Our story is about church ministry burnout and God’s sovereign resurrection power to bring back life, spiritually and physically.
From the day we committed our lives to Christ in 1984, we immersed ourselves in church ministry. My husband, Dennis, and I attended a small non-denominational church for 28 years. Over the years, Dennis wore many hats. For the last 15 years, he faithfully led praise and worship to an aging congregation and graying church.
After the church doors closed, we searched for a new home church. Our youngest daughter, who was part of the college and career group, introduced us to Bay Life. We loved the teaching at Bay Life and enjoyed our anonymity. No one at Bay Life knew our past or our skill sets in church ministry, so for years we attended and gorged ourselves on the Word and were not deeply involved in any ministry. We took all the foundation classes Bay Life offered. We studied the foundations of our faith: surveyed the Old and New Testaments; we studied church history, creeds, councils, and church heresies. We fed ourselves, not others. Although in the past, we led Bible studies and home groups, because of financial woes, we moved into a much smaller house unsuitable for group meetings. We felt it was “less than,” therefore inadequate, offering our home in a life group setting. We found all the excuses not to volunteer, not to get involved. Perhaps it was time for a reprieve, a respite. We were burned out.
Eventually, in 2018, I started taking baby steps and began training as a women’s leader under Carmelita Boyce and the many committed women’s coaches. Since 2019, I have committed fully to facilitating & leading small women’s Bible study groups at Bay Life.
Dennis, however, still wasn’t ready for any long-term ministry commitment, though his love to study the Word never waned.
Eight years passed. One spring evening in 2024, Dennis felt the Holy Spirit nudge him to start a life group to study the fundamentals of our faith using RC Sproul’s teaching of foundations in systematic theology! The study is sixty lessons—at least a two-year commitment! My heart leapt with joy!
Bay Life provided us with excellent marketing exposure, a classroom & connectivity. Our first meeting was Monday, June 17, 2024. We had a good turnout. Eleven people signed up for our new Life Group. Dennis hosted well.
I did note Dennis’s unusual demeanor at dinner, but attributed it to pensive anticipation of the first meeting. We had just finished our first lesson the evening of June 17, which turned out to be a night of many miracles among much adversity.
As we were packing up to leave, it was about 8:40pm, when Dennis started feeling a burning sensation in his chest, which quickly spread to his shoulders, and then down his arms to his fingertips. He also started feeling nauseated and experiencing shortness of breath. Expressing this to me in his calm demeanor, I ran to the parking lot, frantically shouted, “Dennis needs help!”
Our son-in-law, Nicholas Collins, one of the course attendees, quickly identified Dennis’s symptoms of a heart attack and immediately called 911. His quick response was among the many miracles of the night. Connie Kincaid was with us, and she jumped into action, directing the ambulance to Dennis’s location once it arrived at the Bay Life campus.
In less than five minutes, the ambulance arrived.
I was not in the ambulance, but Dennis told me later that he had prayed in the ambulance: “Lord, You are Yahweh-Rapha, God our healer! I don’t know what’s going on here, but You do, and I pray that You manifest the power of Your name and heal my body.”
When I arrived at the hospital, the doctor gently told me, "Your husband is in cardiac arrest. We're trying to get him back now." I nearly collapsed. What followed in the next 24 hours was terrifying. Dennis's heart stopped three times, and each time they revived him. He was dead for a total of six minutes. They placed three stents in the left anterior descending artery, which was 100% blocked. This artery is also known as the “widow maker”. Later, they placed two stents in his right leg, and in the process, he nearly lost his leg! After ten excruciating, grueling hours leading into the wee hours of June 18, I was finally able to see him in the ICU. He was hooked up to so many tubes, I couldn't count. I did count two feet connected to two legs and was overjoyed. We had no idea how much brain damage had occurred during the six minutes he was dead. Dennis would not be able to speak for another 72 hours.
I want to step back and share about how God's people loved on us. Before I arrived at the hospital, the first person I texted was my coach, Michelle Whitman. “Please pray for Dennis. I think he had a heart attack. He is at Brandon Hospital.” She asked me if she could let the coaches/leaders know to pray, and I said, “Yes.”
Kelly Schubert was my second text. Nine minutes after texting Michelle, Shane Clark texts me, “I just heard about Dennis. Praying for him. Let me know if I can do anything for you both.”
In less than an hour, to my amazement, Carmelita Boyce, Shane Clark, and Jen Clark were at the hospital with me & our two daughters, Mel & Jewls.
They stayed with us for the next four and a half hours and were never able to see Dennis. (I didn't see Dennis for 10 hours.) They simply sat with us in the waiting room, and we talked. Shane may have even cracked a short joke or two.
When the doctor updated us, Carmelita or Jen would just hold my hand or hug me. They stayed with us until 2:30am when the last stent in his leg was placed. They all had jobs to go to the next day. Five days later, Jen & Carmelita would leave for Uganda.
As the night went on, the doctors were working for hours to stop the uncontrolled bleeding in his leg due to difficulty placing the stent. At 4:30am, I finally left the hospital with our daughters, still unable to see him and unsure if the surgeons would save his leg.
With two hours of sleep, we arrived back at the hospital at 7am. There, Dennis lay in the ICU on a ventilator & hooked to at least nine IV bags. My eyes immediately looked at his feet, and both were still attached! God saved his leg!
Michelle Whitman & Brenda Ziegler brought food and water, made sure I ate, and stayed with me in the waiting room. They provided me with an Uber Gift card for transportation and future meals.
The following day was a Wednesday. Noon time prayer at Bay Life. At this point, I felt hundreds of people praying for us. The coaches asked the leaders to pray, the leaders asked their groups to pray, their groups asked their friends to pray, and friends asked their friends to pray. God bless the house moms in the Village of Hope, Uganda. They prayed for us, too! People all over the world were praying for us. Life groups are the church's lifeline to community.
At this point, Dennis was still intubated and heavily sedated. I had not seen Dennis's blue eyes for three and a half days and wondered if I would ever see them open again. In the early morning hours of June 20th, he was slowly weaned from sedatives. We wondered how much damage his brain had sustained from being dead for over six minutes. By the time our daughters and I arrived at the hospital, the breathing tube was removed, his blue eyes were open, and he was talking and messing with us. Our Dennis was back!
The doctors told us he would need a walker and a defibrillation vest when he came home. Within 48 hours, Dennis was transferred out of the ICU into the cardiac unit, unhooked from all IVs & oxygen, and driving the staff crazy because he attempted to walk all around the cardiac floor.
The outpouring of God's love through His people has been tremendous.
Kelly Schubert fueled the meal train for months after Dennis’s heart attack. Gentle Kelly was incredibly tenacious in scheduling meals for us. She was also aware that I was still healing from a hand surgery in May.
God performed miracle after miracle. We watched the miracle of the loaves and fishes again and again and again in our lives.
God restored Dennis‘s job and provided financial help from near and faraway places. I also believe that others' learning of our trial and overcoming bolstered their faith in God.
God renewed our love and fervor not just in learning His word, but growing in us again the love to share it with others.
Look what God did!