Northview Stories

Rick:
In the fall of 2017, we went down to French Lick and I started feeling like I was getting the flu and shortness of breath. My muscles constantly ached all the time. We went to the doctor and they did a lot of tests. They finally did a muscle biopsy. And that's when I found out that I had an auto-immune disease. My heart couldn't expand all the way to give oxygen to my lungs.

Terri:
We were both concerned. What is this? Where is this coming from?

Rick:
He says, I think we need to talk to a surgeon about having the sack removed around your heart. It's an open heart procedure. They said you'd be in the hospital for about a week.

Terri:
From the day of the procedure, his breathing would get just a little worse. You know, first day, by the end of the day, it was a little bad. Second day, a little worse, third day, they came and got me.

Daughter:
I got a phone call and it was my mom and she was crying. And at that point I kind of just knew that something wasn't good. And she said, your dad's not breathing. They're putting him on life support.

Rick:
Being an ex-Marine, I've never been scared for my life. It was frightening.

Rick:
That just started our 17 days of being on a ventilator and many ups and downs.

Bill:
I'm Bill Brook, and I work with Rick. We've been friends for a few years now. I believe the power of prayer is greater than just about anything.

Terri:
Bill told me, "Hey, you know I'm in this men's group at church and we're praying and they're sending the prayer requests out to other churches and other people that they know in other states."

Daughter:
I was praying to God and I was like, "God, I know you can do miracles." I'm like, "Just please save him. Please just let him be awake."

Terri:
When they took him off the vent the very first time, he started breathing on his own. It was just incredible.

Rick:
I had a lot of people that came and visited me and said they were praying for me. And then I started walking. I ended up getting out of the hospital right before Thanksgiving.

Bill:
Something told me at that time that it was time to ask Rick to church. I wasn't real sure how receptive he would be to it. I kept telling my life group to pray for Rick's recovery. And also I told my life group that pray that God would send a messenger. For a few weeks. I asked for the same prayers and finally, one of the girls in my life group, Kim, she told me that, "Bill, you're the messenger."

Rick:
Bill said, "I'd like you to go to church with us after the Christmas party?" I said, "Okay, I'll go." I haven't been to church since I was a kid. And we used to go every Sunday. We went in there and Steve got up there and gave his sermon. And I looked at Bill and I said, "This is for me. It's like, God is speaking to me."

Terri:
God just answered my prayers that I've been praying for so long. So out of all of this, there was so much good that came out of it. We've been going ever since. And again, he's got a relationship with God now that he didn't have before.

Bill:
I don't really look at it that I did anything special. No, it was, it was all through the power of prayer.

Rick:
It's nice now to look and see your grandson, and your daughter, and your son-in-law sharing the same thing you're sharing in church together. It's like, and Bill and Cathy, we sit with them all the time. I mean, we've got our own little row right there.

Terri:
You just can't get through something like that without knowing it was God. There's just no other explanation for it. It was a true miracle.