Hello Everyone,

Thank you Lex, Isaac and Aaron for your testimonies. They gave me encouragement to share my own. I have been watching teachings on Unlearn since May but only registered on the website yesterday. I am in a different time zone (Ireland), therefore I never get to take part in the online streams or chats. So I thought to give a little testimony as a manner of introduction. Apologies if the below account seems a bit “dry”, but it would take me ten times longer to express everything that was happening. I just want to point out few things and highlight how truly great God is, that He cares about us and works in out lives.

Testimony of:
– Hundreds of miracles a day.
– God is our strength.
– God looks after us and provides for us even with the smallest things.
– God’s timing is perfect, he always hits the mark.

Few years ago both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer, only 3 weeks apart and both at stage IV. My dad passed away after another 3 weeks and my mum kept fighting for about 2.5 years. Once she recovered from months of chemo, she was stable enough to live on her own. Eventually her body gave in and in mid-September a scan showed a metastasis to her brain. The doctors wanted to submit her to a hospital on the spot and operate the next morning (on Thursday). I lived in a different country and there were no flights available till Friday, so she would have been on her own. But they let her come the next day, giving her time to sort stuff and get ready for a potentially risky brain surgery.

I was up in the air when she was in the theatre and got to the hospital when she was still coming around. It was after visiting hours, but the nurses let me in, saying that the moment my mum woke up, she told them that I was definitely coming. I didn’t sleep or eat for 2 days and nearly fainted (partly due to changes in air pressure when flying). It was a busy post-surgery ward, but there was an empty bed right beside my mum’s, so the nurses got me to lie down and looked after me (let me rest, gave me energy drinks and coffee).

I stayed with my mum for few weeks while she was undergoing radiotherapy and while we prepared for her move with me to a different country. All that time I was working remotely at a full capacity in a very time pressured job, usually well into the night, at the same time attending to my mum’s needs. There were also a lot of other things happening (my dad’s car broke in the middle on a 3-lane road with traffic “flooding” around us when we had only half an hour to get to a bankruptcy court hearing… and the likes).

I didn’t just work at night. I also prayed at night. I prayed to God to give me strength and perseverance needed. And He listened.

It is difficult to express how fragile my mum was. After years of hard work (often 2 jobs) and being able to look after herself, she had almost nothing. She lost her husband, the courts were taking her apartment, she was losing her battle with cancer. At times it seemed like I was the only shield she had against the world, and the only reason she was able to stand. She could turn from “today is a good day” to “just leave me alone under a bridge to die” within seconds, by simply spilling some water. So no wonder that when it came to moving, my mum had hard time letting go of her belongings. She wanted to bring with her everything she could, even if the move would cost more than we could afford. However, only days before the departure, we managed to sell some stuff she couldn’t sell for months (my dad’s ship/car models) and get money to bring her belongings over. This way she was able to have some tangible parts of her life away from her home, in a foreign country.

The day before her belongings were getting shipped, I stayed up till 3am packing everything (big heavy boxes, turning them on sides to wrap them in a protective foil for a long journey, quite a workout). The next day I had to pack all of this onto a van (870kg, or over 1,900 pounds). I also had a crucial deadline at work, which I could not miss, otherwise 400 people would have their wages delayed and many would not have money to feed their families till after the weekend). So I stayed up working for another 2 hours, then slept for 2 hours. I was exhausted after weeks of stress, being on the go for over 20 hours per day, sleep deprivation, and most of all, looking after my mum and trying to keep her together, even though I myself was falling apart.

The van was not due till noon, which would cause difficulties with my work, but it actually arrived at 7:30am. Even though I ached all over my body from packing only few hours prior, I managed to carry a 870kg load by hand into a lift, down a flight of stairs, through a narrow corridor and up a ramp, everything in good time to meet the deadline at work. We left the next day.

Once my mum came to live with me and her stuff arrived, I carried it mostly myself (a neighbour helped with a piece of furniture). I could had left it in a common area for few days until my brother was able to give me a hand, but I was too ashamed to tell anyone, that my husband refused to help. So I wanted to make it look like it wasn’t a big deal, and box by box, piece by piece, I have managed to carry everything up 4 flights of stairs in one day.

Here’s the kicker. I have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s, which presents with a variety of symptoms, making one’s life miserable, most of the times. For me it’s a constant struggle with preserving and using energy, as well as managing pain and a wide array of other issues. I need to get at least 8 hours of sleep to function, to be able to drag myself out of bed. At worst I’ve been sleeping 14 hours a day, and still feeling tired afterwards. I often have a muscle ache all over my body, not something pain killers are able to help with. Sometimes if I’m having a bad day, I can hardly lift a cup of tea with my both hands.

This is not the end of the story, not even half of it, as my mum deteriorated over the following weeks and passed away first days of January 2017. There was a lot of things happening in between, and all that time, God kept me in His hand. We often call on God’s help expecting a spectacular miracle, not realising He had been helping us all along. It wasn’t just “a miracle” I experienced, more like a hundred little miracles and blessing that he bestowed on me to get me through the toughest times in my life.

Sorry for rambling as the above account probably isn’t too clear. So let me sum up and expand on some of the things God had done for me during the described time.
– If I don’t get sufficient rest, I’m in a lot of pain and can’t function normally. God gave me strength to go on as little as 2-4 hours of sleep per day, not once but every single day for over 3.5 months, while I cared for my mum in her last days.
– I’m not strong, sometimes I struggle with trivial things like a cup of tea, but God carried 870kg on my own shoulders for me. For me that was a very tangible evidence of God working in my life. Some people may say it was an adrenaline rush, but a burst of adrenaline does not last for weeks. We can’t carry much on our own, however, God can lift up mountains.
– I was able to get a flight to be with my mum, where flights to that specific location would normally be booked out weeks in advance. Her surgery was also delayed a day so I could be there when she woke up. God timed everything perfectly and allowed me to be by her side.
– Did you ever hear about an empty bed in a post-op ward, that happened to be next to your loved one at the very moment when your feet caved in under you? The nurses attended to me even though I wasn’t submitted as a patient. God looked after me when I wasn’t able to stand on my own.
– My job at the time did not allow remote working and flexible hours (working at night) but they accommodated me for months. If I had to take a leave for that time, I wouldn’t have enough money to put food on the table or pay for my mum’s medication she needed (morphine and such). God provided for me. Every. Single. Day.
– My mum needed her everyday stuff so she wouldn’t feel as broke and lost in a foreign country, in someone else’s house, at someone else’s mercy. God made it happen. He made “money appear” when it was needed.
– When my dad’s car died in the middle of a heavy traffic and my mum was starting to cry with panic, the cars around us stopped, some road builders that happened to be around helped to get the car off the road, and a man stopped to give us a lift, so we could make it to the court on time. God had aligned so many different things that day. If the car broke in a slightly different place, we would have probably caused a pile-up, or at best be stranded in a place with no one to help.
– The van used for moving my mum’s belongings was coming from a far part of the country and would normally reach my location at noon. There were some interesting things happening behind the scenes (one of the scheduled pick-ups was cancelled and the driver was able to leave much earlier to spend the night with his relatives nearby) to allow the van to reach me at 7:30am. I pretty much had to be online at 13:00pm for bank transfers, not to mess up pay for a lot of employees.
– Since my dad passed away, there were several times when I cried with pain and exhaustion, after days of heavy physical work, doing men’s job where there were no men to be found. God lifted me up every time to make sure I could care for my dying mum.

We often look for a big miracle, in the proportions of the Red Sea crossing, but we overlook hundreds of little miracles a day that God performs for us.

Apologies for making it so long (I really tried to be short). I hope this testimony can give someone comfort and hope in their times of trouble.

Thank you,
Kinga

“Hear my cry, O God, attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You.
When my heart is overwhelmed,
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (Ps. 61:1-2)
“Turn Yourself to me and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have enlarged.
Bring me out of my distresses!
Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.” (Ps. 25:16-18)
“There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger,
Nor any health in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head,
Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.” (Ps. 38:3-5)
“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel,
Who only does wonderous things.
And blessed be His glorious name forever!
And let the whole earth be willed with His glory.” (Ps. 72:18-19)
“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!
For Your wonderous works declare that Your name is near.” (Ps. 75:1)
“For God is my King from of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.” (Ps. 74:12)
“Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains.
Your judgements are a great deep.
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.” (Ps. 36:5-6)
“For with You is the fountain of life,
In Your light we see light.” (Ps. 36:9)
“The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble.
And those who know Your name
Will put their trust in You.” (Ps. 9:9-10)