By Sherry Orcutt
What is life? Life is the journey we take while here on this earth. There are mountain top peaks and there are deep valleys of experiences that will “rock our world.” There are lessons in those times and I want to share with you the most extraordinary way that God uses these experiences to lovingly guide us toward our purpose in life.
In December 2001 my husband was at work and he suddenly, without warning, lost his balance coming down stairs. Immediately, the left side of his body became numb and started tingling and his right leg could not support his weight. We went to the emergency room only to be admitted for a week of spine probing, needle poking, fluid withdrawal, brain frying x-rays and many other invasive tests. The doctor enters the room. His face does not reflect that of good news. All we were told was that his pupils were very dilated and that he either had cancer or Multiple Sclerosis of the C7 portion of his spine – we were supposed to wait for eight weeks to see if the lesion grew. If it grew he had cancer, if not, it was MS. We immediately started to pray – not for a cure, not for a miracle, but for wisdom and discernment. God always answers our prayers, but not always in the way we expect. As his family around him fell apart emotionally, I watched his acceptance at whatever God had allowed for him and my tears flowed with submission to God’s will. I watched Dave plant seeds of faith in his children and me as he trusted the Lord with his health. My normally, always in control husband makes a comment to me saying, “If the Lord wants to take me home, I am ready to go.” The terror set in; I knew where he was going, he was a believer in Jesus Christ, but what about me? How could I live my life without my husband, my journey partner?
Imagine, if you will, the anxiety that overcame me as I and my constant companion, my Bible, sat in that hospital room waiting for the diagnosis. Your imagination goes wild, worry sets in (oh, but I’m not supposed to worry the Word says), fear grips hold of your emotions as you wait – and wait – and wait. Eight hours would go by before we would know anything.
As I prayed, the Lord reminded me of Psalm 41:1-3 which reads, “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.” This was the hope I needed. “I know you are in control Lord – plans to prosper us and not to harm us,” were the words that frequented my mind. Finally the news came. It was MS.
As I prayed over the next three days, The Hallelujah Diet came to us in five different ways. I was on staff at Crosstown Community Church and a pastor brought a young lady into my office and suggested I listen to her testimony. One year previously she had MS so severely she was in a wheel chair, her body riddled with pain daily and she had refused all drug therapy. She had 12 lesions (11 in her brain and one in her spine – Dave only had one in his spine). She went on The Hallelujah Diet and in six months her lesions were one-half the size. After one year her MS was gone and today she teaches aerobics. I cried as I realized that she was God’s confirmation to me that this Hallelujah Diet was the answer to my prayers. At the time, I didn’t consider myself to have that many health problems (quite delusional I might add), but I knew that if I didn’t do this diet with Dave it wouldn’t be successful, as I was the one preparing our family’s meals. I did not want to lose my husband to disease and was willing to do anything to help him.
God has blessed our efforts. For 10 years I prayed that Dave and I would have a ministry we could do together (we both were very active in our church, me in Women’s bible study and Dave in First Impressions Ministry) – I just didn’t realize that Dave would have to become ill for that ministry to be born. God began a good work in us.
Sound too simple? Just change your diet and provide your body with the amazing nutrition that God made in the first place? How can that be? 1 Corinthians 1:27 (KJV) says, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” His nutrition plan is mighty. The world thinks anything you put in your mouth is food (Standard American Diet) but many of those things were not the foods that God created.
Oh yes; the ministry I had prayed for began nine months after starting this new lifestyle when we started a support group in Brandon. We ran this ministry for 10 years helping to educate the Tampa/Brandon community to learn how to achieve the optimal health that God really wants us to have. We opened the Hallelujah Acres Lifestyle Center in Plant City in 2004 – a place where people come from all over the world to learn what we did and how they can accomplish the same thing. We are about to celebrate our twelfth year in that ministry. We faithfully serve our awesome God.
I did not actually pray for a miracle but I received one in the way of a tool. Dave became MS free; all symptoms gone in one year. We found our purpose in life through Dave’s illness. God uses many tools to heal. He just wants us to do our part in the process. Our part was to change our diet and lifestyle and we left the healing to the King of Kings.
