, Jake & Zach, 2006
Season's Greetings 2005 May God Bless your family this year! Love, The Moores
May the Lord bless your family with fun and laughter - 2010, Steve, Wendy, Jake and Zach Moore
ALL Things Are Possible
Voice of Victory - Kenneth Copeland Ministries - 03/01/2007
by Melanie Henry
A flashing red light cast an eerie glow over the snow as the ambulance slid to a stop next to a wrecked car. Wendy Moore jumped out of the ambulance and went to work – carefully trying to free the man inside from the twisted metal that had once bee his vehicle. Her breath huffed into white clouds in the frigid air. It was a fresh wreck and a fragile life, but after five years as a paramedic, Wendy knew the drill well.
Making sure they kept the man's neck and back properly aligned and immobile, she and her partner moved him onto a backboard. Bending her knees deeply, she squatted low, grabbed one end of the backboard and signaled her partner to lift. "Let's go!" she said, flexing her quadriceps to stand. One end of the backboard rose, but Wendy's end did not. Not again! Willing her muscles to work, she struggled to stand. Turning to the ambulance driver, she offered a crooked smile. "Could you lend me a hand here?" What's wrong with me? Wendy thought as the ambulance screamed its way to the hospital. At home that evening, Wendy sat on the floor playing with her son, Jacob. When Jacob toddled off after a toy, she tried to stand up. Once again, her thighs felt fatigued and didn't respond to the command.
Wendy scheduled an appointment with a neurologist who ordered an MRI, an electromyogram (EMG) and took a muscle biopsy of her thigh.
"There's nothing clinically wrong," the neurologist explained.
He prescribed antidepressants.
A few weeks later, Wendy answered a 911 call to a residence. Trudging up the snowy stairs to the front porch, her muscles failed her again and she had trouble navigating the steps. There was just one thing to do. Since she could no longer trust her ability to handle the physical challenges of her job, Wendy cut back her hours as a paramedic and began working primarily as a 911 dispatcher.
The muscles weakness continued into June of 2000 when Wendy became pregnant with her second child. By February 2001, her condition had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer squat and stand, so her physician referred her to the University of Michigan for a neurology exam.
"Your muscle weakness is so severe we don't think you'll be able to push during delivery," the neurologist explained after his exam. "You'll need to have a C-section. Come back after the baby is born and we'll do more invasive test."
On March 15, 2007, Wendy gave birth to her second son, Zachary. A few weeks later, on April l7, she, her husband, Steve, and her parents arrived at the University of Michigan neurology clinic. After conducting several tests, the chief neurologist sat down with Wendy and her family. "The disease you have is called ALS, which stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease," she said. "It's a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the motor nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The nerves die, making it impossible for the brain to signal the muscle to move. When the nerves can non longer send impulses to the muscles, the muscles waste away."
Tears streamed down Wendy's face. "Am I going to die?" "Do you really want to know?" the doctor asked. "Yes! My sons are only 2 1/2 years old and 5 weeks!"
"The disease is almost invariably fatal." came the answer. "Fifty percent of patients diagnosed with ALS live only two or five years. You'll be fully disabled soon. I suggest you go on Social Security and spend what time you have left with your children."
"My children will never know me!" Wendy sobbed in her husband's arms as they left the clinic.
I was only 27 years old when I got the diagnosis," Wendy recalls. "Back home, I cried night and day I felt as though a dark shadow had settled over me and I couldn't fight my way out of it. Although she was scheduled to return to work following her maternity leave, Wendy told her boss she might not return at all. He supported whatever decision she and Steve made.
Doctors prescribed only one drug for Wendy. It cost $700 a month.
"I was told it might prolong my life by three to six months," Wendy said. "I took the drug for a while, but it had a negative effect on my white blood count so the doctor discontinued it. There were only l4 ALS Centers in the whole country, and one of them was at the University of Michigan. If anyone could have offered medical help, they were the ones.
"My family was particularly distraught because one of my dad's relatives had died of the same disease l0 years before," Wendy said. "The symptoms progress until the patient trips, falls, has slurred speech and loses motor control. When the nerves can't signal the lungs to breathe, you suffocate."
Both Wendy and Steve's families were Christians, and they rallied around her with emotional and physical support. But Wendy's Aunt Jan went one crucial step further.
"This isn't God's plan for Wendy!" she declared. "This disease is from the devil. God's got a lot of promises for healing, and you've got to learn them."
Jan picked up the phone and called a local Bible school she'd attended and found out that the school was just beginning a teaching on healing. Steve stayed home with the children while Wendy attended the school.
"I wasn't just encouraged to go," Wendy recalls. "My whole family- mother, father, and two brothers – all enrolled with me! Each week for three hours, we sat as a family under in-depth teaching from the Word of God ….
we learned what the Bible had to say about healing.
"We learned that Jesus was bruised for our transgressions and by His stripes we were healed at Calvary. We learned that the full meaning of salvation includes wholeness, health, peace and prosperity.
"In addition to Bible school, Dad recorded Kenneth Copeland's television broadcast each day. Every night the whole family gathered to watch it. My family put me on prayer lines at KCM, John Hagee Ministries, the 700 Club and many other ministries nationwide.
"After a few weeks in Bible school, I felt the first glimmer of hope as I started getting God's Word in my heart. I learned to be very careful about what I said. I also learned that faith without works is dead. I realized that if I was going to walk by faith I couldn't sit home and collect disability."
Wendy went to her boss and announced, "I'm coming back to work. I'm standing on the Word of God that says I'm says I'm healed. I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me. I don't want a pity party. I expect to pull my weight. If I need help, I'll ask."
Wendy had been thrust into a fight for her life, and the worst part of the battle wasn't physical – it was mental. It seemed as though Satan had gotten wind of her faith stand and was determined to undermine it.
To fight back, her family printed pages of healing scriptures which Wendy taped on her bathroom mirror and on the refrigerator. They wallpapered the house with the Word of God. Day after day, Wendy confessed God's Word over her situation. Family members posted the same scriptures in their homes, and confessed them over her situation as well.
When Wendy began suffering muscle twitches, she agonized, knowing they were a sign she was worse. The first time she tripped and fell, she sobbed in despair.
Although the slurred speech, muscle twitching, tripping and falling continued, with her family's strong support, Wendy continued to stand, refusing to leave work or give in to her symptoms.
After three months, Wendy returned to the University of Michigan for a follow-up exam. "You're doing well," they reported. "You're stable, although you've lost some strength. How are you coping?"
"I'm back at work full-time," Wendy explained. "I'm also attending Bible school. We believe that by Jesus' stripes I am healed."
"You're working full time?" the doctors asked incredulously. "You're working a 40-hour week?"
"Yes, plus going to Bible school and taking care of my children."
"Well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it."
The biggest foe in Wendy's life wasn't ALS. It was fear. Fear stalking her every waking moment. It covered her life like a shroud. It met her in her dreams and dogged her every step.
The spirit of fear reminded her of the family member who'd already died from the disease. It reminded her of all the good Christians who die prematurely.
She countered with the Word. "My people perish daily for a lack of knowledge," she said. "Without faith it is impossible to please God."
She meditated daily on 3 John 2, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." (New King James Version)
"That scripture meant so much to me," Wendy remembers. "In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructed us to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven, and those scriptures make it clear that it's not God's will that we be sick. The more I meditated on these scriptures the stronger my faith grew.
"One of my most fervent prayers was that my healing would be verified by the doctors and that they would reverse their diagnosis."
Wendy's one-year checkup in April 2002 proved she was still stable. Her mother asked the doctors to repeat their original tests.
"There's no need," they explained. "All of Wendy's tests were conclusive for ALS. We would never give that diagnosis if we weren't sure."
Wendy and her family continued speaking and meditating on the Word. They continued to attend classes at the Bible school, to watch the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast, and to stand dogged in their faith. Wendy also continued her work schedule on the job, as well being a mother to her sons and a wife to her husband.
Wendy Moore didn't merely stay alive- she lived.
Eventually the slurred speech and muscle twitching stopped. Wendy stopped tripping and falling.
In August 2003, more that two years after her original diagnosis, Wendy reported back to the University of Michigan for her exam. Once again, she was stable.
The following month, she arrived home and found a message on her answering machine. "You have an atypical case of ALS," the message said. "We would like for you to come back and repeat the original tests."
October 20, 2003, Wendy rubbed moist palms on her slacks as needles were stuck into her back, head and the rest of her body. Electrical currents ran painfully through the needles to her nerves.
She was peppered with questions, probed and thoroughly tested. Sitting up after her ordeal, she saw the whole team staring at her.
"So, what's going on?" she asked.
"Wendy," the chief neurologist said, "you don't have ALS."
Wendy felt the words wash over her like a breath of God's love.
"We don't understand what's happened here. Although the original nerve death we observed is still there, your nerves aren't dying off anymore. You look like someone who had polio 50 years ago and whose body has healed."
The nurse sobbed. "I'm so happy for you! We never get to tell people this!"
When Wendy's family was ushered into the room, they found her sitting with her head in her hands, sobbing. "What's wrong?" her dad asked.
Wendy lifted her head and said, "I don't have ALS."
The family became so emotional the medical team left them alone to rejoice. Steve would have his wife by his side to watch each milestone in their children's lives. Her parents would have their daughter. Her daughter would have a mother.
"I've never felt so close to heaven as I did at that moment," Wendy says. "The presence of God was so incredibly tangible. It seemed as if the Lord was saying, "You stood on My Word and now I'm showing Myself to you."
It's been five years since Wendy Moore was diagnosed with ALS. Today, she is a 911 supervisor, while Steve works as a police officer and a paramedic. Jacob and Zachary are now 8 and 5 years old. After working her grueling 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shifts, Wendy cheers on the sidelines during each football game, karate practice, wrestling match and baseball inning.
"Kenneth Copeland Ministries showed me how to walk by faith," Wendy says. "They taught me that trials will come, but Jesus will bring us through them all triumphantly."
Perhaps the most important lesson Wendy learned is the one that is printed on her checks and written on the tablets of her heart.
For with God ALL things are possible.
Book titled,"Anointing for Healing", by Melanie Hemry published by Whitaker House Publishers September 2007 includes Wendy Moore's healing testimony. Book price $14.99. Wendy's Mother is Janice Charchan of Flint, Michigan.
Wendy Moore's Favorite Scriptures:
Hebrews 1:11
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidance of things not seen."
III John 1:2
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth."
Luke 1:37
""... for with God nothing shall be impossible."
James 2:26
"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
I John 5:4
""...for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith."
No comments:
Post a Comment