Wineskins Archive

By Ted Ary
September-October 2002

I closed the treatment room door of my urologist’s office and knelt on my knees. I prayed to God that the exam would be normal and that I could go home, but I had my doubts. A month earlier, I had been standing above a crispy white porcelain commode in the Atlanta Airport prior to a Bahamas vacation. Life was good.

My reservations at the opulent Atlantis awaited me.

I went to the rest room at the airport. Out in my urine came some type of foreign matter. I was fortunate to see it in the commode, a sparkling clean commode, I might add. My old days as an orderly in Searcy had me straining patient’s urine for kidney stones, so I debated momentarily, but thrust my bare hand into the commode to see what it was. It was tissue, I was stunned. After scrubbing what seemed like most of the epidermis off my hands at the sink, I returned to the concourse afraid to tell my wife, Cindy.

Upon my return from vacation, I had made the appointment. The urologist said the “tissue story” was disturbing but since I was a 48-year-old non smoker the chance of having a tumor was remote. Now he would look and see. I went through the procedure and waited in his office. Then the news, “you have a bladder tumor with 95 percent chance of malignancy due to the appearance, prognosis depends on staging by the pathologist.”

I reviewed the consent for removal. Surprisingly my wife came into the room. I had told her not to bother coming, she was at school and was told “inaudibly” that she needed to go straight to my appointment.

I told her the news and we left the office.

I was pre-certified at the hospital for surgery to be performed 3 days later and was home by 6 pm. I went into my 13-year-old daughter’s room and knelt privately by the bed. I prayed to God for a miracle to let the daughter that I had baptized three months earlier have a father until adulthood. I then went into my 16-year-old daughter’s room and prayed the same prayer.

I knelt in prayer with a minister, Jerry, within two hours. He prayed that the tissue in the urine had been a sign from God to force me to a doctor. I called two sets of elders and knelt in the living room with my wife, Bob, Jim and their wives by 9 pm. The Fax of Life came in on the internet and I emailed a prayer request.

That night, I left the house for my nightly run and prayed while running. At one point I was looking at the sky and begging God with my request. I cannot bargain with God, he has all the power, but I can praise him, ask for his will, and beg for a miracle. At that moment, as my tear stained face looked upward, something strange happened. I had a 3 second “poker hot” burn in my abdomen. It was so hot that if it had continued, I would have fallen. It left as soon as it came and I returned home shaken. I told my wife upon my return, “I don’t know what happened, I could have been healed.”

The next night, the second set of elders, Bob and John, came to my home and knelt and prayed. On Wednesday night, my wife and I knelt in front of the church and prayed with James and other elders and the congregation. As word went around the community, I received numerous prayer responses, and one included an “oil-anointing” in my absence at a church fifty miles away. At the time, I did not understand what this was exactly but was so grateful that others could pray for me.

I had the surgery with a peace in my heart that was unexplainable. One of my uncles, a minister, said he had not seen so many people at the hospital other than at a wake! I laughed.

I knew God would help me through whatever lay ahead. It would now be 3 days before the pathology report was back. I went to my office on Sunday afternoon. I was prompted to go the hospital with thoughts that I could have an answer. I used my staff entry card and went into the mail room/lounge area. No one was there, I really expected God to have someone there waiting for me in light of previous events.

As I was reaching for my mail, I saw another mailbox nearby…A thought hit me, you don’t suppose my pathology report could be there. I reached my hand into the box and there it was. My hand shook as I read it, “malignant, removed in total, no invasion of tissues.” I went back to my office and knelt and prayed. I must be examined every three months, but it was stage one, no invasion, no treatment needed.

My life is forever changed. I desire God’s will. Money no longer has the appeal it once had. My job and my family are his and my life is his. I pray with zeal for continued faith. An application for Harding University Graduate School lies on my desk. I feel led to take some courses but don’t know how since I live hundreds of miles from there. I know what it means to “pray without ceasing.”

I know what it is to have the armor of God. Was I healed by God while jogging? Was the tissue a sign from God to get me to see a doctor? I don’t have the answers to those questions. But, I do know one thing. I know God and I know that God knows me.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Psalm 34:7

Contact Ted at 1footdoc@bellsouth.net