Hi, I’m Cassendra Dearing and I’d like to tell you what happened to me that morning when I went to the opening meeting of IFCB’s annual conference last July 2015. I wanted my son to hear the testimony of John Smith, the boy who God raised from the dead in January 2015, after he fell thru the ice in Lake Louise in Lake St. Louis Missouri and was without a pulse for over 47 minutes.
John Smith was going into the 9th grade this fall and had been a student coach in the summer basketball program that my son attended this summer After hearing the remarkable first-hand experience of John Smith, his father and his pastor, we were thanking and praising God along with everyone in the room.
Don Allen was the guest speaker after the Smith’s finished and he told of another woman he was ministering to who had been in a wheelchair from birth and God healed this woman right in front of him and she stood and began to walk for the first time in her life.
Then Don Allen surprised me with a great statement of faith. He said, “If you bring somebody back tonight, they will be healed.” That certainty spoke to me and my faith was increased.
So, after the meeting, I went home and called my friend Amy. Amy’s health had been deteriorating. As an RN she knew she had some serious issues. Amy and her husband had been planning on going to mass that Saturday night, but changed their plans and came to the IFCB annual banquet that same Saturday evening.
Amy had been given a diagnosis, about 19 months ago, of the ‘Steven Johnson Syndrome.’ The first time she went to the ER with this condition, they told her what it was. As an RN she looked it up and realized she had just been given a death sentence.
About 300,000 people in the world have this diagnosis. She knew this Syndrome is a killer and is life threatening. Generally you get blisters everywhere, then you get an infection, then you die. Amy came to the banquet with a lot of pain and her legs were severely swollen and her calves were covered in blisters. Her arms and head had a rash which is the precursor to blisters appearing.
This Syndrome was controlling her life. She could no longer do shift work at the hospital. She was only able to set at a desk and do paperwork and give shots, which was very unfulfilling work for an RN with 23 year’s experience.
Amy said: ”I’m a nurse of 23 years and that July night I went to the IFCB banquet and met Don Allen. I have Steven Johnson’s Syndrome which makes me swell up quite a bit. It means I have blisters on my calves. I went there and he prayed over me along with a lot of other people. My legs were really red and looked really bad that night and they were very swollen. The next morning when I woke up, the swelling was gone and so was the redness. Some of the swelling is still going away. It takes a while for your body to process that. But, the redness which the active Steven Johnson’s Syndrome is GONE. I’ve lost 35 pounds of fluid since then, just about two months. And I don’t wake up in pain every day. I don’t have to worry about what clothes will fit that day due to the swelling. I have more energy. I feel like I’m normal again.
“I had this Syndrome for 19 months and it was miserable, it was a horrible thing. And now that I don’t have it anymore, I know that God has blessed me and taken it out of my life and answered my prayers, and it’s wonderful. It’s something that you don’t expect to happen to you. And when it does it’s a miracle. God has been very good to me.” (As she shakes her head up and down.)
“Let me give you some specifics how Steven Johnson’s Syndrome affected me. I grew 2 sizes larger, so I had to buy all new clothes. My wedding ring wouldn’t fit so I had to have it sized up two sizes. And now I have to have it resized down because it’s so much smaller. My legs swelled so much I couldn’t fit into my shoes. My toenails were separating from the bed of my toes and it was very painful. And now they are starting to heal.
“It’s just amazing at how much difference you see in your body. My arms had like a rash and I could feel it. I didn’t realize it was from the Steven Johnson Syndrome. But my arms have shrunk and the rash is gone. The swelling seems to be going away and my midsection is getting rid of the swelling too. I’m pretty sure I’ve lost more than 35 pounds. It’s amazing that the Lord can do that, and no doctor could know how to do that. This happens to over 300,000 people every year and they don’t know how to treat it. My doctor’s probably an expert and he still doesn’t know how to treat it.
“Having all that fluid on you, you have so much more added weight. It was very hard. I also had to have shoulder surgery and the thought of undergoing anesthesia when you have all these things already wrong with your body. It was very scary. I had the shoulder surgery about three weeks before I went to the healing service.
“This also affected my sleep because I was constantly uncomfortable trying to find a comfortable position. Luckily we have an adjustable bed and I would put my legs in so many positions, between my shoulder and my legs. Now I just sleep flat. It’s nice not having to worry about it!
“Steven Johnson’s Syndrome is generally a killer. I was lucky because my blisters were only on my legs below my knee. Generally you blister everywhere, you have open wounds, you get a massive infection and you die. I didn’t know if that was still there, if that could happen. If I set on anything that was Scotch guarded, if I ran into anything with Bounce. I couldn’t wear wool socks anymore because they all caused it to get worse. Now, I won’t Scotch guard anything I own, I can sit on it without it affecting me at all.
“I now have a very bright future. We’re moving. I have a new job. I have all these things I can do now because I don’t have this Syndrome and I’m healthy. He healed me and now He is telling me to go to Minnesota. So now I’m doing what He tells me to do. I can work as a nurse again. I can do 12 shifts without pain.”