Shelby and Nathaniel Wisely

Two Dates, Ten Years and One Loving Redeemer

Each year, there’s a new calendar — another clean slate of 365 days. Yet as we go through life, some dates take on more meaning than others. Two unforgettable dates remind Shelby and Nathaniel Wisely of God’s graciousness, of how He can heal our hearts, and of His unexpected gifts. Here’s their story — one that spans 10 years and ends in a miracle.

August 30

Shelby and Nathaniel married in May 2015 after their junior year of college. A few months later, Shelby learned she was pregnant, which didn’t necessarily align with the couple’s plans of waiting to start a family.

“We were shocked and scared,” she said. Yet over the course of two weeks, both Shelby and Nathaniel — and their families — became very excited about the baby.

Sadly, Shelby started having cramps, intense pain and bleeding. Doctors said she had an ectopic pregnancy, and there was nothing they could do. The baby could not survive outside the womb. They lost the child on August 30.

“After we lost the baby, I had a difficult time understanding my emotions. It was a roller coaster,” Shelby said. “In my head, God gave us this unexpected gift. He helped us get over our fear and get excited about it, and then it was taken away from us.”

Even after healing physically, she realized she wasn’t healing spiritually. She still trusted in Him, but she wanted to keep a certain distance, to protect herself from future heartache. It became difficult for her to trust His plan.

Meanwhile, as Shelby and Nathaniel grieved the loss of their first child, a mentor suggested naming the baby to help with the grieving process. The couple named her Lily.

“My boss at the time sent us lilies in the mail,” Shelby said, “so our apartment smelled beautiful. We’ve kept that as our tradition, and Nathaniel remembers to get lilies on that day. It brings back that memory and makes us feel close to her.”

April 22

The experience changed Nathaniel and Shelby’s family planning: they decided they wanted children sooner rather than later. Even so, when Shelby became pregnant with James in the spring of their senior year of college, they were anxious. Shelby’s chance for having another ectopic pregnancy was now 1 in 10, rather than 1 in 100, since she’d already experienced one.

But God gave them a dose of joy on the way to their first ultrasound appointment, because Shelby noticed the date. “We were in the car, and I said, ‘Wait! It’s April 22!’”

April 22 was Lily’s due date.

“We didn’t schedule that, the doctors did,” explained Shelby. “And James was healthy and great, and we got to experience the redemption of seeing a heartbeat on the screen.”

Although the couple said they will never forget Lily, they felt God lift away some of the sorrow of that particular calendar day. Now it also marked the joy of a perfectly healthy pregnancy.

“We saw God redeeming that day,” said Nathaniel, a self-professed numbers guy. “The dates carry a lot of meaning for us.”

Shelby said she thought having a healthy baby would “fix” the ache in her heart from losing Lily, but it didn’t completely. Nor did it break down the protective wall she built that kept her from fully trusting God’s plan.

Wrestling

At the beginning of their marriage, the Wisely’s agreed that four children was a good goal. Three years after having James, Shelby gave birth to Elliot. Both parents were thrilled that James would have a playmate.

But when Shelby became pregnant with Joshua — boy number three — she wrestled hard with her deep desire for a girl. The years were passing, and they would soon be nearing what in their minds was the final pregnancy. Shelby questioned God’s plan for her as a mom.

Struggling with those difficult emotions did not negate Shelby’s deep love for her sons.

“Every kid of ours is different, and I can say that we were meant to have these kids,” Shelby said. “When we found out Joshua was a boy, it was really hard, but he is such a gift.”

One year as the Wisely’s helped at a youth conference, a speaker shared Psalm 40:1-3. “It helped me remember to wait patiently,” Shelby said, “and that God hears my cry. He would help put a new song in my heart even though I was deep in despair.”

Shelby didn’t want to feel jealous every time God gave a baby girl to another couple. She wanted to feel joyful, not resentful. When her best friend gave birth to a girl, even then the discontentment remained. “I prayed and prayed for a long time,” Shelby explained. She asked God, “Can you just take this bitterness away?”

For Nathaniel, the desire to have a girl didn’t carry the same weight. His deepest desire was for his wife to “to trust the Lord, first and foremost,” he said, “and to see His faithfulness, even when He's not answering prayers the way that we want them to be answered — to still have that trust in His good plan.”

Loss

Shelby’s longing for a baby girl has roots in the loss of her father. Her parents divorced when she was 11, and Shelby’s dad left.

“I didn’t have a dad around, and it was hard. It was just me and my mom,” she explained. “I knew that God loved me, but I already really struggled with trust because of my dad.”

After she became a Christian during her high school years, she said she grew comfortable with the feeling that God was her Heavenly Father. Since the age of 16, she then prayed that God would allow her to witness her future husband be a loving earthly father to their daughter.

Yet with each child the couple had, Shelby said she felt “one step closer” to not having her dream realized.

“In my head, I'm praying this redemptive prayer,” Shelby recalled. Why would you not say yes, God? she thought. “Not that He had to, but I was wrestling with it and trying to understand. I have this dream and this prayer and this deep longing — why is it not being fulfilled?”

Shelby had seen her husband be a good dad to their boys. “He loves his kids so deeply,” she said. But she dreamed of being able to watch a daughter running to a father for comfort.

She admits that the loss of her father and the couple’s first child had wounded her. As she tried to make sense of the losses and grow closer to God, she sought therapy and prayer support. She listened to mentors and took part in the Celebrate Recovery program at Valley Free Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, Minnesota, where they are now members.

“As we were wrestling with this, I was thinking, Is my faith strong enough to have another boy?” Shelby said.

The Miracle

A couple of months before the couple started trying for baby number four, God intervened.

“God just worked on my heart,” Shelby recalled. “I wish I remembered the catalyst of it, but I don’t. I just woke up one morning and told Nathaniel ‘I think I’m going to be okay if it’s a boy.’”

In her heart, she trusted Jesus to choose the gender of their child.

“It was a complete 180, and I have no idea why,” Shelby recalled. “That’s why we wanted to share this story. That’s the miracle of it. The miracle is not that Emma (their fourth child) was an answer to prayer. The miracle came before we even got pregnant!”

Keep in mind that Shelby never saw herself as a “boy” mom. She hates bugs and being outside, and she doesn’t take the fish off the hook when they fish. Yet after she awoke that day, she found herself feeling excited to welcome boy number four, despite there being a bin full of donated baby girl clothes sitting in her basement — clothes from nieces that had been untouched for years.

Suddenly, she was excited to envision four boys playing together.

Before that day, she was still wrestling with her desire and wasn’t sure God was completely on her side. She had started asking Jesus to take away her longing for a baby girl. She wanted the trust wall between her and God to disappear.

That morning, she knew God had changed her heart and demolished the wall.

“It was like a flip of a switch,” she recalled. “I had tried everything to fix my relationship with God, to fix this barrier. And He was like, You know what? You can stop doing stuff. I'll just do it for you.”

“I had tried to work through the hole that was still there from my dad and Lily,” Shelby explained. “I tried therapy multiple times; I was trying everything. But in the end, it was God who did it. It was like God said, I’m the strong one, and I love you so much. I’m going to help you.”

“It wasn’t me at all,” Shelby said.

Unexpected Gift

God had graciously healed Shelby’s heart, and she was filled with thankfulness.

“Before we even got pregnant, we prayed on April 22, ‘Thank you so much for the three children we already have, and for the one you're going to give us. We know it’s going to be the one you want us to complete our family with,” Shelby said. She began preparing to have a boy.

And then, two months after they learned Shelby was pregnant, they opened the email with the gender results.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl!” they read.

“We were screaming and jumping around,” Shelby said with a laugh. “It was a wow moment. God answered our prayer, even though He healed my heart before that.”

The couple named their girl Emma Grace. Shelby had chosen the name “Emma” while she was in high school and first started praying about having a daughter. Nathaniel chose the name “Grace” to mark God’s graciousness throughout the ten years between Lily and Emma’s arrival a year ago.

In the spring of 2026, the Wiselys will be dedicating Emma to God at their church and remembering Lily on the ten-year anniversary of her due date.

For Nathaniel and Shelby, the two dates of August 30 and April 22 will also always remind them of one Loving Redeemer.

A Tale of Two Jewels 

A Diamond of a Day 

In January of 1996, Julie Holmquist was a zealous new Christian vacationing in Florida with her husband, Jeff. One morning, she prayed that God would use her for His kingdom that very day, even though she didn’t feel qualified to talk to anyone about Jesus. “I hadn’t memorized many verses at that point,” she recalled. As she and Jeff later pedaled their rented bikes toward the ocean on Sanibel Island, she forgot about her prayer. But God did not. 

Julie and Jeff, now members of Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, hadn’t traveled far before one of the tires popped on Jeff’s bike. Since this was the pre-cell phone era, Julie rode ahead to a convenience store and called the bike rental business, requesting a rescue. With that accomplished, she sat on a bench outside the store to wait for Jeff, touching the new cross necklace she was wearing and gazing at the white beach and blue ocean across the street.   

“My in-laws had given me the necklace for Christmas,” Julie said. “It had a diamond at its center, and I thought it was beautiful.” 

A woman wearing roller blades was also sitting on the bench, but Julie turned away from her. “I didn’t want to chat,” she said. “I just wanted to stare at the ocean.”

But the stranger, who seemed to be about Julie’s age, asked if she was visiting the island for the first time. Soon, the Florida resident was telling Julie about her paralegal job for a public defender. 

“I think it’d be tough to be a public defender if you’re not a Christian,” Julie told her. The woman perked up, saying, “My friends say I might as well be a Christian because I don’t drink or smoke.” 

Julie then explained that becoming a Christian wasn’t about adopting certain habits.

“Any change on the outside starts on the inside, in your heart, after you decide to believe in Jesus,” she said, as Julie also told the woman how Jesus had transformed her life.

As Jeff arrived with a new bike, Julie encouraged the woman to explore Christianity and visit a church.

“I’ll be praying for you,” she said. “What’s your name?” That’s when Julie discovered that God had used a new Christian named Julie to share the Gospel with a seeker named Julie!

After Jeff and Julie crossed the street to the beach, Julie touched her neck and noticed that her new necklace was gone. But she wasn’t upset at all.

“I felt so much joy because God had answered my prayer and used me in His kingdom,” she said. “I realized then that I didn’t need to have the Bible memorized before I could share about Jesus.”

Jeff was amazed that his wife was unconcerned about the expensive present. They crossed the street to look for the lost necklace but couldn’t find it anywhere. 

“I knew I needed to pray for the other Julie right away,” Julie explained. So, she and Jeff headed back to the beach and prayed for multiple Christians to cross the woman’s path that very day, and for her to accept Jesus as her Savior.

“Satan wanted to steal my joy because I lost the necklace, but it didn’t work!” Julie explained. “A diamond necklace has no worth compared to the joy of the Lord. I hope to see the other Julie in heaven one day.”

The Real Jewels 

Julie Holmquist was having a green Christmas. Not the evergreen, pine boughs or holly shade of green, but one of a more jealous hue. It was the mid-1990s, and Julie was spending Christmas Eve with her husband, her young children and extended family members, including relatives who happened to be better off financially than Julie’s family.

“Back in those days,” she said, “We exchanged all our presents together on Christmas Eve. I unwrapped a plush pink bathrobe from my husband, which is what I’d been wanting. I loved its softness and everything about it, and I knew it would keep me toasty warm all winter.” 

But as Julie watched a sister-in-law open a gift of genuine ruby earrings and a matching ruby necklace, envy grabbed her.

“Suddenly, my bathrobe didn’t seem like a wonderful gift,” she said. “I actually felt crabby on Christmas Eve, and my poor husband had to put up with my bad attitude.”

Later that evening she prayed, asking God for forgiveness, and she apologized to her husband. The next morning, as Julie read her Bible and her morning’s devotion, Proverbs 20:15 spoke to her soul.

“Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.”

The Lord was gently reminding her about the most valuable things, she remembers, and He wasn’t talking about expensive baubles. Remember what the real jewels are, Julie, God whispered to her.

“I heard Him loud and clear. I needed to remember that beautiful jewelry and material wealth are nothing compared to spiritual wisdom and understanding that comes from Jesus,” she said. “I’ve never forgotten that lesson.” 

A Still Small Voice

Not many people compare their courtships to a biblical “Abraham experience,” but that’s how Bill Weber describes the long journey to marrying his wife, Rhonda.

Throughout the years when a future with Rhonda seemed impossible, God guided Bill, often speaking directly through His Word. Bill tried to listen and obey along the way, and now he can look back on 39 years of marriage with the woman he loves (and his best friend). Bill said he’s sharing his story for a reason: as a reminder to listen for God’s still small voice.

Bill and Rhonda, both members of Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, Minnesota, met in 1978 in a campus ministry. Bill’s early attempts at romance, however, were “politely rebuffed” by Rhonda. As the years went on, though, Rhonda slowly became a friend and confidant as they ministered together on campus.

After Bill graduated with a master of business administration and was teaching a management class at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he felt his heart drawn more and more to Rhonda. But he would soon leave for Germany for two years to serve in a campus ministry there. He was following the Lord’s calling to eventually end up in the Soviet Bloc, where Christians were trying to spread the Gospel behind the Iron Curtain. Attempting to develop the relationship with Rhonda further just didn’t make sense.

Late one night in January of 1982, about six months before he was supposed to leave for Germany, Bill couldn’t sleep as he wrestled with these dual desires.

“I was thinking, how does this stuff all fit together? I’m going away for two years, and yet I’m feeling this tug toward developing a deeper relationship with Rhonda. I just couldn’t figure it out.”

A Whisper from God

It was about 1 a.m., and Bill needed to teach at 8 a.m. After trying to put everything out of his mind and not having much success, he finally cried out to God, “Are you trying to tell me something?” Then he heard “a whisper.”

“It was like a still small voice saying, Go back to what you were reading … Go back to what you were reading. That’s the first time anything like that had ever happened to me,” Bill explained. “And I was kind of floored. I’d been reading in Luke 13. I knew the Bible talks about this still small voice, but I prayed: If this is really you, Lord, please make it very clear what you’re trying to get through to me, because this is really weird for me.”

Bill decided to read both Luke 13 and 14, because he wasn’t quite sure what Go back to what you were reading meant. Luke 13:6-9 shares a parable about a fig tree: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

“It dawned on me that I’d known Rhonda for three years at that point,” Bill said, “And the message I got hit me like a ton of bricks. For three years, I’d been looking for fruit in our relationship and not finding it. Why should it use up the soil? Why should it take my energy?”

The message Bill heard from God was, “Let me fertilize it. Let me deal with it.”

Bill teared up a bit as he told this story, even though four decades have passed since God gave him this message and another through Luke 14:8-11(which is about being invited to a wedding feast):

“Do not take the place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, give this man your seat. Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to your friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

“The message I got from the Lord was if I were to marry Rhonda someday, I shouldn’t try to take the place of honor. I needed to take the lowest position and remember that there were people more distinguished than me who could and would want to marry her.”

The Lord whispered this guidance to Bill: “You need to focus on becoming the kind of man that she would want to marry, rather than thinking you’re the person she should marry.”

“That also hit me like a ton of bricks,” Bill said. “But it was the truth. And so, God speaks. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. The message I think He had for me was, ‘Focus on letting me fertilize this, and if you remember your place, I will take care of it.’”

The Abraham Experience

The following four years were what Bill calls his “Abraham experience.” Bill and Rhonda continued to develop their friendship through letters, and Bill eventually let her know that he believed she was the woman he was supposed to marry.

“That really threw her for a loop,” Bill said. “She was not interested in being more than friends.”

Even though Bill continued to hear messages through scripture and promptings from the Lord about Rhonda over the next two years, nothing was changing. So, after months of back and forth with counselors on both sides of the Atlantic, Bill’s mentors and friends said he needed to move on.

“By that point, I started thinking I was a nutcase,” Bill said. “And by the fall of 1984 I had to give it up, because I thought maybe I was just reading things into scripture and was really starting to wonder if I was going off the deep end.”

Bill stopped writing to Rhonda and prayed, “God, I think I’m going crazy, so for the sake of my sanity, I have to close the door on this. If you want me to marry Rhonda, I’m more than happy to marry her. But you’re going to have to open the door for that to happen.”

The following two years were an emotional roller coaster, Bill said. During that time, Rhonda eventually asked Bill if he still wanted to explore a relationship. And twelve months later, Bill hit the pause button so Rhonda could have some time to be sure that Bill — and not someone else — was the one for her. For Bill, surrendering the relationship with Rhonda was akin to Abraham placing his beloved son Isaac on the altar.

“I had to say, ‘Okay God, I don’t know what you're doing here, but I’m willing to let the relationship go if that’s what you want.’ That’s why I call it my Abraham experience, because I really just had to surrender her to Him.”

By December of 1985 it became clear to Rhonda that she and Bill were supposed to be together. They were engaged in January of 1986 and married in June of 1986.

The years-long wait to reach that resolution “was tough,” Bill said. Yet it was part of his ongoing transformation process, he added, as God wants to conform each of us more and more to the image of Christ.

“Part of the Christian walk is that we have to learn to wait and trust,” he noted, “and that doesn’t end on this side of heaven.”

God Speaks

“My conviction is that God does speak. He’s not like a vending machine; He doesn’t speak on command. And as C.S. Lewis describes the lion (Aslan) throughout the Chronicles of Narnia series, He’s not a tame lion. Occasionally, though, He’ll prompt us with a still small voice or even with a two-by-four — if we’re open to it and trying to listen,” Bill said. “My experience has been that God reaches into our lives, and He can speak when He wants. So, am I listening?

“I just try to keep in mind that God is present — that He’s here and He cares. It’s so very easy to forget that as I go about my day. But my experience has been that He cares about the little things as well as the big things, because He wants to be that intimately connected with each of us.”

One for the Books

“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV

It’s easy to downplay what we see as “small” acts of generosity, but God can surprise us by taking a simple gift and multiplying its blessing.

Barb Crider witnessed this after she was encouraged by Megan Tornquist at Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, Minnesota. As Megan was leading worship that day, she shared a passage from New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp that had been meaningful to her.

“It spoke to me also,” Barb said, so she purchased the devotion book for herself. “Many times, as I would read the day’s devotional, it would be so timely for what I was going through right then. I was blessed over and over.”

Barb said God put in her mind people who might be blessed by the book. “So, I just started sending it to people.”

One of those people was Barb’s Bible Study Fellowship leader.

“She has thanked me over and over for it,” Barb said. “I sent one to a friend who is battling ovarian cancer for the third time. Then she bought copies for friends who had been recently widowed. I sent one to a friend in Racine, and she then decided to give one to her pastor there. Over and over again, people that I have given the book to have decided to give it to others.”

The Racine pastor has quoted from the book in some of his sermons, Barb said, and recently gave the youth version to his older son. One day after reading it, his son said, “Wow, that’s convicting!”

“My friend in Racine and her husband asked their three grandchildren if they would like to study the online version, and they are now working through that,” Barb said.

At Christmas one year, Barb received a package from a friend in Pennsylvania she hadn’t seen in a long time. Barb smiled as she opened the package and found a copy of New Morning Mercies.

“It was a special blessing to me, and now I had another copy to give away!” Barb said. “It’s fun to do. I just thought it was so amazing how a little thing like that could bless so many people.”

Seeing God encourage others through this book gives Barb a special boost, since her poor health has limited the ways she can minister to people.

“I’m sick a lot, and I have a lot of things wrong with me,” Barb said. “So, you do feel like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this, and I can’t do that,’ but there are things you can do. My ministry is not maybe what I thought it would be or what it used to be, or what I want it to be, but you can still have a ministry. There are still things you can do.”

It’s Not About Me

It was a strange time in Tom Keenan’s life. These days he sings every Sunday as he leads the worship team at Chaska’s Valley Evangelical Free Church. But in January 2022, the lifelong musician and vocalist with a two-octave tenor voice could not make a sound. He couldn’t sing. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t even whisper. What’s worse, the medical specialist told him that due to a paralyzed vocal cord, his voice might be gone — forever.

Even though the church’s pastor and elder board were aware of Tom’s prognosis, they hired him that month as worship leader. In fact, former pastor Mike Sindelar once quipped, “We’re probably the only church with a worship leader who can’t sing!”

The real kicker was that Tom didn’t want to be worship leader, even when he still had a voice. Tom had agreed to serve as interim worship leader, but at age 59, he was planning a different ministry since he’d retired from the postal service. He was going to use his handyman skills to help people in disaster areas.

“I had my pickup truck. I had my tools laid out,” he said. “I had built a bed in the back of my pickup truck because I was going to go with Billy Graham Samaritan’s Purse. I was signed up and ready to go.”

But God had a different plan for Tom. In numerous ways, He pointed Tom to serve as worship leader.

“I was wrestling with him,” Tom recalled. He sensed God telling him, “I thought you wanted to do ministry that I called you to? Well, I’m calling you to this. Are you serving me? Or are you serving yourself?”

The worship leader job had been posted for six months before Tom followed God’s call and applied. Then he lost his voice. Four months after accepting the worship leader position, Tom still couldn’t make a sound. He gestured and used a pen and notebook. He directed other team members to speak and sing. And this gregarious man of Irish descent, who had performed with a national singing group and on numerous stages in the past, was now avoiding social events.

“It made me withdraw into a shell, maybe not outwardly, but inwardly. I didn’t want to go to social functions anymore. I didn’t want to stand around church afterwards anymore. I didn’t want to be anywhere with somebody asking me a question. We tried to go to a birthday party with a bunch of people, and it was the most uncomfortable place I’d ever been for an hour and a half.”

That experience has given him more compassion for others, and he now notices people who are hurting, he said. But at the time, the entire situation didn’t make sense to him.

“I was really frustrated, because I could not understand how God had called me to do something, and then he didn’t allow me the tools to do it. It’s like a drummer without sticks, or a guitar without strings. They make no sound. The lyre can’t strum without strings and that’s the way I was with my voice. This is my primary instrument; this is how I lead. And God just took it from me and said, ‘Lead anyway.’ So, I was extremely frustrated.”

Pride

Tom said he learned some major lessons during this time — predominantly about pride.

“God absolutely ripped pride from my life based on my voice,” he explained.

Prior to attending Valley, Tom had served as worship leader of another church for four years. At that point, God made it clear that Tom should step down from the position. While God didn’t speak directly to him, Tom sensed what He was communicating: “Keenan, you’re done. Sit on the bench.”

“What did I do?” Tom asked God. He sensed God’s reply: “When you figure that out, we’ll talk.”

Tom realized that he had become “very prideful” in his role at the other church. “This was a big discipline thing for me,” Tom said. “I knew what I was doing (as a worship leader). I was good at it, and I thought that the congregation was going to grow spiritually through my leadership. God whistled me off the field, and He didn’t tap me on the shoulder or pat me on the back and say, ‘Good job.’ He put a hard hand on my back, and said, “You’re benched.”

When Tom and Martha began attending Valley, Tom was not part of the staff. He didn’t want to fall into pride again. “For that first year and a half, I was sitting there learning this lesson about pride, having no responsibility and no leadership at church,” Tom said. “I didn’t want it, and nobody was offering anything. Eventually, I got tapped on the shoulder by God again, after we’d gone through this, and He said, ‘Okay, I’m going to put you back in the game.’ ”

After Tom lost his voice, he said it was almost as if God was saying, “I’m going to give you this job that I want you to do, and I’m going to take away your voice to prove to you that it’s about me and not you.”

Peace

For about four months, Tom struggled to silently lead the Valley worship team, but he was planning to resign. “I guess maybe I finally came to the end of me. I thought, I couldn’t do this. It’s bad for Valley. It’s bad for the people. It’s uncomfortable for newcomers. I had this team of 20 people, and I felt like I couldn’t do the job adequately. Every morning, I would get up and pray, God give me back my voice. But it wasn’t happening.”

Then one morning, as Tom was on his knees praying, something astounding happened. “In my heart I was crying out to God, saying, ‘You’ve asked me to be a part of Valley worship team in a leadership position, but I need a voice to do that. You’ve got to give me my voice back.’”

Through tears, as Tom pounded his pillow with his fist, he heard God’s reply: “Tom, I don’t need your voice, I need your heart.”

Tom says he clearly hears God’s voice on occasion, and this time it was “very, very clear.” “That voice came into my heart, soul and mind. And it just leveled me — just broke me, and I wept harder into the pillow,” Tom recalled.

“I understood that I may not get my voice back ever again, but I also felt a deep peace in my soul. I’d had a voice for many years. I used it to His glory. I’d sung on stages. I’d done performance art and entertainment. And if that’s what God wanted to take from me to clean up my life, then I was okay with that.”

Tom got off his knees, telling God that he trusted him. I’m not going to have a voice again, he thought. God will provide, and I’ll be all right. Thank you, God, for what’s been. Tranquility overwhelmed him.

Healing

A few more months went by, with Tom silently leading the worship team. By this point, his doctor had sent him to a vocal coach in an attempt to “wake up” the paralyzed vocal cord. Tom hadn’t uttered a sound in eight months, but as he drove home one day after a vocal appointment, God surprised him.

“I remember exactly where I was,” Tom said. “I was on Highway 35 coming through the spaghetti intersection, getting on 62 doing my vocal exercises. And suddenly, my voice made a sound for the first time! Then a couple of minutes later, I was able to repeat it. And I was able to replicate it a third time, just that first sound. And then I heard the voice of God in my head say to me, ‘I’m going to give you back your voice now. Are you ready?’”

Tom’s eyes grew misty as he remembered this moment. In his mind, he immediately said “Yes” to God. He couldn’t say it out loud.

“Tears were pouring out of my eyes,” he said. “I knew exactly what God meant, God had underscored and removed my pride. We all have it, but that pride in me as a performer was gone. I didn’t have that anymore. I was not relying on a pretty voice. I was relying on everybody else, and I was just organizing and helping orchestrate worship on Sunday morning. I knew what ‘Are you ready’ meant. I had been disciplined by God for my personal pride which ran deep. Then the Holy Spirit could begin to reshape me, starting with my heart.”

Service

Tom’s voice didn’t instantly return. It took some time. Over the next two months, he was slowly able to make more sounds and say words, even though it sounded like he had laryngitis. On the worship team, he gradually added one note after another over the next year.

“It went from three notes to five notes to six notes to eight notes. Now I have one octave, and it is the church octave. It goes from B flat below the staff to C middle staff. It is the sweet spot for the congregation to sing,” Tom explained. “My upper tenor voice is completely gone. I do not have my full range of my ‘lovely’ tenor tones back. They’ll never come back, and that’s okay. I can sing, I can talk, I can share the Gospel.

“I just have a congregational singing voice. God has given me exactly what I need to do the tasks that He has called me to do. And that’s what I asked for. In my prayers, I said, ‘God, I just need to sing what the congregation needs to sing.’ He keeps me humble, because every now and then my voice will crack and disappear for a couple of notes at a time.”

Tom said his security is not in his voice anymore, and he’s never felt so good about his place in life.

“Right now, I know this is exactly what God has given me to do. God brings us to the end of ourselves,” Tom added, “so we realize that all we have left is him. 1 Timothy 1:12 says, ‘I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given us strength, that He considered me trustworthy, appointing me to His service.’ Wow, that is so true.

“I think my primary lesson was when God said to me, ‘I don’t need your voice, I need your heart.’ I suppose God could say that to anybody about anything. I don’t need your writing skills, I need your heart. I don’t need your mechanics ability, I need your heart.’

We’re all just here to serve Him in our current circumstance.”

Lost and Found

Karen Teigland has so many stories about her life with God that it was difficult for her to choose just one. Should the 78-year-old wife, mother and grandmother share how she came to know Jesus or about missions work she’s done with her husband, Arne? Should she talk about how God led their family into six Communist countries and around the world doing his work? How about the tales of God’s peace as she was diagnosed with cancer or how God led her to start a Bible study for neighbors? Karen decided to start with a simple story of a gift from God that strengthened her faith and became a testimony to others.

Karen was working at the Chaska Event Center in October of 2020 taking tickets for an outside celebration when she noticed it. A diamond in her wedding ring was missing. She’d been wearing that ring for 55 years, so it was valuable in more ways than one.

“Oh! My diamond’s gone!” she said. Her two co-workers immediately hit the ground, looking for Karen’s diamond in the grass. Karen realized she might have lost it inside the building when she was putting on tablecloths and knocked her ring against the tables.

“I told the gals, ‘I'm going inside just to see.’ So, I’m on the floor looking under tables to see if there's a diamond.”

When she didn’t find it, she returned to work. After she got home, she prayed about it with her husband.

“God, you are the only one who knows where this diamond is,” she prayed. “It’s a needle in a haystack, and I'm just going to rest in you. Lord, if you want me to have that diamond back, you will somehow show me where it is.”

Karen said she didn't grumble, complain or feel sorry for herself, even though resting in God doesn’t come naturally to her. “I’ll tell you that for sure, but I was able to rest in the Lord this time. And we just settled with it.”

More than a year passed, and the diamond stayed lost. Then one morning in November of 2021, Karen entered her bathroom as usual. “I came in to wash my face and brush my teeth in that sink, and there is the diamond,” she recalls. “There’s no way humanly you can explain it. I am convinced God put that diamond right between the faucet and the soap box, and it looked at me just like it was smiling at me perfectly. I just said, ‘Praise the Lord!’ It was so perfect, how he wanted me to see it, how he had arranged it. That itty bitty diamond sat right between the faucet and my soap dish, looking at me. Wow. It was miraculous.”

After this experience, Karen said she settled on a new philosophy: “God is concerned about what concerns me, and how big it is or how little is it makes no difference. He is concerned about what concerns us.

“He knew I didn’t worship this diamond or anything else I have. It’s all his. I know everything belongs to him, but he wanted to strengthen my faith at that point, and I was just overwhelmed with joy.”

But that’s not the end of the story: Karen returned to the Event Center and told some co-workers how she found the diamond after it had been missing for so long.

“I told the whole story about how God returned that diamond to me, so perfectly. God knew I’d do that because he wanted those girls to see that he is real. He loves them. I just really believe God used it in their lives. Yeah, that’s a very, very important part of the story.”