Furry Tales Magic

When I was about ten years old I would always spend my allowance on silly magic tricks to entertain my friends. Also when I was about ten that I asked Jesus to come and take over my heart. I remember even at the tender age of ten bringing another boy my age to accept Jesus as his personal savior. I did this on my own and still remember all the “good luck” I encountered immediately after this happened. I did not realize until much, much later in life that what I called good luck as a ten year old boy was really blessings from God! I went through my adolescence not paying much attention to God and Jesus. My parents never went to church. They only sent me to church camp when I was young. My father died when I was 17 after a terrible 2 year battle with colon-rectal cancer it was brutal to see my father in such pain. I became angry and never really turned to God for strength. Drugs were much easier. In my twenties my girlfriend and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. This was another gift from God that would make more of an impact on my life than I ever would be able to comprehend or understand. I just knew I loved her more than life itself.

So on with life…..

Her mother and I split up when she was about 1 ½ years old.
Court orders gave her mom physical custody of her and I found myself not being able to see her every day and no more kisses goodnight. This was hard and never did I ask God for strength or guidance. I never even prayed at meals. I went on with my life and a couple years later I would marry and have a son. During our marriage my daughter would come to live with us. My new wife was not very accepting of my daughter and again I never asked God for his strength or guidance. Our relationship became volatile and we would soon divorce. I was now a single father with a beautiful young girl whom I loved more than life itself. I would spend the next 9 or 10 years single and with not so much as a date. If I was going to do one thing right in my life it was going to be a good dad. At about age 32 cancer would also now claim my mother. Again I never asked God for help. I finally began to pray a little here and there and asked God to bring me a woman into my life that was not a train wreck. My prayers were answered and I met Denise, the woman that would one day become my wife. This time I thanked him and went on my way. She had two children and I had my daughter. We knew from the beginning that this group would somehow form a family.
We both were unsure of our future and my ability to provide for my family was not very stable at best. I did magic shows at kid’s birthdays and had a hand full of other hair brained schemes that were moderately successful but always lacked in consistency. We started selling framed posters at small festivals, swap meets, street corners and where ever we could find a spot. One day we met a manager at a Vons grocery store named Ron Witte and he told us of an event they were having in their parking lot to raise money for prostate cancer research. Denise and I put up our 10 x 20 stand along with a few other vendors and started watching the blessings flow. We thanked God for bringing us there! On the last day of the event the military was there as well as the local fire departments. They had a band playing and it was at this point a very welcomed success. The day started out very busy but it was just a little windy. At about eleven in the morning it was becoming apparent that we did not bring enough stock so I jumped in the van to drive home and pick up more framed art. This was great. It was about a half hour away so I left Denise at the stand and hopped on the freeway. I got home and loaded all we had into the van and headed back. About 20 minutes away Denise called me on the cell phone and told me that a big gust of wind came through and blew our whole stand over. Keep in mind this was all we had and it was all glass. I was devastated and told her I would be right there! For the next 20 minutes I yelled at God and complained. I asked him why he would let such a thing happen! We were trying so very hard to get ahead and now he was going to have us start over from scratch? There was like 3,000 dollars worth of inventory hanging on those walls. Why God, why? I was so mad! As I pulled into the parking lot I saw the disaster. Our stand was not standing and all the frames were stacked up. I was almost in tears. As I walked up Denise informed me that as the wind gust came through there were about 7 or 8 firemen and a handful of national guardsmen standing by our display that caught the structure as it fell. All in all only about fifteen dollars worth of glass broke and I was standing before our Lord with egg on my face! I found a nice little place in the shade and got down on my knees to apologize. Lord I am so sorry for doubting you! Please forgive me. Please let me make this up to you anyway that I can. It was a miracle! The very next morning our phone rang at about 7:45. It was a church pastor asking me about performing at his church for a group of about hundred needy families in the area. Denise asked who was on the phone. I turned to her and said “It’s GOD! “ When the pastor asked me how much it would cost for my performance I told him the story of what happened the day before and that this show was already paid for by GOD! Amazing Grace!
After this things kept spiraling down hill for our business. Soon we would be evicted from our home and would find ourselves living in a campground with three kids and a dog. We were in big trouble and had not much hope. We were comforted in the fact that we were together and we had love and we knew God was watching over us. I learned a very valuable lesson in trusting God recently so I knew things would get better. We all liked camping anyway. We also knew we were only one social worker away from losing our children. A friend of a friend offered to let us rent a little 10 ft x10 ft room behind his garage so we took it. It was warmer and dryer than the campground. We stacked the kids three high on homemade bunk beds and had just enough room to lie down. Life was hard yet we had much love and we were together.
One day we were driving down the freeway discussing ways to get us out of the hole we lived in and the subject of Jesus came up. This was the conversation that would ultimately change our lives and bring us to the path that God was trying so desperately to aim us towards. We were talking about Jesus wandering through the desert for over a month with nothing but God. At the same time a commercial came on the radio station that we were listening to. It was an advertisement for a promotional contest they were having called “Show us your K-CAL“. Who ever could advertise their radio station the most creatively and reach the most people in the community would win a grand prize of 10,000! I said to my wife,” If Jesus could walk through the desert for over a month then we could make a giant banner for the radio station, mount it in backpacks and walk all over the place with it!” In fact we would walk 96.7 miles over the next month. We walked a little bit here and a little bit there. Seven miles one day, four the next, ten the day after and so on. Wind, rain and California sun were not our friends but we were determined. We walked and talked, and then walked some more. The day they were to announce the winners Denise and I were lying in bed and had completely forgotten about the whole thing. Then the phone rang! We had just won $10,000! We rented a house and walked into the First Baptist Church of Redlands and found our church home instantly. Pastor Joe DeRoulhac would be an inspirational as well as spiritual guide for our family from there on out. We toiled and kept pushing forward with moderate success and now prayer and a church family were in our lives. We felt very blessed. Denise and I were married a few months later and it seemed things were on the right track!
After a few more years of entrepreneur ventures we were getting fed up with California life and for some odd reason felt a need to move to Idaho. We felt that this was part of God’s plan for us. We had never been to Idaho before but on our first visit to look for a house we knew we had found God’s back yard. So we moved. Life was great and blessings were flowing. Praise God! We kept a small portion of our online book business and we all secured a job with not much effort. Life was good!
A Year or two went by and I discovered I was having a tad bit of trouble going #2. I was very reluctant to go to the doctor because I knew what the outcome most likely would be. My family finally convinced me to get a colonoscopy at age 42. They found a large polyp lodged in the end of my rectum and took some samples. The next week was a nail biter waiting for the test results to come back. Then the call came in, “please come to my office“said the voice on the other end. Our doctor said the polyp was not cancer and he would send off his results to a specialist for further review. Dr. James Olson at St Luke’s medical center was my next stop. His office would be the starting point of a very long and painful journey in my life. As he sat my wife and I down he informed us that the swatch they took during my colonoscopy was kind of like dim-sum you never know what’s in the bite you just took. After further tests I was informed that my polyp was actually a very angry tumor that was reaching into my lymph nodes.
You guessed it STAGE 3 colon cancer! I was then given a 20% chance of living through the next year. I was to start a 6 week course of chemotherapy and radiation treatment A.S.A.P. I lifted my head to the sky and told God that I trusted Him and if he needed me in heaven than I would understand. But please give strength to my family! I also let him know that if that was the case that I did not agree with him. I felt I had much more to do in this life that he gave me. I would lose about 100 lbs in the next 6 months and not feel very well at all. God spoke to me through other people during my trial. I remember the first visit to the chemotherapy chair as they were getting ready to hook me up. I closed my eyes and asked God simply “why?” Why must I go through this now? Why me God? Poor little ole me! God’s answer came immediately. A woman sat down next to me whom was about 25 years old or so and just had a beautiful little baby girl about 6 months prior. Her husband sat holding her hand as she informed me that she had stage three breast cancer and that she might loose her life but would definitely be loosing one of her breasts! As a father of a beautiful baby girl whom I got to watch grow into a beautiful woman I then closed my eyes and said to God “ I’m Fine Lord Thank you for all you have done! “ . My time during chemotherapy treatments was guarded by such wonderful nurses. I remember one in particular that treated me like I was her one and only grandchild. Her name was Alice and God sent her to me to keep me safe during this very hard Time. God is Awesome! Soon after I was finished with chemotherapy and my radiation treatments I would undergo my first surgery, a procedure that would remove my entire rectum tumor and all. My life was in the hands of my surgeon and his hands were in the hands of God! Lord please let me wake up from this! The surgery went well and I awoke the next day with not much pain, feeling not too shabby. I had tubes coming out of everywhere but I was ALIVE! They gradually started taking tubes out and on the third day I thought it was all going to be a breeze. The doctor came in and told me that later on that afternoon they were planning on removing the epidural from my spine. As I never have had surgery before in my life I never really knew how much I should have appreciated morphine dripping into my spine! He said it would hurt when they took it out! It didn’t really hurt all that bad. I’m a tough guy! Well about 2 hours later I went from that tough guy to a crying little girl! The discomfort and pain was tremendous. I closed my eyes and pictured myself snowboarding with my youngest daughter Emily. It was one of the best things in my life. She is one of my best friends and we love to ride together! This was a blessing from God. And it was also a blessing of pain relief. God is amazing!
About a week after I came home from the hospital I was slowly getting my strength back and one Sunday morning I was home alone and wanted so badly to go to church so that I would be surrounded by the holy spirit . I slowly got up out of bed and mustered up enough energy to get dressed and drag myself into a Baptist church here in the treasure valley. I could not sit upright for more than a few seconds because of the pain so I brought along a pillow and blanket and found an out of the way place in the church and down I lay. About 5 minutes later an usher from the church nudged me with his foot and told me to get up! I could not lie where I was because he might trip over me when he was taking the offering. With no concern over why I was lying there in the first place he escorted me out of the room and into the lobby and told me to lie down under this speaker, so I did. I just wanted to pray and hear the message. Well, the service started with a cherub choir. Sweet little children singing to God! But it was all drowned out by the ushers talking about their fishing stories from the day before. Still I laid and waited for the message of the day. As the Pastor began to speak an usher leaned over me and asked if I had accepted Jesus as my personal savior. My response was YES! I am safely in the palm of my savior’s hands and nothing could possibly snatch me from his grip. During the entire sermon I was asked over and over, “Are you sure? “. Would you like to re-affirm your commitment? I was nice and kept telling the gentleman that I had just wanted to hear the pastor speak. I left that church feeling as if Jesus had never been in that building and possibly did not even know the address! I left there feeling drained instead of filled. I went home and slept for a week and the next Sunday I got up and was once again on a mission to be surrounded by the Holy Spirit. When you are ill and weak if you have God in your heart Jesus holds your hand the entire time. I just wanted to feel it stronger. I wanted to be more in the presence of God. I felt better and it was a blessing. So I got up and dressed, grabbed my pillow and blanket and walked into Capital Christian Center. There I met Pastor Mike Dodd. I told him what had happened the week before and asked if it would be okay to lie down somewhere out of the way so that I may hear the message, pray and feel the Holy Spirit. He escorted me down to about the third row and told the ushers that these four seats were to be reserved for me and spread my blanket out and said this is your spot until you can sit up again. WOW, this was a welcome change! Could I have found were Jesus spends his Sunday morning? The band started to play and people all around me were singing. The Holy Spirit filled the room. It was awesome! Then Pastor Ken Wilde gave his sermon for the day. All the while I was smiled upon and felt the presence of our Lord surrounding the entire congregation! This was God’s house and although I will always have a church family in Redlands, California this will be the place I will turn to for love, support and spiritual guidance! This was NOT a one time occurrence. The staff of Capital Christian Center was so very supportive throughout my recovery. The prayers were heard loudly by God!
The next Sunday would be Easter Sunday and my wife was anxious to go with me to this new church I was talking so much about. She woke up next to me that Sunday morning at about nine only to find tears rolling down my face. She asked if I was in great pain. I responded with a cheerful NO! I felt as if Jesus had his arms around me. Also I felt as if there were a great multitude of people praying for me at that moment. We got up and went to Easter service. This was a very difficult time for me. I was in a great deal of pain. I cried during the whole service partly because of the pain from surgery, partly from the pain that Jesus endured to ensure my salvation. We returned home and found the little red light blinking on our answering machine. The message was from the vice president of operations for smoky mountain pizza, Johnny Ryan. He called to let me know that his whole church lifted me up in prayer that Easter Sunday. I called him back to ask about what time this occurred. That’s when the bomb was dropped!!! He said it was about 9 that morning. Both Denise and I were speechless. This was the equivalent to having one of the bushes in the yard catch fire and start talking to us. Jesus has risen, he is alive and he loves us so dearly. God is Amazing! After about another year of fighting for my life , millions of prayers from thousands of people, an agonizing pain filled recovery period, two more surgeries to get things right and another six months of chemotherapy I would finally get some good news, the answer to all our prayers. It was my third or fourth follow up visit after my third surgery. Dr Olson sat me down in his office and told me they have done every test they could do and could find no signs of cancer and I would not even need to schedule any more follow up visits. He said “Have a nice life!” Praise God!
I have been pain free for about seven months now. I have all my energy back and even walked on stilts during recent local parades to make children laugh! God has blessed me with the gift of laughter. My faith in him has grown stronger than I ever thought possible. I still have sin in my life and sometimes my faith gets rattled. God is always teaching us lessons even when we don’t understand them. For as even the Hebrews doubted God’s ability to provide them with such simple things such as food and water after watching God have the sea swallow their enemies , I too sometimes forget just how amazing our Lord is. The funny thing is that he never forgets how much he loves me and is quick to forgive at the same time. And performing miracles against astronomical odds! Always I think these are sent as a reminder to me that he loves me and wants the best for me and my family. Either that or he just loves hearing the sound of children’s laughter! God is Awesome!

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