Tina Branscum
Age 52 | Born Again Age -
From about the age of 8 years old, my family started attending the little 3 car garage where The Temple originally began their worship services. With Bishop Fries as our pastor, and though the church was small the presence of the Lord was mighty. As a child I was baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. My brothers and I loved church so much that we played church at home. It was very upsetting when we would miss a mid-week service. When our parents decided to leave the church, unfortunately us kids had no say in the matter.
When my brother Stanley was 16 and became ill unto death, my mother knew she needed to bring him to the church so he could get saved, so we went back to church. Bishop Fries baptized my brother and he received the Holy Ghost, and shortly after passed away, I was 18 at the time. I tried to live this christian walk alone, but after a short time I found it too hard and I also fell away. I’ve went through trials in my life, (too many to mention), but I always knew God had never left me, and I talked to him often.
One of my biggest regrets in my life is that I did not raise my two daughters in the church, and from a result of that they grew up very uncaring, selfish, and heartless with no morals or remorse. Now that Randy and I are raising my 2 granddaughters, I knew I needed to get them in church. It seemed every time I would try to go to church, something would be there to block us, and my husband was unsure of this apostolic faith because he had never attended a church like The Temple. But after attending the funeral of Mae Morris, as Bishop Fries was preaching it, he seemed to be hitting all the feelings I had had over the years, again I knew I needed to be back in the church, again the stumbling blocks were there to hinder me.
As my mind was made up to go to church, I started having a lot of pain in my back and hip and things came to a halt. In March of 2016 I was having severe pain in my back, I was being treated for my sciatic nerve, but a month later while playing with the dog, he jumped on my chest and when I grabbed my chest, I felt a lump. The mammogram showed a mass smaller than a golf ball. The needle biopsy came back benign, but the doctor ordered a surgical biopsy and it came back breast cancer. Now I’m using a cane, sleeping on the couch, in severe pain and more scans, the news was, it has spread to my bone, which diagnosed me with stage 4 breast cancer. I had one chemotherapy session, and lost my hair. One day while standing in the kitchen with every thought, worry and tear, I said God, I put this in yours hands because I am not strong enough to deal with this, I felt God take my hand and every bit of worry and fear left me right then and there.
My new doctor at OSU took me off chemotherapy and we began a new program. I began to get better, and started walking again. Then I began to worry about the medical cost, and I prayed about it, and 2 different benefits were unexpectedly started to help with the cost. My whole family was worried, but I was not, God was answering prayers, but I still needed to get my grand babies to the house of God. As I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for a checkup I was planning my vacation, the news came to me that I was fine. People around me tell me how strong I had been, and how I’m an inspiration to them and I just say… It’s not me at all, it’s all Jesus.
I have a new appreciation and I see things differently now. I hug my little girls and tell them more often that I love them. God has blessed me with a husband that cares so much for me. (He rarely tells me no ?.) I’m not sure what God has in store for me, and I know he’s not through with me, but it’s ok, I now have God back in my life.
