Testimonies

 

Mary Coleman's Testimony ...

In December 2004 I got sick and it left me very frustrated and discouraged. The medication, which the doctor prescribed, caused me to gain a lot of weight and it kept me very tired throughout the day and unable to sleep at night.

As a matter of fact, when I started going back to work at the Women of Purpose National Office where I’m a secretary I would have to lay down for a good portion of the day. I couldn’t work the whole time. That eventually got better as Marion and Dr. Phillips prayed but I still couldn’t get up early. I would drag in late every morning and would still be very tired throughout the day. When Dr. Phillips would ask me how I was doing, I would always say, “I’m tired” or “I’m o.k.” but I really wouldn’t be.

This went on through June of 2007 and during this time I really wasn’t in the word or prayer. I lost all my desire for the things of the Lord and I also didn’t care about myself. I wouldn’t take care of myself nor did I do anything around my home. I didn’t cook or clean. On my days off I wouldn’t get up in the morning because I didn’t have anything to make me want to get up. I stopped caring about life. I basically just existed.

I have three children and my middle child’s name is Christine. Through high school she struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide. The doctors gave her a medication but she would never stay on it because she would always say that it didn’t help. Well, now she is attending college at Seattle University where she just completed her junior year. When she began going, we encouraged her to find a church there. God placed her in New Hope International Church. She got involved with their care groups but she continued to struggle with bouts of depression and anxiety.

One night she called me in May of 2007. She was struggling again with anxiety to the point where she couldn’t study or anything. She was frightened. So she would call me every two hours or so just to have me talk with her. During this time I wasn’t in a good place either as I’ve shared. So I asked her did she have her medication and encouraged her to start taking it again. I told my husband what was going on and he called her and encouraged her to share with her care group. She hadn’t opened up about it to anyone except me. When she shared with them, the care group leaders, Jonathan and Joanne Shea began speaking into her words of life and the group prayed for her. That Sunday she also told Pastor Laohaprasit what was going on and he layed hands on her and prayed for God to break all generational curses that might be on her life. She called me and said that she was healed. I questioned it and called her back the next day asking how she felt and if she was still on her medication. She told me, “Mom, I said that I was healed.” “I don’t need that medication anymore!”

When she came home this summer, she was a completely different person. There was a joy that radiated from her life. She began speaking into me. She saw that I wasn’t sleeping at night and she would come to me in the mornings and pray with me before I would go to work. She gave me books to read. One was by Joyce Meyer, called The Power of Simple Prayer. Another she gave to my husband and I called, Blessing or Curse, You Can Choose by Derek Prince.

She then asked if we could start having a Family Time on Fridays where we would come together and have a time of worshipping God through song, sharing what God was doing in our lives, sometime in the word and closing with prayer. My husband and I said yes. Right before the first time of coming together as a family I was watching TBN. The Benny Hinn Show came on with Oral Roberts as a guest. He was speaking on faith. What he shared spoke to me so strongly that I shared it with my family that night and prayed a prayer of faith to God about my not being able to sleep and that night I slept all through the night. I woke up praising and thanking God.

I then prayed that next night to have continuous nights of sleep and that I needed more faith to believe for that. Praise God!!! I’ve been sleeping every night without sleeping pills or anything and I wake up refreshed at 6:00 in the morning. I’ve started spending time in the word every morning, writing down a portion to meditate on and closing with prayer. Now I get up every morning praising God for a new day even on my days off. I’ve started taking care of myself again, cleaning up my home and cooking. God has also enabled me to lose 46 pounds! I’m standing in prayer that God will take me off my medication in His timing and thanking Him for it in faith.

I praise God for what He began in my daughter Christine’s life and how through her faith, sharing and praying it has set our household free from the places of bondage and healed us. I also thank God for the women who have stood with me through this valley experience:

Gloria Stidum: I’m in her mentoring class and she prays for each of us every day.

Carolyn Viquain and Bonnie Atkins who anointed me with oil, prayed and told me to begin praising the Lord.

Marion and Dr. Phillips: They never gave up on me. They would encourage me, pray for me, always speaking life into me, telling me that my healing was coming and that I would be better than before.

I want to end with one of the scriptures that speaks of where I am now:

Psalm 34:1-3

“I will bless the Lord at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;

The humble shall hear it and rejoice.

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”