Catherine & Steven Reese: Top Of The Mountain

CBN.com "We were very busy," Catherine Reese remembers. "We owned a business out of town. We commuted back and forth. We had employees. We were constantly keeping up with what they were doing, keeping up with what the children were doing, and just trying to balance both sides."

Even with their busy schedules, Catherine and Steven Reese also took time to minister to people in the Appalachian Mountains. But in 1999 strange illnesses began to slow down Catherine's energetic and generous life-style.

"I had some weakness," Catherine recalls. "I had some numbness in my different extremities. I was actually miscalculating distances. I would walk into door jams. And I ignored all these different symptoms because I was so busy. But I had headaches, unbelievable headaches."

The symptoms went on for months. Then one Friday, Catherine started having problems seeing out of her right eye.

"It was like looking through clear water, just these squiggly lines, like looking under water. I thought, 'Wow, this is strange.' And then Saturday it was like looking through muddy water."

By Sunday, a week before Easter, Catherine's right eye had gone completely blind. Then she began losing sight in her left eye as well. The next morning she went to the eye doctor. After the exam, the doctor pulled Stephen and Catherine aside.

The doctor took them into a little room and said, "Catherine, your eye is hemorrhaging. Your disc is off to the left. There is pressure. There's damage. There is something we have to immediately look in to, and I've already made appointments for you to go to these other two doctors."

He explained that there's usually only two things that causes this type of symptom; the onset of MS, or a mass behind your eye, a brain tumor.

"At that point I was grasping for the faith that I knew I was going to have to have," Steven explains, "but I was not able to really speak it yet. It was a shock."

But by the time they got into their SUV their faith replaced their fears. Catherine, barely able to see, reached for their Bible.

"I just picked it up and opened it, and I said, 'Just read right here.' And he took it, and I had my finger on it, and it was

. It said, 'You shall not die, you shall live and declare the works of the Lord.' And I was like, 'Thank You. I needed to hear that.'"

"It was a tearful moment for both of us," Steven remembers. "It was one of confirmation that we were at a place in our faith that was in agreement with His Word."

From there they went to a neurologist. The diagnosis was the same go blind from MS or die from a brain tumor.

Steven and Catherine knew there was only one thing they could do -- they called their family and asked for prayer. At home, Steven humbly and expectantly prayed over Catherine.

"He laid his hands on my head and was just praying. He was speaking life. And while he was doing this, you've heard about people talking about the audible voice of God, well, I heard the voice of God. But I heard it in my heart. He told me very distinctively to go to the top of the mountain."

"So I sat up, and I told Steven, 'I think God just told me to go to the top of the mountain!' He answered, 'Well then we're going to the top of the mountain!'"

"I just believe that at that time we were ultra-sensitive in the Spirit to what He was calling us to do," says Steven.

"We asked Phillip, our middle son, to go for a walk with us," Catherine remembers. "So Phillip was on one side, and Steven was on the other. And it took me a little while to get up there because I had this weakness, and I got tired very easily. So I had to stop. But they walked me up to the top of this mountain. And I asked them to leave me alone for a few minutes. And I just looked out at this vas valley that God has placed us on top of, and I just looked up and said, "Lord, you know, I'll come home if you want me to, but I want to stay. My husband is a minister. I want to stay and support him and raise my children. So, I'm going to trust You."

"I stood up, and I held my hands up, and I said, 'By His stripes we were healed. In the name of Jesus I claim healing. In the name of Jesus.' I said Jesus twice. And the second time I said Jesus the hand of God that you can not see but can only feel just touched me. It was like being electrocuted, but not being burned. It was just hot. And then as quickly as that heat came into me, cool came right back through. It was a cool breeze. I could only describe it as a fresh breeze of cool air just washed the warmth out. And then this love just poured into me."

Stephen describes the scene. "When we got back to Catherine and she shouted out that, telling us what had just happened, I remember saying, 'I know. I know,' because in my spirit I knew. I didn't even have to hear everything she was telling me, because I already knew."

"I was still blind in my right eye," says Catherine, "but I knew I had been healed, because with that pouring of love all my energy just came right back, and I felt like I had felt when I was 22-years-old."

Catherine went for a CAT scan, but it showed up negative. Puzzled by their findings, doctors scheduled her for an MRI that Thursday.

"The technician walked out with a smile on his face and said, 'Mrs. Reese, that's the most beautiful MRI I have ever seen.' And Steven and I just looked at each other and we're just praising God right in the middle of these people! That was the MRI that would have shown the tumor, that would've shown MS, that would've shown anything, any damage!"

With the doctors still baffled, and Catherine still blind in her right eye, Easter morning arrived.

"I was in my sister's home Sunday morning,' Catherine remembers, "and my niece had bought a beautiful butterfly balloon and had attached it to my bed. I looked up, and I covered my left eye, and my right eye was perfect. And the first thing I did was hit the floor praising God."

That was the most beautiful balloon that Catherine had ever seen.

"It was so beautiful," Catherine explains. "The colors were magnificent. And the sun was coming through the windows. It was just so overwhelming. I called Steven and I said I got my sight back. He said, 'Praise God. I knew it was today.'"

"We just praised God," Steven adds. "We were just praising God on the telephone, and there were tears of joy from both of us. We shared in that moment together."

God used this experience to change Catherine and Steven's lives in amazing ways. Within a year of her healing, they sold their business and devoted their lives to ministry. They started "shelter rock," an outreach to their Appalachian neighbors.

"Going through that experience really brought home one Scripture specifically," Steven explains. "Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established, which truly is a tremendous act of faith."

"I was definitely His vessel," Catherine adds. "And I was obedient. It was like, "I owe You my life Father. I owe You everything. You just use me. You just take me wherever You want me to go. And I'll speak whatever You want me to speak. I'm open to You."