27. LIVING A CHRISTIAN LIFE

When I was 12 year of age and living in Edgewood, I trusted Christ as my Savior at Calvary Baptist Church on Edgewood Drive.

Over the years, however, I did not live up to the promises I made that night. I could attempt to cast the blame for that on the company I kept through the years, but that would be inaccurate. I must admit that had a lot to do with it, but I must take full responsibility for my actions.

Throughout my working life, it seems that everywhere I went, there were people drinking and it was so easy to excuse that I would join right in. This was a terrible mistake and I truly regret all the heartaches I caused my wonderful wife. She was such a guiding light in my entire family’s lives and I will always be grateful to her for that.

I suppose I really came back to God in a grand way in the year 2004. This was the year I had planned to be the “greatest golf year” of my life. I even scheduled a knee replacement in January and had it all figured out; I would have a perfectly normal knee and be through with therapy before the golf season got under way. Little did I know that God might have other ideas? After about two weeks of therapy with two more needed, I suddenly began talking with a lisp. After a couple days of this, Barbara took me to the emergency room at Danville Regional Medical Center and they ran all sorts of tests, suspecting I had a minor stroke. The next day, I couldn’t talk at all nor could I swallow and couldn’t even breathe unless I was in an upright position.

They continued to run tests for just about everything and after about five days, I passed out and was sent to the intensive care unit where they put a ventilator down my throat to force my breathing. I recall nothing about that for the six days I was in this condition, but will never forget this. I was looking up on a balcony and saw Jesus and he was beckoning me to come on up. I was in tears, not because of going up there, but because I was leaving all my loved ones behind. It was an eerie sensation I will never forget and it changed my life forever. I now truly enjoy church, listening to different sermons, and I have a better sense of what God can do for or to you. I feel he gave me a tremendous wake up call and is trying to point out that time is getting short and I had best heed his advice. This, I am working real hard on and shall continue to do so.

The first thing I recall after being there for those six days was Doctor Starr’s voice saying “Mr. Dillard, stick out your tongue.” I heard him, stuck it out past the ventilator tube and he said, “You have myasthenia gravis and we have the medication in your body to take care of it.” The reason he asked to stick out my tongue was because he had been saying that daily prior to my going to the ICU. MG affects the respiratory muscles as well as all other muscles in the area of the throat and it often affects the eyes. It is a disease that is very rare and only affects four in each hundred thousand of the population. It is incurable, but is treatable once the proper medication is regulated correctly.

I enjoy my church, North Main Baptist and simply love my Sunday school class in which I am a charter member. We have 16 members in our “John Oakes’s Bible Class”. The name came from a long time member of North Main that I never had the pleasure to meet, but everyone that knew him had great things to say about him.

I am overjoyed with Blain and his family’s relationship with Christ. Blain has served as a deacon in his Church, Good Hope Baptist that is located near Morrisville, North Carolina. His entire family is dedicated and participates in all church activities and that makes Barbara and me very proud.