An Amazing Testimony- Bryant's Story

My friend Bryant has been going thru some stuff recently, and I thought I'd let you all in on what's been happening in his life, because it helps showcase the move of God that's happening in the youth ministry.

Here's the story as he posted it on his myspace blog:

"Three days ago I had acute myeloid leukemia.

That was three days ago.

Three
days ago I found out I had a severe bone marrow issue causing my body
to not absorb iron near at all. Three days ago I wanted to give up, I
wanted to curse God for letting this happen to me after all the things
I had surrendered to follow him the way he wanted me to; I wanted to
explode, I wanted to run.

Three days ago I said NO. I wouldn't
let some petty bodily excuse keep me from pressing into the kingdom of
God and surrendering myself again to him.

Three days ago I had
a protein scan performed on my blood that pretty well signed my death
warrant. So they redid the tests of course.

Three days ago a group of students on fire with the passion of God prayed over me.

Yesterday
my body was clean. There was no sign of the proteins that were there
for "some time now." All that was left was an entirely and easily
treatable disorder in which my body just cant absorb iron well and
where I have too small of red blood cells. So they have me megadosing
iron pills. If this works, great, if not all it'll take is bi-yearly
transfusions to keep it in check.

God is Amazing.

So the full story for those who care to read on.

So
those who read my blogs know what brought me to three days ago. If not
read it, I don't feel like recapping as trying to do this via
blackberry takes a bit.

I was woken on Thursday morning by a
phone call from a friend who works at the clinic I went to, saying that
the provider I saw wants me to go to a PCP so I can figure out where I
wanted to go from my new set of test results. The doc wouldn't state
what those were, I had to come in. Bad sign as we all know. I had told
the doc the night before that I didn't care what the results showed,
God is bigger than that. They kinda laughed it off, of course.

So I went in at 11am that morning.

The
doctor sat down with me and said that the second retest had just come
in and started going over the previous results. My blood was full of
the proteins linked to myeloid leukemia. Apparently they had been there
for "some time now." My heart sank. This was a death warrant. But the
doctor read the second set of results from the retest. As he read his
eyes kept getting bigger as he flipped back and forth through them, and
kept saying "theres got to be a mistake." He looked at me with wide
eyes and said "Theres nothing there except the original bone marrow
disorder." I just started laughing and told him "I told you God was
bigger than this." Needless to say they had to redo the tests, which
last night I got a call saying that I was still clean.

Now I'm
still trying to wrap me little brain around all this. I cant comprehend
it all, nor can I even begin to put into words what I have experienced.
I know this was a trial of my faith. As if God said "Ok, Bryant, you've
been making huge steps, there IS something wrong, but how wrong it is
is up to you." I fully believe that if I had stepped out in my flesh as
my normal reaction to this would have been, to go home, crack open a
fifth and drink myself into oblivion, to curse God for letting this
happen; that I would still be sitting here conemplating life with
leukemia. It was as if God was saying "ok, now take that extra step,
here is a chance for you to learn to fully give yourself away into my
arms."

For those curious, I'm having my full test results from
all the phases mailed to me so that I can post them on my wall, and in
case anyone in my life doubts God's power in this, I can give them hard
evidence of it. Now I know I still have a health problem. So what. I'm
ok with pooping bricks for the rest of my life from the iron pills, or
having to be hooked up to a blood bag every six months, for me every
time I take my pills, or if it comes to it every time I have to get
blood, it'll serve for me as a reminder of God's power and promises for
my life. I can live with this. And who knows, maybe if I keep at it,
God will heal me from this too! I'll keep praying that be true, but if
not, it'll be something that will daily smack me in the face and remind
me to give thanks for what he has done, and to daily surrender myself
unto him."

I'm pretty excited about this for a few reasons, not the least of which being that he is a good friend. But I also love that we've got a group of students who are sold out for God, and while I was the one praying into the microphone, they were gathered around laying hands on him and seeing the power of God move through them. It's not about me, I believe God moved through those students that night to bring this healing to pass.

-Jeff-