January 1988 – Greenwich, Connecticut

When our youngest son Stephen was born he was quickly diagnosed with a terminal liver disease. One doctor encouraged us to “let him go” and have other children. To him, Stephen’s condition was “impossible.” With God, all things are possible.

May 1988 – University of Wisconsin Hospital

In 1988 it was “impossible” to do a segmented liver transplant on an infant. Stephen was the first baby in the U.S. to have that done (his procedure was written up in the Saturday Evening Post!).

August 1988 – Madison, Wisconsin

Our church denomination told us it was “impossible” for us to be a part of overseas ministry due to Stephen’s condition. Stephen went with us on several overseas ministry trips thereafter.

December 1990 – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Stephen suffered an internal bleed due to his transplant surgery and went into a coma. The doctors told us, “Say goodbye to your son” – an “impossible” situation. He woke up a week later and asked to watch Sleeping Beauty.

July 1994 – Lviv, Ukraine

We were invited to pastor a church in Ukraine for a year. It was “impossible” for us to go without the $18,000 we needed for the trip. God provided then and again later—we’ve now lived in Ukraine twice.

June 1996 – Plymouth, England

We were invited to minister in Plymouth, England. We didn’t have the funds and it was again “impossible” for us to go. We went with one way tickets and a shoestring. We were later connected to a great church and Lynn helped them establish a Christian school!

March 1997 – Miami, Florida

While we were visiting near Orlando, Stephen suffered another internal bleed that put him in another coma. Given Stephen’s history, the doctors in Orlando thought it best for him to be taken to a hospital in Miami, one better equipped for transplant patients. Stephen spent the first night there in the intensive care unit while Lynn and our two other sons, then aged thirteen and eleven, were in a daze. The doctors said to not be too hopeful. We had nowhere to sleep. It was an “impossible” situation. The resident liver transplant surgeon approached me and asked me where we were going to stay while Stephen was in the ICU. I asked him if there was a Ronald McDonald House (a place we’d stayed before, out of state, during an earlier hospitalization of Stephen’s) near the hospital. He looked at me with great compassion in his eyes and said, “No, but my wife and I would consider it a privilege if you and your family would come and stay in our home until Stephen is better.” We were shocked! Six days later Stephen woke up asking for a popsicle. “Impossible.” We’d been in a number of hospitals and never received an invitation like that. Dr. Joe was also an associate pastor in a Brazilian Baptist Church and he extended the love of Jesus. We stayed with his family for six weeks while Stephen recovered. This was not impossible for our God!

March 1998 – Atlanta, Georgia

A year later Stephen was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Surely that would make it “impossible” to continue to serve the Lord overseas.

March 1999 – Lviv, Ukraine

Another year passed and a couple from our church in Ukraine called us and asked us to come back to pastor for six months. We had no way to go back until one man paid for the entire trip for our family of five. This was our second trip. “Impossible.”

July 1999 – Lviv, Ukraine

One day I was preaching in a park when an Olympic medalist, devastated by alcoholism, approached us. Velodia was barely recognizable to those in our church who had seen him on TV. He told me through an interpreter that he had been in Afghanistan as a major in the Soviet army and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men, women, and children. He asked me if “this Jesus” could forgive him of all of that. He thought forgiveness was “impossible” for him until he met Jesus that day! He became a disciple of the Lord and grew in his newfound faith and freedom in our community.

April 2002 – Orange County, California

Stephen suffered another massive internal bleed because of a later-recalled medication called Vioxx—another “impossible” situation God brought him through. Following that episode, Stephen’s knees swelled and he was only able to walk a few feet without pain. He began using a wheelchair. Watching him suffer for the next four years was “impossible” for us to deal with as his parents but for the grace of God.

May 2005 – Los Angeles, California

Our family felt the Lord wanted us to return to Hawaii—a place we’d lived before—to minister to college students. Once again, there was no way to get there and nowhere specific to land until it was God’s time. I was working then and was able to make enough for groceries and gas. I called my mentor, Bill Turner, in England. Bill told me that a man in his house church had just wired us $20,000. The man only knew of us as “Mike and Lynn in L.A.” He didn’t even know we were in the ministry. “Impossible.” Four years prior to that, Bill had said to us, “One day God’s going to bless you from England.”

January 2006 – UCLA Medical Center

On January 13, 2006, on Stephen’s 18th birthday, we were in the middle of an eighteen day stretch at the UCLA Medical Center. His health was again failing. Lynn was sleeping in our van in the hospital parking lot so she wouldn’t have to drive through L.A. traffic for an hour to see him. When Stephen was later discharged to await his second liver transplant, we left as a family to live in a hotel the next county over. Three weeks later a Christian businessman who did not know us called to offer his home until Stephen got better. He’d read the seventh iteration of a forwarded email of ours asking for prayer. “Impossible.”

Matthew 19:26: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”