My Testimony: What God Has Done for Me

By Lelia Ann Ohlund

My awesome stories of testimony are about God saving me from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, saving my life when I hydroplaned up the road in the wrong lane going backward toward oncoming traffic, sending me angels with messages of peace and hope, healing my body after a chiropractic accident, blessing me with wise advice for taking care of a new mother, giving me peace after my mastectomy, prompting me when members of my family needed me, protecting me when I fell off the bathtub, and helping me when I lost my cell phone, was targeted by purse thieves, tithed, and bought a car.

The purpose of my book is to lovingly, publicly, and lavishly thank God for what he has done for me and to leave my Christian testimony as my legacy to our children, grandchildren, and you. While reading MY TESTIMONY, you will learn more about God’s blessings, and you will think about the legacy that you are leaving for your family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jul 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781489704641

Lelia Ann Ohlund

Lelia Ann Ohlund completed an M.A. plus thirty hours at Arizona State University in education, taught public school for twenty-five years, taught Sunday School thirty-two years, and now—married fifty-four years—enjoys retirement with her husband, Jerry. They live in Peoria, Arizona, near their precious daughters and five grandchildren.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 Lelia Ann Ohlund.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0463-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0464-1 (e)

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 07/29/2015

Contents

1   God Saved Me From Drowning In the Mediterranean Sea

2   God Saved My Life When I Hydroplaned

3   My 2 A.M. Angel in the Hospital With God’s Message of Peace and My New Doctor

4   My Angel on the Airplane With God’s Message of Hope

5   I Was Blessed With Wise Advice For Taking Care of a New Mother

6   God Gave Me Peace After My Mastectomy

7   The Holy Spirit Prompted Me To Go to My Mother

8   The Holy Spirit Prompted Me To Take Diane to Her Doctor

9   The Holy Spirit Prompted Me To Hurry Home to Jerry

10   God Protected Me From Injury When I Fell Off the Bathtub

11   God Cared That My Cell Phone Was Missing

12   God Kept Me Safe At the Grocery Store

13   My Angel in a Department Store With God’s Message About Tithing

14   God Led Me To My New Car

DEDICATION

My family encouraged me in the writing of MY TESTIMONY. I love my family!

PREFACE

MY TESTIMONY is fourteen awesome stories about what God has done for me. Each story began as a thank-you note to God, which I wrote or scribbled onto whatever sheet or scrap of paper was handy, to thank God immediately for a blessing, miracle, or good and perfect thing that I knew he was responsible for in my life. I chose from my huge collection of thank-you notes the ones that I wanted to elaborate on and tell with enough detail to show how amazing God can be and how perfect his timing is when he chooses to bless us.

My twofold purpose in writing this book is to give God thanks, praise, and glory, in writing, for how generous he has been to me and to leave my Christian testimony, in writing, as my legacy to our children, grandchildren, future generations, and you. I want to express how much I love, adore, praise, thank, honor, and worship God. All of us leave a legacy, but it is our choice as to what kind of legacy it will be. I want my children and grandchildren to remember me as praying, Bible reading, generous, thankful, joyful, intelligent, and saying to each of them, I love you.

All fourteen chapters of MY TESTIMONY are suitable for a small group to discuss, choosing from such topics as rescue, angels, healing, peace, hope, promptings, protection, using money wisely, blessings, thanking God, scripture, prayer, testimony, legacy, and inspiration. Each chapter is an excellent devotion because each chapter contains scripture. The small size of MY TESTIMONY makes it easy to take with you, and it is wonderful for gift giving at Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and other occasions.

In reading my book, some people will not understand it, will not believe it, will consider God’s blessings to be coincidences, or might even be offended by parts of it because God gave each of us free will and the choice as to whether or not to believe in Him. My fourteen stories show you why I believe.

Some of you will say, Yes! God did that for me, too! I could have written this book! If you want to write your own book about God’s blessings, do not give up. I did not find time to write when I was a busy daughter, sister, elementary school student, friend, high school and college student, wife, mother, graduate student, grandmother, elementary school teacher for twenty-five years, Sunday school and Bible study teacher for thirty-two years, and an immaculate housekeeper. At the age of seventy-three, I finally gave myself permission to make writing this book a top priority in my life.

I do not know why God has blessed me so abundantly, because in times of weakness, I can be unloving and unlovable.

I do know that God loves us so much that he gave his only Son for us. John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I love God and believe in his only son, Jesus, who was obedient to his father God even unto a death of excruciating torture and humiliation on the cross. I believe that he did it for me. I believe that he did it for you. I believe that God raised his obedient son, Jesus, from the dead and that God seated Jesus at his right hand in heaven. (Ephesians 1:20)

While reading MY TESTIMONY, you will learn more about God’s blessings, and you will think about the legacy that you are leaving for your family.

God Saved Me From Drowning

In the Mediterranean Sea

In l988, while on the Holy Land Trip with our pastor, Dr. Paul, and his lovely wife, he announced to all of us on the bus that in the very next town we would check into our hotel and then go for an afternoon swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

My exhausted husband stayed in the hotel for a