SHARING TESTIMONIES

Pastor Gordon Crook 

Right Place/Right Time

On a Wednesday in the middle of October, I received a text from my daugher–in law, Mattea. She had been sick all night and was still not feeling well. I asked her if she wanted me to come take care of my grand daughter, Evelyn. She replied that it would be nice if I was able. 

I had retired from my engineering job in August of this year, and that allowed me to be very available. So, I decided to go watch my grand daughter and allow her to get some rest. 

She went to take a nap and napped for an hour or two. When she came out of the room, she said, “My leg is numb and I can’t feel my hand.” Then she mentioned that her face felt numb. Fearing a stroke, I loaded her and Evelyn in the car and took her to the ER. She was still able to walk, but not very well and her speech was slurring some.

They tended to her in the ER and shortly sent her to another hospital in Wichita via ambulance. They were certain she was having a stroke and wanted better care for her. In Wichita they confirmed that she had a stroke and it had impaired the left side of her body some. Her leg and arm and hand had lost some function. She had “cracked” her neck when she went in to nap, and they said that created a small tear in her artery that precipitated the stroke.

Fortunately, we had reacted pretty quickly in getting her to the ER and they were able to start her on the proper medications right away. This was just the Lord’s doing. It was my choice to go or not go to watch my grand daughter, but God made it possible for me to be there and I know that He put it in my heart to want to go there.

That allowed me to be there when she started noticing the symptoms. Time is of the essence in the case of a stroke. If I had not been there, she might not have been able to get to the ER so quickly. It would have been at least an hour before her husband got home from work. God is so good to put us where He needs us at the time He needs us. The doctors expect her to make a complete recovery. She still has some work to do to improve use of her left hand.

No Trace

We received a call from a lady from our church. She asked for urgent prayer for her husband. He had suddenly become incoherent and she was not sure what it was. We assured her that we would go to prayer immediately, and come out to help her.

Since we knew that it would take us approximately 30 minutes to get to them, we called our son who lives about three minutes from them. He had just returned home from working out of town and he agreed to go see if he could help. 

When we got there, it was clear that something serious was going on with her husband. He seemed to be awake and know that we were there, and even attempt to communicate, but he was not able to speak to us. Then, at times he would seem to kind of drift off and slump over some. We laid hands on him and prayed.

We decided to call 911 and get some EMTs and an ambulance. The first to show up were the fire department EMTs, and they did some checking and felt like he was having a TIA which is like a mini stroke. Shortly thereafter, the ambulance with a couple of EMTs showed up and did some further testing. He was an EMT with 50 years experience and was convinced that he was having a TIA.

By this time, the husband was able to speak a little and was able to answer a couple of the EMT’s questions. He still seemed like he was unsure what was going on. The EMT with our help was able to convince him to let them take him to the hospital to get checked out. 

We again laid hands on him and prayed before they took him. At the ER, we stayed for quite a while that night and the doctor that came in after a while was also convinced that he had a TIA. By this time, he is pretty much back to normal, but did not have any memory of the period of time when we were at his house. 

Over that night and the next day, they did every test they needed, but were unable to find any evidence of anything. It was as if nothing had happened to him. If we were not there to witness it, he would not be able to convince any doctor that something had happened to him. We praise God for His answer to prayers, and for enabling our son to be available to help in quick order.