My Testimony: Our Journey To And Through God's Healing

By Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin

June 30, 2011. The day after surgery to remove a second cancer in two plus years, I was being rousted out of my hospital bed to walk about a bit to help improve my recovery process. My bed had a stationary grip-bar movement assist overhead so I decided to use it to help the nurses help me get out of bed. “1...2...3! Arggggggggggggg! Count it all joy!!!” and they lifted me out of the bed and onto my feet.

A couple of weeks out of the hospital, my wife and I were in study around a subject taught by Apostle Frederick K. C. Price. Part of his discussion included the above verse and the knowledge that all Christians must have that Jesus took our “stripes” (from Satan’s whip); punishments, sins, death, and tribulations away when he gave his life for us. When trials and tribulations (“divers temptations,”) come into our lives, that reality should make us joyfully face whatever comes, knowing that we already have been redeemed, we have but to accept and confess.

My wife commented, “Oh, you were just talking about that when you were in the hospital.” “HUH?” was all I could muster. “When did I say something like that?” “You mean you don’t remember saying that?” She went on to relate the story above. The more she talked; the memory came back to me.
During this journey to and through God’s healing, I have learned many things. Primarily, when you study God’s Word, you have multiple resources to call upon, consciously or subconsciously to help you get through. God always provides a way. I understand why I didn’t remember the incident. I was hooked up to an “iv” with some serious drugs that day and many things are still fuzzy. I’m still learning about how to understand, access, and utilize God’s promises. And how to accept and obey the Creator.

One night in early August, we retired to bed around 10:00 pm. For the next four hours, I tossed and turned. God kept putting images of a book in my mind and would not let me sleep. I rose at 2:00 am, turned on the computer and got to work. At 5:00 am, I left for my Life-alysis treatment. On the computer keyboard, I had left eight letter size pages of text. I got a call from Sharon around 6:30 am excited, and breathlessly asking me what I had done, when, and where was the rest ? I reminded her that it was she who told me to get up and put a few ideas on paper. Combined with the advice of my middle sister, Phyllis (she then gave me a journal to keep notes,) for me to write a book, way back in 2009, I finally listened and completed this project.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin
• Release date: Oct 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465966346

Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin

Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin LIVE, in Mesa, Arizona. Ronnie is a retired, tenured associate professor of the Department of Community Resource Development (CRD) from the University of Wisconsin and, disabled from the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT). Sharon, also retired from the University of Wisconsin, now works at a local for-pnrofit university. A native of New Orleans, Sharon has self-published two previous works in gift basket design. Between them, there are three adult children--Maurice, Aimee and Jamaal, and three young adult grandchildren--Alysson, Michael, and Janelle-all in Milwaukee, and Madison, Wisconsin. In our first marriages, we could not find God. In this marriage, the scales have fallen from our eyes. THANK YOU to GOD, CHRIST THE REDEEMER; and, all family/extended family/kin/clan, friends, medical/health care folks, saved souls, unsaved who read this work and are now responsible to God for what they have been told about Him and His Glory, people we know/work with/worship with/have fun with, people who believe we've helped them, and people we've yet to meet!

Book preview

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My Testimony: Our Journey To and Through God’s Healing

Published by Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin

at Smashwords

Copyright 2011

Cover Deign by Donna Casey aka Digital Donna

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connect Online:

INTRODUCTION

This work was undertaken to demonstrate God’s Power and Glory. It was also written in faith that telling my experiences will help someone else improve their relationship with God, particularly those of us who face spiritual/health challenges.

This is a testimony from my wife and I about our journey to and through God’s healing as He led us back against deadly illness attacks and multiple cancer diagnoses. At one point, many thought that I did not have long to live. Indeed, I WAS dying. More importantly, we found out that we were also being given a chance to understand and ACCEPT LIFE EVERLASTING. The roadmap was/is in God’s Word.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye

fall into divers temptations:

James 1: 2

NKJV

June 30, 2011. The day after surgery to remove a second cancer in two plus years, I was being rousted out of my hospital bed to walk about a bit to help improve my recovery process. My bed had a stationary grip-bar movement assist overhead so I decided to use it to help the nurses help me get out of bed. 1…2…3! Arggggggggggggg! Count it all joy!!! and they lifted me out of the bed and onto my feet.

A couple of weeks out of the hospital, my wife and I were in study around a subject taught by Apostle Frederick K. C. Price. Part of his discussion included the above verse and the knowledge that all Christians must have that Jesus took our stripes (from Satan’s whip); punishments, sins, death, and tribulations away when he gave his life for us. When trials and tribulations (divers temptations,) come into our lives, that reality should make us joyfully face whatever comes, knowing that we already have been redeemed, we have but to accept and confess.

My wife commented, Oh, you were just talking about that when you were in the hospital. HUH? was all I could muster. When did I say something like that? You mean you don’t remember saying that? She went on to relate the story above. The more she talked; the memory came back to me.

During this journey to and through God’s healing, I have learned many things. Primarily, when you study God’s Word, you have multiple resources to call upon, consciously or subconsciously to help you get through. God always provides a way. I understand why I didn’t remember the incident. I was hooked up to an iv with some serious drugs that day and many things are still fuzzy. I’m still learning about how to understand, access, and utilize God’s promises. And how to accept and obey the Creator.

What follows is divided into several sections;

Prologue (1877-2006)--Giving background and context for what is to follow. For example, I begin with the births and birth locations of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, myself and my siblings. I do this to set the stage for the impact of high humidity and land wetness on my life-long struggles with respiratory problems. I was born and raised in one wet place after another;

Growing up--I remember my father (as my mother would complain,) …harking up that junk and spitting it out. He always had (as I do) excess phlegm. My youngest sister has similar, if not worse, sinus/respiratory issues. We have a three year old 3rd cousin in Birmingham, Alabama who suffers similar issues. Both of them still live in wet climates, dominated by high humidity and multiple wetlands;

Chapter 1 (2006)--We begin a new life in Mesa, Arizona, a close-in suburb of Phoenix. After multiple respiratory and other infections and crises, we made numerous visits to the southwest. The decision to move was not without a great deal of praying and planning;

Chapter 2 (2007-2008)—I began working in February, 2007, for Maricopa County (Sharon had started working at Arizona State University the previous fall.) I enjoyed a great position in the Department of Transportation as the Federal Aid Coordinator. My supervisor was just that, super. We worked really well together. It helped that he and his family were also transplants from Milwaukee.

Everything was going along until June when I had my first sinus infection since April ‘06. Something seemed a little different and I remember telling a co-worker that I was under some sort of attack. The infection lasted one week, then disappeared.

Again, everything was going great until mid-December. Sharon and I had tickets to the Stevie Wonder concert, but, Sharon took ill and didn’t attend. One week later, I was again ill. This time it seemed to be the flu. I had body aches, fever, sneezing, etc. I was uncomfortable about a week. Things returned to normal until February 2008. Then the bottom began to fall out;

In February, I started developing stomach and digestion problems. I was medically advised to take a good probiotic. By May, I was hospitalized. While there, my kidneys failed, but began working again before I was discharged. I went home knowing that something was not right. What an understatement!

Chapter 3 (2009)—By now, we were losing faith in medical practice as I lost sixty pounds and was rapidly and discernibly deteriorating. NO ONE could tell us what was happening to me. In January, we finally made it to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. We had an appointment, but ended up being admitted in the emergency room. A lot of experiences and procedures that I’d only heard, read or seen on television soon became part of my experiential reality;

Chapter 4 (The Road Back)—My experiences with chemotherapy, homeodialysis (since realized as Life-alysis,) The Living Word Bible Church, my sister, the nurse, and To Love and Life.

Chapter 5 (2010-2011)—Checkups; Ever Increasing Faith Ministries; new primary care physician; PSA and Prostectomy!

Epilogue

Praise God, from Whom all Blessings flow!

Ronnie and Sharon Stricklin

My Testimony: Our Journey To and Through God’s Healing

PROLOGUE

1877

Simon Stricklin is born in Mississippi. A year earlier Anna Thorpe was born. As adults, they met, married and multiplied in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. To this union, among other children, in 1903 was born James Wyatt Stricklin.

1920s

Wyatt matured and married Lucille Johnson. He became a minister and traveled around the bottom country of Kentucky