Testimonials: Stories of God At Work

What follows here are testimonials from ordinary people from the River who feel that God has answered their prayers in powerful and meaningful ways.

Friends With God

“Before I knew the River church, I always thought about God as an angry, punishing, demanding being. But now I feel comfortable to call Him my companion who I can rely on. This intimate relationship with God makes me really happy. God completes me! Now I am more balanced, harmonized and peaceful!"

Eczema Exits

“I got prayer in the Sunday service for my child, who has a skin condition. I was initially skeptical, but very hopeful and curious. I really put faith into God’s hands because the eczema on my son’s two arms were really worsening - itchy and raw. In one and a half weeks his eczema disappeared! Wow! It was truly amazing that this happened. No lotion had alleviated his skin problem. We are extremely fortunate that he was touched by God!"

Plan C Anyone?

“I asked God for guidance with a major life decision coming up soon. I felt like God responded to my questions. I had been stuck on whether Option A or Option B was the right decision but God suggested an Option C that I’d never considered before. It felt helpful and right in a way the other options hadn’t. I am grateful that God answered and directed!"

The God of Computer Software Bugs

“I am the lead developer of a very important computer application that is fairly gigantic and complex. And for three years, this application has had an issue that has been annoying people who use it. No one has been able to figure out what is wrong with it. When my team came under a lot of pressure to fix it, I sat down with my managers to estimate how long it would take to do analysis of the issue, and to fix it. We estimated 3 months of my time devoted entirely to this effort--which was ambitious.

“I felt really burdened with this problem. I half-heartedly asked God to help me out because I felt I could not solve this issue in 2 years, let alone 3 months!”

“For a couple of weeks I talked to traders, developers, managers, architects, experts, database architects, read online articles, developed simulations of the application, and did pretty much anything I could. But I could not figure out what the issue was. I was starting to feel the pressure.

“I went to a prayer retreat feeling burdened with this problem. At the retreat, I half-heartedly asked God to help me out because I had an issue on my hands that I felt I could not solve in 2 years, let alone 3 months!

“That Sunday after the prayer retreat, I was lying around in my apartment when an idea about this problem suddenly came to my mind. First thing Monday morning at work, I tried out my idea and, in under an hour, I was able to reproduce the problem exactly! From there, I quickly created a patched application, tested it out, and my fix worked! I was on top of the world – after 3 years of people trying to solve this problem without any luck, I had done it, with God's help!

“When I wrote my "analysis report" of the problem. I felt like I was cheating because I had done nothing. My managers were so impressed. They expected me to work on this for 3 months but I took only two weeks to finish. It's hard to explain that my God who, in the past conquered death, is today conquering computer software bugs!”

Securing a SafeHouse

“"Our non-profit organization had a goal to raise $50,000 to help launch a safe house for international survivors of sex trafficking. Fundraising had been a real challenge for the past year. We not only raised $50,000 at our gala event, but God provided $64,000! It was an event that exceeded our expectations. An anonymous donor wanted to match the $50,000 so in total, we raised well over $100,000! God is a God of ABUNDANCE!"

Peace for the Heart

“For the past couple of years I have been experiencing a fluttering in my heart. More recently I began experiencing it after every meal. It got to the point where I became very anxious about eating. I decided to go to the doctor, who diagnosed me with having mitral valve prolapse,  a condition where a flap in my heart is concave. It's not serious in itself, but my experience of the heart fluttering continued, and it was distressing.

As they prayed for me I felt peace about the condition. And God encouraged me that my heart was strong regardless of the murmur.

Recently, for four weeks straight I had episodes of heart palpitations after every single meal. I decided to share with some people at church that I had these irregular beats and that I wanted prayer. As they prayed for me I felt peace about the condition. And God encouraged me that my heart was strong regardless of the murmur.

“That day, after the prayer, I ate lunch and for the first time in weeks, felt no heart palpitations! Since, then, I haven't felt anything after meals. My anxiety has dropped, and I don't fear eating. I continue to have the condition, but now the espisodes are infrequent and much less severe. I am much more at peace.”