I was taken to the hospital and they tried different things.  Nothing helped.  Finally they decided to operate - the first of many - and took out a disk!

I was told by the doctor before the operation that the chances were 50-50.  After the operation, I was no better.  They tried other things.  I went to doctors in Fredericton , St. John , Halifax & Toronto .  I saw a lot of them.  No one could help me!  A doctor in Fredericton said, “Let’s try another operation”.  So I went back on the operating table.  This time he told me “there is no guarantee”.

I said, “Well, I look at it this way - we have to try something”.  Soon after the second operation, I started going to a chiropractor and I continued going there for 13 ½ years.  Eventually I did get back to work, but I never had a pain free day for 17 years - NOT ONE MINUTE WITHOUT PAIN!

I learned to live with the pain.  Most of the time, I could live with it.  When it got too bad and I couldn’t stand it, I would go home, park my tractor trailer (18 - wheeler) and stay in bed for a week or two and just get out of bed to get treatment.  When I got the pain under control, I would go back to work again!  

THE DOCTORS AND CHIROPRACTORS KEPT TELLING ME “THIS IS NOT GOOD - YOU ARE DOING MORE DAMAGE.  EACH TIME YOU’RE DOING THIS, YOU’RE DOING MORE DAMAGE TO YOUR BODY”!  

Eventually, it got so bad I started losing all feeling from the waist down.  I’d be driving, when suddenly all feeling would go from my waist down.  There was nothing!  I would pull myself over with my arms into a different position, and the feeling would come back and I’d keep on going.

      THEN ONE DAY I BEGAN GETTING OUT OF THE TRUCK, TURNED AROUND, STEPPED OUT AND THERE WAS NOTHING THERE.  I LANDED ON MY FACE ON THE GROUND, COMPLETELY PARALYZED FROM THE WAIST DOWN!

      I laid there for quite a while.  Then I pulled myself over a little bit with my arms by the step of the fuel tank.  I tried to get myself in position to stand up when the feeling would return, which it eventually did.

I went to see the doctor and told him what had happened.  He said, “You are going to have to stop working.  One of these days the feeling will not come back and you’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life”.

So I headed down to ‘Compensation’ again.  They tried various procedures which they had not used before - like hooking up different machines one after the other on me, BUT NOTHING HELPED!

All the time I was going through this pain and yet in the back of my mind I believed that someday a doctor would come up with a cure.  I would somehow meet a doctor who would help me!

Well, for the last 2 ½ years before my miracle, I worked 6 months and I had a hard time to work those 6 months, on and off!

ONE DAY THEY ‘SAT ME DOWN’ ON THE BED AND TOLD ME, “THERE WILL NEVER BE A CURE.  YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BE IN A WHEELCHAIR.  YOU WILL NEVER WORK AGAIN!”

     At that time, I faced reality - there was no hope.  I’d had people praying for me for 17 years.  I had prayed for myself.  And when I finally gave up on the doctors and the people around me and put my trust totally in the Lord, I got my miracle!

I was taking 3 times the amount of prescribed medicines and yet I couldn’t stand the pain.  I was praying every night that God would take me home.   That I would die!  Many days, I couldn’t sleep at all - day or night.  My wife would hear me crying and asking God to let me die.

I was allowed one pill every 4 hours, another one every 12 hours and another one at night.  I got so bad that I would open up the bottle and take 2 or 3 at a time.  I couldn’t wait the four hours.  The pills I was to take one every 12 hours, I would take 2 or 3 every 3 or 4 hours.

  PASTOR MAX CAME TO LYTTLETON

  I was born and raised in a Christian home and went to the Baptist Church in Lyttleton.  My daughter Tasha started attending the Pentecostal Church .  She said, “Dad, there is a man coming who preaches the gospel and prays for the sick and many get healed.  Will you come?”

I said, “Tasha, I’d love to go but with the pain I’m in and the suffering I’m going through - I wouldn’t be able to sit through the service”.

At that time I still believed that there was a doctor coming - I still had that in the back of my mind - I would be cured through medical science.

So anyway, Pastor Max came and she asked him to pray for me.  And he gave her an anointed prayer cloth for me to use.  I carried that cloth until he came back in September.  When Tasha told me that he was returning, she asked, “Dad, will you come”?  I said, “Tasha, I don’t know how I can do it but, I will go.  I promise you I will”.

I have a good friend, Mervin Mutch, whom I work with.  He called me on Thursday and said, “What are you doing?”  I said, “Nothing”.  He asked, “How’s your back?”  I answered, “Terrible”.

He said, “I’m coming down to see you”.  I said, “Yeah, come on down.”  He said, “I’ve got something I want to show you”.

HE BROUGHT DOWN THE BETTY BAXTER STORY         OF GOD’S MIRACLE IN HER LIFE!

I finally got to see most of it (sitting, standing and lying down) - in starts and stops - and saw what God had done for her.

Mervin asked, “Will you come to the Max Solbrekken Crusade?”

I answered, “I promised my daughter and I’m going to promise you that I will go to the meeting even though I do not know how I can stand the pain”.

On Friday night I didn’t go because the pain was too great .  Saturday, the pain was as bad as the night before.  Cathy asked, “Are you going to church tonight”?  I answered, “I don’t know.  I’m in an awful lot of pain”.  She said, “You promised!”  I asked her if she was going and she said she wasn’t.

I said, “I think I’ll go”, and as soon as I said those words, the pain got worse.  I’m sure it was the devil trying to keep me away from the crusade.

I took a bunch of pills before going.  I took 3 of the ones I was to take one every 4 hours.  The pills I was to take every 12 hours, I put 2 in my pocket and I went to the church and sat on the back seat.

Mervin came to me and said, “Come sit with me at the front and when Max prays for the sick, you’ll be right there.”  I said, “No, I’ll be in so much pain, I’ll have to go in and out and I don’t want to disturb the service so I’ll stay at the back”.

            After Brother Max was through preaching he asked if anyone wanted prayer.  A lot of people went for prayer so I thought, “I’ll stay here until they are finished”.  Mervin started to bring me to the altar area when Pastor A.W. Rowe approached me.  I was in bad shape.  He asked, “What is your name”?  I told him.  He said, “We’ve been praying for you for a long time.  After Pastor Max is finished praying with this person, I’m going to tell him you’re here”.

            Pastor Max asked me to sit down on a chair, took my feet in his hands and tried to raise my legs but the pain was so bad I couldn’t lift them very high.

AS HE PRAYED, I WAS INSTANTLY HEALED.  THE PAIN ALL LEFT.  NO MORE PAIN.  I COULDN’T BEND OVER ENOUGH TO GET MY FINGER TIPS BELOW MY KNEE CAPS BUT INSTANTLY I COULD TOUCH MY TOES AND JUMP UP AND DOWN AND LIFT HEAVY THINGS!  I WAS IN SHOCK!  

         I stayed after the service and picked up Pastor A.W. Rowe - who weighed 230 lbs. - and a few other people.  As I was leaving the church I thought I’ll go and tell Mom and Dad who lived about 1 ½ miles from the church, but decided to go right home (about 15-20 miles) so that my wife would be the first to know about my miracle.

            I thought, “I’ve had this for 17 years and I’ve got a wife and 2 children who have been with me through everything”.

            When I got home, the house was empty.  My wife had gone to visit her sister and the kids were with their friends.  I got wild and I ran up and down the stairs, did push-ups and sit-ups with no pain whatsoever!

THEN I GOT DOWN ON MY KNEES AND THANKED GOD!  PRAISE THE LORD!

            When my wife got home, she was at the sink and I came up behind her and said, “Guess what?”  She said, “You got healed”!  I said, “Yes I got healed”.  She turned around and looked at me.  And she knew that the pain was gone!

            I love my children and I love my wife.  She’s been with me now for 22 years.  For 17 of those years, I was crippled up.  I have a daughter and a son who’ll be 17 and 20 this summer.

I COULDN’T DO ANYTHING WITH THEM FOR 17 YEARS.  I COULDN’T PICK THEM UP FOR 17 YEARS.  ANYTIME I WAS WORKING, WHEN I WOULD COME HOME I DIDN’T TRY TO DO ANYTHING WITH THEM SO AS NOT TO HURT MY BACK.  I WASN’T ALLOWED TO PICK UP ANYTHING AND COULDN’T!  BUT I’VE BEEN DOING STUFF WITH THEM IN THE LAST 3 YEARS LIKE WATER-SKIING AND SKI-DOOING!  

The pain used to be so terrible that I, as a grown man, would lie in bed at night and cry and couldn’t sleep for days because of the terrible pain.  It’s hard when a grown man would lie in bed, night after night, and cry and pray that God would take me home.  That I could die!

            My wife heard me pray this prayer night after night.  I didn’t want to leave my family, but I couldn’t stand the pain.  I couldn’t deal with the pain anymore, but for nearly 3 years now I have been pain free.  NO PAIN and NO PILLS!

            I’ve been working ever since my miracle from God.  I work in the woods and I’ve been trucking everyday - hauling logs - I have twelve stakes which I have to change 2 or 3 times a day.  EACH STAKE WEIGHS 200 LBS.

            While driving - before my miracle - others had to change my stakes for me.  Since the miracle I change all my own stakes!

            On the night of my miracle, my daughter and son came home.  Tasha’s boyfriend’s family has a motorboat and I said, “You know what, next summer I’m going to go water-skiing”!

            And the following summer they got me in the boat and I went water-skiing.  People say to me, “You went water-skiing?”  And I say, “I’ve got a problem.  I’m 40 years old and I’ve got a 20 year old mind”.  I’m doing all those things now I couldn’t do for 17 years.  I’ve done stuff I’ve never done in my life!  And my wife says that she’s got a new husband and the children say that they have a new Dad.

            And we all praise God together for it!

Terry Somers testifying Sept 3, 1994
The night of the miracle! -