Redemption
A little over two years ago FCOP received a gift, Shanon Hladek. This is her story:
"I was 7 years old when God called me to the mission field to care for orphans. As a junior in high school, I became a certified pharmacy technician while beginning to pursue a degree in English Literature. During my senior year of college, I went on a short term mission to Cambodia and I knew then that it was where God was calling me to serve. I was passionate about the model of FCOP; the Church living out James 1:27. I attended Bible college to become equipped to serve the Cambodian people. After graduation, I was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy. Doctors said that I would never again travel overseas and I buried the dream of becoming a missionary. The following year I married a man who knew about my medical condition and vowed to support me through it. I began pursuing my passion for medicine and prepared to attend physician assistant school with the hope of serving in medical missions. Then my life changed forever. After years of increasing seizures and tests, my specialists determined that the only way to reduce seizures was to remove the areas of my brain where they were originating. In September 2015, I underwent surgery in hopes of living a normal life.
The seizures greatly decreased but a small stroke left me having to relearn how to walk and write. I was also diagnosed with the inability to recognize faces (a condition called prosopagnosia). For 3 years I participated in weekly physical, speech, occupational, and vision therapy. 6 months into my recovery, I experienced loss of a different type. I’d been married for 3 ½ years but now found myself in the middle of a divorce. I was told that I was broken and unworthy of being loved. It was when I lost everything, all of the dreams I had for my future, that I learned what it meant to be fully loved by God.
I was terrified when I sensed God calling me back to Cambodia. I’d given up that dream and I felt that I couldn’t endure any more disappointment. In June 2018, I stepped out in obedience and returned to Cambodia on a short term mission. The dream was resurrected. When I later moved to Cambodia, the only outward reminders of my surgery were the scar above my ear and the forearm crutch I used to help me walk. Each day the kids of FCOP would pray and encourage me to walk without my crutch. God has healed me! I no longer use the crutch and I can run and play with the orphans. He has also miraculously given me the ability to identify each child at our church refuge centers by their face. God turned the circumstances the devil used to try to destroy me with into a calling to extend His love and compassion. Because of my own loss, I can identify with our kids and those in our churches that have similar experiences. In my weakness, He is made strong."
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