BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“Jim, they don’t believe me that you’re in there. Will you please show them?” Without a moment’s hesitation, Jim sat up in bed and stuck out his tongue. The astounded doctor stared with his mouth open. “Well…he’s definitely in there.” Like a Child "As Jim began to emerge from the coma, it became clear that he didn’t know who he was,” Jennifer explained. “I put pictures of him fishing and doing things he loved on the walls. I had a whole page of scriptures I prayed over him. My favorite was Psalm 118:17. I said, ‘Jim, you will live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord.’ “He regained memories as a baby and then as a toddler, progressing in age as he improved. The toddler stage was the hardest. He’d pull out his feeding tube and try to drink from it. When the staples were removed from his head, he tried to eat them.” One day Jim kept asking for his cleats. “Jim,” Jennifer asked, “how old are you?” “I’m 11 years old.” “Jim, do you recognize me?” He looked sheepish when he shook his head no. “But I know I love you,” he admitted. “My name is Jennifer, and I’m your wife. You were in an accident and bumped your head. You have a big bruise on your brain.” Jim had been in the hospital for a month when the police released the results of their investigation into the accident. The dirt bike had malfunctioned. It throttled itself, going faster and faster without Jim increasing the speed. It wouldn’t slow down, and it wouldn’t stop. They discovered that Jim had even turned the engine off. Instead of stopping, the bike revved up to 100 miles an hour before hitting a curb and face-planting Jim onto the cement. On July 22, Jennifer and Jim were watching Perry Stone when a nurse came into the room. Perry looked at the camera and said, “There’s a woman out there who has longed for many years to have a child. You’ll conceive that child.” “A cold wind just blew over me,” the nurse said. “That word was for you. You’ll conceive in September.” Miracle After Miracle The truth was that Jennifer had longed for a child—ached for a child—for years. She and Jim had been together for 17 years, but he hadn’t agreed to have children. She laughed at the idea. For now, Jim was the only child she could handle. “I went home to shower one day and called KCM for prayer,” Jennifer recalls. “I reached a recording of Kenneth Copeland. He said, ‘I’m going to pray for you right now. You release your faith with me and it will come to pass.’ As he prayed, I released my faith for Jim to regain full consciousness. The anointing was so strong that I felt the Holy Spirit fill me. “By Aug. 3, Jim was fully alert. He knew who he was and where he was. When I told him it was August, he was shocked. ‘I missed the Fourth of July?’ he asked.” Jim was about to be released from the hospital and sent to a rehab hospital that specialized in traumatic brain injuries. For days, he begged Jennifer to take him home. “Jen,” he said, “I’ve got a lot of obstacles to overcome, but you and I both know I like obstacles and I can get ’er done.” On Aug. 6, they left the hospital against medical advice. “Once we got home, everything came crashing down,” Jennifer admits. “This was during the economic crash of 2007 and no one was buying homes. Our house hadn’t sold and people weren’t even looking. We had piles of unpaid bills and no income. I couldn’t work because Jim required constant care. “I developed severe heartburn trying to deal with everything. When I told my mother about it, she said, ‘Jen, could you be pregnant?’ The moment she said that, I remembered the word that came through Perry Stone and that nurse. It was September!” Double for the Trouble Twelve years earlier, Jim had had a vivid dream where he saw a little boy. “Who are you?” Jim asked. “Dad, it’s me! Jesse James! I’m your son!” Jennifer rested her palm on her flat belly and whispered, “Hello, Jesse.” “I was pregnant with a boy,” Jennifer says. “My due date was June 22, 2008—one year to the day from Jim’s accident. I went into labor that day, but Jesse didn’t make his appearance until two days later. I was pulled in two directions trying to take care of Jim and a newborn. Finally, Jim’s mother suggested that we move in with her. It was a tremendous help.” While Jim’s survival and brain function were miraculous, some of the effects of his injuries were slower to resolve. For instance, while he could handle a peaceful environment with his small family, his senses went on overload if he was in a room with more than two people. Doctors diagnosed his symptoms as post-traumatic stress syndrome. “The hardest thing for me was losing my identity,” Jim explains. “Everything I thought I was, changed in an instant. I not only lost my identity, I had to relearn so many things. The medical staff and others talked about me rather than to me. Jen had to correct me all the time and teach me how to do things again. As a man, that was difficult to deal with. * * * * * article concludes on p. 17 * * * * ********** ADVERTISEMENT ********** Join us in teaching believers how to use their faith. KCM.ORG/PARTNERNOW 1-800-600-7395 U.S. only *************************************** 16 : BVOV

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