Testimony: Ely Plunket

I was born to loving parents who really wanted a child. They tried to have kids for 10 years with multiple miscarriages and so they were overjoyed to have a miracle baby. I grew up in church and with a Bible teacher dad so I knew all the answers. Many of the students at Impact are like me in this way. Growing up in a church with Christian parents who care about your faith is an amazing blessing.
In eighth grade I took an apologetics class that really helped build my faith. I was encouraged and I was learning a lot about faith and what it means to believe in Jesus. I would say that this is the point in my life where my faith became my own.

Unfortunately, at the same time my health issues started to get a lot worse. I had to learn about dependency on Jesus the hard way. I was in constant pain and I missed a ton of school. The closeness I felt with Jesus is what got me through that tough year. Freshman year of high school the elders here at FBC prayed over me for my healing. Physically nothing happened but I really felt the peace of the Holy Spirit. I cannot overstate how transformative this was. Even through trials my faith was growing and I felt deeply loved by my family and my Savior.

And that would be my testimony if your testimony was just about getting saved and how you accepted Jesus into your life. I was saved from a young age like a lot of people in the church. But that’s not all a testimony is really about.

This same year my mental health plummeted and I faced challenges in my life that put my faith under pressure. I began a long struggle with depression and negative self image. My health challenges made me feel alienated from my own body. It was hard to feel fearfully and wonderfully made when I felt broken. I know that so many young people today struggle with mental health. This breaks my heart and it’s one of the reasons that I believe that Christ centered ministry and encouragement is essential for teenagers. If there is an Impact student reading this and struggling with anything along these lines I really want to encourage you to talk to a parent or a youth leader.

Another big challenge that I’ve faced in my faith journey is my physical health struggles. Ever since I was a toddler I have had chronic nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, and headaches. Being in pain every single day and going through countless doctors and tests and needles and diets discouraged me, especially when nothing worked and I continued to get sicker. Because of playing sports (which I loved) I was getting injured really often. I went to to see a joint doctor and after some tests she told me that I have hyperlocative joints. This means that my joints are too loose and they dislocate and slip out of place. I wasn’t allowed to play sports and now I had one more health thing to worry about.

Through all of this I was blessed because I feel like my faith was still able to grow. I felt Jesus’s love and peace in my life. In high school I had friends who would come to me with their Bible questions and I usually had a quick answer. I acted like I was fine with the trials in my life because they were a part of God’s plan. But in my heart, I was still striving to be the one in control of my life. I wasn’t ready to fully surrender myself to whatever God’s plan was for my life.

I graduated high school and I went down to California for my first semester of college. My health was still bad. When I came home I had a ton of medical tests and I was diagnosed with Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome which is a mouthful, but basically they discovered a ligament under my heart that was wrapped around my celiac artery and majorly restricting blood flow to my stomach.
My doctor was confident that a surgery would relieve my symptoms. I finally had a light at the end of the tunnel. I felt like this made sense. God wanted to test me but now after all these years He was going to heal me. So I took a semester off and I had open abdominal surgery. This was a big low in my life.

Firstly, the surgery was terrible. I was in the hospital for about 5 days. While I was still unconscious they tried to give me pain medicine for waking up and found out the hard way that my heart can’t tolerate strong pain medicine. I had to recover from open abdominal surgery with one oxy a day (that’s not a lot). It was the most pain I’ve ever experienced. The first night in the hospital my abdomen seized up and I couldn’t breathe. I had to scream for help and it felt like forever before the nurse rushed in and gave me something that relieved it. The whole process was painful when I got home I was in bed rest for two weeks. I felt like God was expecting a lot from me. But at least I would be better in a few months when the surgery was supposed to start helping.

Secondly, It didn’t end up working. My symptoms continued with no explanation and now I had to recover from surgery. I went through the most traumatic experience of my life for nothing. Now I was mad at God. I knew people in my life who had one bad sickness or an easy surgery and hospital stay and that was the worst medical experience they had to go through. And I had to go through all this AND keep dealing with it? How was that a loving God? He could have healed me and I would have a great story to tell about the way He worked in my life and how great He was but no.

During this time my joints also got really bad. I was told that technically every injury makes my condition worse and here I was hyperextending multiple joints a day. I was told that what I have is incurable and the only treatment is physical therapy. Eventually I will need joint replacement surgeries and maybe even have to use a wheelchair. This was not my plan. In my head I knew that God was in charge but in my heart i wanted things to go in a different way. I thought maybe God should be willing to kinda meet me in the middle with all my health and mental struggles.

I wish I could tell you that I learned how to have a perfect relationship with Jesus at this point. This is the part of most people’s testimonies where they tell you that they are doing super well; God got them through their trials. However my testimony is still very much in progress. I love Jesus with all my heart, but I still struggle with discouragement and depression sometimes. I still have times when I’m not fully trusting Him with my life.

Specifically in the last couple months I’ve struggled with mental health, with physical health, and with doubts. Makayla asked me to share my testimony months ago and I didn’t think twice. When I noticed it on my calendar recently I was like “are you kidding me!?” This is NOT when I want to share my testimony. My testimony isn’t over - I need Jesus to fix me before I share with students at Impact! So I grumbled about it and I procrastinated and I prayed about it. After praying I realized that our testimonies aren’t going to be complete this side of heaven. I’m not supposed to tell you I’m perfect now, I’m supposed to tell you about what God had done for me so far.

Jesus saves me every day over and over again. I do not understand how He is so forgiving and patient. Without Him I would not have been able to get through some of the things in my life.

My favorite verse right now is Psalm 42:7-8. It says “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterfalls, all your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and at night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”

The Lord commands His love and His kindness. You can doubt and you can be angry all day but when the God of the universe says “I will love you, you are mine”, that’s not something you run away from.  His love, His song, is with us in the night. In every trial and every tribulation, He is there, and that’s something I still need to be reminded of every single day.

I want to encourage you guys to pursue that close relationship with Christ. When you go through a hard time in your life, remember that He will be with you! You may want to be in charge and resist God’s plan, but you have to remember that He has your best interests at heart. Even when we can’t see it, He is working all things together for good for those who love Him. And even that goes to show that we need Jesus. I’ve already proved to you that I certainly do. We can’t get through this life on our own, but with His strength all things are possible.