How God Fixed Our Toilet (and how my husband got saved)

Recently, I decided to start writing about miracles in our lives. Thus far, I have written about 2 financial miracles we've had, and about how God took care of us when we were having airplane problems. You can read all about that stuff back in 2008 Archives. Today I'm going to tell my readers about how my husband got saved.



I will spare you the details of my heathen teenage years. Sufficed to say that I found myself in my early 20's married to an atheist, myself a "backslider", fighting to get through college and just trying to get by. We'd had our first baby, Kevin III, and neither of us were particularly ready to grow up just yet, let alone, raise a baby. I was reaping a lot of things I'd sown and I didn't particularly like the harvest I was getting. Its not that I didn't love my family, its more that I did, and I felt guilty for putting myself (and them) in such a home life. I knew better than the choices I had made. As a child, I believed that I was supposed to go to Bible College and become a missionary. I was sure that God had cursed my life and that nothing could possibly go right since I had "unequally yoked".

I tried going to churches after Kevin and I were together, but they didn't sit well with me. The first one I thought I could get away with living a little sinful in. They seemed like the "anything goes" kind of church, and it was. I was awfully bored there. I didn't grow much. I didn't feel God there much either. Its not that He wasn't there, it just wasn't right for me. It could have been that every time I left after a service, the pastors son in law would ask me where my husband was. Instead of saying "He's not a Christian", I found a stupid excuse to tell him. He always shook his head piously and said "How sad, how sad, a woman in church without her husband". Then he would say "how sad, how sad, a baby in church without its father." I got rather tired of this routine and I had the strange sensation to slap him and say "how sad, how sad, a moron in the door of this church every week."

The next church I went to was a little more the kind I had grown up in. The problem was that they were just too nice. They were so nice, unfortunately, that they never let me in the service with my baby. My options were : 1. let a strange woman babysit my child in the nursery, or 2. sit in the nursery with my child the entire service. 1. Was not an option to me, 2. left me wasting my time. I chose option 3. and quit going there.

The last church was kind of crazy. The people were kinda strange, but they were very welcoming and they seemed to genuinely want me there (with or without my husband). They got really excited when I told them my husband wasn't a Christian and decided to take it upon themselves to "pray him into the kingdom". Along with years of my mothers heartfelt prayers, he didn't stand a chance. The first church promised me it was scriptural that my husband would get saved but told me sadly "it may not be until after you are dead". These people were lively in their services, and I could always feel God's Presence there. It wasn't long before I had rededicated my life to God and told Him this time I would never stray again. I gave my husband to Him and told Him that I was serving God no matter what comes. Despite some of the strange things people did in that church, I knew they loved and accepted me.

It wasn't long before things started to change at home. I'm not talking about my husband either. He told me "I noticed you started keeping the house cleaner". I also gave my best attempt at "submission". I'll never forget the time that he told me I couldn't go to church. I went upstairs to pray (a place I'd been frequenting a lot since the submission thing started). I wasn't there long before he sent me off to church. I discovered that when I quit rebelling and started praying, things changed fast. I was actually seeing supernatural changes in my house.

I had borrowed these crazy "Gospel Bill Show" tapes I would bring home from church. At first Kevin wouldn't allow them in the house. Later he started watching them (until the preaching part came on). Then one day, I was in the shower, and I heard Gospel Bill on. He had put it on for out baby himself. This was getting exciting!

My sister, Heather and I had been planning a long awaited get away at a Christian Rock Festival called "Sunshine" in Wilmar, Minn.. We were really excited about it. I did everything possible to try and leave the house in good order for when I would be gone. I didn't want any problems with my marriage. Things were going so much better these days. The day before I was ready to leave, you guessed it, the toilet in our bedroom got plugged. At the time, Kevin was going to college for Aviation. He was gone during the day taking classes. I was home and trying desperately to get the toilet unplugged. I tried plunging for what seemed like an eternity. I tried household unclogging agents (with what money I could scrape together). Nothing worked. To my horror, during the process, I'd flushed the toilet and there was a horrible mess all over the floor. I was feeling rather desperate. I really wanted to escape to that festival and I knew Kevin wouldn't want me leaving that way. Finally in desperation, I laid hands on the toilet and prayed. I'm talking a heart felt fervent prayer asking God to please fix our toilet.

Eventually the time came, and Kevin let me leave without being upset I was leaving the bathroom unusable. On the way out, I left a note on the landlords house saying that the toilet was not working. The concert was fabulous. Heather and I had a blast! Heather was really into the News Boys. "Ratty", Heathers favorite player had a drum set that rotated upside down for his drum solo. I got my picture taken with John James, the lead singer. We had so much fun! Right before they came on, the crowd seemed to part in front of us. Partly because some obnoxious boys were pushing people. We discovered that if we stayed in front of them, they would just push us up there to the front row. When we got up there, a guy said "hey, how'd you get up here?" We just shrugged our shoulders. He said he'd been sitting there all day long. We got to talking and some where in there, he prophesied to me. He said "your husband is getting saved". I nodded my head. I was believing for that to happen. What I didn't understand was that right then, he was indeed, getting saved.

All by himself, he watched a Gospel Bill Show and prayed the salvation prayer at the end of the show. He said He felt this indescribable feeling and knew that everything had changed. Of course he refused to tell me about this experience. He didn't want to admit that I had been right. When I got home, I was shocked to find that the toilet worked. I told Kevin God must have fixed it. He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. I went back to the landlords house and left another note. "God fixed our toilet" I wrote. The landlord later showed up wondering what kind of tenants he had. "I want to know how God fixed your toilet" he demanded. After checking it out himself, he left, thinking I was a fruitcake.

It wasn't long before Kevin had watched all the Gospel Bill movies in the church. He even started going with me to the church to get more (when the building was empty). I saw him leave some money in the offering plate once. Gospel Bill had taught him about sowing and reaping. Finally I told him "Kevin, all the movies have been watched, you have to start coming to church if your hungry". Another person had also told me that he felt Kevin was getting saved soon. He was the Wednesday Night Speaker. Little did I know, on a Wednesday night about 15 years ago, my husband would come to church with me for the first time ever (as a Christian). That night, he confessed he had gotten saved. I felt like I was walking on air. As for the toilet, well, it never gave us any further difficulties.