Betty Jean Baxter - The Betty Baxter story : a miracle of healing as told by herself

The Betty Baxter Story
As told by herself

As far back as I can remember I wasnt normal like other boys and girls. My body was twisted and crippled and deformed. I guess I will never forget that awful feeling of no hope. I know how it feels to have the family doctor look in my face and say, "Betty, there is no hope." Also to be carried from one hospital to another and see the specialists shake their heads and say, "There is nothing medical science can do."

I was born with a curve in my spine. Every vertebra was out of place; the bones were twisted and matted together. As you know the nerves are centered on the spine. The x-rays showed that the bones were twisted and matted together; therefore my nervous system was wrecked.

One day as I lay in the University hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I began to shake all over. It was sort of a trembling at first but soon I was shaking violently from head to toe. I shook out of my bed and fell on the floor. The doctor rushed in and put me back on the bed. He said, "This is what I have been expecting. She now has St. Vitus Dance and there is nothing to do but send her home."

They took wide straps and strapped my body to the bed. It didnt keep me from shaking but it did keep me from falling out of bed. They kept me strapped to the bed day and night, only removing them long enough for my nurse to bathe me. When the straps were removed my body would be raw and blistered.

I know what it is to suffer. I lived in pain. The doctors kept me on dope so I could endure the pain. When I came into the world my heart was not normal and under the power of dope it grew worse. Eventually I came to have a heart attack about every week.

At last my body became so accustomed to the dope that it couldnt take full effect. I would bite my lips to keep from screaming while the hypo took effect and then when the pain would not go I would scream for another injection. Only after two or three injections could I get any relief from the torturing racking pain.

I remember the day the doctor took me off dope. He said to mom, " Mrs. Baxter, it isnt doing her any good. Her body is accustomed to it." He removed everything from my bed and said, "Betty, Im sorry but I cant keep giving you morphine injections. Thats all I know to do." I was only nine years old at that time. Oh how long the nights were as I lay racked with pain. Many times I would twist in the bed struggling for a little relief and feel myself blacking out. Then for hours I would lay unconscious.

I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were not full gospel as I am today, they were Nazarenes, but they loved Jesus. Mom had taught me ever since I can remember the story of Jesus. My mother believed the Bible and told me that Jesus was the same Savior today as He was when He walked the sandy shores of Galilee and that He still heals today if people will only believe and have faith in Him.

Before I go further into my story I want to say that the greatest miracle that ever took place in my life was not when Jesus healed my crippled, twisted, deformed body but when He saved my soul from sin. As long as I had Jesus in my heart, I could go to heaven even though I was crippled and deformed in my body. But not if I was not saved by the blood of Jesus.

My conversion happened when I was only nine years old after hearing our Nazarene pastor, Brother Davis, tell what he said was the "Greatest Story in the World." It was the oldest story in the world; yet it is ever new: the story of Jesus.

Beginning at Jesus birth in the manger, Brother Davis told the beautiful story, finally ending with the cross and the Resurrection. He told how with His two precious hands He touched the blind eyes and they saw; how He touched the deaf ear and if was unstopped; how He cleansed the leper, how He fed the multitude with a little boys lunch; how His feet carried Him over the hot blistering sands of Galilee while He preached the gospel to the people; how He walked on the water and did not sink.

He told how the people after all this took Jesus and pierced His two precious hands with nails, and thrust a spear in His side and when they pulled it out, blood and water gushed out of His side and flowed down His limbs, the Royal blood spilling on the ground. He said this blood had power to save from sin and heal our bodies from affliction today.

It was the best story I had ever heard. He began singing in his beautiful tenor voice: "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me; See at the portals Hes waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling; calling, O sinner, come home."

Tears began trickling down my cheeks. I found myself kneeling and asking Jesus to save me. As I knelt, I saw a vision of my heart and Oh, it was black. I knew I couldnt get to heaven with a black heart, full of sin. Then I saw a vision on a hill far away an old rugged cross. I saw shaping up above the cross bright, sparkling letters, these words which I read: HE DIED FOR YOU I said "Jesus, now I know that you did and I want you to save me from my sins."

I saw before me a big door in the shape of a heart, Jesus walked up to that door and listened in. There was no knob or latch on the outside. (You must open the door). Then Jesus knocked once and listened, then the second, and the third time He knocked the door flew open; Jesus walked in and I knew I was saved. I felt the great burden of sin roll off of me. Jesus is still in my heart today because if he had gone out I would have known it.

I told Brother Davis I was going to be an evangelist. Then he gently put his hand on my head and prayed a blessing over me. Later he told my parents: "Dont ever let this girl get away from the call of God. I have never seen a child her age have such an experience with the Lord as she has."

But the hand of affliction began to cut my life short. The only relief I got was through my mothers prayers. My daddy did not have the faith in Jesus to heal my body as Mom did but he was a good dad to me and never hindered Mom from praying for me.

My mother loved Jesus with a great love. I believe she understood Jesus better than anyone I ever knew. She seemed to know how to make my faith in Him for Him to heal me someday.

My darkest hour came while they were wheeling me down the hospital corridor on a stretcher. The doctor walked up, stopped the stretcher, looked down at me and said, "Betty, we have x-rayed your spine. Every vertebra is out of place; the bones are twisted and matted together. Also you need a new kidney; as long as the old kidney remains you will have pain."

Dad said, "No, I am going to do everything in my power to make my child well again but never shall a knife tough my child." I have never had an operation except the one when Jesus did the operating and He doesnt leave any scars. How wonderful it is when Jesus does something for us; it is always perfect and never leaves any bad effects.

"Well, Mr. Baxter," the doctor said, "we can never hope to untangle that mass of bones in Bettys body. Take her home and let her be as happy as possible."

I was eleven years old at that time and had no idea that the doctor was sending me home to die. I looked at him, "Yes, Doctor, but someday God will heal my body. I will be well and strong then."

I had faith then for Mom had read Gods Word to me and talked to me about Jesus so that my faith was strong. One of Moms favorite scriptures in those days was, "If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth." Also, "Nothing is impossible with God."

They took me home where the doctor said I would soon die. I grew worse. The pain I had suffered before was nothing compared to what I began to feel after I returned home.