From Strength To Strength

Fields Of Life. Ch.11.

From Strength To Strength:

It was, however, after I returned from a very cold ministry trip to Hungary, where the temperature there was only -13 degrees, that things began to change for me.

It was the Spring of 1996, and little did anyone suspect that within months my kidney transplant would fail.

Had I suspected such an event awaited me, I’m sure an apprehensive feeling would have held me captive, and the results of the mission would not have been the same.

But, in reality, that’s what my future held – and, once again, I was to face dialysis!

This time it would be by machine-three times a week.

Dialysis.

Strangely, once my prognosis had been outlined I felt as if I had been stripped of purpose.

Left in a small room all alone, I was found searching for a new identity.

Suddenly a sense of inadequacy saturated me.

I felt abandoned.

Literally, I was incapable of functioning usefully.

My very existence became devoid of significance.

Yet, these were often the situations which strengthened my life – those “in the valley” times, not those on lofty mountain top feelings.

Interestingly, valley soil will always be richer than mountain soil.

And so, no matter how difficult I felt things were at times, it soon became apparent that it was during those times of unrest and uncertainty that my faith grew the most.

Indeed, life’s journey may have led me through times of tremendous blessing – but it has also led me through times of disappointments, dashed hopes and broken dreams.

Still, I often found that it was in those valley times that God the Holy Spirit whispered kindly to me.

It was then that I was able to go from strength to strength – mountain to mountain – increasing in victorious power.

It was in my weakness that God filled me with His strength.

Without any doubt, God’s strength came into its own.

ANOTHER GIFT OF LIFE:

Anyway, it was on 26 January 1998, while being prepared for surgery associated with creating access ready for dialysis, that Miss Rosanna Lord charged onto the hospital ward in Cardiff.

Apparently looking like a galleon in full sail, fully scrubbed in her surgical gown and boots, she exclaimed, “Hold your horses, there’s a kidney transplant on its way!”

Had anyone ever brought better news for me?

Hardly!

Kidney Transplant.

I interject a praise here!

Yes, this was brilliant news!

The successful transplant was later to provide for me the best blood results for years.

As time moved on, doctors even suggested that my blood results were better than theirs.

For this I shall always give thanks.

This was a real gift of life, as once again God was answering my prayer.

I will always feel so much gratitude for the person who decided to be an organ donor.

Someone else’s son, brother, husband, father.

Another hero to me.

His donation turned my life around.

Anyhow, a few months later, I accompanied my good friend Paul on a ministry trip to Poland.

The climate on this trip was far better.

I can clearly recall having a barbecue at the side of a lake, a total contrast to my last visit to eastern Europe.

At long last I was fulfilling my purpose.

A new day had dawned, with a new hope on the horizon.

What’s more, I had a future, as well as a new understanding and knowledge that God knows what He is doing.

He has it all planned out.

This is His promise – He will bless me with a future filled with hope – a future of success, not of suffering.

Jeremiah 29:11

Contemporary English Version.

Bible Gateway.

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