Dear Elijah List Family Members,
First of all, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to each and every one of you.
During this Season of Thanksgiving and the Celebration of OUR SAVIOR'S BIRTH, my prayer for you is that you'll find the greatest happiness, contentment, peace and joy – more than any other time in your life!
The Christmas Spirit (Christ, personally, among the masses through His Spirit), is alive and well and VERY ACTIVE this year...
...Wait until you see what OUR LORD has planned for 2014!!! IT'S GOING TO BE GOOD!
In fact, I expect to see a great number of you at our Annual Conference here in Albany, Oregon on January 9-11, 2014, called "WHAT IS GOD SAYING FOR 2014?"...
...with JANE HAMON, DUTCH SHEETS, JAMES GOLL, DENNY CLINE AND MYSELF. There is still some room left, so if you'd like to be here in person to experience The Elijah List Family or register to watch it streaming live online click here or go to: www.elijahlistministries.org/conference.html.
My Personal Health Update
"A health update? We didn't even know you were sick," many have said recently.
I know that many on the Elijah List were never aware I was going through what turned out to be a SEVEN-YEAR ORDEAL where I fought intensely for my health – if not for my life!
The good news is – I'm not only completely healthy now, but I'm more than 100% healthy...even more so than before I got sick. In fact, a staff member told me the other day that I appeared to her healthier than I've ever been, and she's known me for almost 15 years!!
That is a real cause for PRAISE TO GOD IN MY LIFE!!
A Few Details of the Last Seven Years
I now wish I had kept a day-by-day diary of the last seven years and my health struggles.
But I have specific landmark dates when I realized things were just not right. I recall flying from San Antonio to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the summer after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. I was attending a Pro-Israel event in San Antonio when I realized my "same old" sinus infection had returned once again – and this time it was bad.
(As an 8-year-old kid I spent a week in the hospital with a collapsed lung from pneumonia. The pain was awful as I walked home from school. Ever since that hospital stay, I've been highly susceptible in my entire respiratory system.)
When I landed in Baton Rouge to speak at a conference, I asked to be first taken to Urgent Care where I received a shot to attack this infection. During this trip, after speaking, I wanted to take a tour of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath – a request I now regret.
In my compromised condition, I walked through many gutted out houses in New Orleans as I toured the devastation. Black mold was everywhere of course.
Over the next year I grew more and more sick, began to lose my appetite, and proceeded to really drop in weight. I eventually forgot about the sinus infection because my breathing seemed to return to normal after a week or two.
But my headaches grew in intensity, often turning into full-on migraines. By the time I attended the July, 2007 "7-7-7" Stadium Celebration with Lou Engle in Nashville, I knew something was very wrong. I skipped the seven-mile walk and took a cab to the stadium and a cab back to the hotel.
While in Nashville, my appetite continued to drop. After that, my weight dropped so fast, that I often became bedridden for days at a time.
All the numerous blood tests came back completely normal...or at least that's the report I got.
If you can even believe this, I went an additional 2-3 years into this thing before anything was discovered.
One night, I ended up in the Emergency Room with a migraine so severe, that I was losing any food that remained in my stomach through vomiting (and there was not much food to lose).
I'd lost more than 50 pounds by this time. At the ER, they decided to do a brain and head scan and before you know it, I was being informed that a large mass was discovered in the sinus area.
An Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon ordered further X-rays and examinations, and in the next 2+ years, I received THREE SINUS SURGERIES trying to eradicate the bacteria they found. There were two strains of an awful bacteria and it seemed to take them forever to get rid of it.
My surgeon, an awesome doctor, told me he'd NEVER SEEN A SINUS SURGERY AS SEVERE AS MINE. He had to go in and scrape to the bone to get rid of this thing! He had no idea how I had gotten this bacteria, but after hearing of my visit to the houses in the Katrina aftermath, he let me know HE'D never go through those old buildings after seeing my condition!
It took almost two more years of ongoing antibiotics, continual migraines, horrific nausea – both from the antibiotics and the remaining bacteria. Listen: They were giving me antibiotics in an IV for 30 days (one month), to nasal inhalers, to oral antibiotics.
One day just over a year ago, I decided to inform the Dr. I "was done" with antibiotics and I would, if necessary, spend the rest of my life doing daily nasal rinses if that's what it took, to keep this bacteria at bay.
My recovery began to speed up at that point, and at the first of this year, 2013, even though I missed my own conference, my recovery began to take a decided turn toward "the good" and by the spring of this year, my wife and I took a much needed and long overdue vacation.
I was not only able but healthy enough, to enjoy a cruise with Derene, my wife of 35 years! And the food, FINALLY, tasted wonderful and I began to eat, yes, too much! At this point, I could stand to take off 15 pounds. All my weight came back and then some!! Yes God!! (Photo: Steve and Derene Shultz 2013 Cruise)
A few months ago, when I went back to my surgeon for a follow-up visit, that's the day the assisting nurse told me (not sure that she was supposed to say this) that she had thought, upon seeing me and my surgeries, that I must be "a terminal patient." Wow!
Now that my recovery is even more than 100% and I'm on a much more focused healthy lifestyle of good food, good health supplements and exercise, I honestly feel better than I've felt in 15-20 years! At 58 years old, that's a good feeling because I know I have now, the Lord willing, MANY MANY years of good health ahead. (Photo: Thanksgiving at the Shultz's)
That's even EXTRA good to know and to feel – as my own father, at the age of 59, died of heart failure. This is not in my future – I've been assured by the Holy Spirit. I honestly and truly feel that my very best years are ahead of me, NOT behind me! All the Glory goes to the Lord.
During the years of my health crisis, all three of Derene's and my "kids" got married – a real challenge to my faith, as I was disappointed to have to walk through this special time in such a weakened condition. (Photo: Thanksgiving at the Shultz's)
But I'm far from the first who has had to do such a thing and I won't be the last. My roots have grown MUCH DEEPER in the Lord as a result of these seven years, and my gratitude and trust in the Lord knows NO BOUNDS.
I keep saying to the Lord, "I'LL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU BROUGHT ME THROUGH THIS WITH MERCY AND GRACE, LORD! NEVER!!!"
Now, whenever I start to lose focus on a day where the warfare is heavy, I just recall what I've come through and how the Lord delivered me from the jaws of death...and suddenly, I'm back on track in faith. (Photo: Thanksgiving at the Shultz's)
I hope this has helped you understand even more of your own walk of trust and faith in God – to know how the Lord has delivered me in my walk. Increased and renewed health is on the way for most of you reading this!
I'll See Many of You in January here in Albany, Oregon for our "WHAT IS GOD SAYING FOR 2014?" Conference.
Now, to each and every one of you...coming from a person who has faced death and come out of it PRAISING THE LORD, I want to bless you and your entire families this Christmas to walk in newness of REAL LIFE with CHRIST too! (Photo: Derene with our granddaughter Olivia)
Never before have I been more optimistic about the protection and trustworthiness of God. And as I've so very much looked forward to this Christmas Season ALL YEAR LONG, I know in my heart that God has a special plan FOR YOU! God loves to celebrate special dates...especially days set aside to remind us of HIS FAITHFULNESS in SENDING HIS SON TO BE BORN ON THE EARTH!!
God so loved the entire world...and God and Jesus Christ and His Spirit SO LOVES YOU...that life will only become more Glorious as you continue to put your trust IN HIM. Make this Christmas the most memorable of your entire life!
Family is EVERYTHING to each of us on earth. Cherish your family members this Christmas.
P.S. We still have some room at the January conference so if you register right away, you'll likely get into this one!! Go to: www.elijahlistministries.org/conference.html.
