- 1983 - All of my family members (except me) confessed Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:31

- 1983 - My mom had been a very ill person for most of her life. She suffered from a variety of physical ailments such as varicose veins, a bad heart resulting from an acute case of tonsilitis, and [no cure] pernicious blood anemia. At age 32 she suffered her first heart spasm, due to extreme stress . She came to know her Saviour and Lord in her 40's, and also discovered that He is our wonderful Healer as well. During the months of 1983 she listened intently to testimonies of healings in other people who had trusted Christ with their ailments. Faith comes by hearing of the wonderful things God does. With her faith still young and uncorrupted as that of a child, she also decided to trust Jesus for her health and asked Him to heal her body. She told God at that time, "You either heal me, or I will die" since she stopped taking all her medications at that point and took God at His Word - "I am your Physician". Well, our God was very faithful and healed her blood problem, although there was no immediate noticable manifestation of the healing, as the symptoms (the fatigue) lingered for months afterwards. My mom had required her iron shots at least every three weeks in order to build the deteriorating red blood count back up. She has not seen a doctor or taken any kind of medication in 15 years, and feels better physically than any other time in her life. Even her varicose veins give her no more trouble at all, whereas before she would have to wear special support stockings to keep her legs from "exploding" (at least that is what they would feel like, when hot and swollen). She would not be able to walk about without these support stockings for more than 1 hour. Now she is able to walk on her feet from morning till evening without a trace of swelling or tension. She retained the disformations of the bulgie veins, but those are only to testify of what the Lord has done! :) \o/

"And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched." (For she said to herself, If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole). Luke 8:43-48 ; Mark 5:25-34

- 1984 - This is the year the Lord Jesus reached out to me and I responded to His call with my life.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Rev 3:20

- 1984 - In this year, mom burned her right arm with boiling oil. We were still new in Canada, and did not know that "drywall" doesn't burn like wood. Mom had been outside getting lettuce from the garden and washing it outside, when she looked up and saw flames of fire up to the ceiling through the kitchen window. (Clem had left a pot of grease on the stove from frying chips the day before, and mom had turned on the wrong burner). She rushed into the kitchen, grabbing the pot of burning oil with fire leaping out of it and rushing it outside, dropping it on the way, because it was getting too hot, the burning oil spilled all over her arm. Can you imagine the pain??? Well, there was NO pain :) (Thank you Jesus) but she had huge blisters covering her arm right up to the elbow. She found some burn salve a few days later, which she applied (not really thinking) and THEN the pain began, it was excrutiating...which made her feel guilty for not allowing God to complete the healing Himself, and she repented of wanting to speed up the healing using the burn salve. It took 14 days for the arm to be completely whole, no scars are left today, only the discoloration of the skin, showing the "old" skin and the "new".

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;" Psalm 103:2,3

- 1985 - Earlier in this year, my mom suffered her first actual heart attack one night. She sat up in her bed and felt the tension rise in her chest, there was no pain, but like a ring enclosing her and tension rising up to the chin, not able to breathe, she in a flash moment debated with herself..."I still have my old heartpills in the nightstand, or I have the Lord". She decided to call on the Lord instead and said, "Jesus, help me". Immediately, the pressure dropped off as if a retaining ring had burst, and she was free to breathe. She got up in the morning as usual, and went about doing her chores. At that time we had a farm and chores meant feeding a barn full of pigs and the cattle outside. Mom has not had anymore heart troubles since that day. The Lord is Good!!!

"And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Psalm 50:15

- 1985 - This was a busy year, and we were still scraping by trying to make a living off the farm. We didn't go hungry, but also did not have very much money to spare, much less to waste. We could not afford the loss of one farm animal. Also, we were still very young in our walk with the Lord (some might call it ignorance), and actually "dared" to lean on the Lord's providence and sustaining power for our lives and livelihood. At the time our sows were farrowing, and there was the ocasional problem in birthing these baby pigs. One of the mother pigs was having trouble delivering her babies, and it looked like we were going to loose her and the litter. My brother had gone out in the bush to dig a hole for her, while mom prayed the Lord to save the animal. Our dear Lord looked on the urgency of that plight, and He caused the piglet which had prior been as if "cemented in solid" to come out without any force at all, and the mother pig recovered and remained well. God really takes an interest in every area of our lives, and wants to be our help in whatever we ask Him. Nothing is too small for Him.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37:5

- 1985 - In August of this year, my dad decided that my mom and her three children had to leave the farm, with just her personal belongings. We had until the 15th to get out, and no prospective place to go to. My oldest brother had an old car, which we packed with our personal effects. The fighting got worse by the day, and mom would sleep in the car, because she was too frightened to be in the house. My dad had the tendency to get violent. Mom had no savings except for $400 she had earned from washing dishes in a restaurant that month, and although my oldest brother Paul had a job in the Oilfield, he lived from paycheck to paycheck and had no savings either. Mom and Paul went out staking real estate agents for a place to live. There was nothing suitable, except for one property on an acreage. The owner lived out of province and a special payment plan would have to be worked out with him, as the bank would only finance the mobile home , but not the garage and toolsheds. The agent agreed to take mom's $400 as a partial payment in real estate fees to even begin the processing of the papers. Meanwhile, we borrowed additional funds for the loan downpayment from one of Paul's friends. Everything worked out smoothly and we were able to move into the mobile home on the 14th of August, as the family who had lived there at the time decided to move out a week sooner. Our Lord provides all our needs!

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philip 4:19

- 1985 - After the Lord had supplied us so wonderfully with a home, He also helped us establish our new livelihood with a small business. I had been working in a Laundromat for the past couple months, and the owner of the laundromat was getting tired of running the business, and he literally begged us to buy it from him. He worked out a deal and carried the payments himself, so we did not have to go through a bank (which would not have given us a penny anyways). So by October, we were running our own small business and the Lord began to really bless the labors of our hands. Praise be to You, our God!

"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." Psalm 128:1,2

- 1986 - I became very sick with a tooth and jaw infection, to the point of high fever and a very swollen face. The seriousness of the infection going into my bloodstream had mom worried, but our trust at that time was still in the Lord, our Healer. She had left my bedroom to go into the kitchen, where she prayed and asked God to heal the infection and restore me to health. Minutes later, the abscess broke and the swelling started to go down and the infection was gone by the next day.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened...If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" Matt 7:7,8,11

- 1986 - The year of hot summer storms! It was July, one summer night when the hot electrical storm was raging outside. An "electrical" storm is a step up from an ordinary thunder storm, and the air is hot and the sky is bright purple, and lightning flashes almost non-stop, and the winds are very strong and usually turn into tornados. Anyways, this particular storm was no less than my description and the wind began to move our mobile home as waves move a ship on the sea. A green tree broke in behind our mobile home from the strong winds, and mom was beginning to feel very frightened by now. I cannot recall any of this, as I had been sleeping peacefully :) (which also was a miracle from the Lord). When the tree broke, mom sat up on the couch worried, praying and thinking of what the Lord would do in this kind of situation. The verse about the stilling of the storm on the sea came to her mind and she said, "Storm, I rebuke you."...and gone it was! The same moment mom had spoken the rebuke, the storm disappeared, and you could hear it's whistling sounds in the distance as it left. Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ!!!

"And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm." Matt 8:24-26

- 1987 - Accidents can happen to all of us, and a farm is a good place for it to happen. This year I was corralling a yearling bull, and had caught him with a rope by the horns, when he was suddenly startled and ran off. As he did, I felt the rope tighten around my hand in a moment, and in another split second the noose slipped open. One never wraps a rope around one's hand, but always make sure it slips through easily, which is my habit of doing. But for some reason, this time the rope tightened around my hand to scare the daylights out of me. Had that rope not opened, the bull would have dragged me over the pasture and ripped off my arm out of it's socket and left me injured in a terrible way. I thanked the Lord on that day and still do today, for being there to watch over me, even when I wasn't watching. By now, I have learned to ask God for daily protection, yet He is faithful even when I forget...because I know Him and I am known of Him, as we walk closely with each other every day.

"Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Psalm 91:9-12

- 1987 - Speaking of accidents and the Lord's angels looking out for us. It was winter time and mom was driving down an icy hill with our Ford Escort which was a front wheel drive, when the car suddenly began fishtailing downhill threatening to throw the car into a spin. My mom could feel the cold sweat shoot through the pores on her scalp in shock, and she called out "JESUS!" - and the moment she did, the car straightened out on the road and smoothly continued down the icy hill. \o/\o/\o/ Thank you precious Lord! He has saved us from several "close call" accidents, simply because we called on HIM in our need, and when there was no time to do even that, He had sent His angels to protect us. His eyes are always on His children.

"The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry...the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles." Psalm 34:15,17

- 1988 - The Lord orders all the steps of a righteous man, and in this year, my oldest brother Paul moved to another town to open up another business, this time it was an appliance repair business. At the time, we did not know why we started a second business, but later we realized God's good purpose in it all. You see, although we were now living seperate from my dad and making a living on our own, he kept on harrassing and threatening us in the years after we moved from the farm. One day he decided to walk into our laundromat, making a big commotion and just took over. We did not resist him, because we didn't want it to become a big scene or spectacle, which my dad was an expert in creating. He would have his violent fits once again and it came to a point where I just could not stand his terror any longer, and Clem stayed to take my place in the laundromat for another week. Meanwhile mom and me had moved to the other town, where Paul was running the repair shop, while Clem was trying to stand up to my dad. One day they had a close confrontation and my dad did his screaming and offered Clem a punch in the stomach, but stopped short of actually doing it. (Thank you Jesus! Today, I'd dare to say my dad was demonized, but at that time I was too young in the Lord to know about these kind of things.) Anyways, we ended up "abandoning" the laundromat to my dad, just for peace sake. But our God had already seen this coming, and He provided for us another financial "leg" to stand on, with the second business in another town. How blessed it is to give God the reigns to our lives, because He leads us so well and orders our steps in good paths.

"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Prov 16:9

- 1990 - This is the year in which the Lord directed us to start a third business in yet another town, by now you know the pattern of His dealings :) We opened up a grocery store in a small town about 40 minutes from our other business location. And sure enough, my dad showed up at our "second" station to threaten us again, and eventually things started to dwindle down in that location. But, praise God, He had us prepared once again with the grocery store in my present home town.

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Psalm 37:23,24

- 1995 - My dad had gone to Africa on what he called a "missionary" trip, visiting some friends of ours, making their lives miserable. :( He was writing us from Africa, again threatening that when he came home things were going to change, that he was going to destroy our lives. That was the day I began having severe eating disorders, the fear of my dad's terror just gripped me and my nerves controlling my appetite and eating went haywire, and I began loosing weight drastically. With every day approaching my dad's return date, things got worse, to the point where I did not eat at all anymore. I prayed and prayed, but the fear was stronger inside of me and choked out all faith I ever had. Then, two weeks prior to my dad's arrival date, the phone rings and the General Consulate is on the other end, informing us that my dad had died in Africa. I had very mixed emotions at the news, and to be very honest here, I wasn't very sad at the news at all. I remember breathing a deep sigh of relief, and thanking God for the news. (Some of you may thing "how terrible of me", but God knows why things happened the way they did, and I give Him the glory and the thanks. God only knows, had my dad come home, he would have blown us to pieces.) God works ALL things for our good! I do believe that, and today I know, that we do not need to have "fear" control our lives, as it did me. God is always right on time. We can feel safe in Him. God was good in that He gave me the grace to fully forgive my dad for all his terrors in my life, quite honestly, I don't think he was aware of what he was doing, he himself was a tormented man feeling a lot of pain...and I only regret that I was not able to somehow help him through his own pain in life.

"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Psalm 34:6,7

- 1996 - The last months of 1995 right through the beginning months of 1996, we experienced a major trial that nearly shook our faith in God, we really thought the Lord had forsaken us. First, the sudden financial/economical crisis in our business, when we found ourselves in deep financial debt with our suppliers' lawyers demanding immediate payment. A wipeout of everything we had aquired for our livelihood since 1985, was imminent...it was a very numbing feeling. We got on our knees immediately and asked God for His mercy and intervention in this crisis, and to bring us out of our troubles which had beset us from every side. That same afternoon, one of the major suppliers called us with a payment plan, to work things out. Soon after that, the other supplier called also, asking us about how we were planning to go about paying off our overdue balance, they were all very willing to "negotiate" and accepted our offer. - Praise God!!! So, we were able to get all our debts paid off within the next year.

- 1996 - During this very trying time, we also received the surprizing news of my brother Clem abandoning his faith in God, and turning to "Science" and "Atheism" (the foolish wisdom of this world) instead. (And the devil was rejoicing on that day, but WE will yet have a day to rejoice in.) I am posting this here by Faith as a "monument" to proclaim the faithfulness of our God, for one of these days God will reclaim Clem's heart for Himself. Thank you Jesus, for all you are allowing in Clem's life, only to bring him back to yourself stronger and more settled.

- 1996 - God is always at work in our lives, and He brought another blessing into the midst of our then present struggles. Before my dad had gone to Africa, he had sold his farm and the people were only half into the sale contract, still making payments with one lump payment due at the end of the contract...which was coming due to my mom, since my dad had passed away. The people were experiencing some problems in making timely payments, so we prolonged the contract for several months for them, since we did not want to receive the farm back and have the people lose what they had already invested. A week before monthend, we got a little impatient and finally asked the Lord to finalize the farm sale at the end of the month, February 28th. Not really thinking anything more of it and letting time pass, I received a phonecall on Sunday the 28th, from the lawyer that handled our farm sale. She called on [get this!] "Sunday" to tell me she had all this money in the trustfund from the bank, without any paperwork from the bank to go with it. Obviously she was surprized by such practice, but we knew "who" was behind this rather surprizing act :) Praise be to our God, who hears the prayers of His people. He made sure all the money was in place by the end of the month, to finalize the sale. We were then able to use a large amount of that sum towards our debts, to regain our financial freedom. God has been taking wonderful care of our lives, and we will always honor Him with our lives and praises. Even if it even as so much appears that He might have forsaken you, do not believe it, for He promised "not to leave you nor forsake you" and He meant what He promised.

"For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5

- 1998 - This summer I had been very sick with a type of anorexia, and a deep depression for a period of three weeks, where I was not able to eat at all, but just drank fluids to keep me from dehydrating. I was in rough shape and down to a mere 99 lbs in body weight. I personally trust the Lord to take care of all my needs including my physical needs, and have not been to a doctor or taken medications ever since I have come to know the Lord. He has blessed me with a firm trust in Him right from the beginning of my walk, for which I am truly grateful. Anyways, this time I truly came close to death's door, and it is not a pleasant feeling to have to submit to that, but I surrendered to the Lord instead. He has blessed me with a faithful mom who knows how to pray and trust in Him, and she finally decided to take oil and anoint me praying over me for healing. When she went to the kitchen to get the oil, I dashed for the door outside for a "retching" fit. As soon as she had laid hands on me and prayed, it ended and I got up and went into the house to have small bites to eat and something to drink. After half an hour, I had enough physical strength to vacuum the livingroom, kitchen and the hallway. :) Our God is a mighty and awesome Lord, and He loves us!

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." James 5:14,15

- 1998 - This winter we had an awful lot of snow, and for a time we had to do a lot of snow shovelling to dig ourselves out. It happened one day very unexpectedly while clearing the sidewalk, that I twisted my back and pinched a nerve in my lower back, which temporarily "disabled" me. I slowly made my way back to the house, with very slow and short steps due to the extreme pain, and when I got to the stairs, I almost didn't make it up the steps. I could not sit down, nor lay down, so I remained standing for a long time. All this time I was putting my trust in the Lord and praising Him in the pain, and thanking Him for this opportunity to experience His healing touch. At one point, I decided to raise my arms to God in praise...it was very painful, but I did it anyways and kept on doing so for about 20 minutes. I did not feel immediate relief, and that same night I prayed that I would be able to sleep without pain. Getting into bed was a task in itself, and I wondered if I was going to be able to get out of bed the next morning. Well, thanks to the Lord, morning came and getting out of bed was a breeze, I just had to make it past one painful position, and then I would be fine as long as I remained straight. I continued to thank and praise the Lord, knowing that He would restore my back completely (in His time)...and after the third day, my back was completely restored. \o/\o/\o/ Glory to God! Since then, I have shovelled several driveways and roof tops, and my back is showing no signs of pain. I owe it all to JESUS!!!