I visited my endocrinologist this morning, and as much as I like, respect, and am thankful for my medical team, visiting doctors is not my favorite thing. I am a Type One Diabetic on a pump and CGM (continuous glucose monitor), so when I “get” to visit every three months everything is well documented, and I cannot hide much—whether that be my higher stress, lack of sleep, or extra snacking.

I was not looking forward to this appointment because I have been well aware that my blood glucose numbers have been higher since my summer break has merged into the busyness and holiday eating habits of autumn (including a couple birthdays). I began praying before having my blood work done last week that my A1C would be much better than it truly is, and that my other panels would continue to be normal. Then today, I was extra nervous, so I prayed (albeit selfishly) that my diabetes trainer (appointment 1), endocrinologist (appointment 2), nurse, and receptionist would be in a great mood, and feel super blessed by God today.

I have noted that the times I pray before my blood work that it is exceptionally better, and that praying before appointments also changes the atmosphere. I do this regularly, but have had some of the worst surprises on the days that I have forgotten to pray. I should not be surprised when prayer is effective. But my numbers were so great according to my blood work—when I have seen the roller-coaster of my CGM—that truly I am surprised yet again. My doctors only thoroughly examine the last couple weeks of my charted glucose in order to make tweaks in my pump’s algorithms, so they would not necessarily anticipate the full picture. But I know that while I am more normal right now, the last month or two were chaotic. It was a mini miracle that I will not overlook! I am thankful! And every bit of healing favor shows the power and love of God to usher in His fullness of heath and well-being in the right timing. I look forward to sharing the story when I am healed.

I have been at the Bethel Healing School this week in Redding, CA, and it has been awesome. People are here from all over the world learning how to rest in God’s love and allow Him to bring healing in and through them.

I had a surprise healing gift on Wednesday night. I had started loosing my hair in big patches earlier in the seminary semester while I was still in class. I am still not certain the cause—if it was stress related or something else (I think the latter, although I was too stressed to see yet another doctor; haha. My “internet guess” is Alopecia Areata because of the formation of the spots.). It started as a few small patches, and grew into larger patches. I have had much bigger health issues to worry about, so my hair has not been on my mind as a major need except for remembering the loss as I am brushing it in the mornings. I have had to change my part line because of the largest patch (about the size of a quarter), which is near where I would typically part my hair. The lack of hair has also felt like an indentation, so I have been reminded if I touch my head.

Anyway, during last night’s healing session someone had a “word of knowledge” (spiritual wisdom) that God was going to heal baldness right then (many other words were also given, and many others received healing for their needs). I stood to receive healing, and a gal standing behind me prayed over me for this and my other issues. Suddenly, sprouts of hair grew where there had been nothing before. My hair is growing back! Yay Jesus!

Ironically, I had felt compelled to take a picture of my missing hair in the hotel on the way to the event that day, because I thought maybe I would be healed soon. So, I have pictures.

The first picture has a bit of a glare from the bathroom light and morning sun (my head is not really so white, but there were no hairs except a couple full length ones from the center of the patch).

The second picture is the same day when I arrived back to the hotel in the evening after sunset, and it is thus a little too dark, but shows the new growth well nevertheless. So, although both pictures are unintentionally exaggerated because of the lighting, I think you will get the idea: missing hair, then small spiky new growth! It is because God loves me.

Do you know God loves you too? His love is not connected to what you do. Healing is a free gift, just as salvation is. He heals because He loves. He redeems because He loves. Not being healed does not mean lack of love, but is an invitation to press in deeper—and that is what I am doing with my other health issues.

If you need healing, may Jesus heal you now. Be blessed. :-)

We were blessed to have three guests in our home last week visiting our area with their college a cappella group. It was our first time hosting strangers overnight, so we were very excited. Due to my excitement, or perhaps something else, I made two silly mistakes while preparing dinner for us and our guests: 1) I forgot to double the soup recipe that I made, so it was going to serve 4 large bowls or 6 small bowls at most, 2) I made cornbread and forgot to put in the 2 cups of cornmeal. I'm not sure how these things happened as I'm typically a pretty good cook and pretty level headed person. In fact, with the cornbread, I had a moment before baking it that I thought, "Something is wrong; it's not typically this watery and the smell is wrong." I looked over the recipe again to see what I was missing, but somehow my eyes didn't focus on 'cornmeal' and I baked it anyway, assuming I'd done everything correctly.

I realized both my mistakes five minutes before we had to leave for the concert. By the time we got home with our college students it was going to be 9 pm--too late to remake anything, and all of our guests had dietary needs (as do we), so this wasn't something that could be solved with ordering pizza. Instead, I prayed over the food--and the whole house--and trusted that the Lord would do something. The logical side of me was thinking, "If everyone eats half a bowl of soup and lots of salad...Maybe it will work."

But two amazing things happened. First, the soup was multiplied. I watched as each of the guests served themselves a full bowl, worrying there would not be enough, then one for my husband and a half bowl for our son. I assumed I'd just be eating salad, but I reached the ladle and pulled it up to see that there was enough for me after all! Later in the meal, everyone took seconds--including me: that makes 10.5 bowls. And when we'd all eaten enough, we had so much left it wouldn't fit in our storage containers and had to be stored in a pitcher instead! The next day I counted 3 full bowls of leftovers. God multiplied my soup from 4ish bowls to 13.5 bowls!!! This is more than triple! I've made this same soup many times for our family and sometimes my husband and I have eaten it all in one sitting. This was truly a miracle!

Second, the Lord did a miracle with my cornbread. It didn't taste like corn--not even remotely. But it was MUCH BETTER than normal! It also had a very bread-like consistency despite being made almost entirely of liquid. I had warned the guests of my mistake beforehand: that the bread may be terrible and they were free to raid the refrigerator afterward. But it was not necessary, Jesus blessed us greatly, despite my lack of faith.

He is SO good!

I have been so encouraged in watching the mighty works of the Lord through my good friend as she (and now others with her) minister to the homeless in our area.

She started passing out lunches to homeless people—no big thing, in her mind—which moved into also eating lunch with the homeless, and eventually—to her surprise—became a larger thing: other people wanting to come and share in what the Lord is doing, others (even local businesses) donating food, clothing, and such to the “ministry” and still more coming to minister outright. The ministry is still young, but already they have had opportunities to lead people to know Jesus, and to see signs and wonders as He demonstrates His love among them. Here are a couple accounts of the miracles that have taken place among them:

Not too long ago, as they gathered, homeless people continued coming to them, so that they didn’t have enough food. But they read one of the stories of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes, prayed over the meal, and as they served the food, they witnessed it multiplying. The Lord provided so much that just as in the biblical accounts they had leftovers—even though there was not enough in the beginning. (And hungry people don’t exactly eat meager portions if they can help it.)  There was more than enough!

Another day, my friend put too much water in the coffee, and by the time they noticed, it was too late to fix it. She reports that it tasted TERRIBLE—more like water than coffee—but as her and another gal watched the homeless people drinking it down, they apologized to one man that it was so bad, and he responded in surprise. It was very strong coffee, he said, and very good. The Lord had changed hot water into strong coffee, and they hadn’t even asked for it. God knows what we need!

Miracles like these aren’t rare. One homeless man shared that God always supplies his needs. One time, he told them, he asked God for something very specific, and when he opened the dumpster, he found it right on top! When needs are prevalent, and faith is childlike, miracles happen.

I love you dear friend.  Thank you for walking faithfully before the Lord.  You have shown me that signs and wonders follow obedience and humility regardless of our expectations. :)