A New Heart

I lived a lukewarm life and did not know it. please refer to testimony below to see how Jesus saved my life.

On Boxing Day of 2020, I was at the hospital working my shift. I got a call at 10 am from my sister who was at home with my dad and she stated “Dad said he suddenly feels short of breath and has a crushing sensation in his chest” I immediately felt frantic and my mind said “it’s a cardiac arrest” He was rushed to the hospital and it was determined there was no cardiac arrest, but they did not know what it was. He was flown out and it was determined that he had gone into sudden heart failure called Idiopathic cardiac myopathy which is the fancy term for heart failure without a cause. He went home stable on medication but rapidly declined. NO ONE was listening to us. I went home often and the day he had a phone appointment with results of an echocardiogram (test to determine heart functionality) I went numb. I went numb when I heard the doctor say “heart transplant” I was immediately enraged at the doctor because as a nurse I knew that they could have told us at the bedside that his heart was functioning at a dangerously low 8- 10% The physicians in my home town made no extra effort to fast track us getting help. That night I cried and cried, I paced in my parents yard trying to comprehend what I heard. I began to pray desperately. I will never forget that cry out, it was a huge cry out to Jesus. I suddenly felt instruction over my heart to call a centre 6 hours away and so I did. I was able to use my resources and by the grace of God I got ahold of an attending cardiologist. I remember saying “I know this is not how this works. But my Dad is going to die and we need help. I’m taking him to another hospital with the goal of getting him flown to you because I don’t think he will survive a 6 hour drive.” The specialist heard me and said “Go forth with your plan and I will take on your dads case.” In the hospital between the one where he would eventually be treated we received a Christian doctor who worked tirelessly to get my Dad flown out as soon as possible. And he did. I remember praying to God “I don’t know if this is how it works, but can you please send Jesus himself on that medivac with my dad” My dad was flown to Edmonton Alberta Mazankowski heart institute where a team of specialist exhausted life saving medications to see if we could avoid an invasive operation. Medication ceased to work. It was determined that he needed a medical device called an LVAD (Left ventricular assistive device) to keep him alive while we waited on a heart transplant. The LVAD was implanted April 28th 2021, 4 days before my dads 51st birthday. The night he came out of surgery I was with my mum and I lost it. He was on a ventilator as per protocol, while his body adjusted to the pump in which now pumped his heart for him. I remember being terrified watching a machine breathe for my Dad and seeing him white and lifeless. Normally a patient with this procedure would be on the machine up to 3 days before they wake up on their own. My Dad woke up less than 24 hours later. When he woke up he was in acute post op delirium due to all the heavy sedation and did not know where he was, or that he had even had surgery. His eyes were glazed over and he was slurring his words incomprehensibly. The night of the first day he woke up, April 29th 2021. I sat at the foot of his bed and my mum to the right. I could see her holding his hand with her head bowed in prayer. I was scrolling through bible verses on my phone in search of comfort. My dads head suddenly popped up and I thought he was in pain. His face was suddenly bright and appeared healthy, his eyes were clear and bright and then he spoke CLEARLY, for the first time. (No nurse in the room for the first time) He looked to my mum and said “I suddenly feel an overwhelming sensation of love, I don’t know, I just feel overwhelmed with love.” My mum began to cry and told me she had just been praying that God would allow my dad to feel how much she loved him. He then stated CLEARLY “ Jesus has a message, he says, Everything is going to be alright, sometimes Christians have to go through it the hard way.” With that sentence, his eyes glazed over and his head fell into the pillow and he went back to sleep. My mum and I sat there stunned with sudden peace, hope, joy and comfort. Days later my Dad said to me “Jesus was there” and I asked “He was where dad?” And he said “Jesus was on the plane with me on my way here, he was next to me, I saw him.” I remember my prayer, I had not told a living soul on this earth of my prayer. June 5th of 2022 my Dads heard had 100% completely healed. The doctors were shocked because they were expecting to perform a transplant. The LVAD was decommissioned on this day. Today, my dads heart is healed, healthy and he is no longer a heart failure patient. Through this, Jesus opened all of our spiritual eyes. He lead us away from Luke warm lives to lives enriched by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I know know now that God did not do this to us, he did it FOR us. My Dad was not the only one to receive a new and healthy heart through this. Praise the almighty name of Jesus for we are healed by his stripes and the sacrifice of the blood he shed. When all seems hopeless, God’s power is made strongest in weakness. I remember when my dad got sick and his heart failed, I felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean with endless pressure and darkness where I could not imagine seeing the light ever again. I fell into deep depression and anxiety because I did not know the future. Those close to me noticed an extreme change in my behaviour and tolerance for small situations. It was the first time that every aspect of a situation felt 100% out of my control and it was. I couldn’t control the heart failure, I couldn’t control how he failed day by day before my eyes. The only thing that I could control was my prayer life with God. I grew up in Christian faith and believed , but I didn’t know how to hand the pile of darkness that overwhelmed me over to someone who could take it for me. I didn’t know that believing in God and having a relationship with him were different. I had never sought him before, I often only prayed in times of need because I didn’t know how to have that relationship with Jesus during good times as well. When my dad got sick, it all began to change. I was scared , in anguish and angry. I could not understand why a God who loves me so much would do this to us. I now realize he did this FOR us, and not to us. I have been delivered from many things since. My eyes were opened in that hospital room as I watched my dad fight for his life. One day, my dad asked my mum and I for a bible. We went out and got one for him, but it wasn’t good enough because he wanted one with the letters in red. I didn’t understand why this was so important at the time. So mum and I went out and got one with the letters in red. I remember for some reason being drawn to the one at the back of the pile and I brought it back to him. I noticed that the bible had a marker in it and this verse literally jumped off the page “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” ??Ezekiel? ?36?:?26? ?NIV?? That day, through this verse, I gained my spiritual sight. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with peace and calmness, from that day on, all my fear and worry had dispelled from me as far as the east is from the west. When I read that verse, I read it as a personal promise from God that he would deliver us from this. And he did. He delivered us into caring and knowledgeable hands of Doctors and nurses who listened and worked tirelessly to do everything they could. He delivered us from fear and sadness. He delivered us from illness and disparity. He delivered us into the hands of Jesus and said “You are mine” I choose to remember the sadness and grief, not to hold onto it, but to remember the dark crushing pit that Jesus delivered us from. My Dad is a rare end stage heart failure survivor who now has a perfectly healthy heart of his own flesh. Fully healed in less than a year. Proclaimed to be a miracle by many doctors and nurses. I praise Jesus for this miracle and love for he did not leave or forsake us. Many challenges may come as life goes on, but now I know I will never be alone again. I am a daughter of the most High and the most High is FOR me, not against me. Hallelujah in Jesus name.

Jesus rewrote my story.

Jesus rewrote my story.

On Boxing Day of 2020, I was at the hospital working my shift. I got a call at 10 am from my sister who was at home with my dad and she stated “Dad said he suddenly feels short of breath and has a crushing sensation in his chest” I immediately felt frantic and my mind said “it’s a cardiac arrest” He was rushed to the hospital and it was determined there was no cardiac arrest, but they did not know what it was. He was flown out and it was determined that he had gone into sudden heart failure called Idiopathic cardiac myopathy which is the fancy term for heart failure without a cause. He went home stable on medication but rapidly declined. NO ONE was listening to us. I went home often and the day he had a phone appointment with results of an echocardiogram (test to determine heart functionality) I went numb. I went numb when I heard the doctor say “heart transplant” I was immediately enraged at the doctor because as a nurse I knew that they could have told us at the bedside that his heart was functioning at a dangerously low 8- 10% The physicians in my home town made no extra effort to fast track us getting help. That night I cried and cried, I paced in my parents yard trying to comprehend what I heard. I began to pray desperately. I will never forget that cry out, it was a huge cry out to Jesus. I suddenly felt instruction over my heart to call a centre 6 hours away and so I did. I was able to use my resources and by the grace of God I got ahold of an attending cardiologist. I remember saying “I know this is not how this works. But my Dad is going to die and we need help. I’m taking him to another hospital with the goal of getting him flown to you because I don’t think he will survive a 6 hour drive.” The specialist heard me and said “Go forth with your plan and I will take on your dads case.” In the hospital between the one where he would eventually be treated we received a Christian doctor who worked tirelessly to get my Dad flown out as soon as possible. And he did. I remember praying to God “I don’t know if this is how it works, but can you please send Jesus himself on that medivac with my dad” My dad was flown to Edmonton Alberta Mazankowski heart institute where a team of specialist exhausted life saving medications to see if we could avoid an invasive operation. Medication ceased to work. It was determined that he needed a medical device called an LVAD (Left ventricular assistive device) to keep him alive while we waited on a heart transplant. The LVAD was implanted April 28th 2021, 4 days before my dads 51st birthday. The night he came out of surgery I was with my mum and I lost it. He was on a ventilator as per protocol, while his body adjusted to the pump in which now pumped his heart for him. I remember being terrified watching a machine breathe for my Dad and seeing him white and lifeless. Normally a patient with this procedure would be on the machine up to 3 days before they wake up on their own. My Dad woke up less than 24 hours later. When he woke up he was in acute post op delirium due to all the heavy sedation and did not know where he was, or that he had even had surgery. His eyes were glazed over and he was slurring his words incomprehensibly. The night of the first day he woke up, April 29th 2021. I sat at the foot of his bed and my mum to the right. I could see her holding his hand with her head bowed in prayer. I was scrolling through bible verses on my phone in search of comfort. My dads head suddenly popped up and I thought he was in pain. His face was suddenly bright and appeared healthy, his eyes were clear and bright and then he spoke CLEARLY, for the first time. (No nurse in the room for the first time) He looked to my mum and said “I suddenly feel an overwhelming sensation of love, I don’t know, I just feel overwhelmed with love.” My mum began to cry and told me she had just been praying that God would allow my dad to feel how much she loved him. He then stated CLEARLY “ Jesus has a message, he says, Everything is going to be alright, sometimes Christians have to go through it the hard way.” With that sentence, his eyes glazed over and his head fell into the pillow and he went back to sleep. My mum and I sat there stunned with sudden peace, hope, joy and comfort. Days later my Dad said to me “Jesus was there” and I asked “He was where dad?” And he said “Jesus was on the plane with me on my way here, he was next to me, I saw him.” I remember my prayer, I had not told a living soul on this earth of my prayer. June 5th of 2022 my Dads heard had 100% completely healed. The doctors were shocked because they were expecting to perform a transplant. The LVAD was decommissioned on this day. Today, my dads heart is healed, healthy and he is no longer a heart failure patient. Through this, Jesus opened all of our spiritual eyes. He lead us away from Luke warm lives to lives enriched by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I know know now that God did not do this to us, he did it FOR us. My Dad was not the only one to receive a new and healthy heart through this. Praise the almighty name of Jesus for we are healed by his stripes and the sacrifice of the blood he shed. When all seems hopeless, God’s power is made strongest in weakness. I remember when my dad got sick and his heart failed, I felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean with endless pressure and darkness where I could not imagine seeing the light ever again. I fell into deep depression and anxiety because I did not know the future. Those close to me noticed an extreme change in my behaviour and tolerance for small situations. It was the first time that every aspect of a situation felt 100% out of my control and it was. I couldn’t control the heart failure, I couldn’t control how he failed day by day before my eyes. The only thing that I could control was my prayer life with God. I grew up in Christian faith and believed , but I didn’t know how to hand the pile of darkness that overwhelmed me over to someone who could take it for me. I didn’t know that believing in God and having a relationship with him were different. I had never sought him before, I often only prayed in times of need because I didn’t know how to have that relationship with Jesus during good times as well. When my dad got sick, it all began to change. I was scared , in anguish and angry. I could not understand why a God who loves me so much would do this to us. I now realize he did this FOR us, and not to us. I have been delivered from many things since. My eyes were opened in that hospital room as I watched my dad fight for his life. One day, my dad asked my mum and I for a bible. We went out and got one for him, but it wasn’t good enough because he wanted one with the letters in red. I didn’t understand why this was so important at the time. So mum and I went out and got one with the letters in red. I remember for some reason being drawn to the one at the back of the pile and I brought it back to him. I noticed that the bible had a marker in it and this verse literally jumped off the page “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” ??Ezekiel? ?36?:?26? ?NIV?? That day, through this verse, I gained my spiritual sight. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with peace and calmness, from that day on, all my fear and worry had dispelled from me as far as the east is from the west. When I read that verse, I read it as a personal promise from God that he would deliver us from this. And he did. He delivered us into caring and knowledgeable hands of Doctors and nurses who listened and worked tirelessly to do everything they could. He delivered us from fear and sadness. He delivered us from illness and disparity. He delivered us into the hands of Jesus and said “You are mine” I choose to remember the sadness and grief, not to hold onto it, but to remember the dark crushing pit that Jesus delivered us from. My Dad is a rare end stage heart failure survivor who now has a perfectly healthy heart of his own flesh. Fully healed in less than a year. Proclaimed to be a miracle by many doctors and nurses. I praise Jesus for this miracle and love for he did not leave or forsake us. Many challenges may come as life goes on, but now I know I will never be alone again. I am a daughter of the most High and the most High is FOR me, not against me. Hallelujah in Jesus name.

My God is faithful he did not leave or forsake us. He showed us what life living for Jesus feels like. I was one way, and now I am another in Jesus' name.