Husch, Michael - June 23, 2005

			From: mhusch@yahoo.com Subject: Re: question for you Date: June 23, 2005 12:18:25 PM GMT-04:00 To: don@annarborvineyard.org Don, Here is my testimony. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to contact me either my email or by phone. I hope it blesses you. I was diagnosed with epilepsy since I was a young child, possibly around the age of 4 or 5. My parents noticed that started falling over for no apparent reason and decided to take me to the doctor. I can remember as a young boy in elementary school, I would have a grand mal seizure and my classmates would make fun of me and laugh at me. Kids can be so cruel. I especially remember a time when I was getting out of school to go home for lunch and was walking down to my grandmother's car, who was there to pick me up. My grandmother took care of me and my 2 other brother's while my dad worked since my mother died when I was very young. She would go home when my dad would get home from work. Anyway, I had a seizure as I was walking to her car. I recall coming out of it and seeing all these kids standing over me in a circle and laughing at me. All of the sudden, from out of no where, my grandmother came up, slapped a few of the kids who were laughing at me and helped me to the car. My life was pretty much like this for a long time. My dad remarried when I was 9 years old and I wasn't allowed to go anywhere without my brother who was 2 years younger than me. In the summer, I couldn't go to the pool by myself because my parents wanted him to keep an eye on me. It was very humiliating. My self-confidence and self-esteem were non-existent. I was taking all kinds of medication but it only controlled the seizures, not stop them. I pretty much decided that this was the way things were going to be my whole life so I just accepted it. As I got into high school, I discovered that I wouldn't be allowed to do the things that high school boys would like to do. I was told by my neurologist that I would be able to try out for my high school football team for fear a big hit could trigger a bad seizure. I was in a driver's education class and was very excited about the prospect of driving a car. My dad was going to fix up his old Impala and give it to me, or at least he was thinking about it. I received another blow when this same neurologist told my parents to take me out of this class, that I would never drive a car. Can you imagine the humiliation I suffered from being taken out of a class that I had been in for half the year and then see the same kids who were in that class in the hallway and wonder what they were thinking? Because of the way I felt about myself, I never dated in high school, even though I wanted to. I always thought that the guy was supposed to drive on a date and if I couldn't drive, why would a girl want to go out with me. Shortly after high school, I moved up to an area close to The Ohio State University campus. My oldest brother lived there and attended a small community church that many years down the road would merge with 2 other churches and become Vineyard Church of Columbus. It was through my brother witnessing to me and telling me the Gospel that I accepted Jesus into my life. I had all the head knowledge but didn't have him in my heart. I grew up mostly Catholic so I pretty figured that if I went to Mass every week and went to confession, I was in good shape. How wrong I was!! People in the church prayed over me all the time for healing without anything apparent happening. Things pretty much continued like this for throughout the 80's. I started attending a home group that was led and hosted by Rich and Marlene Nathan. Rich was our pastor. In 1989, I noticed a marked increase in my seizures, even though I was taking 33 pills a day!! I was all doped up and walked around like I was in a daze because of the medication. People in my home group started laying hands on me and praying for on a regular basis. Rich arranged for leaders in the church to get together with me on tuesday nights and have them pray over me. It was at these sessions that Rich and the other leaders noticed demonic manifestations (i.e., facial contortions, hissing, etc...). There were many nights where they tried to cast out the demons without much success. My seizures were getting so bad that my superivisors at my job (The Ohio State University Hospitals. I was a custodial worker.) were encouraging me to go on disability. My doctor wanted to do radical brain surgery on me.. It involved severing the hemispheres of the brain. People had had this surgery before and it had been known to stop seizures all together. The one problem with this surgery is that it takes 1-2 years of rehab. When I refused, he told me "there is nothing I can do for you then except take your blood levels and make sure they are where they should be." Talk about a doctor giving up on you!!! I showed up one night at home group with a chipped big tooth and a black eye. I had had a grand mal seizure walking on the way to work and falling and hit my head on the sidewalk. The result was the chipped tooth and black eye. It was at that point that Rich asked me if I was going to attend a conference in Hempstead, New York that many people in the church were going to. It was not a Vineyard conference but John Wimber was going to be there. Rich told me that if I was, he would personally call and write John to set aside some time to pray for me. The Lord had used John many times and people had been healed of various things. I told Rich I was going and he said he would set it up. This was in October of 1989 when this conference occured. The time came for us all to go to the conference so we piled in our cars and drove to New York. The prayer session happened in between 2 of the teaching sessions. I can remember feeling how blessed I was to have so much support from all the people from our church there for me. Rich, some of our church leaders, and I hooked up with John after one of the sessions. We went into another room where there were 10 other Vineyard pastors and other people that John wanted in there with us. John didn't even lay hands on me. He sat in a chair about 45 degrees to my left and about 6 feet away. In fact, the only one who layed hands on me was a man that John instructed to sit in front of me and hold onto my hands. He was also one of the men who was teaching at the conference. I found it interesting that John instructed me to keep my eyes open and look at him. He then had a woman looking over his shoulder and her job was to do nothing but watch my eyes. John started the session by looking at me and quitely saying, "Holy Spirit come." As soon as he did this, I felt this tornado effect go around my head and my eyes rolled. John then looked at me smiling real big and said, "Did you feel that?" My mouth dropped and I nodded. I couldn't even speak. I was speechless!!! I had never felt anything like that before in my whole life!!! After that I don't remember much. I do remember at one point John looking me in the eye and raising his voice at the spirit and commanding it to leave in the name of Jesus. It was at that point that I let out a yell and flew off my chair to my right at a 45 degree angle. I know that wasn't me that yelled. I just know that. If that man hadn't been in front of me holding onto my hands, I would have hit the floor. That's how much force I flew off the chair with. Afterwards, John told me he felt that the Lord told him that there would be a 90-95% healing and the rest would be gradual. The reason he felt it would be gradual was because at one point the man in front of me laid his hands on my head and felt like he saw 5 grey spots on my brain. He felt like the Lord told him that they were caused by trauma at childbirth. He told me to go home and have my neurologist give me an EEG as soon as possible. He also instructed to continue to take my medication and do whatever he tells me to do. I came back to work the following week and was able to get a 24-hour EEG done that week!!! That in itself is a miracle because many times you have to schedule EEG's months in advance. As I said before, at the time I was custodial worker and worked in the cafeteria. I often ran into my neurologist there as he would come there for lunch. Everytime I saw him, I would ask him if he had received any results back from my EEG yet. I'm sure he got tired of me asking. Finally, I saw him again and when I asked him he had received anything yet he said to me, "We don't have the whole results back yet but what we do have shows a significant improvement and we don't quite know why." These were his exact words. They will forever be ingrained into my head. When he told me that, my eyes teared up and I just wanted to scream. I had to control myself though, since I was in the middle of a hospital cafeteria that had patients, family members, and staff eating in there. When all the results came back, it showed that my EEG was 100% better than my last one!!! All this took place in October of 1989. By December of '89, my doctor had taken me off 2 medications without any problems. He had me come back to see him every 3 months and each time, he would take me off more medication each time. By 1990, my seizures were under control enough that I was able to transfer to a nursing unit to work, something that I wouldn't have been able to do before. I stocked supplies on a Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit in the James Cancer Hospital on the campus of The Ohio State University. In 1991, I met a woman in our church and actually started dating her. That was a big step for me!!! I eventually married her in September of 1994. God is so gracious. Remember what I said about how I never dated anyone because I felt like the guy was supposed to do the driving and I couldn't? In February of 1994, my neurologist (and he is the same one I have seen since I was in jr. high or high school. He is the same one who told my parents that I would NEVER drive a car.) signed the papers that said my seizures were under control enough that it was ok to drive!! I got my driver's license and was able to drive my bride around on our honeymoon!! That was so special for me to do. In 1995, I received another promotion where I would assist the nurses with patient care, draw their blood, do EKG's, vital signs, etc... I would never have been able to do this kind of work in my previous condition. I still work on the Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit doing this same work. I work in the Outpatient side of the program where we see the patients before they come into the hospital and after they have had their transplant and have gotten out of the hospital. To this date, I am only taking 2 pills a day, down from 33 pills a day in 1989. Obviously, I am much more alert and my self-esteem and self-confidence are sky high. I am more involved in the church than I ever was. I am especially involved in the youth ministry and feel a calling to one day become a youth pastor (I can retire from Ohio State in 6 years and have my 30 years in). My wife and I presently attend Vineyard Church of Delaware County, a plant off of Vineyard Columbus, and is pastored by Danny & Penny Meyer and have been attending there for the last 3 years. I was very much involved in youth ministry at Columbus, working in middle school ministry for over 11 years and right now my wife and I are teaching 3rd grade Sunday school together and loving it. My wife and I are getting ready to celebrate our 11 year anniversary in September (will be at the Ohio State-Texas game on our anniversary!). Since that time in 1989, have not had one grand mal seizure and the petit mal seizures are none existant. That down from 2-3 grand mals and hundreds of petit mals a week!!!! It's by God's grace that this is happening. I look at my life as being in that gradual stage of the healing and believe that one day I won't have to take medication. Praise God!!! Don, I hope this helps you. Again if you have any questions, don't hesitate to email or call. Blessings, Michael Don, Here is my testimony. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to contact me either my email or by phone. I hope it blesses you. I was diagnosed with epilepsy since I was a young child, possibly around the age of 4 or 5. My parents noticed that started falling over for no apparent reason and decided to take me to the doctor. I can remember as a young boy in elementary school, I would have a grand mal seizure and my classmates would make fun of me and laugh at me. Kids can be so cruel. I especially remember a time when I was getting out of school to go home for lunch and was walking down to my grandmother's car, who was there to pick me up. My grandmother took care of me and my 2 other brother's while my dad worked since my mother died when I was very young. She would go home when my dad would get home from work. Anyway, I had a seizure as I was walking to her car. I recall coming out of it and seeing all these kids standing over me in a circle and laughing at me. All of the sudden, from out of no where, my grandmother came up, slapped a few of the kids who were laughing at me and helped me to the car. My life was pretty much like this for a long time. My dad remarried when I was 9 years old and I wasn't allowed to go anywhere without my brother who was 2 years younger than me. In the summer, I couldn't go to the pool by myself because my parents wanted him to keep an eye on me. It was very humiliating. My self-confidence and self-esteem were non-existent. I was taking all kinds of medication but it only controlled the seizures, not stop them. I pretty much decided that this was the way things were going to be my whole life so I just accepted it. As I got into high school, I discovered that I wouldn't be allowed to do the things that high school boys would like to do. I was told by my neurologist that I would be able to try out for my high school football team for fear a big hit could trigger a bad seizure. I was in a driver's education class and was very excited about the prospect of driving a car. My dad was going to fix up his old Impala and give it to me, or at least he was thinking about it. I received another blow when this same neurologist told my parents to take me out of this class, that I would never drive a car. Can you imagine the humiliation I suffered from being taken out of a class that I had been in for half the year and then see the same kids who were in that class in the hallway and wonder what they were thinking? Because of the way I felt about myself, I never dated in high school, even though I wanted to. I always thought that the guy was supposed to drive on a date and if I couldn't drive, why would a girl want to go out with me. Shortly after high school, I moved up to an area close to The Ohio State University campus. My oldest brother lived there and attended a small community church that many years down the road would merge with 2 other churches and become Vineyard Church of Columbus. It was through my brother witnessing to me and telling me the Gospel that I accepted Jesus into my life. I had all the head knowledge but didn't have him in my heart. I grew up mostly Catholic so I pretty figured that if I went to Mass every week and went to confession, I was in good shape. How wrong I was!! People in the church prayed over me all the time for healing without anything apparent happening. Things pretty much continued like this for throughout the 80's. I started attending a home group that was led and hosted by Rich and Marlene Nathan. Rich was our pastor. In 1989, I noticed a marked increase in my seizures, even though I was taking 33 pills a day!! I was all doped up and walked around like I was in a daze because of the medication. People in my home group started laying hands on me and praying for on a regular basis. Rich arranged for leaders in the church to get together with me on tuesday nights and have them pray over me. It was at these sessions that Rich and the other leaders noticed demonic manifestations (i.e., facial contortions, hissing, etc...). There were many nights where they tried to cast out the demons without much success. My seizures were getting so bad that my superivisors at my job (The Ohio State University Hospitals. I was a custodial worker.) were encouraging me to go on disability. My doctor wanted to do radical brain surgery on me.. It involved severing the hemispheres of the brain. People had had this surgery before and it had been known to stop seizures all together. The one problem with this surgery is that it takes 1-2 years of rehab. When I refused, he told me "there is nothing I can do for you then except take your blood levels and make sure they are where they should be." Talk about a doctor giving up on you!!! I showed up one night at home group with a chipped big tooth and a black eye. I had had a grand mal seizure walking on the way to work and falling and hit my head on the sidewalk. The result was the chipped tooth and black eye. It was at that point that Rich asked me if I was going to attend a conference in Hempstead, New York that many people in the church were going to. It was not a Vineyard conference but John Wimber was going to be there. Rich told me that if I was, he would personally call and write John to set aside some time to pray for me. The Lord had used John many times and people had been healed of various things. I told Rich I was going and he said he would set it up. This was in October of 1989 when this conference occured. The time came for us all to go to the conference so we piled in our cars and drove to New York. The prayer session happened in between 2 of the teaching sessions. I can remember feeling how blessed I was to have so much support from all the people from our church there for me. Rich, some of our church leaders, and I hooked up with John after one of the sessions. We went into another room where there were 10 other Vineyard pastors and other people that John wanted in there with us. John didn't even lay hands on me. He sat in a chair about 45 degrees to my left and about 6 feet away. In fact, the only one who layed hands on me was a man that John instructed to sit in front of me and hold onto my hands. He was also one of the men who was teaching at the conference. I found it interesting that John instructed me to keep my eyes open and look at him. He then had a woman looking over his shoulder and her job was to do nothing but watch my eyes. John started the session by looking at me and quitely saying, "Holy Spirit come." As soon as he did this, I felt this tornado effect go around my head and my eyes rolled. John then looked at me smiling real big and said, "Did you feel that?" My mouth dropped and I nodded. I couldn't even speak. I was speechless!!! I had never felt anything like that before in my whole life!!! After that I don't remember much. I do remember at one point John looking me in the eye and raising his voice at the spirit and commanding it to leave in the name of Jesus. It was at that point that I let out a yell and flew off my chair to my right at a 45 degree angle. I know that wasn't me that yelled. I just know that. If that man hadn't been in front of me holding onto my hands, I would have hit the floor. That's how much force I flew off the chair with. Afterwards, John told me he felt that the Lord told him that there would be a 90-95% healing and the rest would be gradual. The reason he felt it would be gradual was because at one point the man in front of me laid his hands on my head and felt like he saw 5 grey spots on my brain. He felt like the Lord told him that they were caused by trauma at childbirth. He told me to go home and have my neurologist give me an EEG as soon as possible. He also instructed to continue to take my medication and do whatever he tells me to do. I came back to work the following week and was able to get a 24-hour EEG done that week!!! That in itself is a miracle because many times you have to schedule EEG's months in advance. As I said before, at the time I was custodial worker and worked in the cafeteria. I often ran into my neurologist there as he would come there for lunch. Everytime I saw him, I would ask him if he had received any results back from my EEG yet. I'm sure he got tired of me asking. Finally, I saw him again and when I asked him he had received anything yet he said to me, "We don't have the whole results back yet but what we do have shows a significant improvement and we don't quite know why." These were his exact words. They will forever be ingrained into my head. When he told me that, my eyes teared up and I just wanted to scream. I had to control myself though, since I was in the middle of a hospital cafeteria that had patients, family members, and staff eating in there. When all the results came back, it showed that my EEG was 100% better than my last one!!! All this took place in October of 1989. By December of '89, my doctor had taken me off 2 medications without any problems. He had me come back to see him every 3 months and each time, he would take me off more medication each time. By 1990, my seizures were under control enough that I was able to transfer to a nursing unit to work, something that I wouldn't have been able to do before. I stocked supplies on a Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit in the James Cancer Hospital on the campus of The Ohio State University. In 1991, I met a woman in our church and actually started dating her. That was a big step for me!!! I eventually married her in September of 1994. God is so gracious. Remember what I said about how I never dated anyone because I felt like the guy was supposed to do the driving and I couldn't? In February of 1994, my neurologist (and he is the same one I have seen since I was in jr. high or high school. He is the same one who told my parents that I would NEVER drive a car.) signed the papers that said my seizures were under control enough that it was ok to drive!! I got my driver's license and was able to drive my bride around on our honeymoon!! That was so special for me to do. In 1995, I received another promotion where I would assist the nurses with patient care, draw their blood, do EKG's, vital signs, etc... I would never have been able to do this kind of work in my previous condition. I still work on the Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit doing this same work. I work in the Outpatient side of the program where we see the patients before they come into the hospital and after they have had their transplant and have gotten out of the hospital. To this date, I am only taking 2 pills a day, down from 33 pills a day in 1989. Obviously, I am much more alert and my self-esteem and self-confidence are sky high. I am more involved in the church than I ever was. I am especially involved in the youth ministry and feel a calling to one day become a youth pastor (I can retire from Ohio State in 6 years and have my 30 years in). My wife and I presently attend Vineyard Church of Delaware County, a plant off of Vineyard Columbus, and is pastored by Danny & Penny Meyer and have been attending there for the last 3 years. I was very much involved in youth ministry at Columbus, working in middle school ministry for over 11 years and right now my wife and I are teaching 3rd grade Sunday school together and loving it. My wife and I are getting ready to celebrate our 11 year anniversary in September (will be at the Ohio State-Texas game on our anniversary!). Since that time in 1989, have not had one grand mal seizure and the petit mal seizures are none existant. That down from 2-3 grand mals and hundreds of petit mals a week!!!! It's by God's grace that this is happening. I look at my life as being in that gradual stage of the healing and believe that one day I won't have to take medication. Praise God!!! Don, I hope this helps you. Again if you have any questions, don't hesitate to email or call. Blessings, Michael