Change Your Focus

Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · September 17, 2023 · Is Your Faith Growing? series

Jeremy MacDonald opens James 1:2-4 and shares four personal stories of people who met God in hard circumstances. Trials can test faith, yet they can also build steadfast confidence in a God who is real, present and faithful.

More from Jeremy MacDonald · The Is Your Faith Growing? series

Topics: Hope, Faith, Suffering

Transcript

[0:00] Well, good morning, everybody. Listen, this morning's gonna be a little bit of a different kind of service very intentionally because this morning we are gonna get a chance to hear from four different stories, the work of God in people's lives in profound kind of ways. And so we just recognize that as we get a chance to share those stories with you, the natural response that will come, I think, after hearing these stories is that we're gonna wanna sing together. And so we're gonna be able to sing, we're gonna be able to worship together, and it's gonna be towards the end of our service. But at the very start, we wanna share with you these stories. And the reason for it is because we're in the midst of this series, this teaching series called Is Your Faith Growing? Is Your Faith Growing? And for you, the question is, is your faith actually growing? Now, the truth is that we know, and I know that your journey is, perhaps very different than the person that you're sitting next to, that your faith maybe doesn't even necessarily really exist. Or, maybe for you, you're at the front end of a journey. Maybe for you, you're at the back end of a journey. But all of our journeys, somewhere along the line, we have some element of faith that I think we should wrestle with for a few weeks here together. Now, what faith actually is, we should qualify for this before we jump into too much here today.

[1:14] You see, faith is simply your confidence, your confidence in God. Now, when we gather in this way, in this place, we speak of a very particular God from the Christian scriptures that we believe deeply in. But it's more than just a belief that we actually have confidence in this particular God. And that confidence means a couple of things. It means that we have confidence in knowing who He is and what He has said that He is. But we also have confidence knowing what He has promised to do, both for us in our lives and also in our world today. And this level of confidence, when you see it in people, when you see it well up, it's inspiring and I think causes us all to take notice. And so for this series, we're asking this question, is your faith growing?

[2:00] Knowing that there's a few different ways that people's faith grows. And if you've been following Jesus for any length of time, you might be able to articulate that some of these things have been a part of how your confidence in God has grown. And so for five weeks we're covering, last week we talked about this idea of being in, really important relationships and community with people that are also believing these kinds of same things. This week we're talking about circumstances, but next week, as you'll see on the screen, we're gonna talk about serving others. We're gonna go the next week to spiritual disciplines. And the final week in the series talk about practical teaching. But each one of these things, if you take action on them, can inspire you and can motivate and inspire to move your faith and your confidence in God. So these critical circumstances, this is what we want to unpack here this morning. It's those situations. And you've had those kinds of situations too, where you ask this big question, why is this happening to me?

[2:52] And maybe you're in one of those moments, even right now, like you've got a story where you would ask simply God upon high, if you're real out there, why is this particular thing happening to me? And when we ask that question, we actually join with the history of Christians over thousands of years who have gone through all sorts of critical circumstances. In fact, in the very first century, there were believers who put their faith and trust in this Jesus who was able to rise people from the dead who was able to heal people who had diseases. And then as they put their faith and trust in Him, as He died and was resurrected, they realized that life was still full of difficult circumstances. And it's in the midst of that, that we have one of the earliest in that first century, one of those early church leaders, his name was James, the half brother of Jesus. And he wrote to believers to encourage them.

[3:41] And I wanted to start off, before we hear these stories with this particular verse. It says, Consider it pure joy, pure joy, consider it pure joy, my brothers and my sisters, whenever you face trials and you have a trial in your life, you've had trials in your life. And it's a weird thing to think that you could step back from the trials and then consider that it is actually pure joy that you might be facing that trial. Not that God has necessarily brought that trial into your life. It could have come from somebody else's bad decisions. It could have come from your own difficult ideas, but it also could have just happened because the world is a difficult and challenging place. And those trials, they can test your faith, they can test your confidence in God, do I still believe in this God, even if I face these kinds of circumstances? But, as James would say, it's, joyful to be faced with these trials because it produces perseverance or steadfastness or endurance. This, word that is rich with meaning.

[4:44] That means so much that when you go through those things, it, solidifies your faith in a profound way. Or it can sometimes, it causes the opposite. And so that solidifying of your faith is, really rich. In fact, commentators try to explain what this word means, 'cause it's a Greek word. And so I just wanna read this for you, that this, word of perseverance is more than just a patience, though it does have this element of passive staying power with Abraham as this prime model in the Jewish thought. But there's this idea, maybe of hope, and there's also expectancy. And, then the word has more meaning to it than just this quietest acceptance and wistful longing for better things, in fact. And here's the point. This steadfastness under trial, this persistent determination that comes up from our circumstances through the determination to win through to the end is marked. It's marked as believers.

[5:33] And this is what you're about to see as believers yield their lives and everything they have to God and remain faithful in anticipation of their reward, that God is still good. And so it's easy in some ways, simpler to just talk about it, but it's so much more profound when you see it in action. And so I wanna introduce you to four different stories that you're gonna hear this morning. And for right now, I want you to join with me in welcoming our first ones. Let's welcome Mike and Heather Doiron on to our platform here today. Now, Mike and Heather, as the first ones outta this story, they're gonna explain a situation, a circumstance that would've been an incredibly difficult one.

[6:20] And what I want you to tune in as we whirl through each of these circumstances where you see the marks of God remaining faithful and where you see faith coming alive and confidence in God. And so Mike and Heather, you guys have been a part of this church for a while. We've actually been friends, since growing up, which is so fun. But this last winter, you guys had an unbelievably difficult trial circumstance, something that happened in your life. And I want you to fill people in if they haven't heard what actually happened. Yeah, sure. I'm sure a lot of you already heard, have known a little bit about the story. So I'm excited to be able to share more about the story with you guys, and we do serve an awesome God. And so, I'm really excited to kind of share what God did in our lives. Just last March, we were out at our cottage and we were sliding on, the hill and it was nice, wet, deep snow, and we kind of grooved out a trail with the kids.

[7:10] And then we went in to have supper. My parents were there, Heather's parents were there. It was a beautiful Saturday family day, which wouldn't expect any type of disaster. And after we went back out, the hill had frozen because the sun went down. And first down was my son. And, he decided he wanted to go headfirst this time, like we've done in St. Tail Park and stuff. And before any of us guys had a chance to scream, stop, no, you can't. Go headfirst. This is too steep here. He was gone. And before we had a chance to even yell, slow down, he was already going about 70 kilometers an hour. And I know that because I bike and I could see a time, and it was so fast. And I was thinking, worst case, he's gonna go right into the woods. But it was even worse than that because while he was going at peak speed, he went off the side of the hill and hit a, birch tree about a quarter of the way up and smoked it, headfirst on his stomach, smiling right into the tree, and then spiraled like a dead, like a dead person flailing into the bushes.

[8:13] And, the scariest part was there was no sound, there was no crying, nothing. And we all just freaked out, jumped and ran down as fast as we could. I jumped in the ditch and found him on all fours looking up with just covered in blood. His hat soaked in blood and his face covered in blood. And I decided to pick him up. At first, I, hesitated 'cause I was wondering if I should even touch him. Maybe he broke his neck. But the fact that he was on fours, I picked him up and I started running up the hill and my father-in-law helped me outta the ditch. And then my father started helping me push me up the hill. 'cause I was running through this deep snow. We get back into the cottage, we call 911, we rush to meet the ambulance, and then we get to the emergency room. And then I, I have him here in my arms and they're cutting all his clothes off. And I say, I think he's going into shock because his eyes rolled in the back of his head.

[9:05] And he started shaking a bit and they said, no, he is having a seizure. And they pushed us out the way and rushed him out of the room right there. And the nurses all started crying. And so this was Heather's first chance to kind of see the severity of it. I mean, she thankfully didn't see the accident. So for all she knew, the head bleeds a lot, but the way he hit it, I knew, I didn't even think it was possible to survive something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously they were nervous and, and the fact that they were crying, oh my goodness, this is a really serious thing. And so, and your son's how old again? Five. And so as a five-year-old, you're watching him get taken and then they end up airlifting him even to the IWK, is that right? Yeah. So as we get, we're waiting, Pastor Brownlee, which, what a saint, and he works here at the pastor. He came in and he prayed with us as a family.

[9:52] And it was really a light and a dark place at that moment, but it was a little bit of PTSD for me because years ago, I was in a fatal car accident with my best friend who ended up dying. And Pastor Willie came at the hospital at that point, and I remember when I didn't wanna see anybody, and he said, I wanna pray with you. And he was such a light in that dark place and really changed my whole outlook of everything. So here he was again. And it was a little bit scary for me for sure. And yeah, we find out he was being airlifted. So we make our way to the hospital. We ended up getting escorted once we got there, and we were able to track David the plane on our phone, and we tracked him all the way to the hospital. And it's pretty serious. We have, you know, just him in this hospital bed in the IWK, to recognize this was, this was an intense moment. So we can show that, that you guys there with him, not knowing really at that moment what was gonna happen. And so, I mean, Heather, I don't know if you want to share like, what's going through your mind as you're wrestling with the severity of, of this accident?

[10:56] Really surprisingly, we were feeling pretty peaceful. When soon after it happened, I messaged a group of friends and just encouraged to spread the word that we need prayer. So I kind of felt that guidance. We took the drive, the three-hour drive to Halifax, and just looking out the window. It was through the night, and I could see the stars, and I just kind of felt a sense of peace and calmness and, felt like that he was taken care of, even though I wasn't with him. And I knew what he was going through. Yeah. Which is a little bit odd, like legitimately at this moment, you guys didn't really know like if he was gonna make it, right? Like this was the amount of specialists that were coming through the, the severity of the accident, obviously he was now put under. And so, this is a dark moment for you guys, and I know Heather, that's optimistic, but Mike, you didn't have that experience. Yeah. What was, what was your experience?

[11:49] There was, well, there was so much peace, a little bit peaceful. So many people were praying, not just in our church. We had Hillside and Glad Tidings and non-Christians and people from work. It was so encouraging. And so I know now, like if anybody's going through a hard time to reach out and not question, should I or should I just reach out? 'Cause it did mean a lot. But while I was in the hospital, that picture actually was just before we went in to see him. And we had about 20 minutes that, while they were prepping him, and I went into the bathroom and it was this big room, and I had a chance to just be alone for a minute. And the adrenaline's probably starting to come down. And I, I started crying out to God and I said, God, why is this happening to me? Like you said earlier, why me? I volunteer at the church. I read my Bible, I serve You, and now You're gonna take my son.

[12:34] I've already been that statistic where one of my best friends had died in a car accident. My girlfriend growing up, her father had died in cancer. I know the pain of death. And I know that it's not just a temporary thing that you get over in a week. It's something that lasts with you for years. And I just, the thought of having to walk by his bedroom and not have him there was just terrifying. And I'm saying, God, why is, don't, please don't. And I'm begging with Him. And then ultimately I realize I'm powerless. There's nothing I can do but give it to God. And so I say, God, I'm trusting You. I thank You for giving me, David and the opportunity to raise him. I thank You for, for his life.

[13:19] And I know that the ultimate healing is really taking him from this earth and bringing him to heaven. But that's not what I'm asking for. So please give us more time with him. Please let him survive. And I opened my phone to look at the messages from everyone texting us. And the first thing I do, I see is this picture here. I can show you of David and him. And I just climbing this mountain and I start thinking about Abraham and how his faith was tested when he climbed the top of a mountain and it was tested this, and he didn't actually have to end up sacrificing his son. And I was saying, God, please let that be the case here. Please don't actually take my son, but just test my faith. I will, you know, and begging with God. And then I open my Bible and I'm about to lose it. And the first words I hear read is, rejoice, rejoice always. And I'm thinking, how can I rejoice right now in this situation?

[14:08] But it was the first thing I needed to read because anything else, I probably would've closed the book just as quick. And I kept reading and it said, rejoice, rejoice always, for I am with you. I hear your prayers and petitions. And for me, that meant so much. 'Cause I knew the whole, I felt like all of Moncton was petitioning against God to take him at this time. And we were praying and it said, be good to, those like serving you or the staff. And so, and then instantly the Holy Spirit filled me and told me he was gonna be okay. It's hard to describe and maybe people that don't believe that, but from head to toe, I had this instant peace come over me that he was going to be okay. And I started smiling, and I came out and Heather was sitting there as calm as could be. And we went in and there were seven specialists that saw him.

[14:56] And one after the other, hallelujah. They said his, he didn't, if he would've turned his head just a little bit before he hit the tree, he would've broke his spine. And his bones are good, his stomach is good, his lungs are good. One specialist after the other, but the neurosurgeon at the very end said, well, we're only gonna know when we wake him up. And it could go. And he gave us a bunch of different situations that it could have gone. But praise God, that when they woke him up and pulled all the tubes out of his throat, he said, they said, how do you feel? And he gave a thumbs up and they said, can you wiggle your toes? And he wiggled his toes and they said, do you know what happened? And he said, I need water. Because his throat was all dry. And he reached for his teddy with all the wires and everything in his arms, and all the nurses started cheering. And it was a beautiful moment. And then we ended up just discharging two days early from the hospital. They, they warned us of all the concussion symptoms he would have, he had none.

[15:47] I mean, he was running and doing karate kicks down the hall with one eye swollen shut. I mean, it was amazing. It's wild. So what a miracle. Legitimately like a miracle. And the surgeon said it was one in a million chance that this was gonna be the result. And for us, we felt like that was a miracle, but we didn't hear the word miracle. And then as we were being discharged, the surgeon even said it was a miracle. So, you know, praise God. What has that done to your faith and, and how do you look at God differently? Like, 'cause this circumstance could have sent you in another direction. Why would God let you go through that? And yet for some reason, here you are more committed to faith. What sparked that? Why that? Yeah. I guess being that close to death and being that close to vulnerable and needing God, it's kind of showed me how close God is to us and how powerful he is, and how God doesn't change. He's always that powerful. He's always available.

[16:45] He is always wanting us to cry out. And so I know for me, I, my little mustard seed faith has grown a lot. And so I was hoping that after the service, I could join the prayer team and pray for anyone else that's needing healing right now. Because I feel like my faith has grown. And if you have just a little bit of faith of the mustard seed to come forward, that's all it takes. God can do the rest. I'm just a servant of God, but God is powerful and does love us, and it's not his will for anybody to be sick. Uh, I mean, God, when people went to him, he never said, um, so you're, I want you to be sick. He, he healed everyone. And I, I see that word, and I think everyone, um, we have that ability. So I, I just wanna pray anyways. And if God is wants to move, then yeah, Absolutely. And we'll have a prayer time during our worship time later on today.

[17:31] But let's thank Mike and Heather Deron for sharing that story. Really appreciate you guys' faith, and, yeah, that means a lot. Thanks so much, you guys. Thanks so much. We have a couple more stories I want to share, and they're gonna be a little bit different. So we're gonna welcome Matt and Mark out here. So let's give them a hand. Thank you guys so much for being here. Now, Matt and Mark are two different guys with two different stories, and so we'll get to hear from each of them. They just actually just, you guys just met for the first time just here. This, just right now, right? Backstage? Yeah. That was your first time. It's so good. But you guys have both been coming to the church here, have both been baptized here as well, I think, right? You were baptized here a little bit ago. Yeah, about a year ago. Yep. And were you baptized here or not? You weren't. No, I was baptized back in 2021. Yeah. So fill us in. Let's go to you first, Mark.

[18:16] Tell us a bit about your story, your journey that gets to the circumstance that we're gonna kind of dial in on. So I guess my story is someone who had faith a couple times in my life, and I kind of walked away from it. When I was young, I was brought up in the Catholic Church. I went to Sunday school, first Communion, confirmed. My mom would pray with me, she'd read me stories, I believed. Yeah. And then when I was a teenager, it became not important. Yeah. Twists and turns. I mean, lots of people, if that's been your journey, you know, you grew up, or this was a part of it, and then your faith has twists and turns, and so what did yours look like? So then the second time, I kind of hit rock bottom. It's probably a little too much to unpack here right now, but I ended up being invited to a church in Moncton, and I went and I was, for about a five year window, attending a church. I was pretty serious. I was going at that time to ABU, and I graduated there.

[19:21] I studied a lot of theology, I read a lot about the Bible, and that lasted about five years. And then there were some events in 2004 that kind of led me away. And then as of 2019, I sort of had a reawakening, so to speak. And I've been back here now for about five years. So 2019 is kind of your critical circumstance. What was happening beforehand? Like, were you seeking God in any way, shape, or form, or what was the journey like before that moment? So what happened back in, well, like back in '04, two things happened kind of at once. The church I was attending, it split, and it was kind of acrimonious. And I had graduated at then, ABU, and a lot of my friends moved back home, Nova Scotia, PEI.

[20:12] And so for about a five year window, I had a lot of Christian friends around me, and within a few months they were kind of gone. And I was a little bit bitter about the church split, I can say. And it didn't take me too long to sort of find my way back in the old habits that I had from back when I was a teenager, so to speak. Yeah. And so you, no, sorry. So, yes, seeking God. So from, you know, that point, I don't think anyone who knew me really from 2004 up until 2019 would really characterize me as someone who was seeking God. I hurt a lot of people. I damaged a lot of relationships. And when I left that church in '04, I had a lot of knowledge about the Bible, theology, Christ.

[21:04] And for those years when I had kind of abandoned my faith, and I remember the guilt I was experiencing. And I remember reading something back when I was in my university days, it might've been John Owen, I think, on on a commentary of the book of Hebrews. And he was talking about people who have faith and leave. They never really have peace with it, because they're always gonna feel guilt because they know what they're doing deep down is wrong. And that was kind of like me. So for years I suffered with anxiety, depression, I was medicated. I started drinking heavily. I got up, I was basically 300 pounds and, very, destructive time in my life.

[21:51] And so you knew intellectually about faith, but it wasn't connecting to the day-to-day. Oh, no, no, no, no. Like, you were hurting your heart, basically. Through, like, I was actually, I was almost on a mission to disprove it to myself. And back then I would, I was reading a lot of the atheists, I was listening, you know, to a lot of Sam Harris. I was trying to convince myself Christianity's not true, because I didn't wanna believe it, even though deep down, I really think I did believe it. So then there's a turning point in 2019. What happens that things change? So I am at this barbecue, and it's just with some friends, and we're just hanging out, having a few drinks. And, it's one of those conversations about, you know, the universe is so large, is there anything out there? And you know how those conversations go, it's just like, what's the meaning of life kind of thing.

[22:53] And one of my friends was there who was a Christian, and he starts sort of bringing the gospel into it a bit. And a few people there started attacking it, and they were kinda mocking Christ. And all of a sudden I had this anger in, like, at my chest, and I can't explain it. And it just, like, came up, and then all of a sudden I found myself defending the faith, and I hadn't thought about it in a long time. And, so later that day, my friends came up to me and they were kind of confused because they're like, oh, I didn't know you were Christian and religious. And I said, well, this morning I wasn't. And I am now. And So it can happen that quickly, is what you're saying.

[23:42] I can't explain it. It was the weirdest thing. And so What does that mean for you? I mean, that's a hard transition. Does it get, is it intense to decide in a moment to change everything? Well, or does it change? What changes? So that night, I was staying over and I get to bed. I downloaded a Bible app, which I still read now. And I remember I went to the Gospel of John 1, you know, "In the beginning was the Word." And I hadn't read that in a long time. And there's a quote by Einstein, he wasn't a Christian, but, you know, it's always kind of stuck with me. He was interviewed back, I think it was 1929, George Viereck. And he said basically about the Bible that, oh, where is it? I have it as my screensaver.

[24:31] "No one can read the Gospel without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word, no myth is filled with such life." And all those feelings of reading the living Word just came flooding back. And it was like an old comfort, if that makes sense. And so I went to bed, I prayed, I had peace, and it was really that next day I woke up, I'm driving home, I go on Spotify. I haven't listened to any Christian music in about 14 years. I put on My God Is an Awesome God, or no, sorry. It was Amazing Love. How Can It Be, song that we should probably sing here more often, but sidebar, uh, I'll talk to Mark after. Okay. Yeah.

[25:18] And so I just hit radio on Spotify and I'm listening to all these Christian tunes, and then I start thinking about what my life's now gonna look like. Yesterday, this all happened right outta the blue. And Luke 14 kind of jumped into my mind. There's two parables, or, you know, two stories in there. One is, the first one that I was gonna talk about was Well, if I can just jump in. I wanna say it, it's fascinating to see that the circumstance is obviously very different than the Mike and Heather thing. And yet you use this as an opportunity in a moment of being disgruntled about being angry for some reason, as like, okay, this is gonna be the thing that turns me back to God. Like, that's not what everybody would do. Some people would, you know, for years if you were actually hurting your heart, like, you could have just shoved this back down for another number of years. Yes.

[26:10] But all of a sudden, for some reason, this is the moment you're like, okay, I think I gotta make a go of this. Is that fair to say? Oh, no, a hundred percent. And it's just the drive home. It's, you know, like in Luke 14, Christ said that no one will build a tower before first counting the cost. And that just came back to me, and I knew what it meant to be a Christian. It meant putting God first, putting other people first and really dying to yourself, so to speak. And really at the end of that passage, He's like, basically, no one who's not willing to lay it all down cannot be My disciple. And then it just really resonated with me on the way back. And I knew my life was gonna be different. And, you know, frankly, I didn't care. The other passage in Luke 14 was the great banquet, you know, a man threw a great banquet and he invites people, and the people won't come because they're too busy. Like, I just bought this cattle and I'm doing all these things. And if, like you think about, there's no greater pursuit, I believe, than trying to reconcile yourself with the Creator, with God, through Christ. And I'm just thankful that God gave me, I guess, a third chance because I was not seeking Him, I can tell you. Yeah.

[27:33] Well, He's a God of many chances, which is encouraging. And I think for maybe some of you, that's the kind of experience that you've had in your life. And it's a good segue actually, because Matt, you had a circumstance that kind of came onto you that God used, fill us in on your circumstance. Yeah. I guess you could call it turning 40. Yeah. And I see why you set us on the couch together now after hearing your story. very similar, but no, I just, as I got older, you know, I was raised a Christian and fell away from it. And, I found that I was coming here when things were rough and, not all the time like I should have been. And then when I turned 40, I kind of, you know, dug my heels in and said that enough's enough.

[28:22] And so, yeah. You, you would drop into faith when it seemed like you needed something from God, or would that be kind of part of the journey? Yeah, that's very accurate. There's been operations in my family and things like everybody has. And, and at those times I seemed to, you know, that's when we'd pray. That's when we'd come to church and, you know, start to follow God and read our Bible at night to the children. But what about 40? Like, 40 is like, so maybe it's not midlife, but it's, you know, close to that kind of midlife crisis that some people have. Some people buy cars or go on vacations or, you know, inappropriate relationships, whatever it might be, you decide to become a Christian in a deeper way. What, what about 40 sparked that?

[29:07] Just, there's a lot of stuff going on. COVID, the operations, I worked away from home for 10 years, back and forth out west, two weeks on, one week off kind of thing. That caused a lot of anxiety in the family, as well as myself. I call it like the Facebook lifestyle. Everything looked really well on the outside. Nice vehicles, life's good, you know, that kind of thing. But myself, I didn't, you know, I didn't feel right. Yeah. And you want, I know when we've talked, we've talked lots about this, but you had higher hopes for, not just for you, but actually for your family and for your kids. Yeah, absolutely. I think what got me through life in general and these types of circumstances that everybody's sharing was definitely just knowing that there is a God and having faith and being saved as a young person.

[29:59] So I wanted that same thing for Yeah, for your kids. And it's a lot, right? For, especially for I think maybe sometimes guys, you know, being in that kind of zone of life and wanting to be the kind of role model and to lead to a place where, you know, people could be proud of you. but at the same time, that's a big commitment. And so what's changed? Like, it's kind of a high cost maybe, I guess, to, to try to turn towards Christ in the midst of having all of the good things. Has it cost you anything significant to follow Jesus? No, it's actually been the super benefit, the guilt of being away, looking at my family now, financially, you know, you leave that kind of a job and, and you come down here and it's been great that way because you Gave up the big job that paid lots and going out west to, to try to be here all full time, right?

[30:55] Yeah. Certainly at the time I thought that's, you know, I provide, that's what I do, but providing just money, is it, it didn't bring any happiness. And, and now that I'm here and I'm, you know, a hundred percent committed, it's been, Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah. It's a lot. But again, a circumstance where for lots of people it would be like, Hey, it's easier in some ways to just harden my heart or it's easier just to, you know, keep chasing the things that I've always chased and it, and it requires something to turn around and say, no, these circumstances have led me to a place where, where I think I actually need to follow after this God. And that will change a little bit in my life. Is there anything else that you want to say about just how life's different these days? No, I mean, if you're on the fence, don't be, I know I was a little bit nervous that I wouldn't be able to be at those types of barbecues and having fun with my friends or people look at me different and, and actually, a lot of people's reached out that wouldn't have previous.

[31:56] And life's been amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, I appreciate both of your guys' faith. It means a lot. And thanks for being able to share with people. Yeah. For Matt. And for Mark, we have one more story that I want to be able to share with you. And so, we've got Amar and Swan who are gonna come on out. let's give it up for Amar and Swan. And with each of these stories, again, our hope is that you would see how God has used people's lives and has drawn them closer to Him. And your guys' story is very similar in, in, in that you had a significant experience and yet your faith is profoundly impacted. So, Amar and Swan, thanks for being willing to share a little bit of your story. This is, English is not your first language. And so Amar, you've got your English, you're gonna be able to be the speaker here for us. But Suan, I know also, that you're here and we're so grateful 'cause the story's actually a little bit about you. And so, is there anything that you would like to, share as kind of we get going here, coming from El Salvador and just being recent here to Canada and then experiencing something profound?

[33:02] Is there anything that you wanted to start us off with? Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to share this testimony about the miracle that God did in my life. I have previously, I shared the testimony in Spanish, so in this time, my husband is gonna share with all you in English. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So Amar, 2022. Yeah. What happens in your family? Well, thank you for the opportunity. we moved to Canada in 2021, November 2021, with my wife, my two years old daughter. And we came, in this case, I came here as international student and my wife as a full-time worker.

[33:55] When we arrived to Moncton, we was very excited 'cause we was starting a new life here in Canada. And the things was going well. The first few months that we arrived after we arrived, but in the fourth month to be here, in the middle of the winter, 2022, my wife got sick and the doctors initially told us that she had a pneumonia. But after that, they told us that diagnostic was, COVID-19, and they gave us another diagnostic. It was tuberculosis, that three conditions Additional. It was, these were, yes, adding on top of each Other. Yes, there was three diagnostic. And the, these three different disease was affecting her lungs. And, you know, the lungs collapsed.

[34:55] And the doctor told me that the chances to survive for my wife was practically zero. And we, we need to be prepared for the worst. So you can't imagine, that was a terrible experience for Oscars in that moment. The things was going in a different direction that we planned. And, you know, when we arrived to Canada, we was completely healthy. My family and me was evaluated by the doctors designated by the immigration office, before to came here to Canada. And we was completely healthy and was hard to see how my wife, went to, to be completely healthy and get flu and a few weeks later be admitted in the, intensive care unit at the Moncton hospital. It was very, very terrible for us.

[35:57] And so it wasn't just even these three diagnosis, but at one point they put her in a coma, is that correct? Like a medically induced coma? Yes, that is correct. That is correct. The doctor has put her in a induced coma. Yeah. And she Was, and for how long was she, were you in that coma? Yeah, she was in that situation three months, almost three months, yeah. And So for three months, you can't have a conversation with your wife? No, no. But she's there in the hospital. We actually have a, I think a photo of that as well. The Moncton Hospital. And they're telling you that she may not live? Yeah, yeah. Was very, well, she was connected in the ventilator, in a machine, ventilator machine. And she was having fevers and her body was weakening every day.

[36:47] And instead to show some improvements, she was getting worse. So one month after that, she wasn't meeting in the intensive care unit. The doctor in charge of the ICU, that week showed me some images about her lungs was, tomography scan. And she told me, the doctor told me if she survives, she will never see the same person that, you know. One week after that conversation, the doctor told me that there was no more chances and we need to be prepared for the worst.

[37:32] So that is what happened in 2020. So What does this do? I mean, you're a person of faith. You had started, you know, attending this church. You were starting to make connections. What does it look like for somebody in that situation to pray? Like, did you pray? Did you talk to God? Was He real and present to you? It seemed like all hope was lost. What's going on for you at that point? Yeah, in that moment was very, very difficult. 'Cause my mind was, I were told, I was trying to understand what God was going with us. And, you know, I was trying to explain to my little how was, happening. And in that moment, the important thing, this, God help us to see the situation in a different way.

[38:27] 'Cause I was confused. I was trying to understand. I was hearing that my wife gonna die and God brought through my mind hope and strength and, uh, words that give me confidence that a miracle will be possible. Well, tell 'em about the Bible story. So your daughter's reading and asking you to read a particular Bible story? Yes. Usually, when was the time to go to bed. My little daughter, asked me to read the book of a story, biblical stories, and we go over the picture when Jesus was with his disciples in the boat, and they told to Jesus, "Hey, Jesus, You don't care.

[39:19] You don't take care that we will die. You are sleeping there. Help us." And every time that we read that history, you know, it is like Jesus was talking me in middle of that storm, in the middle of that process and telling me, you are afraid, you are losing the faith, but keep the calm. I am here with you. Yeah. I mean, unbelievable. And obviously, Sowan, you're here, so it's a miracle. But do you, is there anything else you wanted to just remind people? Because in some ways it's easy to sit here now, but you went through months of not knowing if your wife was going to live. And so why would you still say, trust this God in the midst of even that darkest place?

[40:08] Yeah, I think that is the most important part of the, this experience. 'Cause God was there speaking to my heart, to my mind, changing my negative thoughts and giving me the faith to overcome that situation. I think what's important, the support of the family too, our friends, the community here in the church that give us the support, and help us to overcome that situation. Yeah. And so is your prayer life any different now after being able to pray through all that situation? Like it must be just a profoundly thing God is real in for you and in ways that I think lots of us would just want to be able to experience that. Yeah. Yeah. It was, I think difficult to try to overcome the situation. But God help us. I think, after that, my wife was diagnosed with these terrible diseases.

[41:14] The doctor told me that the chances was very low, practically zero. And I tried to understand the plans of God in this time. But I think the most important part is what God did. Because, when the doctor called me to a meeting in the hospital, the staff who were there were there. And, you know, he told me, you need to be prepared. But in that moment, I felt the necessity to declare and show my confidence in God. And I told to the doctor and the nurses, thank you so much for the care that you provide to my wife.

[42:08] I appreciate the effort, I appreciate the dedication that you did, but now in this moment, we are gonna great. The miracle that we will, God will do. And my wife. And that moment, the doctor just told me, just to pray, just you need just to pray. So one week after that, oh, I need to say something. The same night when the doctor told me that, I was talking with God, you know, I was talking with God and God told me to my heart, and He gave me a message.

[42:57] He told me, you need to say, you need to declare to the people that I am real. I am real. You need to declare that. And I had the confidence that my wife will be healed. Yeah. So in that moment, I understood that God will do the miracle. And that changed the situation. One week after that, my wife start to improve. She start to recover. And it was a supernatural recovery 'cause the nurses and doctors were surprised about this type of recovery. They did a tracheostomy in the in that point they did atomy in the throat of my wife.

[43:57] And they was evaluating that she was responding to the treatment in a supernatural way. She was responding. And two weeks after that conversation, we had in the ICU with the doctor, she was sitting in a chair. Wow. And she was awake. Yeah. And one month after that, she left the intensive care unit, and now she's here. Yeah. 'Cause God is real, because God is powerful. Amen. Well, thank you guys so much. Let's, thanks so much for Meyer and Sowan for sharing your story. Thank you guys. We really appreciate it. You guys will be available to check in, and the, stories of each of these folks is so profound and there's so much to them.

[44:43] You know, we obviously can't share at all. And so for you to be able to chat with them afterwards, by all means, but what we want you to also know is that this God that takes us in the midst of circumstances and makes Himself real to us is the God that you can also spend time with even here today. And so our prayer team, they're typically here at the front, but after hearing these kinds of stories, as I kinda mentioned at the start, our responses, we want to be able to actually sing and sing of the goodness of God in the midst of whatever you're going through. But if you're going through something that needs prayer, at the back of this floor, the bottom floor here. So if you're in the balcony, you come down at the back, at the exits here, we've got our prayer team. I think Mike Doiron's gonna be back there too. And we would love to pray with you because we recognize and know that in the middle of whatever you're going through, it can be challenging to see God.

[45:29] And yet we firmly believe that He's with you. And that these circumstances, the ones that you're facing, are ones that can draw you closer to Him. And so I wanna pray for you, and then we're gonna respond with song. Heavenly Father, thank you for the way that You've been real in people's lives for thousands of years. And You are real to us today. And so speak to us, to each of us, and meet with us and let us know that whatever we're going through, that You are there, whatever the storm is, whatever the moment is that You're there and You are real. And You're still performing miracles today. And so we come to You wanting more of You, most of all. And we ask and we pray for it. In Jesus' name. Amen.