And we watched it be healed in front of our eyes!

​I cannot believe I haven’t told this story already, as it is a HUGE miracle!  Tom was telling this story to his sister Sally this week, and it reminded me of it.  In November of 2000, Dad had carpal tunnel surgery.  During the surgery, they drained a ton of fluid off his hand, sent it off and never found anything.  Months go by, he is doing good, no issues, and then the ice storm came in 2001 (or so).  Most of you will remember it.  After the ice storm, he was doing so much with the chain saw, his hand began to swell up with fluid again.  I mean, really swell.
 
They waited a couple months and went to an orthopedic doctor who couldn’t figure out why it was swelling, couldn’t make heads nor tails out of it.  They drained some fluid, sent it off, and nothing came back.  Months go by and it is getting worse and worse.  He had no medication for it as no one knew what they were doctoring and wouldn’t give him anything.  Mom and Dad were supposed to go to Germany in May with the Work & Witness missionary team, and they had to cancel their trip as Dad’s hand was so bad.  It just kept swelling and swelling.
 
In May, they thought they were going to have to amputate his hand before whatever it was that was working on it spread to other parts of his body.  They went in, split open several fingers and his palm, and got fluid out to send away again.  This time the fluid was brown and sticky.  Doctors were still stumped, and the hand continued to swell.  It reminded you of the Pillsbury Dough Boy’s hands – all puffy and straight, with the fingers unable to bend.  The orthopedic doctor in Columbus said all he could think to do was to split his fingers open individually, his palm, and scrape out this brown goo by hand and he just was afraid to do that.
 
By August, the hand was in severe shape and painful and basically unusable.  We were going to family camp at the Nazarene campground in Summersville, and they always have a healing service one morning of the week.  Dad decided that although he had prayed and others had prayed about his hand and it hadn’t improved, he was going to go to that healing service and get his hand healed.  The service begins, and Dad approaches the altar and shows everyone his hand, gives a little ditty about what has happened to it and how no one knows how to fix it, but he KNOWS the Lord knows how to fix it. 
 
The saints begin to pray, and you could FEEL the power of the Lord working.  There are times you can literally feel the Holy Spirit in the place, and this was one of those times.  The service continued, with others being prayed for, and we left the service probably around noon.  By mid afternoon, dad’s hand had reduced in size to the point that he could bend his fingers halfway down to his palm.  By evening, he could move his hand normally, just like he had months and months ago.  The next day, it was OVER!  Months and months of waiting and doctoring and worry of amputation and goo eating him up, and one touch of our Savior, and it was gone!  Never saw a doctor again about it, and his hand has been working hard for another 15 years!  Praise God that what the doctors don’t know and the surgeons can’t fix, He can step in on the scene and get it done!

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