MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES

Cancer is one of the most feared words in the English language. It strikes fear and anguish to the soul of those who have heard these words describing their condition. The fear grips their hearts so hard that even if they are a religious person, they can't pray. All hope leaves because of the "sentence of death that has been placed upon them. They do not want to feel that they are going to die -- but they have read the statistics. One in four die. Some cancers claim more than that. Hope -- the one thing that sees us through the rough times -- seems to flee. There is nothing in which to believe or hope most of the time; not even the doctors and their knowledge and power to heal. That is how I felt when the doctor in Bellingham, Washington gave me the dreaded news.

I have had cancer 3 times. The first time was in 1971. I had cancer of the right ovary. The doctors removed the tumor, which was the size of a grapefruit. After testing it for cancer, they went back in and did a hysterectomy ten days later. Then they gave me forty treatments of radiation. This lasted eight weeks as I received five treatments a week. I could not eat at all for those eight weeks! The radiation went across my stomach and intestines. Everything came right back up. I could only drink Coka-Cola. The cokes didn't stay down. As soon as I drank them, they would come right back up. However, they must have given me enough nourishment to survive -- or as I believe -- God kept me alive because he was not finished with me yet!

On the next to the last treatment, God spoke in my spirit and said, "If you don't eat, you are going to die!" I replied, "Lord, if I eat, it will just come right back up!" He did not reply. So, after seven weeks of no food, I started to try to eat. Sure enough, it came back up!!! But I was trying, and I believe that God spared my life because of my obedience. In September, the doctors discovered that another tumor had developed from the radiation. I couldn't be operated on right then because I was too weak. They had to try to build me up so that I could survive the operation. This took two months.

Finally, they took this tumor, in my upper colon, out; but they said, "Medical science can do no more for you." It was in seven of the thirteen lymph nodes that they removed. They couldn't give me anymore radiation or it would kill me. My surgeon put it well. He said, "You have a 50-50 chance of survival. You will live or die according to God's will for your life!" This didn't upset me for I knew the truth of that statement. .I replied, "Thanks, I realize that for each day this is true. If my life is in His hands -- that is where I am every day of my life!"

Before I was released from the hospital after my last surgery, the pastor of our church came to see me and to pray for me (we are Baptists). And so, he prayed for God's will to be done in my situation. After he had left, I was able to pray for myself for the first time since receiving those dreaded words. I told the Lord, "I really do want to be healed. You gave me two lovely children (after it had been impossible for me to carry a child to term; but now I have two children -- through God's grace and miracles) I really do want to live to raise them! I would like to live to see them grown" He replied, "I am not going to heal you until you do what I told you to do in James!" I relied, "Lord, you know that I am a Baptist. You know that they just believe in praying for the sick -- not anointing them with oil! Where will I be able to get a church to do that for me?" He did not reply, but I HAD HIS PROMISE OF HEALING IF I COULD GET MY CHURCH TO DO AS IT SAYS IN THE BOOK OF JAMES! [James 5:14-16 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.(KJV)] I held on to that promise with all my heart. I couldn't even pray for myself; but I could repeat over and over again in those long dark days, "God's in His temple and all's right with my world!!!

When I got out of the hospital, I asked my church to "do what it says in James." They prayed for me; but that was all. God sent men to the church who were preaching on prayer and healing to our congregation. They prayed for me, but I couldn't get them to lay hands on me and anoint me with oil.

The doctor who had assisted in my surgery, told my husband that I had two months to live. My husband had heard that if you get a sick person a dog or a cat while they are sick that it will help them to take their minds off their sickness and help them to believe that they can get well as they have to care for the dog and the dog gives them love and companionship which they often feel that they do not have.

So, he bought me a little white poodle. She was so small and looked so helpless. I couldn't help but love her and hold her close to me in my lap as I tried to sit up and tend to my small children. It wasn't easy; but they all depended on my to take care of them while he was at work. I prayed a lot for strength to help me just to sit up in the bed and not to go to sleep as I wanted to.

He told me what the lady who sold the dog to him had said when he explained why he wanted the dog. She said that she, too, had cancer and the doctors had given her six months to live. They could do no more for her and had sent her home to die. However, she had an old army nurse from the second world war, who told her that if she would throw away all her white sugar and drink as much tea made from parsley that she could every day sweetened with honey that it would fight the cancer cells and she could get well. If she couldn't stand the parsley then to use sassassfras instead. She said that she had nothing to lose; so she did what the nurse had told her to do. She told my husband that it had been two years and she was still alive, she believed, because of what her nurse had told her. She believed that God had healed her.

I had nothing to lose as well, as there was nothing else the doctors could do for me either; so, I took this as God's instructions to me as well as to her. I began to drink parsley tea, sweetened with honey. That was the nastiest thing I had tasted in a long time!!! But I believed that God had sent me these instructions as I believed He had put it into my husband's heart to go and get me a puppy so that he would hear this story from the lady with cancer. I drank as much of it as I possibly could get down. I wanted to mix it with other teas to make it more pleasing to the taste; but I was afraid not to obey the word delivered to me. (This might not make sense to everyone; but the Lord had spoken to me from my youth himself and through my father. I knew that he many times did this. So I believed that God had sent these instructions to me through this woman even as I had received much instructions from God through my father.)

And behold, I was still alive two months later -- then three -- then four! Praise God!!! Then we moved to Phoenix through God's guidance; and there was in that city a Baptist church with 13 high steps beside the post office. We passed it each time we went to get the mail.

One day--as we passed the church, God said, "I want you to go there to be prayed for to be healed!" I replied, "Lord, do you see those steps? How can I ever get up there? I can barely walk -- much less climb those steps!!!" He did not answer; but I told my husband what God had said.

One day, God nudged me in my spirit again and I got up enough courage to climb those steps. I looked ridiculous. My family (husband, a little seven-year-old girl, and a little two-year old boy) pushing me up those steps as I hung onto that rail and pulled with what little strength I had. Finally, we were at the top! I went inside and explained to the pastor what I needed and what God had said for me to do.

He said he would be glad to. He called for some of the elders of the church, and they laid hands on me and prayed for me to be healed. I complained, "But you must anoint me with oil as well as the Lord told me to do in James 5!" He replied, "No, that was just what they used for medicine in those days. It will be allright." Since I didn't know the first thing about healing, I had to take their word for it. I went home but couldn't sleep for three days.

Finally, I asked God what was wrong. He replied, "The oil represents your obedience. That is why it is so important." I had to go back and tell the preacher what God had said. He laughed and said for me to come Wednesday night and they would anoint me with oil. I did and he did! Praise God!! I had finally been able to get a Baptist church to do what God had commanded me and the Bible instructs me to be done. I continued to take my parsley tea religiously!!!

Two years later, there were still cancer cells in my blood; but I was still alive and gaining strength even though it was so slow!!! We contiued to go to that church and to learn about God's healing. We saw and heard the sick prayed for and God healing them. I was still so weak that I could not stand up for the thirty minutes that we stood singing praises to Him; but I loved to stand and proclain "He touched me" as we sang that beautiful song over and over again. I knew that indeed He had touched me and that the report of the doctors had been wrong through the grace of Jesus, my Healer.

One day we were helping to build a booth for the fair for our church in Phoenix. We were pulling nails from used boards that someone had given to the church for that purpose. The boards were long 2x8's nailed together with another board as a splice. We had to pull the nail out of the top board and then out of the other two if there was any in them. I picked these 3 boards (joined together)up to pull the nail out of the top piece. The Lord said to me, "When you pull that nail out, the nail in the bottom board will fall on your foot and strike it." I looked and sure enough, there was a 16 penney spike (nail) through the bottom board, sticking straight down.

I gave the boards to my husband saying, "Here, honey, you pull this board!" He took the boards and pulled the nail; and you guessed it -- That nail enbedded itself into his foot and into the bone. He never said a word but tried to pull the nail out. He couldn't. He had to put his other foot over the board and place it on the toe of his other boot and pull with all his might to remove the nail. I was frantic. I knew it would start to swell soon. He had had to have surgery on his foot not too many years before for stepping on a nail and it was so painful! He did not look forward to having that done again! I wanted him to go and have it seen about before he had to have surgery again from neglect. He refused!!! I was unable to understand his thinking. He replied, "We have been going to this church which teaches that Jesus can heal. This is His opportunity to prove it. I am going to the pastor over there and have him and that deacon to pray for me and if God really heals today, then my foot will not even swell up much less get sore!!!" He went over and told the pastor what had happened and asked him and the deacon to pray for him. Then he went on about the business of pulling nails out of the boards.

Later we were discussing the incident and he wanted to know why I had handed him the boards and I told him what God had said to me. He laughed and said, "Didn't you think that it would happen to me as He had said?" "No," I replied, "He had said it would happen to me, not to you!!! Besides, I think He was trying to build my faith in His healing. He knew what I would have done; but he knew that you would stand on His word!!! He knew that I hadn't come to that much faith yet; and I needed to see you demonstrate that healing faith!!! By the way, how is your foot?" He laughed and replied, "It didn't even get sore!!!" I was amazed but my faith was beginning to grow!!!

Several months later, I was in the hospital again and our pastor came to see me. He asked me what was wrong; and I told him that I didn't know; but that I couldn't stand one more operation! I had just went through two major operations for cancer, had a hystorectomy, had eight weeks of radiation, had had my right lung to collapse on the operating room table and I still couldn't breathe without pain and I just couldn't stand anything else. He said that he would pray for me and that Jesus would heal me and I wouldn't have to any another operation. I agreed and he prayed for me and went away. The doctor can in a little time later and told me that my right kidney that had been damaged in the radiation had stopped working and that he was going to remove it at one in the afternoon; but that he had ordered one more test before he operated to see it there had been any change. I breathed a sigh of relief and prayed that it had started working since my pastor had prayed for me that morning. He came back in at 12:30 to inform me that it had started working again but now well. I didn't care!!! Praise God I didn't have to have an operation immediately anyway!!! God had answered my and my pastor's prayer!!! That was 25 years ago, and I am still here and I still have my right kidney !!! -- Praise God and Jesus Christ, his anointed Son who heals us from all our infirmities!!!

When I developed another cancer (a different kind) in 1985, the doctors again told me that it was in the lymph system -- in more nodes than it was not. But they said that I had survived for 13 years after my last bout with cancer, and they couldn't see why I would not be able to survive this one as well. They didn't have any chemotherapy for my kind of cancer and they had given me all the radiation that I could stand in Washington, without killing me. Later, my doctors did develop a chemotherapy treatment for me from my blood. I took that and lost almost all my hair again. This was so embarrassing -- but I am still here!!! Praise God for His mercy.

May the Lord richly bless you and yours and may my testimony reach many for Him. By the way, my hair is back now -- long and black.

Matilda Barbee

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