tim had born he had lived not a normal life. he didn't sleep properly > for about five-six years. >> he was an inconsolable baby. he would scream and scream as though he was in pain but the doctors couldn't find >> anything wrong with him. > when he did go to sleep we were absolutely terrified he was going to wake up. we couldn't leave him. we couldn't go anywhere. we couldn't be apart from him so for many, many years that is the way that we lived. it was very, very tough on us... our relationship... because we didn't have any time for ourselves. for a long time there was not a lot of intimacy. there was not a lot of emotional connection because of...of the crisis > that we were in as a family. >> when he was about nine... eight or nine... and he hadn't been to school because we realized that he would have been diagnosed

with hyperactivity or...or...or lack of ability to concentrate because we could see he couldn't even sit down to eat a meal. he would run around the table... take him off and run on the table... and when i taught him his numbers, we would do it in garden. i would ask him a sum as he ran out in the garden and he answered coming down the garden and this is how i taught him. he never sat on my lap or lay in bed when i had a bedtime story. he would walk around the carpet, touching his favorite bits, going round and round and round, and as long as i would keep reading, he would just keep walking round and round touching his favorite bits. everything was timed so he knew where he was in the day, what was going to happen next and the routine had to be very structured. his sleeping had always been a huge issue. he would wake up after he had been asleep for an hour or two and he would jump up screaming in terror and run around the house, but he didn't recognize me. if i went towards him to comfort him, he would see me as a monster or something and he would be terrified so it was counter-productive.

i would just have to stand back and wait for him to calm down. it was just another one of the things that we just dealt with and didn't think much about, >> but it was quite an issue. > when we had james, many people said to us, you're surely not going to get another child who doesn't sleep. he sleeps as badly > as timmy did. >> i noticed one or two strange things when he got to be 18 months and then he started spinning round and round, moving his head round and when i would change his nappy, he would flap, flap, flap, flap, and then instead of pushing the cars... we had action man cars... big ones... he would turn them upside down and spin the wheels for ages, so there were a few little odd things, but not enough to really... it...i would just facilitate his peculiarities and thought it was okay, but when he stopped talking and he stopped communicating and then he stopped

liking people look at him and he became distressed with lights and then he stopped eating foods and if there was even the smallest lump in his morning porridge, he would gag and vomit it up. then we had a speech and language therapist come in to assess timothy, and there were two of them and they were chatting to tim, trying to put him at ease and stuff and then chatting to me to report back what they had found and they were watching james who was playing with his trains. he loved trains. they were his favorite toys. anyway what they said to me was ahhh...isn't it funny how autistic kids love trains? and i said, autistic kids? so she says well, it's obvious, isn't it? you did know, didn't you? i said no. he's not autistic. so she says ahhh. i think you should perhaps have him assessed. he shows a number of autistic characteristics and that's the first i had even thought of it.

>> i was absolutely gutted! >> in the days following this 2005 assessment, timothy was tested and diagnosed with a form of autism called asperger's syndrome. while his younger brother james exhibited all the symptoms of autistic >> spectrum disorder. > and we suddenly realized that gosh, we were going to have two children that got it and what were the chances > of that? >> i...i didn't know that i was really struggling. i wasn't living a normal life myself. i had lost touch with who i was. i just functioned 24 hours a day >> as caring for these boys. > so i was plowing a lot of my energies into my job because i needed to make sure that that was successful to be able to support the family.

> that meant traveling a lot. >> and i thought if anyone found out my state of mental health, they would take the children away and i was absolutely terrified of them taking the children away. but i was also terrified that i couldn' ñgo on and that's when i cried out to the lord. i said if you don't help me now, >> i...i...i'm finished! > the incredible pressure and the incredible trauma that you...you...you undergo as a family. you have to watch your... your children, the...the...the things you love most in the world... battling not just with the... the...the curse that they've got, but also being rational enough to know that they've got it and it was those periods in which debs found it the most hard, in which she had the darkest days and it was during one of those dark, dark days that she watched > the mother's day program. >> there were all mums talking about their kids and they were talking about nurturing, snapshots and pictures and talking about

which ones were doing what at school and they were chatting and it just hit me like... like a sledge hammer that what i'm experiencing and what they're experiencing are just so different and i was weeping and then i said, you know why don't you help us? i had been asking god help me for...for years and i said, i love my boys so much and you're supposed to love them more than me. why have you done this to them? and i said, i would die for my boys and that's when he said, i already did! i was so stunned i just shut up. i didn't...i stopped crying. i just looked into the fireplace and i just stared there. that really wasn't my thought, that was jesus taking to me. wow! and that's when i knew that they were alright and i thought well, he'll heal them!

i just sat there and stared at the fireplace. the tears went... the pain went... the anxiety went... the fears went. everything that had worried me over the past number of years... it was like a huge load was just cut away and i was free and i felt light and i just sat and stared into that fireplace and from that moment on, that despair... that terror... the anxiety that i had lived with >> was gone. > when timothy went to the... the school that was funded by the...the state, it was a really huge thing for us, but we felt that he was actually > quite capable of doing it. >> and as he progressed and as they imp...increased the numbers of hours he went, he was up for it and i believe that the healing just took place gradually as and when his world opened up and became wide and he needed to cope with >> more and more things. > it's almost as if he was covered in scales. he was covered in the scales of autism and over time thososscales

> have been peeled away. >> and i was saying lord, please send me someone to help me. i know you're healing my boys, but i don't know what to do and that was where we were at when my mum phoned and said, watch andrew wommack. i just got this... some healing testimonies >> and you have got to watch it. > and we all watched it together and it was just extraordinary and even that... you sit and watch it and you think, > but is it really true? >> we had missed the beginning of hannah's story, but we came in and from where we saw was enough to see what had taken place with hannah's story and the bit that struck me and was when he said, and the bit that struck me and was when he said, >> piece of cake for jesus. >> piece of cake for jesus! > this is a piece of cake > for jesus. >> and this smile crept across his face and i was like that's awesome! this guy really believes it, doesn't he, you know.ves it, and that faith >> on the inside of us rose up. so father, jamie and i just agree and we thank you that by the stripes of jesus, hannah has already been healed. >> it just my first... my faith just rose up

inside of me and i thought, yes! he's talking about my god... my one, and that's when christopher jumped up and went to check out >> the web site. > we research hannah's... hannah in the story and we found out about hannah's grandparents and hannah's mum and dad going to live in... i think in america and the...the grandparents going to the college in walsall. it didn't just have an impact on hannah. it had an impact on this incredible family, you know, and...and they were all... they had all experienced it and they had all gone through this process and again you're then thinking to yourself, wow! you know, maybe this... maybe this is all true... maybe this is really happening and from that point on started to watch andrew wommack every day. but we bought all his books or as many books as we could get. i am starting to record his programs... watch them on the internet and we started to build a kind of trust i suppose in what he was saying and in what he was saying, > we could have. >> and he shouted from the study, he's going to be in walsall in two weeks. so i thought well,

we'll just have to pray about it. so i phoned andrew wommack ministries and i spoke to a woman there and i told her the situation. i said look, we want to come. we want andrew to pray for our sons but we just need some help to get there and i remember she said to me, what can you believe for? i think we can get there. i'm not sure that i can exercise my faith enough to see us getting into the building. so she said, that's fine. we'll get you there and if you can't get them out of the car, we'll send a pray team to the car. i thought yes! she prayed in a way that i had never heard before and it was great. it was authoritative. it was thanking god that it was done. it was commanding and i thought now we're talking. i have not heard this kind of praying. i was so thrilled. i put down the phone. i said she said that this is going to happen and this is going to happen and we're going to sleep and he's going to eat and christopher was like yeah, she's never met my son. and for the next two weeks, i made a calendar counting down.

this is when we were going to go and going yo stay in a hotel and he would cry every time i said it's another day and when i said no, we're going he'd get in the spinning chair and he would spin and spin and spin and he would refuse to come out for hours sometimes. but the day came and he wept and he wept and he physically was trying not to get into car. it was hard work, but i just sat down and i prayed about it and i said lord, they said that he would be able to get in the car and that he would be fine and that you would calm him and comfort him and all would be well and so we're coming and that was amazing because he just smiled up and said okay, i'm ready, let's go. and we strapped him in and he sat there. christopher and i just kept looking at each other and sort of holding our breath. it was amazing! we booked into the hotel and he was bouncing on the bed. he was really excited... like this is an adventure and once again timothy was like he couldn't believe it and we said okay, we're going to go and eat at the kentucky fried chicken

that the terradez's ate at. so we were off to the kentucky fried chicken and that's when timothy ordered himself some popcorn chicken. we didn't know what to order james so we thought well, we won't bother with anything because if we offer him food and he doesn't like it, he starts heaving. sat down and he looked at the food. there was no heaving. there was no watery eyes and that he would normally have with cooking smells. he sat there. he looked at the popcorn chicken. he said, what's that? and he said, it's something called popcorn chicken. he said ohhh...chicken! chicken! and he had one. mmmm...he said, timmy, mine and he ate and when he was finished he said more...more. he ate a second lot. he probably ate more than i had ever seen him eat in one sitting ever. he ate the chips. he ate the chicken. and... we...christopher and i were just laughing and said it's a miracle and we haven't even got there yet! and it was an answer to prayer. it was what she had prayed was happening,

and so then we got to the meeting and he was absolutely fine to come out of the car. we sat in the coffee shop. it...it was tea time and there was this long queue of people. they wanted andrew to sign books or pray for them and what have you. i called christopher and he got james and all four of us stood in that queue and it was moving slowly along and there were about five people in front of us when andrew said, alright. it's time to get back. tea break's over. will everyone please go and sit down. i was like no! no...no...no...no! and i started crying. i just...it was like the taps just opened up, but no! i'm not going home now. i'm not! i'm not! i'm not going home now. i said, oh lord help me... help me...help me. i'm not going home without this man praying for my sons and then that was when herabbed us and he shoved us in front of andrew and he said, andrew, just one more. and he said right... okay, one more and we told him the situation and he said a prayer something along the lines. it was literally as quick as this. he rebuked autism and he commanded healing

and then he blessed us as a family and he thanked the lord that we were blessed and that we would... something along the lines of... of fulfill the...the god's plan for our lives. and then he said to christopher and i and this was so huge... he said to christopher and i, you are now the parents of normal healthy children and ahhh... everything happened too quickly, i remember hearing that like the whole world went quiet and it was just these words and it was alive to me and i still believe it was jesus talking to me and so that was a promise. that was a promise. that...i...that was for me and i knew that he was right and i was so moved and we slipped out a side door, got in the car and we went to mcdonald's where james ate the chicken nuggets and the chips, a thing he never had eaten before. well, he had never eaten and we went home. he went across the road to the little girl who he had known but hadn't played with for over a year... invited her around

and they played in the sandpit, on the trampoline, in the garden. he played for the rest of the afternoon and that was the time that he had the first complete full peaceful unbroken night's sleep since the day he was born and he was five years old >> at that point. > but when three months later he's still sleeping well. when six months later... when a year later... two years later, he's still sleeping well and he...and he's starting to become the child that you thought that you knew was there but you couldn't reach because of autism. you believe in it and believe in the process and those experiences have allowed us to start to live a normal...a more normal life. so for me it was very important for us to...to take the boys back to the psychologist... the people who diagnosed him in the first place, because we...we knew there was something wrong with him, but we didn't label them

asperger's and autism. that was done by su...the... the professionals. he was taken to see the psychologist and she spent an hour with him... an hour and a half chatting to him and at the end of it, there was no... there was no battle. there was no fight. it was patently obvious that he wasn't the boy that had been diagnosed all those years ago and what they said in the official medical report... confidential medical report from the nhs trust where we lived... was that timothy is a neurodeveopmentally typical young man and the label of asperger's syndrome is not applicable. he has been discharge from my care. and that is... to see it written down... to see it's... and i know this sounds awful... but to see it official really, really brings it home. so as james developed and as james came out e sa as well illnessth

and we were expecting probably an even worse fight for james because we thought again we're going to take on the might of the state here and these professionals aren't keen on being proven wrong, particularly with something like autism because it is regarded as being something that can't be cured and so when we went to see the psychologist, she said well, this is wrong. this diagnosis is...is...is... is obviously not... not applicable to him. he's a normal boy! he's...he's perfectly capable of dealing and being what you would regard as...as normal. so she wrote in her official confidential psychology report that we only had last week as the result of our discussions and my interactions and observations with james during our appointment, it is clear there has been... been significant progress over time in all areas associated with the triad... triad of impairment with autism. as a result, the label of autism spectrum disorder is no longer appropriate for james

and should be removed from any documentation in the future that relates to him. and you just...you know, you can't want to read that. you just...actually i just want to start... i just want to start crying really because it's just... it's not just what we've experienced and it's not just that we know it, but because this is now official it means that forever and ever so when we've gone. when the boys are men... when they're old and they're gray, they will not have this with them. they will not have carried this burden that they've had to carry in their young lives. they are free of it and the...the authorities if you like have recognized that as well and they won't be persecuted or hindered in any way for what has happened when they were children, and...and i supposed for us... well, for me certainly that's the best thing that we could do for them. the best thing that we can do for both boys is to give them a future that we didn't think that they were going to have and this gives us that future.

sometimes you...you have to pinch yourself to think well, are we...am i actually with the same two children, you know, that were born to me because the...the change in... in the way that we play and the change in the way that they relate to me > is...is very pronounced. >> and i used to dream about all four of us going out to dinner together and...and not worrying about anything, just like a normal family. i used to dream that if we're invited out to fam... to other people's houses, we would all just go and it would be fine. there wouldn't be any... no fallout... nothing! we would just be able to go. i used to dream about going to the cinema and eating popcorn and boys eating popcorn and watching a movie together as a family. all...none of these things had we ever done before, but we went to the cinema. we bought the popcorn. we did it just as i had imagined. we are a normal family and i am the mother of normal, healthy children just like andrew said. so that's it! happy! happy!

>> the story you saw on today's program is included, along with four additional healing testimonies, on the healing journeys volume 4 dvd. this dvd is available for a gift of any amount when you contact us. or you can get this product as part of the healing journeys package which includes 4 dvds - healing journeys volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4. these 4 dvds contain a total of 19 healing testimonies that will inspire your faith and help you reach out to receive all that god has for you. the entire package has a catalog value of $100. but today you can get the healing journeys package for a gift of just $65 or more.

go to awmi.net and click on today's tv offer to see all the ways you can get these products. we would also like to remind you that we are offering andrew's latest book titled how to find, follow, and fulfill god's will for a gift of any amount. contact us today to get your copy. you can use your credit card to order resources through our web site at awmi.net. while you're there, you can discover more product details and download many free resources. or you can order through our helpline monday through friday from 4:30am to 9:30pm mountain time. our helpline number is 719-635-1111. if the lines are busy, remember - you can order ministry materials 24-hours a day, 7 days a week at awmi.net. to write us, use the address on your screen. we appreciate your generosity and hope to hear from you today.

we would like to point out andrew's upcoming speaking schedule. mark your calendars to come meet andrew at one of these events. in the month of september he'll be in colorado springs, colorado. in october he'll be in walsall, england, victor harbor, south australia, melbourne, victoria, australia, and in carrara, gold coast, queensland, australia. for more details on andrew's next meeting in your area visit our web site >> at awmi.net. as you can tell, i'm not in our studio today, but instead, we are up in woodland park, colorado at the place that i have named "the sanctuary". and we're in the process of building a charis bible college facility, and i am just convinced that this is what god has led me to do. i spent four hours today ministering in our charis bible college and i tell you, it's... it's exciting. i had a number of people come up to me and just tell about how this had just totally changed their life.

and we see this happen every single day. so i am commted to taking the things that god has shown me and putting it into this bible college, and so this is the first step. and i believe that together we are going to get it done and god is going to be changing people's lives. >> now is the time to call, write, or go to our web site to join our family of ministry supporters. andrew is appealing to those of you who have been touched by this ministry to help him build this building debt free. he is not asking those of you who haven't benefited from the gospel truth broadcasts to do anything, but if the lord has used andrew to touch your life, he is asking you to respond financially and help him build this building and equip thousands of new ministers with the good news gospel. this is laying the foundation for a gospel revolution which we pray will shake the body of christ. the bottom line is that

this goal is within reach for all of us. don't miss your opportunity to become a world changer today. every gift makes you a vital part of everything taking place at the new charis bible college campus. remember, you are the key, >> and there is no plan b.

>> announcer: the following program is paid for by the friends and partners of joyce meyer ministries.

[music] >> joyce: let me ask you a question. what all has happened to you in your life when jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat? anybody? anybody had any sad, bad, painful things happen to you and it just seemed to you like god wasn't there? come on, let's see your hands if that's the case. well, you know what? that kind of stuff happens to everybody. it's a test of our faith and we have to be able to get through those things and say, "i don't care what it looks like. i don't care what i feel. i don't care what i see. i don't care how long it takes. god is my answer to everything in life. i believe in god and i'm not gonna lose my peace." >> [applauding] >> joyce: and i could go through a lot of other stuff, but i'm gonna leave it go at that and just simply say, please, if you're watching by tv, if you're listening to a recorded message, if you're here in this

wonderful place today. you're sitting out in one of the overflow rooms. if you're even a teensy, teensy, tiny bit offended at god, leave it, let it go, drop it, and make complete peace with god. and just simply say, "you know, god, i don't understand it, but the truth is, i don't have to understand it. i'm not in charge, you are. i belong to you and i trust you enough to believe that whatever happens, you're gonna work it out for good. you're gonna turn it around and make it right." listen, i still don't understand why kids go through abuse. to me, it's the most despicable thing i've ever seen, but the bible promises us that god will give us double blessing for our former trouble if we go according to his plan. and i'll tell you what, god has way more than made up to me for anything that i went through. anything i was ever missing, i've got it back 100 times over right now in my life, and god wants to do the same thing for you, amen?

come on, payday's coming, amen? friday's on the way, hallelujah. yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, there's lots of other good things in there. now, we talked last night about having peace with ourselves, about how important it is to be your own best friend, other than jesus. you need to be your own best friend. now, you know, dave is my best friend as far as a person. i have children that are my best friends. but to be honest, when push comes to shove, you gotta be your own best friend, because you never know when somebody else is gonna disappoint you or not be there for you. sometimes they don't even realize that they're not being there for you, but we all know that we get hurt and disappointed by people. well, you know what? if you're against yourself, you're in for a hard ride, and so many people are not at peace with themselves. let's just step out here a little bit and just ask, how many of you have this little private war going on with you all the time? see, come on,

that's half the people at least, and probably some of the rest of you haven't decided yet if you're bold enough to put your hand up. don't like yourself. some people get into self-hatred. all you do is think about what all you do wrong all the time. you don't know how to encourage yourself in the lord. i believe that we need to be bold enough to understand that we have weaknesses, but we also have strengths. you don't have to just sit around and think about your weaknesses all the time. you can also think about your strengths. how many of you have got some things you're good at? well, why don't you think about that sometimes too, and not just what you're bad at? that's not pride to do that. you can thank god for every one of 'em, "thank you, god, that i'm a faithful person. thank you that i'm committed. thank you that i don't give up easily. thank you that i'm organized. thank you, god, that i'm a hard worker. thank you that i'm a committed parent." thank god for the gifts that he has given you that you're functioning in andru