Grace Stories

Grace Stories 2011

On Sunday, January 1, Pastor Pete shared a number of stories of God’s grace as reported by the members of Antioch during 2011. Here are the bullet points of those stories. Adam Stitt will have the video of the service loaded to our church Facebook page this week if you missed it.

Danny and Debby Clark:

Pete,wanted to send you something about our blessings this year. It has been a difficult year with both sets of parents but grateful for what we have. We are very thankful that the Lord protected Matt and brought him home safely from Iraq.We are thankful for a new healthy grandson. In a strange way, we are thankful for the struggles Angee and will are experiencing. It has brought Angee to the Lord and renewed her relationship and has increased all our faith. We are still praying and believing and waiting for a miracle in his time. We are thankful to celebrate 20 year anniversary. That is a miracle itself. We are also thankful to have celebrated 4 year anniversary of the miracle of Matthew’s adoption. It has been a great year.

Carl and Katrina Harmon:

1: We attended the Love Loud event and it brought us to this church.

2: We became members here after having some luck with Carl getting a job

3: We were baptised and the next day I was offered a job and while it was only temporary, it got me back out in the work force.

4: We have gotten Marty into Headstart and that opens the door for me to also go back to work full-time.

5: Carl, through the help of people in the church and many prayers, got a job where he has a ton of room for advancement and opportunities.

Mary Krell:

In January of 2011 our 19 year-old grand daughter, Kelly, came to live with us and started at ETSU. That might not sound like a miracle, but it is. For 13 years we did not know where Kelly and her brother, Daniel, were. We didn’t know if they were dead or alive. We prayed for 13 years, and we claimed Jeremiah 29:11. Many, many people also prayed. Then in May 2009, they found us. We started trying to build a relationship with them. And that has led to Kelly living with us, and Daniel has been with us for the last 2 weeks over his Christmas break. God is good. He answers prayers in His time.

Jim and Judy Fox:

For 4 months this year there were 7 people putting their feet under our table. What a challenge  it was to provide enough food for adults. teenagers, and a 4 year old. But God always provided enough and more . Jim Krell brought us cabbage, tomatoes , corn, and other vegetables. We often told him he helped feed the mulitudes. What a wonderful blessing to have a church family who helps even when they don’t know all that is going on. Several times money came our way that could only be a God thing. With the extra washing and showers, the electric bill and water bill  were unbelieveable.  With alot of health issues with not only Jim’s stroke , but with my declining C.O.P.D., God allowed us to stay well during this time and to learn even more to depend on him alone. We are indeed a blessed family and church!!! We forgot to add that while all the excitement of having a house full of challenges, our youngest grandson asked Jesus to come into his heart and save him. That’s the sweetest kind of blessing God will ever bestow on us. It don’t get any better than that.

Jeannette Cohran:

I feel this year has had some regrets and rewards due to some choices I have made and some events that have happened in our family. We have been blessed with our 7th grandchild, Eliza Guerin Cohran which has been a double blessing due to the fact that we have another grandchild and also that she was named after me by using my maiden name of “Guerin”.  Even though this year had some regrets, in the end God has turned the regrets around and healed and solved them. Thank You God for hearing my prayers and answering them. Sometimes not as quick as I would have liked them but it taught me patience and that all things come together in “His Time”.

My eyesight has been restored after many doctor appointments, eye drops, surgery and intercessory prayer. Praise God I don’t need glasses or contacts and can see clearly now.

Perry Whitaker:

Having gone to the doctor for tests in late December 2010, to see if I was a candidate for an implant to help alleviate the pain I have in my right arm, a biscuit sized mass was found at the base of my spine.  During a Wednesday night prayer service, I was anointed with  oil and much concentrated prayer was offered on my behalf.  When I went back for another MRI two weeks later, the mass was gone.  Even though it was discovered I am not a candidate for the pain relief device due to so much scar tissue in my spinal column, God chose to remove the mass.  I think testing for the stimulator was God’s way of bringing this mass to our attention and the fact that He also made it disappear was how I could give God the glory for the removal.

Even though I can’t use the device to help relieve my pain, I praise God for the fact that I’m not totally paralyzed as the doctors seem to think I should be.  I praise Him that He removed what could have been a cancerous mass, and I praise Him that my pain is not as bad as some people endure..such as Mrs. Henley did before her homegoing.   I praise God that I have hope…hope that when I get to heaven there will be no pain, no sadness, grief, or despair.    Even on my bad days, I can give Him glory and praise.

Sandra Whitaker:

On Saturday, May 6, 2011, my day began as usual. Breakfast with Perry and then run some errands.  We had breakfast and ran our errands with no real forewarning of how things were about to change.  We had pulled back into our driveway and I was walking to the back porch, when I felt a strange sensation in my throat, felt nauseated, and faint.  Before I could get into the house, I had to sit down in a chair and proceeded to lose consciousness.  I know now, I was not getting blood flow to my heart. Once the EMS folks got my heart beating again,  I was taken by ambulance to JCMC and scheduled for cardiac bypass surgery that following Tuesday afternoon.

About 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning while in the Cardiac Care Unit of the hospital , I called the nurse to tell her I was feeling that weird sensation in my throat again, and thought I was about to pass out….and I did.  I found out later I had flat lined.  No heart beat at all.  She called a code blue to my room and before the crash cart even arrived, a young man working on that floor ran into my room, jumped up on my bed, and began CPR.  Apparently it worked, because I’m sending you this email today.

During the time I was without a heartbeat that morning, I experienced something a lot of folks don’t experience and come back to talk about.  I was in a passage way and that passage way was so brilliantly lit I couldn’t see anything other than the Light.  I felt I was not alone although I didn’t see actual faces.  I felt the presence  of someone with me.    I was moving along in this passage way, not walking and not floating above it…moving along like on one of the transport belts in larger airports.  I know without a shadow of a doubt, I was on my to heaven.  I can tell you I was not afraid at that moment.  I was moving forward feeling an incredible peace.   I don’t know how long this lasted, but for whatever reason, I didn’t get to finish the journey.   The next thing I remember I was in my room being prepped for surgery.  That morning I had a quadruple bypass.  The young man said as he was doing CPR, I pushed him off of me.  I don’t know if I was saying let me continue my journey or if I was saying..ok..ok..I’m back.

Two weeks later while at my cardiologist’s office for a two week follow up appointment, while sitting on the exam table, I told the nurse, I was having ‘that feeling’ in my throat again and was about to pass out…and I did. Again I had no heartbeat and my EKG was showing a flat line. It was back to the hospital where the found two of the four bypass grafts had failed, I was experiencing cardiac artery spasms, and also having brain reflex which causes the heart rate to drop very low (mine goes between 30 and 50).

Three times my heart stopped beating and my EKG was showing no activity.  During one of those episodes, I know that I know that I know, I was just an instant from entering heaven’s gate. Why God chose to not let me finish that journey, I don’t know.  But this one thing I do know….I do not fear death. I know that I won’t cross from this life into the next alone, and I believe Psalm 23 when it says ‘yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for though art with me’ .

I thank God for allowing me to glimpse just a part of what is to come.  I have been able to share this with many people (from the produce market owner to my doctors) and I know that God will use these words to comfort and to challenge.  Two people who heard of my experience, have now had this experience themselves, but they finished the journey.  They are in heaven today.   Unless Jesus returns, there will be a day when my heart will stop and no amount of CPR or electrical shock will make it start again because that will be the day God has determined to be my moving day.  I will complete the journey through that passageway and through the gates of heaven and I’ll join family and friends in eternal praise of my Savior.

Through this experience, I have come to realize just how many folks care about me and my family.  I have come to realize just how much I love my family and church family. More than that though, I have come to realize how much God loves me and when I sing How Great Thou Art, I sing it with more love and understanding  of how good and how great my God is.

Roy Garvin:

I was able to forgive some people who had despitefully used me and done ugly things to me in the past!

Barbara Garvin:

I experienced God’s grace during the time of watching my step mother go through a hard death. This experience showed me what a glorious statement it is to say “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”

Mike Cohran:

As a small group, we had been praying God would bless us and help us to grow. During the last few months, our small group has grown more intimate with each other and the Holy Spirit and grown in numbers.

James Garland:

I was able to minister to my best friend until suddenly I found i could hardly walk. Knowing she needed my ministry, I prayed that I could continue to walk and God strengthened me to continue. God also blessed me with a car when I could not see a way to buy one.

Dwight Harrell:

God provided jobs for both Regina and me after we had been laid off within a week of each other.

Mary Alexander:

My daughter, Sharon, and her family moved here from FL. It has been a real blessing to have them close to me. I love sharing my life with all my family. I am grateful my other daughter, Janet, joined the church recently.

Sharon Rowell:

God is healing my husband, Theo! He is doing much better and seems to be improving every day. We moved our family back to Tennessee to be near my parents. God has brought us through the year financially. Sometimes, we did not know how the bills were paid, but I know God is in control!

Bobby and Shannon Johnson:

We are thankful for our marriage this year, for Shannon’s house selling in FL in just 30 days, for His provision of a great house here at a good price, for good health, and for everyday grace.

Harry Miller:

God restored me spiritually after 2 years. I lost my job of 36 years, but He enabled me to retire. Our son, Chris and his wife, Kristen, are expecting a baby girl. We are blessed.

Richard Vines:

I have been blessed in so many ways tis year that I cannot just pick one thing out. Just to still be in church is a great blessing and to have Pete as my pastor one more time. And to have family as missionaries in Rome. I am thankful.

Jerry Bailey:

God is not done with me yet! He has taken me and Pam through a lot of ups and downs for a reason – to share that in Christ, all peace and joy can be found whether you are up or down. We have much to share with those who are or will be going through a valley. God has always been there for us!

Ann Hodge:

The Lord continues to give me good health, the ability to care for my grandchildren, stable finances, and a healthy church family.

Elizabeth Bowles:

I am thankful for healthy children, a church going on a new path and living in a new day, a wonderful job I love, a husband and family that follow God, and the ability to direct the choir even though I feel inadequate at times.

 

Debbie Donaldson:

As for what God has done for me this year, after the unexpected prediction by the ER doctor that I had cancer, I was truly blessed that it wasn’t.  Dr. Kramer said at my follow up visit that he told me he didn’t think I had surgery.  I told him that I wasn’t worried, I had too many prayer warriors on my side.  That I didn’t even pray for myself the night before the surgery.  I prayed for him, to have a steady hand, that I wasn’t going to be selfish and pray for myself. He said to keep the prayers coming.