For 5-6 years of my life I owned my own business doing general contracting work. I quickly realized why Jesus had chosen to be a carpenter. Never before have I worked a job where I spent so much time on my knees.

....It was a Monday, and a hot summer's day for being up on a roof. Anxious to get to work I began to climb up the latter. When I reached the top I went to step onto the roof when all of a sudden the ladder moved! Next thing I knew, …the ladder went one way and I went the other. I hit the ground landing mostly on my right elbow & shoulder. All the wind got knocked out of me and the pain was just awful. Within a couple short hours, stiffness and swelling set in and I couldn't move my arm from my shoulder down, and my elbow was even worse, & I could feel part of my elbow was chipped & moved slightly. I didn't want go to the doctor just yet, because I didn't have any health insurance.

Later that evening I decided to go to go to the (promise keeper's) men's study group that I attended regularly just to get my mind off the nagging pain of my injury. During the study group discomfort and pain nagged at me, and it became increasingly harder to sit still. So finally I got up and stood behind everyone so that no one could see my agony. After a few minutes the leader of our group stood up and pulled a chair to the center of the room and looked at me. With care and concern in his eyes he simply said, “Come on over and have a seat”. He went on by saying, “I can't see that your in a lot of pain, …what do you need from God?” I made my prayer request by humbly saying, “All my bills are due, and I need to be able to swing a hammer by Friday.” After hearing my desperate need all the men came over and laid hands on me and prayed over me.

I got to be honest, I did feel the presence of God while they were praying, but I didn't feel any warm tingly sensation, and all the pain was definitely still there. In fact Tuesday and Wednsday went by, and the pain was still there. But, by Thursday night some of the swelling began to go down and I was able to move my arm a little. With no plan on how I would complete this job, I still resolved not to call the customer and cancel the job. I just went to bed that night trusting that God would provide a way.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock. I got up out of bed and to my surprise I had full movement of my arm and all the swelling went away. I reached down and gave my elbow a little test squeeze, and I felt a sharp pain that took my breath away, and I gritted my teeth in pain. Then I moved my arm around in every direction, and there was no pain from the movement.