At New Year 2013 we received a very special card from Ria.
Here’s how it started: “I would like to thank the Lord for the new live I received. To me psalm 103:5 (“so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s”) is reality. I go bicycling, swimming, walk miles with the dog, work in the garden…. My bamboo forest is gradually becoming a real garden.”

In October 2012 Ria was already two years off all medication and that changed the world for her…

Ria suffered with epilepsy for nearly 30 years. It all started back in 1987. Ria was following adult education classes, there she fell from the stairs. A few days later she fell from the stairs at home. Going out for a walk with her husband sometimes her knees would give way.

Ria went to the doctor and was thoroughly examined. At first they thought it might be MS because of the loss of strength, but in the end she lost consciousness as well and she had severe epileptic seizures.

In all the years she went to quite a few doctors and received loads of medication.

At one certain time she was taking 7 different sorts of pills. Besides the epilepsy she also suffered from low blood pressure and severe vertigo. Each time she left the house, she ended up in the hospital because she had a seizure somewhere. The doctors prescribed her all the products that were available, she still continued having seizures. When they occurred at home, they didn’t do anything about it but when they occurred when she was out, she was taken to the hospital each time.

Ria was as a prisoner in her own home. She only went out to come to church because someone picked her up and brought her back. In church she had frequent seizures as well, but the people there prayed faithfully for her during all those many years. Ria’s confidence grew and she learned to know her heavenly Father better and better… and He promised healing!

Then she tried to take an English course, she had seizures there as well and soon she wasn’t welcome anymore.
The medication caused drowsiness and so she couldn’t manage the housekeeping by herself.
She had to take a nap every afternoon or it wouldn’t work out. Ria didn’t like this at all.

In the fall of 2010 she was still taking 4 anti-epileptic pills per day. At a certain moment she realized she was forgetting her evening medication now and then without it causing problems… This made her consider stopping with the medication. Ria knew she shouldn’t discuss this with her general practitioner as she never would agree. So every month Ria went to see her to get a new prescription.

One Sunday in October 2012 after the service Ria talked this over with Ann. Ann advised to certainly not abruptly stop with the medication but to slowly decrease it.
That afternoon Ria went with some other people over to Dirk and Eva. Dirk asked her if she had decided anything about the medication…how could he know that she was considering to stop it? They prayed about it together.
Ria went home, continued with the medication for a couple more days and then she stopped from one day to the next…without seizure, without side effects…

Slowly she regained strength. After a while she was doing everything by herself again: the household, the grocery shopping, she was bicycling again and walking miles with the dog, and working in the garden. Before, just being in the sun for a little while would trigger a seizure …
now Ria can enjoy the sun as much as she wants to!

When we asked her in January 2013 what her GP thought about all this, Ria replied she hadn’t seen her in two years, she simply didn’t need her these past two years!

On a Tuesday in December 2014 she went to visit her brother. She had to take the bus from Tremelo back home. She had to wait for quite a while outside in the cold and she was very tired.
She was also hungry and wasn’t feeling very well. Ria often has low blood pressure, and eating something salty helps. She didn’t have anything with her but decided to buy a sandwich when arriving in the station of Mechelen.
It was very busy in the station and a lady bumped into her. Ria fell and felt very drowsy. Because she wasn’t getting back up right away and as she wasn’t looking very well, someone called an ambulance. Ria didn’t want to go to the hospital at all… memories came flooding back! Because she couldn’t sign the declaration very well, they took her anyway.
In Saint Josephs’ hospital she was examined by an assistant and blood was taken. Ria insisted to go home and she could go that same evening…on the one condition that she would make an appointment with the neurologist who had treated her all these years.

That week Ria called Ann who listened to the whole story. Ann was immediately convinced that this was just an attempt of the darkness to disappoint and to make believe it all came back. They prayed against this attack together and thanked for the healing that Father had already given and which He wouldn’t take back! Ria recovered quickly and decided to postpone the appointment till after the holidays.

She had an appointment with the neurologist beginning of January. When he heard Ria had stopped taking medication already four years ago, he showed great indignation… but he didn’t ask Ria why she stopped. He sent her at once for an EEG . When he received the result of the test he was astonished, the EEG was perfect. So she could go home without medication but with the warning that epilepsy doesn’t heal and she could expect other epileptic seizures in the future… we broke those words of course!
What is impossible for man, is possible for our God…
We thank our heavenly Father for His healing! Ria truly received a new life and she is ever so happy with it!!!