Being self-employed has its worries--health costs aren't one of them. 

Our income may go up and down from month to month--but not our peace of mind. Not since we started to participate in Medi-Share. Medi-Share is a community of believers who share each other’s medical expenses. We take care of each other. Encourage each other. Pray for each other. We love knowing that even when we have no needs of our own to submit, our contribution goes to help another family who shares our faith— not to mention our healthy lifestyle. And because Medi-Share is a not for profit, it’s far more affordable than insurance. After all, when you’re young and self-employed, every dollar counts. That’s why we count on Medi-Share.

One moment I was skiing, the next I was falling!

My husband and I have been self-employed for years so insurance coverage was always a big concern for our family. We had insurance, but it was so expensive and such a drain on our finances. Finding out about Christian Care Ministry was something of a divine intervention. In fact, I truly feel God led us to Medi-Share. In 1999, I was returning home from a trip and happened to hear a commercial for Medi-Share on the radio. I was intrigued and when I got home I called the 800 number for more information. Ray and I were really impressed with the Ministry and we liked the idea of an organization that helped Christians share medical bills. So we joined.

In April of 2000 I suffered a terrible accident while on a ski trip with my family. One moment I was skiing, the next I was falling. As I fell, I heard a pop in my knee and knew it was bad. The staff at Christian Care was great. That was such a relief and it freed me to concentrate on healing.

That process turned out to be more complicated than expected. The fall tore my ACL and I had to undergo reconstructive knee surgery to repair the damage. Unfortunately, complications from the surgery hampered my recovery. I was in a lot pain and my leg wouldn't function properly. I ended up having extensive physical therapy for over a year.

CCM was really wonderful throughout this entire ordeal. The doctors at CCM were especially helpful. They gave me exercises to do and never failed to encourage me or answer any questions. At this point I feel as if I've known them all my life. I even called Dr. Evans recently because I was experiencing knee pain again and he told me exactly what to do to relieve it.

Between the surgery and the extensive therapy, I think the total cost of my accident was around $25,000. Medi-Share participants shared that cost and we are so grateful, but what really touched my heart was the spiritual support I received. The caring staff at Medi-Share called many times and no matter whom it was, he or she always ended our conversation with prayer. The prayers were so spirit-filled and I could tell the staff really lived what they were praying. What a blessing Christian Care Medi-Share has been!

I am not sure I can adequately communicate what an amazing experience I have had all because of breast cancer.

My first symptom appeared in January of 2005, but I didn't get the diagnosis until mid-March. The earliest surgeon's appointment was interestingly timed-one day before Cy left for the only missions trip he would participate in for the whole year (late March)! We were told surgery could wait until his return, and so we both felt the trip could be carried out, and waited until after his return to begin making decisions.

Some of my warmest memories are of the relationships developed with our "insurance alternative", Christian Care Medi-Share. We immediately began a phone dialogue with Medi-Share physicians who helped us sort out the huge volume of info we instantly received from all the specialists I was seeing. Many phone calls later, and after several appointments with excellent surgeons, I had surgeries in May to get rid of the cancer and to check the lymph nodes (which were negative!). These were day surgeries, and I recovered quickly and in time for something very special. I applied and was approved by Medi-Share to attend an 18 day program at Eden Valley Lifestyle Center in Loveland, CO, along with Cy, all expenses paid. The purpose of sending a member is to raise the immune system, teach the 8 natural laws of health, and learn healthy lifestyle choices (including a strong exercise program and a delicious plant based diet cooking classes too). Since we are applying all this teaching, Christian Care Ministry expects that the whole family can avoid more health problems as we age.

After returning from Eden Valley, I began 6 weeks of radiation. The decision to do this was an ordeal in itself, since I was considering advice from both traditional and alternative doctors. In the end we made one decision (not feeling sure about its "rightness", but praying that God would show us if it was the wrong choice). He (God) very clearly corrected us one hour later (that's another story and a special memory), and so I began radiation the next week. Each day as I traveled to my early morning five-minute appointment, I would purposely put myself into God's hands, praying and memorizing scripture verses as I drove and then as I lay on the treatment table for the painless 2-3 minutes of radiation. Out in the parking lot before leaving, I enjoyed a few more quiet moments, where, each day I knew I was being pursued and sheltered by God himself. These, perhaps, are the deepest, warmest memories of my entire life and I'm tearful just thinking about His nearness and His commitment to my good. Physically, I was feeling more energetic and refreshed than before surgery!

Three months later at a check up, I was shocked again….there was more cancer which had not shown up before. Now I needed a really big surgery with six to 8 weeks of recovery. Many people, including my Medi-Share representative, Imelda, prayed and cared for me.

Fast forward to 2009. I’m healthy and well and lead an active lifestyle, and I praise God for that amazing experience of sensing that I was like a fragile bird in His big strong hands. During your hard times, don’t be afraid to trust God in your struggles. You may be as weak as a baby bird, but He is a great strong faithful God.

Christian Care Ministry had doctors I could call to talk to ... people I could pray with and know they really cared.

Last week I was in Omaha. They said I was still cancer free and didn’t have to go back until October which will be the one year anniversary of the Stem cell transplant. It’s a miracle –

So what did Christian Care Medi-Share tell you about me? A crazy chiropractor – health nut – disciplined at exercise and stretching gets cancer. How unpredictable. All the statistics were wrong for me to get Mantle Cell lymphoma. I was the unexpected gender, too young, too hydrated, too healthy, too everything – but there you go – got it anyway.

That’s what you need insurance for right? But mom and I are both self-employed – 3 kids, 2 in college – one in high school – Normal health insurance was $800 - $1,000 dollars a month. We could not have afforded that and we could not have afforded all this medical care either. We would have had to sell the house, both cars and empty all our accounts. Just the P.E.T (Position Emission Topography) was about $3,000. I had never been in the hospital except to have my 3 children. They had me in there about 38 times and then I went to Omaha for 6 weeks. The treatment is so scary it’s like looking at a shark in the jaws and hearing a voice say “Go on in you’ll probably come out alive!”

Christian Care Ministry had doctors I could call to talk to. They had people on the other end of their phone number. People I could pray with and know they really cared because we all considered ourselves brothers and sisters. As a doctor I work with many insurance companies. I really consider Christian Care Medi-Share above them all.

I'm so grateful to the members of Christian Care Medi-Share.  Thank you.  You are a true blessing - to both of us.

Pastor Nick Stutesman and his wife Kim were getting ready for bed after the Wednesday church service at Sunrise Bible Church on Sept. 6, 2006.  Pastor Nick had just preached a message on the subject of healing.  At 10:40 that night they were both in bed when Kim grabbed her head with both hands crying, “Oh, my head.”  Suddenly she began breathing heavily, was incoherent, her face went rigid and realizing he couldn’t use his fingers, he used a toothbrush to keep her from biting her tongue.  Suddenly she stopped breathing.  He immediately began saying, “Kim, you will breathe in the name of Jesus; I rebuke death and command you to live.”

She began breathing again.  “I knew that something had happened in her brain to cause her to stop breathing,” said Pastor Nick, “so, I commanded her to breathe and live speaking the words of Psalm 118:7, ‘You shall Live and not Die’.”

Pastor Nick called 911 and the ambulance arrived within seven minutes.  Kim was taken to Lake Regional Hospital where a CAT Scan was done.  The emergency room doctor told Pastor Nick that she had hemorrhaged a “significant amount of blood” to her brain.  She was flown by ‘Staff for Life’ to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, MO where there is a special neuro-trauma department and ICU.

The aneurysm in Kim’s head had ruptured, pouring a tremendous amount of blood into the space around her brain.  “The admitting neurosurgeon told us that 50% of people with an aneurysm do not make it to the emergency room and diagnosis because of the hemorrhaging,” said Pastor Nick.  “The brain requires 30% of the body’s blood, even though it accounts for only 3% to 5% of the body’s mass.”

Due to further deterioration, Kim was eventually put in a medical coma to try and stabilize her.  Within 36 hours not only had her other symptoms not subsided, she had also suffered a bi-lateral stroke in the frontal lobes of her brain.  The neurosurgeon said, “I can’t begin to tell you how devastating this is.  She will not be able to walk, talk, or move her arms.  If she is able to speak, it will be halting or broken patterns.  She may have limited movement of her arms.  Her personality will definitely be different.”

“I heard what the doctors said, but I chose to believe what the Word of God said.  I was struggling with how to help the staff see that things could be different.  I wanted only words of life to be spoken to her soul, spirit and flesh, but at that point I was only allowed to be with Kim in ICU for two and a half hours a day.  So I went to the nursing staff and asked for unlimited access to my wife’s bedside saying, ‘I understand that the doctors have done all they can do.  I would like to have unlimited access to my wife to pray and speak scriptures to her’.”

On Saturday, Kim began developing pneumonia so the medical coma was stopped.  That afternoon Pastor Nick went outside to walk and pray.  “How can I get the staff to speak life to my wife?” he asked God.

It was a hot September day and Pastor Nick began to sweat.  The head reminded him of a boy that had a heat stroke in the Bible and died.  “As I thought of the boy in the field who grabbed his head crying, ‘My head, my head!’ I realized he must have had an aneurysm just as Kim had experienced,” said Pastor Nick. “The boy died and it was his mother’s faith that brought him back to life.  Kim’s body was shutting down.  She was dying.  I got my bible and read II Kings 4.  After he died, his mother placed him in the upper room and did not speak of his death, instead by faith she said, ‘It is well’.”

“I made some posters that said, “The family requests that ‘It Is Well’ be spoken over Kim” and took them to the ICU staff.  I opened my Bible and showed the nurse the story of the boy.

“Doesn’t it look like he had an aneurysm to you?” I asked.
“It sure does.” the nurse said.
“Was the boy dead?” I asked.

“He sure was,” she responded.  I directed her attention to the part in the story where the mother said ‘It Is Well’.  Not once did she speak of her son’s death.  She believed God would raise him up using the prophet Elisha.  “So, was the boy healed?”

“Yes he was,” said the nurse.

Using the backdrop of the story, Pastor Nick beseeched the nurse on his wife’s behalf.  “Would you let me put these posters up all around my wife’s bed?  Would you speak ‘It Is Well,’ when you are in her presence?”  The nurse agreed to let Pastor Nick display the sign and promised to speak the words uttered in faith from the Bible, “It Is Well.”

Pastor Nick went on to tell each shift of nurses his desire that “It Is Well” be spoken to Kim.

After a few days Kim’s spasms had stopped but the damage from the stroke was still apparent.  The doctors didn’t see any hope of change and gave me 48 hours to assemble family so that long-term healthcare decisions could be made.  His specific statement was, ‘The lights aren’t on.’”  In subsequent tests, we also learned that her organs were shutting down.

The doctors’ lack of encouragement and his specific statement became the focal point of my prayer that next day,” said Pastor Nick.  “ I sensed the staff withdrawing in preparation for the worst.  I began to pray along the lines of Psalm 18:28 ‘For you will light Kim’s lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten Kim’s darkness.’”

The following day the ICU nurses greeted him saying, “Kim is doing well.”

At first, Pastor Nick thought they were speaking the words of faith he had encouraged them to say.  Then they told him that she was moving her finger and blinking to their commands.  This meant her mind was responding; she was not a vegetable.  As she progressed through the day, the excitement of the staff was visible.  By the next morning, Kim was sitting up and watching TV.

The light of Kim Stutesman shines today for all of us to see the great power of God to heal and restore.  She walks, talks, laughs and plays the piano.  She has all of her functions and according to the medical staff and the doctors, she is a walking miracle.

“The word of God is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, “said Pastor Nick.  “It is the Word of God that heals and gives life.”  Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 55:11.

Dealing with the Medi-Share staff has been great! This is one of the very few organizations where I know I am talking to a real person who is speaking to me as a brother or sister in Christ.

I was working alone on the roof of a 100 year old commercial building near Cape Cod. I had called a friend (and brother in Christ) to come up on the roof to visit me. It was a very sunny day with little wind. I was dragging a 36-foot long sheet of roofing material, when I caught a glimpse of my friend, Ron, walking on the roof two floors below me.

I was walking backwards and thought I had another five or ten feet to go, wrong! I stepped off the roof and found myself out there like Wile E. Coyote; then gravity kicked in. I had enough presence of mind to swing my arms in an attempt to land flat on my back, rather than on my head. It hurt when I hit and I could not feel my legs. Ron took off for help. As I lay there on the roof, I went into a prayer state. I was reciting in my mind some verses form Jeremiah 17," Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and in whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when the heat cometh." I was actually so comforted, I fell asleep for a few moments.

The Onset Fire Department and EMTs did a wonderful job of lowering me down from the roof to the ground level. I had eight broken vertebra and during a 9-hour surgery, it was necessary to fuse five of them with bone from my hip and a combination of two eight inch long titanium rods and ten three inch long screws. I was confined to a back brace for three months, but I did have a full recovery. I have no pain.

Dealing with the Medi-Share staff has been great! This is one of the very few organizations where I know I am talking to a real person who is speaking to me as a brother or sister in Christ. When my back was injured, I was very fortunate to be a member of CCM. Sharing with the Members of Medi-Share gives me joy and gives them hope.

It's a real community of believers who are united in heart and service.

Medi-Share isn’t just an affordable way for Christians to share their medical expenses —it’s a real community of believers who are united in heart and service. We covenant to share our funds, and carry one another’s burdens. In our family, we sit around the dinner table with our kids and pray regularly for the folks on Medi-Share’s “Special Blessings” list—families we’ve never even met and that’s a ministry to our own children. I imagine the apostle Paul would have really appreciated Medi-Share. If you look at theprinciples he gave us, that’s what the body of Christ is all about—believers sharing with believers. Sure, the way Medi-Share serves us is wonderful. But the way we get to serve each other is fantastic.

The Lord comforted us with His word

We arrived in Tennessee at the end of April, 1995. We lived in a motel for a month while looking for a home to rent. During that time, Rex noticed a painful growth on his right testicle. After an unsuccessful round of antibiotics prescribed by a local MD, we were referred to a urologist who informed us that it was most likely a malignant tumor. He strongly recommended the removal of the testicle. A second opinion from a Vanderbilt University urologist suggested the same course of action. Less than 24 hours later Rex was in surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center. A biopsy of the tumor confirmed it to be malignant - embryonal cell carcinoma, to be exact.

Less than one week later, a CT scan revealed that the cancer had spread into Rex's lymph system. This was the news most difficult to receive. Our oncologist informed us at this time that Rex would need to undergo an intense chemotherapy program. It was at this time that we hit our knees big time. We didn't feel at peace undergoing chemotherapy, yet how could we turn away from what our doctor said was our only hope? Praise Him who is the great Physician! In our weakness and fear, the Lord comforted us with His word from Isaiah: 'Do not fear, for I am with you.

During this confusing time, a newfound friend (we call her our angel in disguise) lent us half a dozen books and several videos on alternative cancer therapies. We began devouring them -- asking the Lord to guide and direct us. God did indeed answer our prayers and guided us to an alternative therapy. The results? In January of 1996 the CT scan revealed tumor shrinkage and in April of 1996 the CT scan revealed total remission!

God's word says we are wonderfully and fearfully made. He has given each one of us a fabulous internal army (our immune system) that can fight against invaders when it is strengthened and built up. After 12 years, Rex continues to get a clean bill of health from our oncologist every year – for this we give God immense thanksgiving and all the glory! Rex and Julie C.

We are grateful to report that all of our bills have been shared by Medi-Share Members.

I collapsed on the entryway floor of our home in Luverne, Minnesota. For several minutes I lay there in a semi-conscious state, unable to get up.

Fortunately, our church secretary had stopped to check out a television we had offered her son. I had just taken on a new pastorate in the Twin Cities area, so we were in the middle of moving. She acted quickly to call 911, and my wife Stephanie who was in the cities working on our new home. I was able to talk with Stephanie on the phone and told her, "I think I am dying." She immediately began the four hour journey back to Luverne. Prayer chains at several churches had already been started.

I was airlifted to the Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD where they discovered I had suffered a ruptured, dissecting aorta. After six hours of intense surgery that involved replacing a section of the aorta and implanting a mechanical aortic valve, I was sent to recovery in a stable but critical condition. About thirty minutes later, my heart suddenly stopped beating. Once again they opened me up, this time to massage my heart to revive its natural function. The Lord answered the desperate prayers of my family and friends to spare my life.

Finally, after six long weeks, I was released from the hospital. As we expected, our hospital, doctor and rehabilitation expenses were enormous because of the intensity and length of medical treatment needed. We are grateful to report that all of our bills have been shared by Medi-Share Members. We thank the Lord for our friends at the Christian Care Ministry for the encouragement, care and support we have received since we have become members and especially during this past year.

Their prayers were right on time!

If God closes doors, he always opens others and Medi-Share and the Restore Program were just that for my husband and I. Kevin had been getting into sloppy eating habits and putting on weight that just didn't seem to come off. He knew he had to do something and we started to pray. I lost my job and we couldn't do the Cobra insurance payment. I had graduated from a Mennonite college, years before, and had participated in their medical sharing program, and loved it, but after I left college didn't have the option available to me. My Administrative Pastor called one morning after my quiet time and asked me how he could be of assistance to me today and I said, "Do you know any insurance companies?" He said well, "I am checking out something called Medi-Share."

Helpful and prayerful people sent us the information and then came the GREAT NEWS not to be confused with the GOOD NEWS that Kevin was getting a health coach and he had to start a process of re-thinking his health habits. We were elated, accountability, with people trained to help people get past the hurdles. Matt and Angela tagged teamed my husband with incredible results. Their prayers were right on time. We definitely had some ups and downs in the process but right at the year mark, Kevin was able to put the extra effort in to make the push to reaching his health goals. What are the benefits of something like this program?  Knees that don't hurt, sleeping better, getting the fruit and vegetable glow to your skin and eyes and knowing you aren't hurting yourself with bad food choices.