BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Change Begins Not long after that, something happened while Melanie was working in the Coronary Care Unit that stirred her and helped restore her relationship with God. “One day I was in my office when I began to talk to God,” she said. “Lord, I just feel like You’re so far away from me. If You’re there, would You please show me? “We had a patient who’d suffered a brain stem stroke and didn’t respond to deep, painful stimuli. She wasn’t to be resuscitated and shouldn’t have been in the CCU. “I walked into her room to check the dressing on her IV when the alarms went off on her cardiac monitor. I looked up and she had flatlined. I thought, Bless her heart, she’s going. Within minutes she was dead. Suddenly, that dead woman sat up in bed. With her eyes open and the most beautiful look on her face, she raised one arm and said, ‘Jesus!’ With a flatline! Then, she drifted back to the bed. “I looked up to the Lord and said, ‘You have my undivided attention.’ I never walked away from Him again.” Nine years later, Melanie received a B.S. in nursing. All the while, in the back of her mind, she could still hear the Lord saying: 'In your latter years you’ll write.' At times, it seemed she would be in nursing forever. But Melanie came to love her job as clinical supervisor of the coronary care unit. By the time she retired in 1986, she could look back with satisfaction knowing she had made a strong contribution in the lives of hundreds of people. “I had a fabulous, wonderful 20 years in nursing,” she said. A Starting Place “In the early 1980s I reported to a new vice president at the hospital who was very spiritual,” Melanie recalls. “He came into my office one day and said, ‘I perceive that there’s something else on your heart besides nursing.’ I told him, ‘I’m going to be a writer someday.’” A few days later, Melanie got a memo from her boss ordering her to attend a series of classes on creative writing that were being taught at the hospital. “Somehow, he found money in the budget to pay for me to take a short course in professional writing at OU,” she said. “Then, he continued to push me toward writing. He and his wife went on vacation once and brought me back a T-shirt that said, ‘I’d rather be writing my novels.’ And for Christmas, he got me a subscription to 'Writer’s Digest.'” In January 1986, after retiring from nursing, Melanie joined a professional writing group to study and begin a career in freelance and ghostwriting. Putting the Faith Message Into Print Back in 1969, Melanie had trained for a short time at a hospital in St. Louis, Mo. While there, she met and became friends with a couple who later attended Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Okla. They introduced Melanie to the teachings of Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth E. Hagin. “They invited me to Brother Hagin’s campmeetings in Tulsa, and that’s when I started getting involved in learning to live by faith,” Melanie recalled. “I’d also been listening to Brother Copeland on the radio every day. “By 1986, I’d left nursing and was about to begin doing what I’d always wanted to do—be a writer. I had a blue notebook that I used to track answered prayer. I made four columns: ‘Date,’ ‘Prayer Request,’ ‘Scripture’ and ‘Date Answered.’ “In one instance, I wrote down 1 John 5:14-15 as the scripture I was standing on and then, for my request I wrote that I wanted to ‘put the faith message into print.’ “This may sound strange, but I thought I knew how God was going to do it. For some reason, I thought He was going to have me write for Marilyn Hickey.” * * * continues on next page * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Read Through the Bible SEPTEMBER Old Testament / Psalms Fri 1 Eccl. 5-6 / Ps. 18 Sat 2 Eccl. 7-8 / Ps. 19 Sun 3 Eccl. 9-11 / Ps. 20-21 Mon 4 Eccl. 12; Songs 1 / Ps. 22 Tue 5 Songs 2-3 / Ps. 23 Wed 6 Songs 4-5 / Ps. 24 Thu 7 Songs 6-7 / Ps. 25 Fri 8 Songs 8; Isa. 1 / Ps. 26 Sat 9 Isa. 2-3 / Ps. 27 Sun 10 Isa. 4-6 / Ps. 28-29 Mon 11 Isa. 7-8 / Ps. 30 Tue 12 Isa. 9-10 / Ps. 31 Wed 13 Isa. 11-12 / Ps. 32 Thu 14 Isa. 13-14 / Ps. 33 Fri 15 Isa. 15-16 / Ps. 34 Sat 16 Isa. 17-18 / Ps. 35 Sun 17 Isa. 19-21 / Ps. 36-37 Mon 18 Isa. 22-23 / Ps. 38 Tue 19 Isa. 24-25 / Ps. 39 Wed 20 Isa. 26-27 / Ps. 40 Thu 21 Isa. 28-29 / Ps. 41 Fri 22 Isa. 30-31 / Ps. 42 Sat 23 Isa. 32-33 / Ps. 43 Sun 24 Isa. 34-36 / Ps. 44-45 Mon 25 Isa. 37-38 / Ps. 46 Tue 26 Isa. 39-40 / Ps. 47 Wed 27 Isa. 41-42 / Ps. 48 Thu 28 Isa. 43-44 / Ps. 49 Fri 29 Isa. 45-46 / Ps. 50 Sat 30 Isa. 47-48 / Ps. 51 “Read Through the Bible in a Year Plan” written by Marilyn Hickey, and used by permission. BVOV : 15

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