We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
Our Hope is in you alone. Ps 33:20-22

Acknowledgments
Accolades and thanksgivings to my wonderful wife, Nancy, mate, friend, lover, prayer partner and one who stayed in the fight! I am thankful for my family for never giving up. A special word to Holly Pallett and her family, she was and is a faithful friend who prayed and stood strong in the time of my need. John Duncan, Pastor, Lakeside Baptist Staff, church members, Dr. Mike Davis, Glen Rose Medical Center, Dr. Howard Monsour, Granbury Liver Specialist, Staff at Methodist Liver Institute, especially, Dr. Jeffery Weinstein, Medical Director, Dr. Stephen Chang, Surgical Director, Dr. Alejandro Mejia, Surgeon, Dr. Paul Powell, Dean, Truett Seminary, Baylor University, Dr. Daryl Eldridge, President Rockbridge Seminary, Dr. Robert Webber, Institute of Worship Studies, faculty and staff, David Sanders and Alex Azar, Promise Productions, Inc., Dawn Weeks, trusted friend, Ollie Meier, Prayer Warrior, close friends, Trinity Prayer Warriors of God, other churches and a host of friends all over the world.

Preface
What you are about to read is a true story. One I have lived and came within two weeks of being with my Lord and Master. It has love, laughter, despair, suffering, frustration, joy and victory. I would not be here to tell the story, but God showed up!

The Lord Confronts the Disturbed and Disturbs the Comfortable
• We may turn to God when our foundations begin to shake, only to find out it is God who is shaking them….Old Hebrew Proverb

My life has been one of great joy. I committed my life to Christ when I was seven years old. My parents were very instrumental in my decision. At the age of twelve He spoke to me at Piney Woods Baptist Encampment, Texas, in the summer of 1950. I gave Him my full attention to enter the ministry especially in music. At the age of fourteen my Pastor Dr. Porter M. Bailes, First Baptist Church, Tyler, ask me to go with him for four weeks of the summer in East Texas church revivals. I was thrilled but stunned. The next three weeks found me in the church music library asking hundreds of question of our Minister of Music. After that summer I served in churches as Minister of Music and in revivals meetings. God has blessed me and my family beyond measure. I was privileged to serve in many of the finest churches in America, two of which were First Baptist Church, Tallahassee, Florida, Dr. Robert McMillan, Pastor, First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas, Dr. W.A. Criswell, Pastor, and for eight years Chairman of Music and Fine Arts, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida.

During my ministry at First Baptist Church, Dallas, a group of men ask me to become Executive Producer of a Christian Musical. Following much prayer in 1987 I accepted the offer. The Christian Musical in 1989 became known world wide as The Promise, an epic musical drama of the life of Christ. Since 1989 we have had the privilege to produce The Promise around the world on live stage and on satellite television to over 100 million people. The second year I became the Grandfather for ten years. It was a wonderful experience until October, 1999.

During my years at The Promise I also became Minister of Music and Worship of Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury, Texas, in 1994. Lakeside was a church of 200 in worship and 16 in the choir. I thought at the time, "This will be a breeze." Little did I know what the Lord had in the future for our Pastor, Dr. John Duncan and me? In the next eleven years the church grew from 200 to 1500. This became a full time ministry along with The Promise.


October, 1999 was a date to remember! Three weeks before the end of The Promise season I became very ill during a Saturday night performance not to return. The doctors found that I was having a gall bladder attack. During the emergency surgery they took a biopsy of my liver and found that I had contracted the disease Sarcoidosis. Sarcoidosis is a rare disease that usually attacks the lungs, heart, or liver. Sarcoidosis attacked my Liver and hung on for six years. I was well enough to produce The Promise in Seoul, Korea in 2003 at the Jamsil Olympic Soccer Stadium.

In 2001 I began to work on a Doctorate of Worship from the Worship Institute of Florida, Dr. Robert Webber, noted professor, writer and worship leader as President. I completed the classes in January, 2004, and began the Project and Thesis. At the end of 2003, the Sarcoidosis of the liver became more aggressive. On June 5, 2005, my illness had progressed so far that I could not continue and walked off the platform at Lakeside Baptist Church never to return and could not finish the Doctorate at that time.

Time became a factor, I was slowly dying!

Hope is Confident Expectancy
I was sick to despair, miserable, in anguish, depression and despondent. I was slowly dying. Yet God’s Spirit continued speaking with my spirit was saying "I will heal you, I have much more for you in ministering for me." He was always communicating with healing optimism, anticipation, desires and dreams for me. Nancy and I would sit on the bed and dream of returning to our favorite retreats, conferences and ministry.

Take courage, my soul! Do you remember those times (but how could you ever forget them!) when you led a great procession to the Temple on festival days, singing with joy, praising the Lord? Why then be downcast? Why be discouraged and sad? Hope in God! I shall yet praise him again. Yes, I shall again praise him for his help.
Psalm 42:4-5 TLB

Many hours I felt alone…Several called every day…Many Baptists prayed as Baptists, some Baptists prayed as Pentecostals. Pentecostals friends prayed as Pentecostals. Two groups of prayer warrior groups came to our home prayed, laid hands and anointed me with oil. After rejoicing in the Lord we had my favorite "treat", root beer floats.


Nights were the most difficult time…

Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids…
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me…
Then GOD promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night!
My life is God's prayer. Ps 42:7-8 THE MESSAGE

The encephalopathy, the itching, no sleep, sickness, crying, ambulances, doctors, friends weeping, the gossip, whispers of death and friends with no Faith and Hope was the hardest with which to live. I began to feel as Job with his three friends. Only a few close prayer warriors and friends had the faith and hope. I continued in my faith and achieved hope.

Faith is Confident Belief in God through Christ from other Christians
Nancy, my sweet wife of forty seven years prayed, had faith, hope, love and believed…Prayer Warriors, the staff and church, family and friends around the world were supporting in faith, hope, love, and lifting me up in prayer to the Throne of God.

Faith of other Christians
Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." Matthew 9:2


Faith is Your Confident Belief in God through Christ
A Friday afternoon in September I received a phone call from my Transplant Coordinator, Janel Tedesco! Our conversation began as normal, discussing how I felt, my weekly labs, my medicine adjustment. I then asked the BIG question. How is my Meld score?

(The MELD Score(Model for End Care Liver Disease) is the gage for a liver transplant. Your MELD score must be over 24 to be considered for the transplant by any liver institute. Many things make up a MELD score one of which is the Ascites fluid drawn off of your body. Up to this time the Radiologist was taking 6 -8 liters of Ascites fluid out of me each week because my liver was dying. It was nothing for me to loose 10 to 18 pounds in one hour. My Ascites finally lockulated which means it turned to a jelly substance. They tried several times but could not take more than one-third liter each time.")

Janell, said "just a minute I’ll look." I was praying it would be at least 21. She paused and the said, "Well, your Meld Score is back down to 11 from 19." There was stone silence. It seemed as if hours passed. I began to speak through my choking. I was amazed, stunned, confused and hurt. I began questioning her very tersely; she did not back down. I ask if there was anything I could do to raise it. The words came back that I will never forget, "I don’t think so." I then said, "Well, I guess you will let me die." Still nothing…I said, "Good by and I will talk to you later."

Nancy and I fell on our faces before God……such despair, loneliness, aloneness, abandonment from the Methodist Liver Institute. I cried out to God saying, "I first thought you might heal me through regeneration of the liver. Now I thought you were going to provide a liver from the Institute. My Lord and Saviour what am I to do? I hear you speak to me telling me you are going to heal me. Hear me now and give me the faith, hope and love!" During the next several days His Spirit began to communicate to me and say I will heal you for you have many things for me to do.

In my stillness the Spirit of God spoke to my spirit…. "I will heal you"………

Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. Matthew 9:22 NIV

Faith is Courage/Patience
• Faith is the courage to stand up to the evil one
• Patience is the strength to wait upon Him
You every thought, word, step and deed is to have faith and trust in Him

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:22-26 NIV

Faith is Persistence in Prayer
Why I prayed specifically and persistently! It was now a part of my life. One Prayer Warrior, after praying said, "I saw the Lord put a new liver in your body! Others told me, "He will heal you." All of the Prayer Warriors and some close friends that were around me had optimistic faith I would be healed. One day reading the Bible, I was pointed to this..
One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
So he said, "When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.'
"The friend answers from his bed 'Don’t bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.'
"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
"Here's what I'm saying:
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.
"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing — you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?" Luke 11:1-13 The Message

One afternoon after school my nine year old grandson, Matthew called me from Dallas. He sang a song that he had composed as he usually does, and he began to ask me how I was. I told him I was ok but not great. He said his mother wants to talk to me. Angie, my son Jonathan’s wife, picked up the phone and said "Matthew and friends want to have a yard sale to help you with your medicine cost after the transplant. We could have it on Saturday in two weeks and he really wants you to be there, do you think you would feel like coming?" I said, "I would try my best." Then she commented, "We are all praying for you!" Then Matthew got back on the phone and we talked about a lot of things. With tears in my eyes, I said, "Matthew, having this yard sale is one of the nicest things that you could do for me."

I could hardly wait for that yard sale! I knew I was weak; I ask Nancy if we could go stay in a hotel and have a great time with Matthew and his family. She told me later that she thought if anything happened to me I would be only a short distance from Methodist Hospital. Up to this time I had been in the three hospitals Glen Rose Medical Center, Lake Granbury Hospital and Methodist Hospital, Dallas over sixty times in 2005. The encephalopathy was happening so often at this stage we never knew when it would take over.

Friday came and Nancy drove us to Dallas. I was excited as a kid to get out of the house and not having to go to the hospital and of course to see Matthew and his dad and mom. We found a great hotel on Central Expressway and reserved a room. It was on the third floor down the hall to the left. The room overlooked Central Expressway and the area of Dallas in which we lived when Minister of Music, First Baptist, Dallas. The scene brought back many memories. On Saturday morning we drove to the yard sale. There they were doing their best to sell everything Matthew and his friends. I sat in a comfortable chair in the garage opening in the shaded area and many people came to buy all of the toys, videos, clothing, nick knacks, and abundance of other things. We had a great time that day, talking, laughing, witnessing and giving hope to others. About 4:30 P.M. I was growing tired so Nancy and I left and return to the hotel making plans for a family get together for dinner.

After falling asleep my cell phone rang and God’s final piece of the miracle began to unfold. A voice on the phone was crying and praising God saying, "We have you liver, we have you a liver. It is a perfect match for you. This is Holly in Tyler and we have a liver for you. The transplant coordinator wants to talk to you and she will call you back. I love you…you have a liver and you are going to live!" Nancy and I were weeping, praising God, holding each other, falling on the bed and then our whole room became warm with the Shechinah Glory of God. I finally looked at Nancy, "Tyler, who is Holly in Tyler?" She didn’t know either. I looked at my cell phone and noticed the call was made by "Holly Music." This was the designated name for my Music Associate, Holly Pallett. I immediately called her and she answered. I explained through my tears that I did not know that it was she who was calling. She was still in the glow of God and she began to tell the story. Her nephew Christopher Johnson was killed in a motorcycle accident in Tyler the night before. The family knowing that Christopher was a giving person would want to share his organs so that six people would live. Holley and her grandmother asked for the liver to be designated for me. The family agreed. Holly knew that Christopher’s blood type and mine were the same and were about the same size. The difference… Christopher was only twenty-five. Therefore this sixty-eight year old man would receive a young twenty-five year old liver. My gratitude to Holly and her family will always be beyond words. Since meeting them, they made my family part of their family.

My first birth, my second birth, my ministry call and my new life had all been from Tyler, Texas, my hometown. Lisa of Southwest Transplant office in Tyler talked to me and asked for all my vital information; she then made all the necessary arrangements and called back. Lisa related, "Register at Methodist Hospital at 8:30 A.M. in the morning, October 16, 2005, Sunday Morning". What could have been more appropriate for Nancy and me than Worshiping God on this Sunday of a life giving transplant?

All day there was a flurry of visitors from my family, friends, church staff, Liver Institute doctors, hospital personnel, Dr. Mike Davis, Debbie, his wife, Dawn Weeks, Mark Weeks and Holly. Holly came to the hospital as I was waiting to go into surgery. We hugged, cried, praise God and reminisced. She brought two things, a yellow rose and a Saint Christopher medal. Christopher wore a Saint Christopher medal around his neck all the time and she ask if I would. I have this medal on today and will always wear it. Later that evening they came to take me to surgery. As I entered the Surgery Center, Dr. Mejia, one of my surgeons said, "David, you have a beautiful liver." I replied, "The Lord gave me a beautiful liver." And he responded, "Yes, He did."

Five and one half hours of surgery! ...Cleaned out the Trash! ... Put in New Life! … Persistent prayer! ...One phone call! …One Miracle! …Many Praises and Thanksgivings to our Heavenly Father!

Waking up the next afternoon to the face of my beautiful wife of forty-seven years was unbelievable. She kissed me and I went back to sleep till the next visiting time as my son Dean and his wife Kerrie came held my hand and brought me a large colorful popsicle, which tasted great. Everyone in ICU wanted to hear the miracle story. Doctors, nurses, hospital personnel and others that could come into ICU were told the story by me or Nancy. On the third day I walked down the hall to everyone’s amazement. The next day I was taken up to the fourth floor where once again I was greeted with joy and thanksgiving. The next week was glorious! My color, strength, stamina, appetite and health began to return immediately. Over 150 nurses, doctors, pastors, chaplains, hospital personnel and friends visited and wanted to hear the miracle. I was having no rejection, no sickness and very little pain.

Three days after I was in my Transplant floor room, Dr. Mejia came to see me as a daily routine. I finally remembered to ask, "Doc. How did my liver appear?" Dr. Mejia looked out my window to the skyline of Dallas, turned and said to Nancy and me, "We think we found your liver. We found a hard black knot about the size of my thumb." I replied, "Dr. Mejia, I was living on God’s liver." He said, "You surely were." What a Praise to the Merciful Loving God we serve.

Oh yes, a few days later I asked Janel to forgive me for being so angry with her when she told me that I wouldn’t be receiving a liver from Methodist.

The miracle was progressive:
1. God opens Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury as Minister of Music and Worship, 1994 while Executive Producer of The Promise.
2. Holley decides to go to Christian Women’s Job Corp, 2004.
3. After Holley’s graduation Martha Sauce, Lakeside Business Administrator to hire her to help me as my Music Assistant.
4. Holley prayed with me everyday, saying we will find you a liver!
5. Holley’s nephew Christopher Johnson was in a motorcycle accident not surviving.
6. Christopher’s liver was a perfect match in every way.
7. My body received it and I have had no rejection, sickness and little pain.

Love is Confidence in Devotion and Submission
• Hope and Faith become Passionate Love

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them." Mt 22:37-41 (THE MESSAGE)

Results of Faithfulness and Submission:
1. For me, His miracle story is being told all over the world.
2. My ministry and passion to educate, support, network and tell the story through the non-profit organization ACHIEVING HOPE. Reaching out to the world!
3. I am now working to complete the Doctorate of Worship at the Worship Institute by January, 2007.
4. I am able to returning to the ministry in churches as Minister of Music and Worship or Pastor or Associate Pastor of Worship.
5. I am open to God in whatever way He wants to use me.

Achieving Hope
David L. Humphrey
P.O. Box 2250
Glen Rose, Texas 76043
817.573.8201 Office