Before & After God's transformation

This blogpost is also published in Swedish here: https://before-and-after.blog/2023/10/13/hur-allt-borjade-nar-min-man-blev-sjuk-och-dog-min-berattelse/

So I’ve been struggling with how to get my story and testimony out. I know God is calling me to write my testimony.

And sometimes I start to write or collect notes from my journal to make it into a book or a blog post. But then I just get stuck. I don’t know how to progress or get the pieces together.

So maybe I should just start from the beginning. For me a painful beginning. And make it into a blog post. This way I can get my testimony out there little by little. 

So here it goes. How it all started. 

It was spring in Sweden in 2015 and my husband and I together with our, at this time only son, and my husband’s family were on vacation visiting a zoo and amusement park in Sweden.

My husband and I with our son were going to meet up with his family and he was going to take a look at the map of the park. The map was mounted on the side of an asphalted road made for walking around the park. The map was painted on a billboard next to the road sitting with its poles into the soil.

I still remember what happened so clearly, because it was so weird, it stood out to me. What just happened? He tripped and fell over with his side first onto the ground. It was the oddest way of falling. I have never seen anything like it. It felt spiritual. He told me he had stepped on the very edge of the asphalted road and lost his balance. It was very out of character for him. He was not clumsy in any kind of way. He was tall and solid and stable, so this was very weird. It was as if someone had made him spin around and pushed him sideways down to the ground. 

After he got up I asked him what in the world happened? It looked so odd. He didn’t know what happened. He too thought it was a weird way to fall over, even though he stepped on the edge a little bit and slid off there with his foot. 

He noticed he had hurt his foot. He started to have problems with his foot after this. He could not lift the front of his foot upwards. He thought he might have sprained his ankle first. 

Weeks and months later he still had problems, but stubborn as he was he would not go to the doctor even though his family and I wanted him to go. He said it’s going to be alright. They can’t do anything anyway. And he started to think maybe a nerve in his knee was pinched and stopping him from moving his foot properly. He was very convinced about this. 

The foot not working properly was the first real problematic symptom of the motor neuron disease called ALS. 

“Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as classical motor neuron disease, affects both the upper and lower motor neurons. It causes rapid loss of muscle control and eventual paralysis. Many doctors use the term motor neuron disease and ALS interchangeably.”

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/motor-neuron- diseases 

It’s not for nothing some people call ALS the devil’s disease. 

Long story short, in this short blog post, the paralysis started in the foot and progressed for 6 years taking mobility first from the legs, then the arms, the hands, the voice, and the ability to swallow or chew his food. And lastly, he lost the ability to breathe because of paralysis in the diaphragm. The muscle used to exhale and inhale, sitting underneath the lungs.

His death and God’s promises

He died on August 17th, 2021. He had suffered a lot, but the more paralyzed he got, the more the light of Jesus would shine through him. He was a testimony of how God carried him through the devil’s disease to all who saw him. We had a lot of people working for him to assist him with everything in our home. A very difficult time for my children and I. Because we didn’t feel like we were living in a home, but in a hospital. A price we paid to have him home, for God to use our lives to be a testimony to all those hundreds of people who came to work for him to then suddenly just quit and walk away on us. For new people to start running around in our home. God had told my husband he would lead 600 people to Christ. And his life or the story of him will do this. It wasn’t in the way we imagined it to be. But God is faithful. I don’t want this story and pain to go to waste, and neither does God.

We had prayed to the Lord to use our home for His Kingdom and He did. We were a testimony of Jesus to many people during this hardship. 

When he died in the hospital, God gave me a promise that I have been clinging to. It got me to seek God like never before. And I had been seeking God before all of this happened, but I got renewed spiritually, emotionally, physically after my husband passed. God is building me up.

When seeing my husband dead I saw the peace of God all over Him. His eyes were halfway open and I could see the clearest, cleanest, and shiniest eyes. This must be what Jesus’s eyes look like, but inside my late husband. Because my late husband had repented and was following Jesus Christ, he is now with Jesus. Fully healed, finished with this short part of life that is our walk here on this earth. Now he is in eternity with our Lord and Savior. That brings me the most comfort knowing he is where he should be. 

Where are you going after death?

If you don’t know where you are going after you die. Please, put your faith In that Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross and repent from your own ways, and you will have eternal life in Jesus Christ. 

In the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 11: verses 28-30, Jesus says:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If you like to give your life to Jesus Christ, you can pray this prayer, and if you truly mean what you say, He will hear you.

You can pray this prayer

Dear God, thank you that you love me more than anyone.

I confess my sins and wrongdoings to you. I accept and believe that you sent your son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins. And I believe you rose him up from the dead on the third day.

I repent from my sins and put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Please give me the Holy Spirit, the helper to guide me and teach me your word, your ways. And guide me to mature believers in Christ to help disciple me and grow in more understanding of who you are and who I am in Your eyes. Help me understand the Word of God, the Bible when I read it.

Amen

If you prayed this prayer and meant it: Now you have a new life in Jesus Christ! Heaven rejoices! I’m so glad that you walk with the Lord! I suggest you get a Bible and seek to have fellowship with other Christians who can help you with your faith walk.

God bless you,

Annika