Unknown Speaker - Nathan, how would you describe growing up?  

Nathan - Disappointment? My story began shortly after birth, divorce between  my biological parents at two, divorced between my mother and stepfather when  I was eight and afterwards, my mother had fallen into some addiction issues, so  my stepfather raised me, grew up in a small community in Western Kentucky,  and everybody I knew had mom and dad at home, everybody I knew seemed to  have this picture perfect life. They were going to grow up and play sports or  exceed academically, and mom and dad were going to be there to cheer them  on. I didn't have that. I heard people talk about God and how great he was, but  he didn't seem great in my life. When I was 22 years old, I was approached by  my mother about the fact that our local police department was hiring, so I  applied passed a color blind test that I shouldn't have passed, because I am  color blind. I I had some issues with my blood as I was coming on the police  department that after going and seeing an internist, he said, No, your white  blood cell count is low, but I think it's okay. Gonna go ahead and recommend  you for the job. And after my first year, first year and a half on the police  department, began to notice a difference in my life. Worked the inner city,  worked in rough area of town, and I noticed that I wasn't really the man that I  used to be. My speech getting me foul wasn't treating my wife right, was a jerk.  And I can recall one morning coming home from third shift, hadn't even taken off my uniform, set down the kitchen table my Bible, and was determined to do  some devotions, and instead of really going through my regular routine, I can  recall just having an honest moment with God and saying, God, I'm in this rut.  I'm not who you want me to be, and I don't know how to fix it. I don't know how  to get myself out of it. And it's one of the very few times in my life that I felt like I  could hear God audibly say, Nathan, you have cancer. It's okay. It's going to be  okay. Go wake your wife up and tell her. Wasn't the answer I was looking for. I  felt crazy. I did not go and wake my wife up and tell her, who wants to do that.  But it wasn't very long after that, I started noticing that physically, I was just run  down, bruising very easily. My gums would bleed when I brushed my teeth. And  in January of 04, I finally went to an oncologist, and they confirmed that I had  Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. And not only did I have leukemia, but it was very  advanced, and I was not doing well, so I immediately started chemotherapy.  Went through one full round, then two full rounds that got me into the hospital  with pneumonia, nothing was working, and then a third full round of  chemotherapy that brought me into a state of remission, and after treating such  aggressive leukemia, all the doctors said you need a stem cell transplant. Didn't  have any siblings, so I was entered into the World Bank 5 million people at the  time, and I had no match. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm one of these guys  that thinks I've always got God figured out. Okay, God, I don't have a match. So  here's what you're going to do. You're going to sustain me for the rest of my life. 

I'm never going to get sick again, and everybody's just going to be in awe of  your power. God, I've got you figured out. I know what you're going to do. So in  a sense, I'd like to say I was trusting in God, but really, I thought I just had his  plan figured out from there on. My mother then spoke up and said, you know,  you have a brother that was given up for adoption when he was born. Was  young. He's younger than you. I didn't feel like I could raise two children. All the  doctors agreed we have to find this brother. Received a phone call from the  hospital saying, why are you not making plans to come down here? Well, I don't  have a match. He said, Yes, you do. Your brother's the match. He's a really good match. So I received a stem cell transplant. The effects from the chemo and  then the transplant is what caused doctors to say that I'd never be able to have  children biologically. But we did feel like God was telling us to prepare. For a  child. The week before Thanksgiving to 2008 I was meeting with other Christian  police officers. I can recall telling them, pray for us. We're childless, and we're  getting ready to enter the holidays, and we thought we'd have a child by now,  and another detective walked in and said, You're wanting to adopt, aren't you? I  had no idea how she knew I was wanting to adopt. Said, Yeah. Said, Well,  there's, there's a girl. She's 12 years old. She's been raped. She didn't know she was pregnant, but she went to the hospital and she gave birth, and that child  has nowhere to go. And I knew that moment, I called my wife. I said, here's the  deal. I didn't know the whole story. Before I could finish the story, my wife said,  That's it. That's our son. So that was Thursday at 2:30 by Friday, at 4:30 he was  our son. We were able to get the paperwork. We were to get it signed in front of  a judge. We went to the hospital to be with our baby boy. And then, year after  that, we biologically had a girl, despite being told that we weren't able to and a  year after that, we biologically had another girl despite being able, despite being  told we weren't able to. In February, February 14, 2013 I started my treatment  for my relapse of leukemia. Did six days of treatment down in Houston, Texas, I  came home immediately after flying home, developed an infection that landed  me in the hospital. February 20, 2013 something, something was very different  from this hospital stay than any hospital stay I'd had before. I did not feel the  presence of God. I spent February to May of 2013 in a hospital room with no  results. I was told we've done what we can do. It's time for you to go home, get  into hospice and be comfortable. So i went home. It was probably sometime  after midnight Good Friday of this year. I was sitting in the dark, and I just had  enough. And I said, Okay, God, you're not doing very much talking, so I hope  you're listening. I'm sick of this. I'm sick of this. Nine years ago, I had a peace  that everything was going to be okay. You have not told me it's going to be okay.  You haven't told me anything. You haven't told me anything, and I'm hurting, and this whole thing is going to end in my death, let's speed it up. Let's don't play  around. Let's speed it up. God, because if this is going to end in my death, I am  ready to die. I don't want to do this anymore. And it was at that moment that I 

was just brutally honest with God, that God showed up, and I had another one of those moments where I really felt like God spoke to my heart and he said this,  and I'll never forget this, as I'm still dealing with it. You are going to die but I'm  going to heal you because of the prayers of so many people. I have given you  days, I wasn't mad at God. I just hurt for the situation. I thought about my  thought about my daughters getting married. Now I wasn't going to be there.  Thought about my son not having a father, and I hurt, but at the same time, I  knew, God, I've got you figured out. I've read your scriptures, and I know you  can do amazing things through people's death. So I'm ready for you to do that,  use my death in this incredible way. I don't like it, but it's going to be okay. It's  been a long road. Everything that's happened in my life should have made me  realize I am praying far too small this God can do so much more than what I can even wrap my mind around. I think now I'm just now getting to the point in my  life where I understand that God is desiring for me to pray big things, for my  heart to desire to see him exercise his awesome power for His glory. God has  continued to do these amazing things in my life, and I attribute it to the fact that I just wanted to see if he was enough, And he showed me he's enough. He's truly enough.  

Unknown Speaker - How would you describe your life since this encounter with  Christ?  

Nathan - abundant I've been given an abundant life. My name is Nathan  Schroer, and I am second.



آخر تعديل: الاثنين، 21 يوليو 2025، 7:34 ص