Wonder-Filled Times

Terri Sims

In my life I have had two positively wonder-filled experiences I would like others to know about.

The first one happened when my sister was 14 years old. She was diagnosed with “Chronic/Aggressive Hepatitis B” and was expected to live only another five years. Doctors continuously monitored her blood, and did liver biopsies to track the progression of the disease. My mother was at her wit’s end as to what to do with a dying teenage daughter.

While working at her job, my mom met a woman who was a born-again Christian and a charismatic catholic. She told my mother about a priest, Father Frank DiOrio, with a healing ministry in Boston.  My sister’s condition was deteriorating (she was around 18 at this time) and my mother figured, what did she have to lose?  She, my stepfather, and sister flew to Boston to attend a healing service. My sister thought it pretty strange and was reluctant to go forward in prayer, but Fr. DiOrio called out, “There is a young girl with a liver disease.  Don’t worry. God will heal you.”  She went up for his healing.

On the plane ride home, my sister noticed that her liver didn’t hurt as much (before the healing service she had been in constant pain), and as an added bonus, my mom’s back pain was gone!

My mom waited a few months before she took my sister to the doctor since she had started feeling better. The doctor ran some tests, asked for more tests, and did a liver biopsy.  When the results came back, the doctor spoke with my mom and sister.  He said that something unexplainable had happened.  Not only was the hepatitis gone, but also her liver was perfectly fine.  There were no signs of the hepatitis, and her blood had absolutely no antigens of the disease.

Still to this day, 28 years later, she is fine!

This is actually what got me thinking about this whole “Jesus-thing” in my own life. About a year later I gave my life to the Lord as well.

The second experience occurred when Hurricane Andrew was heading for Florida.  The storm was approaching south Florida with a vengeance. The police had already knocked on our door telling my (then) husband and I that we needed to evacuate immediately.  We had no time to board up our windows, nor do any other preparation for the storm. Our friends were going to “put us up” and we had to leave. Before we left, though, we did the only thing we could think of doing. We prayed over our home. We anointed each wall and even touched the roof!

We rode out the storm in our friend’s home.  God was good! Although their home was destroyed, all of us (four adults and three children age three and under) had remained safe.

As we drove to our house, I saw complete and utter destruction.  I heard that less than one mile from our house, they had clocked wind gusts over 200 mph before the wind instrument broke. I expected our house to be destroyed when we reached it. I couldn’t have been more wrong! The house was intact! We lost the front siding to the home, the roof ended up only missing ten shingles, and only six window panes were broken. Although the large trees in the backyard fell and blocked the sliding glass doors, the doors themselves remained perfectly fine. We were the only house on our block which was intact! The neighbors were in shock. Since they were having to leave their homes for an extended period of time, they gave us all their food. In fact, we ended up with so much food that when the Red Cross truck came by, we gave THEM food!

While these were trying times for sure, God’s hand was in this. We are utterly grateful for each day!