Last week was quite a week for me. I am still pondering all that the Lord revealed to my heart and the sweet confirmation of His grace and power in all situations. Early last week, we learned of that our friend Mary Jo, who had hoped to begin an experimental treatment for her lung cancer now had a brain tumor. Our hearts cried for our friends and we were unified in our disappointment and love for them as we responded to our pastor’s call to come together and seek the Lord on their behalf. Those who weren’t able to join us at the church prayed at home. It was a special time of intercession, and I am convinced that the Lord is calling us to truth in the power of intercessory prayer. As tears fell, declarations of God’s word and praise for His sovereign ability to cover and care for MJ and her entire family brought a strong and sweet presence of the Holy Spirit into the room. In my quiet place at home, I asked the Lord if I should change my prayer from a petition for healing to a request for comfort and strength. I waited.
On Friday, five ladies from our church climbed into a van and headed for Minneapolis to attend a Women’s Ministry Conference. It was a wonderful time of sharing and fellowship for sure, but I couldn’t help wonder what I was doing. I had a very busy week ahead of me with both work and a prayer conference to be held at our church that I had helped to plan. How would I ever catch up? As we arrived and gathered at the conference for a time of worship and opening comments, the conference planners asked the question, “Why did you come today?” “Lord”, I said in the quiet place of my heart, “I don’t know. What is it you have for me here?” I really don’t see myself in a role of ministering to women because I know my calling is as an intercessor, and women’s ministry was the foundation for the conference. Yet I knew that my place in the group, as well as this particular group of women itself, had been ordained to take the trip for such a time as this!
The speakers were introduced and the topics were reviewed. One of the speakers and each of her workshops seemed to strongly draw me. The first workshop she presented was about ministry to women who were hurting, the subsequent workshops on Resting in the Lord and Prayer. In them she shared stories that would stitch together a sweet tapestry of the Lord’s message to me.
Karen Alexander Doyel shared an incredible account of a joyous life, starting with a solid foundation in a family who knew and loved Jesus Christ. She told of the little boy her daddy said she’d marry and the way that the Lord confirmed her daddy’s vision. She married the love of her youth, the love of her life, and bloomed in joy and gratitude for the gifts that the Lord would wrap her in. She fondly recalled a marriage and life style in which she’d live, laugh, and love for 28 years. She was a pastor’s wife, totally in love with the Lord, with her encouraging and ever joyful husband, with her amazing sons, and with her role of serving the church. Life was good.
And then one night, she would receive a call that would forever change her life. The call came from one of her sons asking her to pray for her husband. He told her only that her husband had fallen. As she knelt to pray, Holy Spirit quickened her instead to begin to pray for her sons. Little did she know that as she prayed, her beloved husband Doug had entered into the presence of the Lord he loved and served so faithfully.
Following the family tradition, Pastor Doug and his sons had gone to the top of a Tennessee mountain on December 31 of that year, in a trip specifically designed to praise God for His goodness and all He had done in the prior year. Just hours before Doug Alexander would fall into the arms of Jesus Christ, would stand with arms outstretched exclaiming to his sons, “Boys can you imagine anyone looking at this magnificent creation and not believing in God?”
Doug and his sons would take turns going close to the fire to warm themselves at the top of mountain after darkness fell. As Pastor Doug slid back from the fire on his 3-legged stool, he would fall off the face of the precipice into the night. Two of His sons would go over the side of the mountain in an attempt to find their dad. They would catch themselves on a lone tree sticking out from the side of the steep embankment. As their mother prayed for them, unseen arms would help those boys make it back to the mountain top and to the mother who prayed.
Later, after the services, Karen would enter a dark season in which the Lord would provide treasures of wisdom to help her minister to others. She shared with us the importance of not trying to “fix” those with a need to grieve and exhorted us to listen, to cry with them, and to pray and stand along side those who are going through great loss of any kind. She talked about how critical tears are to healing and how expecting those who have lost to be “okay” prohibited them from a necessary process to healing.
Karen shared with us an unexpected gift the Lord had given that would result in a magnificent testimony for Karen and for renowned painter Thomas Kinkaid. The Lord would bring a unique message to Karen as she gazed upon the place her beloved husband last stood to praise God in a painting she discovered in a shop in Tennessee. She would then share her story with Thomas Kinkaid, who would later tell Karen how the Lord would move him to paint “Sunrise”, completing the mirrored image of a place he’d never been on December 31. It would be the spot where Doug Alexander went home that very night to Christ and to eternity.
Karen went on to tell us how she continued to walk through a valley of challenge, yet the Lord would faithfully hold on to her. There were times when she couldn’t pray and to focus on anything was a terrible struggle. My heart cried as she shared the story of her son’s cancer diagnosis and it rejoiced in learning he was cancer free. I wept as she told us how on the very day they planned to celebrate God’s faithfulness in healing her son that she would discover she had cancer herself.
One of her cancers was treatable; the other a form of Lymphoma was not. Both were now stage 4. She shared the agony of pain she would endure and the night in which the pain in her legs burned with raw agony as she cried out to the Lord telling Him she could not endure the pain any longer. Her sons would arrive that night at her door, and she would plead with them to help her. As they came to their mother and covered her in prayer, they would begin to call out to the Lord, not in petition but in praise . . . they began to praise God for their mother, to praise God for what He was perfecting in their mother, to praise God for all the good that He had given and nurtured and promised to them as believers!
Shortly after, Karen so weak that she could not open her eyes nor speak, felt a heat and pressure in her stomach. She thought to herself, “This is it, I am going to die. This is what death feels like.” Her doctors told the family to prepare as hope for any healing waned. In this place of weakness and total surrender, Karen began to hear the sound of her name. She recognized the voices of her sons and her friends and knew that what she heard was her name being lifted to the Lord through prayer. And as they prayed for Karen, the prayers were released directly to the throne of God and received by Jesus himself, who sat at His Father’s right hand.
Karen did not die, but began to feel better, so much better in fact in that she was released from the hospital to go home. She would continue to be monitored by MD Anderson Cancer Center. She felt better, but hope was guarded in how long this season would last. Karen was grateful for each day with her family and each day the Lord gave her to declare His mercies, and continued to offer her praise on a continual basis.
As a child, Karen’s dad taught her to read through the entire Bible each year. She did so using a different translation every year. She would tell us of her delight in the way the Lord would speak specifically to her as she read and how God’s perfect timing always seemed to bring the right scripture on the right day.
In late August of this year, as Hurricane Ike prepared to buffet South Texas, Karen had an appointment at MD Anderson in Houston. After routine tests, doctors told Karen that they would have to redo some of the blood tests. She asked them why, and they said that the tests had come back normal. She questioned again, “Normal for me?” No, the doctors said, “Normal”. The subsequent tests would confirm them.
As Karen went to her beloved scriptures, she asked the Lord for clarity on what the doctors told her. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was they were saying. As she opened her Bible to read the passage of the day, her eyes fell on Mark 5:34, And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction." Karen doesn’t know how long this season of healing will last. None of us have any guarantees. She only knows that she has determined to praise God for His ever faithful presence in her life and for the treasures that she has gleaned from the dark valleys that He brought her through. Her message to us today is to seek God, to trust God, and to continue to praise God in all things. Our God reigns!
A little less than a month later, as Karen shared her story with us, the Lord would bring great confirmation to this woman and to her sisters in many things that the Lord had been saying to their hearts. Each of us shared with each other the things that the Lord had quickened to us about Mary Jo. Mary Jo’s presence and that of Jesus were with us on that trip.
On the way home, we had opportunity to stop and pray with Mary Jo at her mom’s house in Mason City. I think husband Brent orchestrated some special time alone with MJ for us. As Mary Jo shared her heart with us, the words from her lips would mirror many of the same confirmations we’d received from Karen. Mary Jo’s encouragement to the church . . . “Tell them to praise God in all things!” Mary Jo continues to put her trust solely in the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. She says for sure . . . that if healing is to be hers, one thing is sure . . . it will be for God’s glory! I have watched this sister with such deep respect and love. She amazes me in her beauty!
And as for me, the Lord answered my question. He said “Continue to declare your sisters healing!” As Karen recognized the voices lifting her name to the throne of God, I was reminded that we just simply do not fathom the power contained within our prayer. Sisters and brothers, we are commanded to pray. It is through the Word of God and prayer and obedience that God speaks to us, reveals to us, and creates an intimacy with Him that cannot be explained if it is not experienced. And it is through our prayer, that God’s power is released in a broken world.
Karen has her testimony and other incredible lessons the Lord has given her available on CD through karenalexanderdoyel.com. Mary Jo’s testimony is not yet complete. Please continue to pray with me that both Karen and Mary Jo walk in complete healing and uncommon favor through Christ our Lord!! And please pray that the testimony of both women continues to shine as beacon of light and hope in a troubled world!!
Blessings and love to you!!
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