My name is Karleen Evans Page and my testimony begins before I was born. If that sounds odd, just listen.

My mother and father, Atheline and Ellsworth Evans, were married on June 30,1941. My mother longed for a family, and tried to bear children for 9 long years, but was unable to conceive. The doctor told her that she had a physical problem that prevented conception. Mom said, "The doctor had found my womb was twisted all around to my back which made it impossible to get pregnant."

Remember this was long before the fertility techniques we have today. "To conceive, the doctor said I would have to have corrective surgery, but there wasn't any guarantee that would work." She was reluctant to have surgery when she wasn't in pain, and was working too.

My mom read all the Biblical accounts of women who longed for children, like Sarah and Hannah, and who God rewarded with children. It was her heart's desire to have a baby, particularly a girl.

When my mom and her family heard about Oral Robert's healing ministry, and found out he was going to be as close as Richmond, VA (which still was a long journey from Roanoke, VA in those days), they decided to go. My grandmother, Ethel Radford, stayed at home because there was a carload and she had other children to care for.

My mother attended an early evening healing service conducted by Brother Oral Roberts in Richmond, VA on May 14, 1950. There were so many needing healing that Brother Roberts had to issue "prayer cards" to control how many went through the healing line to have him lay hands on them in the Name of Jesus.

In a pre-session meeting in the morning with Rev. Deweese at the First Pentecostal Holiness Church where the prayer cards were given out, my mom was going to get a card to be prayed for relief of sinus trouble. When my mom saw so many sick, on crutches in wheelchairs, and lying on pallets, she gave up her chance to get a card.

She thought, "Oh Lord, I'm not that sick. What if I kept someone who really needed it from being healed?"

So she seated herself about halfway back in the left side without a card. She watched Brother Roberts pray for a woman with a huge goiter on her neck. "And Brother Roberts said to the audience, "Do you want to SEE a miracle?"

"He turned the lady sideways so we could see the profile of her neck. Then he laid his hands on her neck, and prayed for the goiter to be gone. It was like the air going out of a balloon that had been punctured. She swallowed and it was gone! This was really a faith-builder for me", my mom said.

In the middle of the service, Brother Roberts paused in his praying and told the crowd that they too could receive healing. He instructed them to place their right hands on the back of the seat in front of them as a "point of contact", and to lift their left hands up in praise to the Lord Jesus.

As she obeyed, mom said she felt something that she never felt before and has not felt since. Mom said, "When I raised my hand, it felt like I stuck my finger in a light socket" and a feeling of electricity flowed throughout her body, went down her arm, up to her head, and then back down to the soles of her feet, and then came back up to her "innard parts" like a hot fluid and the warm glow went "round and round". Then she knew God had healed her of the sinus infection, but she didn't realize what else God had done for her.

"Healed in the healing line that same night were your Daddy and Granddad [B. L. Radford] and Aunt Shirley [Shirley Radford Butler], and also two friends of the family. Your dad had ulcers and was on a soft diet. Your grandad had been diagnosed as having TB. And Shirley had a throat drainage from strep throat. That night after the service we went out to eat and your daddy was able to eat beans and cornbread."

"The next day, your grandaddy went back to the doctor for confirmation of his healing, and there was no TB. He also had to report to the Red Cross for further testing, and they found no sign of TB either. And your aunt was instantly healed, also."

Mom went home healed, she thought, only of a sinus infection, and a year later in the same month, on May 2, 1951, I was born! Mom says, "Where I thought God was healing me from sinus trouble he was doing a greater miracle within me that I didn't know about until I got pregnant."

Mom's doctor, Dr. W. F. Collins, was a catholic, who believed in healing. And asked mom, "What happened?" Mom said, "I got healed" and he said, "You sure did!"

However, it was a hard birth for her. Mom developed toxic poisoning and had to be treated for that. She was in labor 33 hours, and had what they call a "dry birth". I was delivered with forceps, and came out bloody and bruised, with one ear curled closed. Mom was knocked out during all this. During this time, she had a vision or revelation from God, that He was giving her a daughter for a special purpose.

Mom did not regain consciousness until the next day, and hadn't been told whether I was a girl or boy, but amazed the nurses because she knew the baby was a girl. Mom said I looked like I'd been in a "prize fight", a boxing match, and "one ear was curled up like a rosebud". The devil didn't want me to be born!

But mom thought I was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, her miracle baby, her heart's desire. Even though she didn't specifically ask to be healed of barrenness at that time, the Lord knew the desires of her heart, according to her favorite verse: Psalms 37:4,

"Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

And mom always felt that I was special because of the healing she'd received. She went on to have two more children, my two brothers, whom I love dearly. She lost two babies through miscarriage, one of whom was a boy, and I love them too and praise God that someday I will meet them in heaven.

Another miracle of healing occurred while mom was in the hospital having me. My Aunt Margie Robertson went to an Oral Roberts healing service in Greensboro, NC, and her and my uncle went through the healing line to be prayed for. My aunt wanted children too and had been married 7 years without conceiving, possibly due to a low thyroid.

She told my mom that "If God healed you, He'll heal me too!"

After laying hands on her and praying for her, Oral Roberts told her, "Little lady, go home and have as many babies as you want to!"

And nine months later, my cousin Danny was born. And the following year, she had another baby, my cousin Don! She had five children in all!

Mom has always believed in me, even when I was confused and in doubt and not living for the Lord. She has always believed that there is a special purpose for me, and it has taken many years for me to find my ministry, which is teaching and ministering on the Internet through online Bible study, chat and online Christian literature.

I want to tell everyone who reads this, that you too are special to God. Each one of you is unique and beloved of God, a true miracle from Him, who was created for a special purpose. Each one of you is precious to Him and He loves you as dear children.

No matter what life has done to you, no matter what the evil one tries to whisper in your ear, know this: "God don't make junk", and you are important to Him. God has put gifts in you for you to discover and develop. He has plans for you that will bring you the highest joy, if you will only cooperate with Him. The way I came to be is unusual, but let it be an example to you of the miracles that God wants to work in your life.