Testimony of Sharon & Raymond Bland (12/05/2021)

So like I told you guys a couple of minutes ago, we are doing something a little bit different today.

Dad had asked previously for basically just to give the opportunity for anyone who would like to

come up and share a testimony if they feel led to do so, to come and share with everybody, not only your

church family here, of course, we have some church family online as well and some newer members that

don't yet know, you know, a lot of us that have been here for a while.

Now, for starters, I'm gonna invite the Blands to come up first.

Of course, the Blands have been with us my entire life and even beyond, you know, 38

years, that's incredible.

They used to babysit not only me, but also my older siblings before me.

And so they are absolutely family in every sense of the word.

So y 'all come on up and I'm looking forward to hearing what y 'all have to share.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm just gonna tell you up around here what I learned in 2010

about prayer.

You never pray to God for what you want.

He's not in the give you what you want business.

You pray for being blessed and he'll bless you for the blessing that you asked for.

And at the end of this story, I'll show you what I mean.

In 2010, I got out of bed that morning and my shoulder here was sore.

My arm had a little ache in it.

That's, for me, that's not unusual because I would do so much work in the yard, whatever.

So I go in and rub it good with icy hot.

That's what you're supposed to do.

Well, it just rocked on.

And each day it got just a little worse.

We went on a cruise vacation.

It was right after Thanksgiving for Christmas cruise.

And it hurt the whole cruise, but not enough that I didn't enjoy myself.

So we got back from the cruise and went on through Christmas.

And right after Christmas, it was really hurting.

So I decided I need to go have it checked.

I said, I went to my family doctor and he said, let me take some x -rays of your

shoulder.

So he did, and he come back and told me, he said, I can't see anything wrong with your shoulder

because all I can see is bone.

And he matched on the top and asked me, did that hurt?

And I told him, it sure did.

And he said, I believe you got a torn rotator cuff shoulder.

So he gave me a shot of cortisone and told me, he said, you'll hurt tonight, but you'll feel all right tomorrow.

Well, was he ever wrong?

Because next day it was really hurting, but I didn't pay that much attention to it because I said,

maybe it takes a little longer to work on some people than it does others.

So went on Saturday and it was worse.

Sunday, it was real bad.

And Monday, I could not stand to touch my own arm.

So I called up and told him I need to see the doctor.

And I went back to my family doctor and he looked at it.

And he said, there's more wrong than I can see.

He said, you need to see a surgeon.

So I said, okay.

He said, my secretary nurse will get you an appointment with the

surgeon, Dr. Malone.

So I went to see Dr. Malone.

I finally got the appointment for Thursday of that week and I suffered it

out Thursday.

And went and he did the same thing.

He took x -rays and he said, I can't see anything wrong, but I need to

have an MRI done.

So I said, all right.

And he said, my nurse will have you set up.

So I went out and she called over to the hospital.

This is where it starts getting interesting.

They could not give me an MRI for at

least 10 days.

They were so busy.

So I said, well, I'll just have to tough it out.

So me and my wife, we went and got in the car.

This was on, she told me whenever I did get the MRI to call her and she'd set my appointment back up.

This was on Thursday.

We got in the car and I caught her hand and we prayed, told the Lord that I need to be

blessed with something to done to have this MRI.

So we, I live about 10 miles, 10 minutes from the hospital that I have.

So we got home and opened the door and the phone was ringing.

And she answered it and it was the hospital.

Said, we have an appointment in the morning for nine o 'clock, cancellation if you want it.

So we went and got it.

And we took a call to the office and told them.

She said, well, they won't read it till Monday and we'll get it over here Tuesday and I'll make you an appointment,

which she did.

And we went and Dr. Malone looked at it.

And he said, what I see is you got a bone spur and a tore muscle

in your shoulder.

Now he said, I can do this next surgery on it next Tuesday

but I'm not a shoulder doctor.

Said, I'm a hip and knee doctor.

And he said, most of my shoulders, I send to an expert in Tyler, Dr. Deviney.

He does all the shoulder work for the major baseball teams and schools.

So we thought about it and since he put it that way, I told him we would go

see the surgeon in Tyler.

So they made an appointment, seven days.

So I get over there in seven days and Dr. Deviney, I went in.

And at this time, my shoulder was really hurting.

They took me into a room and he had a machine in there that they got finally got me in that took

pictures and out when we got through, it took me down to his room.

And he finally came in and looked at it.

And he said, well, he said, my MOI is a lot different than theirs.

He said, you, I had a knot right here.

He said, that knot is your shoulder.

He said, it's out of socket.

He said, we'd had, I'm going to go in there, it's pushed out by scar tissue, scrape it out,

put your shoulder back up there and screw it together.

And I don't know how to replace the muscle until we get in there.

I said, okay.

And he looked, he said, I won't give you some powerful drugs.

He said, I can't do this.

It was 14 days.

So these are, I figured this out, this is God's day, seven and 14.

And anyway, we came back home and mentioned and said the same prayer.

If he didn't want to put anybody out, but they can work me in earlier, I would

appreciate it, you know?

And we said that night and the next day, the phone rang and it was East Texas Medical call.

And she said, the surgery that you're going to have to have is so bad that

you're going to have to be pre -opted.

And so they had a Dr. Wee and Tyler, I had to go be pre -opted.

So called her up, want her for seven days.

And it's going to take two days to do it.

So while we go over and we do the stress test and all of this,

and she gets it done and she said, well, it looks good, but since you had artery

surgery on this, carotid artery, I'm going to have to have you have it checked by the

hospital to see if you got it anywhere else before you can have this surgery.

Well, I went and had it checked.

And when he got through the next day, the hospital, he said, Dr. Wee needs to talk to you on the phone.

So I go in his office and she says that 72 blockage is

when we say you need surgery.

So we're seeing 78 in your neck on this side.

Since you had it here with this side, until you have this fixed, we're not going to get

you to have your shoulder surgery.

Okay.

So she said, there's a surgeon here that does that and he's the best.

So you can have it done here or you can have it done in Corsicama.

I said, well, let us have it done here and that way all doctors will be right here.

So I go to his office and he, the surgeon talked

to us real nice.

He said, I could do it, but it'd be about seven days.

We won't get you.

So, okay.

So we go over there seven days and go into surgery.

And he said, most of this I can do in just a little while, but they kept me two and a half,

three hours in surgery.

And when I come out, I could tell they was trying to wake me up, but I wasn't coming out of it just

right.

So finally got me awake and then they admitted me into the hospital

for observation.

And I spent the night me and Sharon and that was a night to remember.

They had a sign above my bed, do not touch my left arm.

And it was tied down and this one was tied down with any needle stuck in and I can't sleep on my back.

Anyway, the next morning, doctor came in and he asked me how I felt.

I said, I got one of the darndest headaches that I've ever had.

He said, that's great.

So glad to hear that.

Said that tells me I did my job right.

Well, I figured if I get out of this bed, maybe you'd have a good run around here.

But he said, let me explain what I'm talking about.

He said, when I got in your neck, you was 99 % water.

Your brain was getting 1 % of the blood it needed.

He said, when I opened it up, said it's like opening up a powerful hose in there and it made a

headache.

It just said, it'll go away.

And he said, this bone is sticking out here from death.

He said, right under there, you had an aneurysm about the size of a hen egg.

He said, I cleaned it out and got rid of it too.

He said, if that had burst and I don't know why it hadn't already burst,

shutting off that 1%, said it would be instant death to you.

So that situation saved my life.

And I said, well, can I have my surgery?

He said, I'm not gonna let you have your surgery until you go to a heart doctor and have your heart checked

and check for any other blockage in the rest of your stomach since you had it in these both of

these, you don't have it elsewhere.

So I go to the heart doctor and he checks me out and he said, you look good, but said, I

won't know anything unless I do a heart cath.

I said, okay.

So we go over and he does a heart cath on me and tells

me that everything looks good.

And can I have my surgery?

He said, yes.

So in 14 days, I went back and had my surgery and it took him about two and a half hours.

And he told me, he said, normally your most shoulder damage he can fix in 25 minutes after you go under.

But said mine was bad, like I was paralyzed and more and he got it back up there

and put it back in there.

He said that the headache would go away.

And so it did and it just

owned and finally he got my surgery done.

And he told me that was, it took till June with all the time that they'd give me

before I could have my surgery, six months to get my arm fixed.

And he told me, he said, you're probably gonna need about eight weeks, I mean, eight months of exercise

to get it back to where you can use it.

Well, I went out to the hospital here and first thing you want me to do was

pick up a one ounce weight, which that one ounce weight must've weighed a ton because I

couldn't pick it up.

Well, went on and they would, he gave me them pain pills

and he told my wife, she'll tell you, he went on and told his son when he got through with the surgery,

he said, he's not being in pain now, but said, when he comes around tomorrow, you

make sure he takes his pill because he'll be cussing me because he's gonna be in so much pain.

But anyway, I came to, and next morning I took one pill, just in case,

and then I went to take him to therapy, I didn't take another pill.

And I took two and a half months of therapy and they released me.

Everything was fine.

I never took another pill.

And I told my wife, I said, you know, God answered the simplest prayer that we prayed.

Give me blessing with no pain in my shoulder so I could sleep.

That's what we was praying for in church every Sunday, that he would bless me with no pain so I'd go to

sleep.

I wasn't sleeping any and I was just walking around in a zombie.

And I've had no pain since then.

I can read my own positive.

And went back, I tell this story, went back the second checkup with him and he couldn't do

it so his nurse did it, the practitioner.

And she came in and she looked at my chart and said, how's your arm?

I said, well, I can put it back here and picked it up here.

She said, oh, wait just a minute, I got the wrong chart.

And she came back to me and said, he said, this is the right chart.

But she said, with what you went through, you shouldn't be able to do this.

And we came out of the office and he was coming down the hall and asked me how could I lift my arm.

I said, about this high.

And he said, I won't need to see you for a year.

But anyway, during all this, the heart doctor found I had a weak heartbeat.

My heart would skip a beat.

And he said, I need to keep an eye on that.

He said, I'm gonna check you every six months.

Well, I went back six months and he said, it's a little worse.

And I went back another six months, he said, it's a little worse.

Then all of a sudden, I went to losing weight and I lost 68 pounds in six weeks.

Wasn't trying and I was still eating my blue bale.

And I went to my family doctor and he said, that's too much weight,

even if you was trying.

So he sent me to some doctors and they checked me out and run all these tests and they couldn't find anything wrong.

So it come up a few days, I had my doctor appointment with my heart doctor in Tyler.

And I went back and he called me and Sharon in the office.

He said, now I'm gonna tell you this.

Said that valve in your heart is gone.

Said that AR valve is done gone.

He said, you don't have to have this surgery if you don't want it.

Said you might live a year.

I said, if we do the surgery, you could live 15.

I said, well, let's do it.

I didn't know I could say that, you know.

So we go over there and he had two doctor surgeons in there

and he said, now if you're still no blockage in your lower abdomen, we can go

through the lower part of your stomach up through the valve and drop the heart in and it'd be

simple surgery.

We said, if you got any blockage, he'll have to cut you open.

Well, I didn't have any blockage.

So they went in and put this valve in there.

I got the valve out of a cow.

See, the hog or a cow, but I glad I got the cow, you know.

And he put me in the hospital, they said, you have to stay in the hospital for five to seven days.

You can't drive for six weeks.

So, okay.

They did surgery and went in and put me in a room and they checked my

vitals about every 45 minutes to an hour.

They never went up.

They were always perfect.

And they was that way every day.

And come Friday, each morning, the doctor wanted to get another machine

to check it.

And it checked out perfect too.

So he said, I'm gonna do something tomorrow.

If your vitals are still as good, I'm gonna let you go home in two and a half days.

He said, that's something I've never done before.

I said, you really have to stay seven.

They said, vitals like you're checking is perfect.

And I said, what about driving the car?

He said, you can drive home.

So I didn't, but he said that.

That is when I learned, whenever we finally got through, I

didn't have to think to appeal.

He answered that first prayer that I had a simple prayer of,

Lord, bless me with some sleep so I can rest.

And today I have no problems with it and it's doing great.

And I just thank the Lord for everything.

So if you want blessing, ask him to bless you.

And he'll do it.

Thank you.

God has blessed me in so many ways that it almost sounds unreal.

Through many prayers and faith, he's healed me and taken care of me.

And I give him all the glory for everything.

Whenever there's a storm brewing in my life, I go to him in prayer and I ask others to pray

with me.

Throughout the years, God has answered many prayers on my behalf and he continues to do

so now.

He says, when there are two or more gathered, he will hear our prayers and answer them.

And I have learned that he does answer them, but in his own time.

In January of 2004, I was diagnosed with stage one lobular breast

cancer.

I met with Dr. Kingman, the surgeon, and he told me the best option was for me to have

a lumpectomy.

And after I was healed, he would refer me to one of the two

oncologists who came here from Dallas.

He said, and I quote, I hope you don't have to have chemo, but I know you

will have to have radiation.

And I don't know how much he will recommend, but I think it would probably be six

weeks.

In February, I met with Dr. Agarwal, the oncologist, and he

recommended six months of chemo and 36 radiation treatments.

I would then have to be on an expensive pill called a Remedex for five years.

I had to have labs weekly until I finished both treatments.

The morning after each chemo treatment, I had to have a powerful shot to help with the

sickness that occurs after the chemo and to help keep an infection from

occurring.

I started radiation immediately as soon as I had the last chemo.

I had to go to Waco every day for that.

And since Raymond was on the road all week and at times away for 10 days or longer,

I had to have someone drive me there back and forth because of the side effects of

radiation.

The Lord has always given me the best of best friends, always, I've always had the best.

And praise the Lord for the wonderful friends I had that chauffeured me there and back every

day.

Charlotte, Joy, Jenny, Diane and Clarence, Anne, Gail,

Linda, Jada, Adam, and Raymond when he was home off the road.

I had chemo on Thursdays and just like clockwork, around 2 a .m. the

sickness would begin.

Nausea, headache, weakness and vomiting.

He wanted me to take my temperature daily to make sure I didn't have fever because that

indicated an infection had set in.

And then there is always a side effect of some

sort.

But I would drag myself out of bed and go to the clinic for that shot.

But even with it, I would still be sick all of Friday, Saturday and Saturday night.

But by the grace of God on Sunday morning, I felt just fine and felt normal.

I never missed a Sunday of church and I felt well enough to get up and prepare usually two

meals to take to the church for the noon meal.

Now let's fast forward to 2020.

I had been in remission for 16 years.

My yearly mammogram showed a suspicious looking tumor and they recommended a

biopsy.

I had that done and the next day the tech called me and said it was benign, but it

could and it would usually turn to cancer.

I scheduled another surgery with them and chose Dr. Kristen Birdwell to do surgery.

I went back in three months for a follow -up after the surgery and there was an area with

about 30 clusters of tumors.

I was in shock almost.

The first person I called was David Mitchell and I asked him to pray for me.

I knew he would and for some reason I always felt better after I talked with

him.

Not only was he my pastor, but a close friend too and it just seemed like his

words of wisdom was what I needed to hear.

He has been with Raymond and me through many of our major surgeries and was with us when I went in

for that surgery.

I was diagnosed with stage zero carcinoma in Satsu and after six

weeks saw Dr. Agarwal.

He had all my tests, the surgeon's letters and notes, the copies of the mammograms and he had

studied all of them.

After my examination with him, he said, I'm going to order six weeks of

radiation and chemo.

My heart sank as we had prayed so hard since surgery that there would be no chemo.

Before I left, I timidly asked him how much chemo I would have to have.

And he said, none.

I said, well, I understood you to say six weeks of radiation and chemo.

And he said, no, I said six weeks of radiation and no chemo

because you did not have cancer.

It was pre -cancerous and it's gone now.

I couldn't believe it.

When we walked out of the doctor's office, Raymond said, I told you it would be a good

diagnosis because I gave it to the Lord and asked him to heal you.

I had finally just about quit worrying about anything, but I do tell God my concerns and let him

take care of any situation that arises.

I had always had a fear of dying and truthfully, I still feared a little bit.

And after each little setback or surgery or cancer diagnosis, I always

thought God may be ready for me to be with him.

But here I am today, I'm still here.

Evidently someone up there loves me or someone up there doesn't want me.

I don't know which, one of the two.

But don't ever ask me if I'm ready for heaven.

Instead, ask if heaven is ready for me and all the jokes I'll be telling when I get

there.

Thank you.

Well, there's a couple of crazy things about that.

That is the first one, growing like over the last 26 years, this isn't the first time I've heard

the Blands give a testimony.

Crazy thing is that they could literally probably come up here for several weeks in a row and give a

totally different testimony, just as incredible as that.

I mean, Brother Raymond has shared some things and Ms. Sharon mentioned a second ago that in 2004, there

were times where Brother Raymond would be on the road for 10 days time, he was a truck driver.

And so, you know, he had a very demanding job for many, many years.

And sometimes on the road would experience incredible things that

only would have been of the Lord.

And so it's amazing how many testimonies they could share on any given Sunday.

And they would be just as uplifting and crazy.

But the other thing I wanted to mention is, so like you told the story about 2004,

you told the story about your shoulder 2010.

I can remember those, like I can remember them happening.

I can remember hearing about them and, you know, mom and dad saying we needed to pray for the Blands, for Brother Raymond and

for Ms. Sharon.

What's really crazy though, and I mean, 2004, I would have been nine years old, 2010, 15.

Like when we would see you guys as kids, we'd never, like we knew if we needed to be praying for you guys, we

never understood, at least I never understood the severity of what you guys were going through.

And the reason was because at no point did you guys lose your joy,

your faith, you know?

Y 'all's testimony, y 'all would, like Ms. Sharon said, she came to Sunday every, to church every Sunday,

even during that incredibly tough time in 2004.

And once again, I can remember the prayer requests.

I can remember us talking about it, but you were always Ms. Sharon.

And so, you know, Sunday school this morning, Brother Bill was talking about, you know, Jesus giving us

the example and he gave a specific, it was in 1 Peter, he was talking about a specific example

that Jesus set for us, but to preface it, Brother Bill mentioned how many examples he set for us.

And through those examples, you guys have lived your lives by those

examples.

And then in turn set the example for us.

So, I mean, it is just so crazy.

Again, you guys practically raised me.

And so these kinds of stories, I mean, they really, they're really, really special.

So I appreciate you guys sharing and so glad everyone else got to hear them.