The Lord is My Strength

I arrived home yesterday, after a very stressful physical therapy session. It seems that the entire right side of my body is much weaker than the left. The doctor allowed me to come home (if I were a kid, I'd say HIP HIP HOORAY!), and I am so grateful. After having been in the hospital for 5 days, it is such a joy to be home. I will have to continue physical therapy, since I cannot walk very well by myself. My dear husband has been such a strength to me. May God bless him for his patience, love, and understanding.

My kids were ecstatic to see their Mommy home. Many of the brethren, preachers, and their families, decided to come and make sure I was okay, so finally when all that was done, I was extremely exhausted. I am truly humbled by the amount of love and support that we have received from ALL of the brethren in Costa Rica, despite the fact that we have only been here for 9 months. We have such a love for them also, and it has made my heart joyful to feel their love, prayers, and support. I do not have enough words to even express my gratitude to Bro. David and Sis. Yonda Schwarz, who have been at our side, helping, praying, and being there for us. I am grateful for them, and for their presence in my life.

I sat to quickly check my email, last night, and was overwhelmed by an email that I received from a dear friend, who had directly heard from God. Although I was so weak, I drug myself out of bed, with the help of my husband, and went downstairs to pray. I was SO humbled in His presence. I serve such an all powerful God, who helps us in good times and also in the bad. I began to thank God, because although I am physically weak, my spirit is strong. When I begin to think of all of the bad things that could have happened to me, all I can do is smile (although it's only half a smile), and say, what I always say..."when one is faithful to God, HE is faithul to us..because we serve a faithful and just God!"

As I lay before the presence of the Lord, weeping, and thanking Him for his mercies, I heard as my children, ages 8 and 9, snuck into the room. They both lay beside me, laid their little hands on me, and began to earnestly pray and to thank God for their Mommy. They were weeping and crying, and by the time we were finished praying we were all rejoicing in His presence.

What else can I say but, "Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications..The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth.."Psalms 28:6-7


I love you all friends...

So, it's my last day in the Hospital..(Hopefully)

This is the first day that I can actually wake up at my normal time for prayer and devotion. All the other days, I have been severely drugged up, so I have been asleep, the sleep of the drugged and dead. Thank God that phase seems to have passed. I still do have what we will call "the headache", but we'll blame that on me being on the computer, which I will only be on as long to post this blog.

I don't really understand why God allows for my health to be attacked, there must be a reason. This is the 4th time in as many years. All emotions go out of control. What is going to happen? Will I be alright? Will I be able to walk and talk and be normal? Will this brain thing keep affecting me for the rest of my life? I can't answer any of those questions. All I can do is quietly wait on God, KNOWING that he has COMPLETE control of my situation.

On Monday, everything seemed normal. Just a very slight headache. I laid down early, hoping the headache would go away. At 12 a.m., I jumped out of bed, from my sleep, with such an intense headache that I started crying. I tried to make my way to the sink, but was swaying back and forth. My husband, dear soul that he is, wanted to take me to the ER, but I insisted that I would be okay. So happens that Lexy said she was having a bad dream about some spiders or something, so she laid down with me, and I fell asleep. Morning came, and I could feel something was not right. My mouth was twitching, and so was the entire left side of my face. I went ahead and showered, and when my husband came up, my mouth had completely moved to the left . We went straight to the ER, where thank God, the best neurologist of Costa Rica is on staff. He immediately admitted me into the hospital. By this time the entire left side of my face was twitching uncontrollably.

He went in to do an MRI. Said there was a bleed, but it healed itself. Said lots of other doctor stuff, but mostly, I've had a relapse. The entire right side of my body is very weak, and I'll have to do physical therapy to get it working right again.

I KNOW that God has had his hand upon me. These 5 days have been long. I don't really remember 3 of them, since I was so severely drugged up. You can read on the other posting of what the doctor said I had.

My eyes are getting tired, and "the headache" is growing, so i'll leave this post for now. I am confident in the scripture...

Taken from The Message II Corinthians 12:10

Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Update from my Husband..

I am enclosing the letter that my husband sent out...

Praise the Lord.

Many things have happened in the last few days. Jessica is still in the hospital. The doctor has said that if she does well through the night, we'll be able to take her home tomorrow, mabye. Hopefully that will be the case, since she is very tired of being in the hospital.

On Monday night, she woke up with a horrible headache. That was at 12. By 10 that morning, her mouth had moved to one side, and she was having severe facial spasms. We were going to wait to see the neurologist, but I decided to take her to the ER, since when she got sick a couple of years ago (with the aneurysm and strokes), it all started with just a headache.

We've had many tests done. An MRI, CT Scan, Some sort of Sonogram on her veins in her neck,an EEG, EKG, and lots of blood tests. The doctor has found this out:

1. MRI showed that there was a bleed in a vein, that healed itself. THANK GOD. We know it was because of Prayer! He says that the MRI looks very good.
2. Sonogram showed that her veins were clear, no clots. THANK GOD.
3. EKG came back NORMAL. THANK GOD.
4. EEG came back abnormal. It seems that she is having some sort of Epileptic Seizures, small ones, in her brain, causing the severe facial spasms on the left side of her face. GOOD thing, she is taking medicine to stop the facial spasms. This medicine also stops strokes and epileptic attacks. BAD thing..the Medicine makes her very sleepy and zombie like. WHEN she doesn't take the medicine, her face has very SEVERE facial spasms, so she needs to take the meds.
5. Her head is still hurting,so please pray that the headaches will go away. She is taking meds for this too. The doctor says that she has something called "cefalea vascular"
6. Last night she had a bad night, with much vomiting. Pray that she has a good night tonight.
7. She has not wanted to eat very well. Pray that her appetite gets better. When she doesn't eat, she gets very weak.
8. The doctor says that she is photo sensitive. Lights bother her very much.
9. She is also anemic
10. Her blood pressure fluctuates. High at times...low at other times.


Thank you all for your prayers. Continue to pray for Jessica. We know that the enemy likes nothing better than to attack the children of God. Jessica had 2 speaking engagments, that had to be cancelled this week, and she wasn't very happy about canceling. I have to remind her=2 0that she has to take care of herself. If anyone would like to get in contact with us, you can call to our cell phone: 011-506-8351-8930.

Thanks to Bro. Hopkins, who helped Jessica understand that she needs to take care of herself and stay in the hospital as long as the doctor says. I am sorry to all of you very close friends, that I have not been able to contact, especially you Pastor Copple, please forgive me for not calling right away. I have been running back and forth from the hospital, to make sure the kids are doing okay, filling out endless paperwork, and trying to be a "nurse" to my beautiful wife....

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO BRO. DAVID AND SIS. YONDA WHO HAVE GONE OVER AND BEYOND HELPING ME AND MY WIFE. WE APPRECIATE LOVE AND RESPECT THEM VERY MUCH.

Antonio Marquez

He sent this out yesterday afternoon. It's 5 a.m. here in Costa Rica, but I know that many of my friends have not received this. I will only be on the computer a while longer, here on my hospital bed.

The doctor seems to think that I have had a relapse of my first stroke, since my entire right side of my body is very weak. I'll have to do physical therapy.

My spirits are up. No matter what comes my way, I know that I serve an ALL Powerful God who has his hand on all situations.

Much love,

Jess