About Jackie
I
was born and raised in a Christian home, but as everyone knows, that
does not make a person a Christian. My life was privileged to have
a heritage of Godly grandmothers and great-grandmothers whose
testimonies were taught to us as children. There came a time as a
child when I was saved, but drifted away and would be wooed back by
the Holy Spirit and would try and try to live a Christian life. I
rededicated my life to Christ at 16 and tried again…same results.
Why? Because the church I was raised in, or my lack of
understanding of the teachings, had the result in my life that I
could not live the “Christian life” like all the others that stood
up and testified of how they were over comers, and I would give up.
It was always, “get saved again” and I must say I tried that remedy
a lot in my life. Finally, at 45 years of age I found someone who
could help me understand the Word of God and that the Father loved
me and that He understood my short-falls and made the provision of
repentance through Jesus Christ’s unblemished sacrifice for us and
for that very failing in each and every life. Not to “get saved”
again, but REPENT and start anew and to forgive myself for things
that I did wrong and learn what made me make that mistake so that I
would not hurt my Father when that same situation happened again.
Broken, miserable, and in many ways dysfunctional, my life to me lay
in ruins. To look at me you would have thought all was well, but my
heart was so unhappy and unfulfilled. My Father God changed that
life ever so slowly by leading me through the Word of God and
shining the Light of His Love and giving understanding to what I
read in His Word so that He could change me from the inside out.
Learning from His Word for myself, not what someone told me was in
there, or I thought was in there, but really what was in there,
changed my life. I cannot explain how that I crossed over from a
life that was unforgiven and empty to a life of joy and acceptance
and assurance that God is indeed there for me and with me in every
circumstance, I just know that day changed my life completely and I
have never been that same woman. I had a completely insatiable
appetite for the Word and would study sometimes 10 or more hours a
day. The Lord was quickly getting my feet on the Rock, Christ
Jesus, because of the coming storms that I would have to weather.
My
husband became ill and our farming operation was over and I had to
go work outside our home, and really was chomping at the bit wanting
to share what I was learning about God and His Word. Shortly after
getting my husband’s health on track, there was one of the hardest
blows in my life.
I was
working and suddenly there was a place in my right eye that I
couldn’t see out of. I told the co-workers and when I got home from
work, took a little walk with my husband and kept saying that there
was a place I could not see out of. The next day I went to the
doctor and after he examined me, he started to close the door, but I
heard him say,” get the counselor” and I knew this was bad news. I
had Retinal Schisis, an eye disease that makes the retina become
thin and peel away from the eye and you go blind. This doctor said,
go home, and wait to become blind. I knew somewhere in my heart
that the Lord was not going to let me study His Word that hard and
then not be able to see, or point in the Word and show someone else,
“thus sayeth the Lord”…right here, and point in the Word. You see,
by then, I did know my Lord and was learning Him more and more
everyday in every situation. Well, as in every prediction there
comes a day that it was a misdiagnosis, or a healing or it happens,
and it happened.
I
changed jobs, believing in my Savior to be in charge and that He
would take care of us. It was a much better job with more pay and I
told my employer before he hired me that my condition existed but
that I had been stable for 4 years. One year after I was there the
right eye started to get a finger of fluid coming across my vision…I
knew. Did I run? No, I prayed and prayed for 3 weeks, but it was
growing, so finally I went to Barnes Hospital to a clinic and I had
fasted and went right to surgery. Not good, the retina was not
attached and this progressed to 3 operations, one every six weeks
until the eye was so damaged that nothing could be done…or so
everyone thought…even me. Then it got worse! A year almost to the
day later, the left eye got the finger of fluid and I knew what was
coming. But this time I called my brother, because of the four
siblings I have, only one has the same disease and he gave me the
name of his doctor. I didn’t get his doctor but a fellow in the
same office and with the Lord God Almighty and that man’s skill he
saved my left eye, although with some damage and a buckle to hold
the retina on, I can work, I can drive, I can see my beloved
husband’s face and my grandchildren and most of all the Word of
God. After that, guess what? There was silicon oil in the right
eye holding on the retina, but you have to sleep on your side from
then on so that the oil does not escape, but I got a blood clot in
my leg and had to lay flat and the oil escaped and set up major
glaucoma and I had to rushed to surgery to remove the oil. Again
the surgery on that poor damaged eye, but something truly wonderful
ends this story. One day, after a 5th surgery to attach
that retina and it had healed up, I was adjusting my glasses and
through the crack in my fingers I could SEE! I told my surgeon and
he could hardly believe it either. I then got a contact and praise
God with the contact and a glass in my glasses I can see. God can
still heal the blind!!! It is a very small portion, but even with
the trauma it has been through, any vision at all is so wonderful.
This is really only part of my story, for the Lord blesses our home
with peace and contentment that I sought for years with grasping
hands, but can only come down from the Father through His Son, Jesus
Christ. After these losses and restorations from God, for you know
that Satan comes but to steal, kill, and destroy, I took that damage
and use it for the Glory of God and volunteered at KNLP to give back
to others for what the Lord has restored and given me. In other
words, I kick Satan in the teeth with the weapon he tried to use to
make me give up and shrink back from the world and tempt me to say,
“How can this happen to me Lord, I serve you?” Why? How? Because
He wants tested and tried over comers to show the world and Satan,
that He, God alone, uses the broken, small and unlearned to confound
the wise and prudent, because then the whole world will know that
the broken vessel has no strength in itself, only the contents of
that vessel, the Lord Jesus Christ, makes it able to be used. Glory
to His Name, Thank You Father!
