BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

It’s Just a Name! by Ronald C. Jordan It had been as normal a week as any for April Nelson as the energetic young single mom scurried about, making sure she had everything she needed for her trip to Washington, D.C. It would be the second straight year she had traveled to the nation’s capital to attend the annual Christians United for Israel Summit, and April was looking forward to spending the time away with fellow believers. That’s when the first symptoms occurred. “I was packing and just trying to get things together and I was running into the walls,” April recalls. “My balance was a little bit off, too, but I just thought, Well, I’m tired. I’ve had a lot to do this week with work and now getting ready for this trip, I just need to get some sleep.” Satisfied that physically she was OK, April finally made it to the airport and was off to Washington. Then, it happened again. The fatigue returned and April’s equilibrium was off. “There was something wrong, and I didn’t really know what,” April said. Again, she reasoned: I’m just tired, I need to get some rest. “On the day before I was leaving to go home, I woke up in my hotel room and everything was off in my body,” she said. “I knew something was wrong so I had my roommate call 911.” Before the ambulance arrived, April had collapsed. At the hospital, doctors first determined that April was suffering from extreme dehydration and had neurological symptoms. Two CAT scans later, they diagnosed multiple sclerosis. “We’ve looked at your brain, we see some things we don’t like,” the doctors told her. “They wanted to keep me in the hospital over the weekend to run more tests and determine treatment, but I was scheduled to fly home the same day,” April recalls. “They didn’t want me to risk traveling, and suggested I have my family come to Washington.” “This is a serious thing,” the doctors told her. “If you leave here now, you can die.” ‘You’re Supposed to Go Home’ Despite the doctors’ warnings, April sensed that she was to return home to her family and friends. “The people who had traveled to Washington with me, and my family back home felt the same way,” she said. During her overnight stay at the hospital, people called and said things like: “I think you’re supposed to go home.” Or, “Don’t allow the doctors to tell you to do something that is not in your heart.” During that time of struggle, the Lord gave April a word. “He said, 'As quickly as this thing has come upon you, that’s how quickly it’s going to go.' So, I wasn’t afraid. There was pressure coming at me from the doctors to stay, but I just told them I wanted to go home. So, they released me.” When she returned to Fort Worth, April was immediately surrounded with spiritual support. “My father had told me, ‘We’re going to beat this thing here at home,’” April said. “When I got home, he prayed for me, laid hands on me and commanded healing to come forth.” The next day, April remembered something she’d heard Jeremy Pearsons say a month earlier during a teaching at Eagle Mountain International Church. “The next time something comes against your body, whether it’s a small thing, a major thing or a serious thing, focus on the love of God,” Jeremy said. “Meditate on the love God has for you and see what that will do in your body.” On Sunday, April went to church despite feeling weak from symptoms that had returned. “My coordination and balance were off, so I needed to be assisted everywhere I went,” she recalls. When she returned home from church, April pulled out a message by Pastor George Pearsons, Jeremy’s dad, titled "My Father Loves Me." “Because I was still thinking about what Jeremy had ministered about God’s love, I got that message and began to listen to it,” April explained. “I knew God loved me and that He had healed me. So, like Jeremy had encouraged, I put my primary focus on the love He has for me.” In addition, April spent time reading, meditating and confessing healing scriptures. 6 : BVOV

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