Health and Job change

After working at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago for about 6 weeks, I noticed that my right hip was beginning to ache enough to wake me up at night. Also my supervisor at the bank notices that I was favoring it. So she sent me to the Banks doctor. He examined me and asked a lot of questions about my earlier hip operation when I was 12. He also asked what my job responsibilities were at the bank. When he found out that I delivered the mail to half the bank on an hourly basis, he contacted the HR department and told them to fire me. What a black day that was for me. In his opinion, I should be confined to a wheelchair. I remember thinking that he must be a quack. Remember I was all of 19 and knew that I was invincible.

So back I went to tell my supervisor the bad news. She was furious. She contacted the HR department and asked if she could keep me if she placed me in a position where I would sit and sort the incoming mail. She also contacted her manager and told him about what had happened. All the while this was going on I was sitting on the sidelines doing my homework.

Just before I had to leave for school, my supervisor received her answer. Yes I could continue to work there as long as I had a job where I could sit and sort the mail. Also I had to go to an orthopedic doctor and have him examine me and send a letter to the Federal Reserve Bank with his findings. Boy was I relieved. I still had a job with much less walking.

So that weekend when I got to Uncle H. and Aunt D. I told them about what happened. They contacted their family doctor who gave them the name of an orthopedic doctor to go to. A couple weeks later, Uncle H. and I went to this doctor. I don't remember much about the appointment except that I thought the doctor ancient. He did tell me that yes they used to confine people with my condition to a wheelchair. However, they no longer did that and as long as I sat at my job it should be OK. And yes he would write a letter stating that for the Federal Reserve Bank.

Wow what great news and it got even better. When I received my first pay after starting as a mail sorter, my pay was increased. It turned out that a mail sorter was considered a higher pay grade.

Isn't God great? He not only was looking out for my health he gave me a better job with a pay increase allowing me to continue at school without dropping out in order to save enough for the next quarters tuition.

Housing

It didn't take me long to settle into a routine of work, school, and homework. I was putting in long, long days. However, I was used to that. I used to put in long days working on the farm back in Kansas. In High School, I was just an average student. However, now I was paying for this education and so found myself wanting to get the most out of it. So I started studying. I would study on the bus and train in the morning going to work and going from work to school in the afternoon. I found that all the studying was paying off. I started getting better and better grades on the quizzes and exams.

My roommate David and I started noticing that our furnace pilot light was always out when we returned home from school. So our apartment would be cold and took a long time to warm up. We asked the landlady about this. It turned out that after we left in the morning, she would come and blow out the pilot light in order to save on the gas bill. Because she refused to stop turning off the furnace and with winter fast approaching, David and I decided to move.

This time we found lodging in a two flat. This apartment was on Belmont about 1 1/2 blocks west of the school. With David and I moving in there were 13 guys living in the building. As you can image, with that many people living together, it was never quiet. Everyone had a different schedule. I doubt if the lights were ever all turned out. I know that the kitchen was always a mess. The only time it was cleaned was just before the landlord came with clean bedding.

However, it wasn't all bad. The rent was less, I walked home from school saving the bus fare and I got home from school earlier and in the day. So I was able to finish my studies sooner getting more sleep. I don't remember how early I had to wake up in order to get take the bus and train to the loop for work. However I do remember standing in the dark waiting for the bus. I was having the time of my live. What a great experience for someone whose senior high school class numbered 31 students.

School, Housing, Bus, Job

After spending the weekend at my Grandparents, and locking myself out of their house. They drove me back to my aunt and uncle. Early the next week Uncle H. and I went to DeVry to do the final enrollment, find housing and a job.

The school gave me a list of people who would rent to DeVry students. Uncle H. and I drove to the first address and met and older lady who had an upstairs 2-bedroom apartment for rent. She said that she always rented to DeVry students. It looked nice was clean and the price was right so I rented it and moved my two suitcases in. After that Uncle H. showed me where to get the bus and where to transfer in order to get to DeVry. He then dropped me off at school and went home.

I was in the 2 P.M. to 8 P.M. class and spend the first day in orientation. I got out at 8 that evening and had to figure out how to take the buss back to my apartment. I remember being nervous because Uncle H. had showed how to take the bus from the apartment to school and now I was taking the bus from school to the apartment. However, I made it and when I entered my apartment there was another guy there. David was also a new student at DeVry and had the same schedule I had. However, he was in a different section so I hadn't seen him at the orientation.

The next morning, I went to the school's employment office and received a list of places that hired DeVry students. I asked how to get from the school to downtown Chicago and was given the following instructions: Take the bus east to the underground train, take the train downtown. A number of other students got on the bus with me so I asked the other students if they were also going downtown. A few of them were so we stuck together and made it to the loop. I asked a lot of people directions and finally found the Federal Reserve Bank on Jackson Street. I applied for and got a job in the mailroom as a mail delivery person. The job was from 7 A.M. to 1 P.M. 6 days a week. After the mail was sorted, I would have to deliver it to the correct department or person. This was a job with lots and lots of walking.

I was so happy to have a job. It had taken all my saving and I had borrowed $5oo.oo from the Long Island bank in order to get started in school. So I needed this job in order to pay my rent, food, transportation, and the next quarters tuition.

Thus began my college career.

Locking your doors

It was early September 1969. I had arrived in Chicago and after spending a couple of days with my aunt and uncle, they drove me down to Dolton, a suburb of Chicago, to spend some time with my grandparents. My grandparents lived by the Dolton Park and when I was younger I and my brothers and sisters used to enjoy visiting them because we could play on the park playground.

After spending the night in the small upstairs bedroom, I woke up early and decided to take a walk in the park. So I got up and quietly walked down the stairs and let myself out of the front door. I walked around the park, sat in the swings, listened to the birds and all the other city noise, such as the sound of the cars, buses, and trucks braking for traffic signals. I found all this exciting; after all I would be starting DeVry the next week. Also coming from the country most of these sounds were all new to me.

I didn't have a watch with me and had no idea what time it was when I left my grandparent's house. However, after what seemed to me to be a long time I walked back to the house. Imagine my surprise when I walked up the front steps to their house and found that the front door was locked. Back home in Kansas we never locked anything. We would leave our cars running while we went into the store to make a quick purchase. So there I was on an early September morning sitting on my grandparents front steps waiting for them to wake up. Once again I have no idea how long I waited, but it was quite a while before I heard them stirring. To this day, I can see my Grandpa's surprised look when he opened the front door to my knock.

That morning along with breakfast, I received my first of many talks from Grandpa and Grandma about being and staying safe. What memories I have.

I like to think of memories and treat memories the same way one would think of old family photos. They are fun to take out, dust off, and enjoy before putting them back on the closet shelf to await the next time you get them down.

Trains, Hats, and Naps

It was a scary time for me. It was 1967 - 1968 and I had to make the decision every young person must make. What to do with my life. I knew my Dad's brother had gone to Coyne to study Television repair. I don't remember why I decided to attend DeVry Institute of Technology. Maybe it was because Uncle B. was in electronics and I always like visiting his television store. Maybe it was because living in western Kansas going to school in Chicago sounded exciting. Maybe because going away to school was scary and there were a lot of relatives in Chicago. Whatever the reason, I decided to attend DeVry in Chicago.

Anyway one night in early September 1969 my parents drove me the 75 miles to Kearney Nebraska, where I got on the train to Chicago. I remember being so excited that I barely slept the entire night. There was the excitement of my first train ride, my first time being away from home, of going to a large city. As I was getting on the train I asked my dad about what to do once I arrived in Chicago. I knew my Uncle H. was to meet me at the train station, however I hadn't seen him recently and didn't know if I would recognize him. Dad said to look for a short guy with a pipe wearing a hat.

Well after a sleepless night, I arrived in Chicago. I gathered my two suitcases and one briefcase and climbed down off the train. Once on the platform, I looked around and there stood Uncle H. We got into his car and he drove me to their house in Berwyn a suburb of Chicago. After some coffee, talk, and some lunch, I took a nap. The next thing I remembered was my three cousins waking me up and telling me it was time for supper.

That was my first day in Chicago.

I am bothered additions

After reading the response my pastor friend wrote to Wendell Guth's "39 Theses for Healing", I decided to write to Wendell Guth and ask him some questions about my situation.

First I will post my email to Wendell.

Second Wendell's reply to my email.

Third my thoughts on Wendell's reply.

My email to Wendell:

Wendell,

From the time I was a baby, I’ve had health issues. First both hips slipped out of joint, causing me to undergo so many operations that I’ve lost count of them. For years, I experienced problems with my balance, and with neuropathy pain, burning, and tingling in my feet, legs, hands and arms. For years the doctors said the neuropathy issues were the result of all the hip operations. However, as the years passed, the neuropathy issues worsened to the point that I was confined to a wheelchair. Still the unknown disease continued to worsen. Now I am unable to control my bladder and must have an indwelling catheter. Also I now am unable to breathe without having a tracheotomy and being on a ventilator.

After years of tests, the doctors have determined, using some type of DNA test, that I suffer from congenital defects that began while I was being formed in my mother’s womb. Now in my weakened state of health, I often get infections. A couple of months ago, after spending some time in the hospital for pneumonia while still fighting an infection, a person at our church asked if they could pray with me. I went with them to the prayer room and we prayed together. As I was leaving they gave me a copy of your “39 Theses for Healing”.

Over the years, I have cried to Jesus to heal me, I have claimed the promises that you have pointed out. I have searched my life for any sins I haven’t confessed and asked forgiveness for.

Have I missed something? Is God angry with me? Do you think that I may not be one of God’s chosen? I mean Jesus doesn’t judge the man born blind in John 9. In John 9:3 Jesus says “Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So does that mean that I might be in this condition so the work of God might be displayed in my life?

I am troubled and confused,
Philip

Wendells reply to my email:

Phillip,

I can understand your confusion. I will respond with some things that will help.

Remember, that the John 9 man was healed. It is not God's will for you to be sick. He paid the price for the consequences of the curse, all of it, so man did not have to suffer the consequences now or eternally.

There is a paradigm shift that the church rarely gets, i.e. that healing for mankind WAS accomplished at the whipping post 2100 years ago. It is an accomplished fact in the Kingdom of God. It has been placed in the bank in our behalf. We WERE healed, therefore weARE healed from God's viewpoint. However, the manifestation in our present condition do not often line up.


That's is where both knowledge and faith come in. You can't have faith in a truth if you do not know about it. Faith comes by hearing (of the heart--- a deep revelation) of the truth and this
comes by the Woird of God. This type of hearing often requires a great deal of meditation on passages on healing.

When a person has been plagued by sickness as long and persistently as you have, it is difficult to believe the Word over and above the present circumstances. Your experience claims your focus. The focus needs to be diverted to the Word until the Word takes on a stronger reality than the circumstances.

I suggest that you get a set of tapes by Gloria Copeland, "Healing School", and listen to them over and over. Eliminate TV and other distractions and listen to them 8 hours a day until the truth regarding God's desire to have you walk in health becomes more real
than your present condition. This is what I call superimposing truth upon fact. You can get them at KCM.ORG.

In the meanwhile I am going to attach some things that will get you started.

The first is a pamplet called God's Medicine, designed to be copied on two sides and folded into a 4 page panphlet. Second, are some healing lyrics that I have written to some well known hymns that I would urge you to sing over and over until they saturate your spirit. These, also will quicken your faith.

In closing I would like to remind you about the man in Jn 5 sick for 38 years..Jesus healed him. The woman of Lk 13:10ff...in vs 16 Jesus said, "And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom SATAN HAS BOUND FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath." Meditate on this passage.

In Christ the Healer,
Wendell Guth

My thoughts about Wendells reply:

I wrote him because I was interested in seeing how he would reply. I tell you, I think this guy has an answer to everything.

It seems to me that he is talking around the issue. He also appears to be suggesting that the issue is one of my lack of faith. I also notice that he didn't appear to address my last question in my email to him. Of course he really can't answer it without admitting that the faults in his argument.

Sad day

Today P. and I are going western IL to attend my Uncle's wake. We will stay overnight and attend the funeral tomorrow.

When I first took the train from western Kansas to Chicago, this uncle met the train and helped me get started at DeVry. During my time at DeVry I would spend every weekend at their house. In fact I lived with them for the last 6 months I was at DeVry.

Just before Christmas, I had scanned a couple hundred of their family slides and created CD's for them to give their children. At the time I was scanning them I didn't know if I would get them all scanned in time for Christmas because I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. Then after sending them to my Aunt and Uncle they called to tell me that their DVD player wouldn't work with the CD I had made. I suggested they have their granddaughter bring her laptop along when she was by them for Christmas so my Uncle could see the photos. I don't know if he ever got to see them, but I hope he did.

I am really going to miss my Uncle because after my Dad died, I used to talk to him every other week or so.