Heather Connett

Heather has always been familiar with physical pain.  Even as a young child, pain was jut a part of her everyday life.  When she was born, her leg muscles weren't fully developed so it was very  difficult for her to walk or run as a normal child.  Even as a youth, God knew the kind of pain Heather could handle.  As she reached her teenage years, the pain ceased a little, but still, she suffered physical back pain and leg muscle pain.  At the age of fourteen, she wanted to seek God, and began the search for a church where she would feel welcomed and loved.  At that age, and as far back as she could remember, she knew she was "different".  She knew she liked the same sex more than she did the boys but she didn't know any gay people.  At this time, she didn't know what was wrong with her, thinking she was just a tomboy.  She searched for a church for two years and wasn't able to find a place where she felt welcomed.  Feeling that in each church she visited, everyone knew she was hiding something.

At the age of 16 she stopped searching for God, coming to the conclusion t hat He hated her and He could never love her.  This preceded a spiral of depression, drinking and suicidal thoughts and even a couple of attempts.  Her thoughts were, "If I"m going to hell, I'll just go now."  She also started working at the age of 16.  Having to push through the agonizing pain she suffered inside and focus on the job at hand.  She had to work to help her family pay bills and keep food on the table.  If she didn't get it job, it meant, more than likely, no roof over their heads or food on their table.  She did what needed to be done.

There came a time in her life at the age of nineteen, when she felt she couldn't take it anymore.  She had to "come out", not only to her family, friends, and coworkers, but everyone.  She didn't feel she could spend one more day in the small box she had put herself into while trying to be what everyone else wanted her to be.  She had to be herself.  He told her parents, "This is just who I am.:  Her dad said he didn't care as long as I was happy and didn't hurt anyone else.  Her mom told her that it didn't matter what she did or who she loved, "Your still my daughter and I still love you".  She let Heather know there was nothing she could do or say that could ever change that.  Most of Heather's extended family stopped talking to her and treated her as if this was an "illness".  She lost many friends and co-workers at this time as well.  She knew, still, that she was doing the right thing. No matter what happened.  This began the transition for Heather from the Heather everyone knew to the Heather she knew herself to be.  She had her long hair cut to a very short haircut and began wearing all men's clothing. This made people around her look at her different, but she knew this was who she was and she wasn't going to hide her true self for one more day.

She continued to work until she was 21 years old when God said to her, "Enough is enough!"  She was standing at her job trying her best, but the pain in her back and legs were extreme.  Tears were streaming down her face causing her to feel she was going to fall to the floor right there.  After visiting a doctor Heather learned that she had five herniated discs, four bulging discs and Degenerative Disc Disease.  Her doctors informed her that she could have surgery, but it would take multiple surgeries to correct this and of course, there were risks.  At the age of 21 she thought her life was over.  She became bound to a wheelchair that she would be confined to for the next four years.  She woke each morning with pain, went through her day with pain and went to bed at night in pain.  She became angry at God, wondering, "Why had He let this happen to me?"  Once in the wheelchair she lost what friends she had left, causing her to go into a deep depression.

After being in the wheelchair for two years, Heather began searching through her Bible for answers.  God gave her the answer in scripture.  It was not the answer she was looking for or wanted, but it was God's answer.  It was in     1 Peter, "Therefore since Christ suffered in His body arm yourselves with the same attitude because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.  As a result he does not live the rest of his early life for evil human desire, but rather for the will of God."  At this time she came to the conclusion that God wanted her to suffer this physical pain.  She says, "I still don't know why, but right then, on that night I repented and asked God for forgiveness."
For years Heather was told that God hated her and did not ever love her for who she was.  She gave up on ever finding a church, but after she repented verbally of her sins, a few weeks later that night she read an article in the Chicago Tribune Newspaper about a church, New Life Community Church of Hope, that welcomed not only gays and lesbians, but everyone.  Heather, as well as her parents attended services that very next Sunday and found what they had been looking for all those years.  It was at this church, August 17, 2008, that Heather, and her parents was baptized in Jesus name.  She was a new child in God and knew that everyone else had been wrong.  God did love her! 

For the next two years she was very dedicated to God and her church.  Attending Bible studies, special services and every Sunday service.  Making sacrifices, even though she was still in a wheelchair and her physical body continued to have pain.  In June of 2010 she gave her first testimony, telling everyone that she thought this was God's plan, for her to be in a wheelchair.  She had accepted the fact that this was who she was and she would help other despite the wheelchair.  It was not even a week later that God revealed He had different plans for Heather.  She could tell God was doing something to her.  She didn't know what, but she told God, "I don't know what You're doing, but I'm a willing vessel for you God.  Do what you wish."  The very next day she woke up in absolutely no pain.  The very next Sunday she walked into church with only a cane.  God had healed her!

Heather has decided that through all she has been through she can help people understand the love and grace of the one and only true God.  That God is a healer for those who believe He can heal.  She is looking forward to living the rest of her life for God and preaching the Gospel to all those that wouldn't hear it otherwise.