S10 E216 - Encouraging Through Experience

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is Next Steps for Seniors with your host, Wendy Jones. Each week, Wendy brings resources and information to help guide you through those next steps with elderly parents and loved ones. If you have questions or topic suggestions, you can call us at 248-651-5010.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hello and welcome to Next Steps for Seniors Conversations on Aging. I'm your host, Wendy Jones, and I'm here with a guest in the studio. His name is Wayne Short. How are you, Wayne? Fine. How are you, Wendy? I am doing fantastic. Thank you for joining us today. I met you at the Good Neighbor Day at our church, and the whole nation actually did a Good Neighbor Day recently just to pour out to the community, and we had food and clothes and a lot of resources. And Next Steps for Seniors was there. I was there with a table, and Wayne walked up to me, and we were talking for a little while, and then you said, I got a story for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

And as he was talking to me, I thought, you know what? This is gonna be fantastic for people to hear. So our topic today is encouraging by experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

And you've been through a lot, Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I sure have, Wendy.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Physically. I mean, your your body has been through a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

It has been through a war and come out on top.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

That's exactly right. And a lot of people might be right now in a situation that's very challenging or difficult for them. And I really would love you to just kind of share your story so that we can encourage others, because you're sitting here live and in person today. Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

And after what you've been through. And I hope what I have to say will encourage others to pray more to God and know that there's help out there to help everybody if you just ask and check with the right people.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Amen. So tell me about in the beginning. You started back in 2019, I believe, with a back injury.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yes, it was. I had fell and hurt my back. I went to the med station and they checked that out, and then they took an EKG of my heart and said, You had to go to the hospital immediately. Either you drive yourself, have someone drive you, or go by ambulance. But you got to get there immediately. So I left the med station, drove to the hospital, which is Henry Ford, Rochester now.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

But it back then it wasn't called.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yes. I got there to emergency. They took another EKG of my heart and said, we have to schedule you for open heart surgery. You have four blocked arteries, and the main one is the widowmaker.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Oh my goodness. So you were feeling okay though, for the most part, besides the back injury.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

So had that not happened, and here we go, right? You would have never known.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I would have never known, and I'd have probably died that night at the home.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Unbelievable. And that, friends, is a miracle. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

That is how God got me to the hospital in time by having me fall. I thought, boy, I'm always having bad luck. I'm tripping or something. But he did that for a reason. Because he knew this was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

And he uses everything for good. And I just want to encourage people if you're going through it, there could be a reason behind it. And that wasn't the first bypass you had. You had numerous bypasses, correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

That was the first one, and then I had more after that.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So you have had how many heart attacks total?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I have had six heart attacks total. I've had cancer removed three times. I ended up having four bypasses, four stats. And now this year on January 29th, I had a pacemaker put in when I had heart attack number six.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

And I in between the first heart attack and the sixth heart attack, I had had I had died three times and come back. God has sent me back.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So so I want to stop you for one second because this is an incredible part of your story. So first of all, we've got major things happening in your life. This isn't like some people have one heart attack in their lifetime, and you've had this many and this many bypasses. But clearly God had a plan. For me. So you pass you died on the operating table. Yes, I have. The first time.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And what did you see when you died?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Well, the first thing I seen was not just the bright lights. I seen scenery, and it's undescribable. The feeling up here is so peaceful, calm, and serene. And it's just everybody's at a steady pace. And then I seen God and Jesus, they talked to me.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

And what did they say to you?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

They just said, We're not ready for you yet. We have more for you to do down there. We want you to spread our love and respect to everybody and offer them a helping hand. And that means everybody, you do not deny anyone, because I do not deny you.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Amen. So this is exactly what you said to me a few days back, and you have those words. I can tell that he that this was vivid in your mind. Love and respect. Yes, ma'am. And to treat everybody the same. That's right. And what a message that is just that message, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, because he does not judge a book by its cover, as they say. So every nationality, every religion, every person is the same in his eyes. He doesn't care if you're rich or you're poor or what's color your skin is, what culture, none of it matters.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

We all are created the same.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

We are all God's children.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

And that's what he wants me to do.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

And share that with others.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

That's what I try to do every day of my life.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

I've had people say, I like the way you think and the way you talk. I say, I don't just think this and I don't just talk this way. I do it for a reason through God.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Did you have a good relationship and did you believe in God before the first heart attack?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

What happened the second time you died on the table? It was during the heart attack again, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Right. It was during the second heart attack. And then God revealed more to me. He explained to you why you have the good times when you have them and the bad times when you have them. Sometimes the bad times is to appreciate the good times, and that's why he shows you that. Again, is undescribable. You see your pets, all your loved ones that believe in him, you see them fairly soon. The ones that don't, you see them, but it takes a little bit of time.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So let me ask you this when you died on the table, were the doctors like, we lost you for a minute? Like, did they tell you anything after you came back from the surgery? Did they tell you you coded?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yes. I was up above looking down at you.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

That was gonna be my next question. You could look down and you could see, because I've I've read books.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I looked down at myself laying on the table, and the doctors trying to get me back, and they couldn't for a few minutes, and then finally they got a slight heartbeat. He's coming. We got a beat, let's keep going. Because they were all ready to quit.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Oh my goodness. So we do not know the moral of the story. Number one, every experience that we have in our lives, don't you believe, Wayne? Yes. Is a is for a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yes. God has a purpose for us. That's why He has people cross our paths every day. He does it for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

I wanted to just share one more story because I think this is important. You didn't just have six heart attacks. There was other physical things. You talked about cancer. Did you go through chemo of any type or were they able to get the cancer?

SPEAKER_01 8:18

They were able to stop it right away. I did have maybe three chemo treatments because it wasn't that bad. They they caught it in time. And one time they removed the cancer out of my neck without having to have chemo.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Oh, they were able to get it all. And so many people have cancer right now that might be very discouraged, and no one knows why this happens, right? Nobody knows. And God doesn't make it happen. God may allow it, obviously, because he knows everything all the time. Yes, he does. But what would you say to our listeners to encourage them right now through the storm that you went through if they're in the same storm?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Never lose faith in God, even though it may be hard for you to understand, he is doing this to help you. So if something worse comes along, that you can get through it. He only put things in our path to make us stronger. Stronger believers are stronger in faith, but he does it to help us to help others.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

And don't you believe that our words is our testimony, right? Yes, you're here today because God gave you an experience to share with other people to encourage them.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

So we don't go through things just because we go through things so that we can use that experience to help other people someday.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Yes, Wendy, that's the way it is, and I keep learning every day, and that's why I have strong faith and belief in our Heavenly Father.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Amen. Our topic today is encouraging by experience. We've got Wayne Short with us in the studio today, and he's been through a lot in his life. Many things, in fact, all things we just talked about, really pertain to experiences that he's gone through that he wants to encourage others through. And you have had experiences all over the country, actually. Where did you used to work?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

I've worked in resorts like the Grand Canyon, Both Disney World, Grand Teton Mountains, wow, New York, Florida, all over the USA, plus eight different countries.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

And it's in the hospitality area, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yes, it's in the kitchen, being a cook's helper, baker's helper, and I was a breakfast cook out in front of the restaurant doing breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Wow. And you were also a police officer, correct?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yes, I was.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

And tell us how you met your wife.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I met my wife online while I was at the police convention. I was just sitting there and I called a singles line because I'd never done it before and I wanted to see what it was like.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Does this really work? Is what you were thinking. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

And she was the first she was the first voice I heard, and we talked and we'd kept losing our signal. Finally, I left my number and asked her to call me, and she did, and it developed from there. I'm actually from the west side of the state of Michigan, and she was on the east side. I came over for visits, then I moved here, and then we got married. We've been married going on seven years this September, and my wife is a small person who had been picked on all her life, and I felt like she needed somebody in her life to help her like I did. And so I just and it was God that helped me, so I wanted to help her through God, and it just developed into a love relationship, and it's gotten closer and better every day. And she has had physical problems as well. She had back surgery in 2016, got dropped on her back the day of her surgery and two days after by careless nurses.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So as soon as she had back surgery, she was dropped.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I'm sure accidentally, but this is horrific.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Right. They brought her back to her room. They had trouble getting a gurney next to the bed, so they thought the nurses thought, with her being a small person, they could just carry her with a sheet. Got halfway in between the gurney and the bed and dropped her. And then two days later they did the same darn thing again.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

And then six years after that, she went paralyzed from the waist down. She's got feeling, but she for some reason her legs are not getting stronger for her to stand and walk again. We're working on it, but we need a lot of help with that. We don't have the finances to do it, but I'm keep trying. I'm gonna get her walking again if it's the last thing I do on earth.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Both of you have been through an incredible amount of trials.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yes, we have.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Unbeknownst to you. Right. Like this wasn't like you didn't cause any of this. This just all just is a happenstance. And this is the whole key thing, what what what we're talking about, because at the end of the day, things happen to everybody. We cannot we cannot physically control what happens, but there is somebody that can. That's right. And yes, he does allow it. But how we lean on him through it, how we how we share our testimony like you're doing right now with everybody else to encourage them is the key thing. It's how we respond, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

And God says, lean on me, even though I do allow things like this to happen, I want to see how strong you are to come to me. It's helping us to get to have more trust and more faith in God. The more we lean on Him, the better we will be in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Amen. Amen. Is there anything else that you wanted to share with our listeners to encourage them? Because honestly, Wayne, you've been through so much. Your wife has been through so much, and I feel like people who are depressed or have anxiety or are really down in the dumps need an encouraging word.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah. All I can say is keep praying. And if you need someone to talk to, call a friend, call your counselor, call family, call friends, and just tell them how you feel and what you're going through. You may think they don't care, but deep down they do care and they want to help you if they can.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

If people don't know there's a problem, they don't know what to do about it. And and if you get a call from someone, get in the car and drive over there, or send them a meal, or do something, right? Actions speak louder than words.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

That's right, it does. If if you know somebody that's a little bit down, make them a meal and take it to them, a hot meal. That would cheer them up more than you realize. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

There is a scripture I wanted to share with you in Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah in the Bible, 29-11.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And it says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. And I feel like that's what we need in situations when we're really hurt is hope. Knowing that God has a plan and that there's hope. Because people who feel hopeless, like there's not a future for them, is is the component that the enemy, Satan, would love to pounce on. And we need to rise above that, and God can help you do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah, and hope is the biggest part. Just keep having faith and have strength. That hope will come to you. Just keep asking God for hope and prayers, and He will help you.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for tuning into Next Steps for Seniors Conversations on Aging. Thank you, Wayne, for sharing your testimony.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yes, ma'am. Wendy.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

It is a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

It's been a blessing, and I hope what I have said can help other people to keep praying and never lose hope, never lose faith, and trust your friend, just give them a chance to help you. Because they can't help you if you don't tell them what's wrong.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

We have to articulate, exactly. We might be thinking things in our head, but we're not saying it out loud, and therein lies the problem because nobody knows that you're hurting.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

That's right. And if you tell somebody that just give that person a chance, even if it's a total stranger, if they hear a story, they may be able to help you or give you some advice on who to talk to or where to go to get help.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Mm-hmm. There's something special about an act of kindness, right? And paying it forward. Even if you just buy a coffee for the for the person sitting next to you or behind you in the drive-thru, right? Have you ever done that? Yes. I sure have. Well, thank you everyone for tuning into Next Steps for Seniors. Conversations on aging, encouraging by experience. God bless you, Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

God bless you, Wendy.