I cannot believe two years have passed so quickly! They say time flies when you are having fun. Well, I say time also flies when you are working your fanny off and having fun doing it!
About two and a half years ago, I got a diagnosis for a somewhat serious autoimmune liver disease. It was going to require doctors visits and more self care, and I really just wanted to be able to spend more time with my babies if I was going to have to face this diagnosis. I approached my employer about changing my work schedule up some; I would see the same number of patients and it would not affect the bottom line, but it would give me a little more time at home. The answer was a simple and firm “No.” There wasn’t really a reason given or room for discussion. So I turned in my notice.
People thought I was crazy for leaving a secure job with people that I loved, and I probably was, but I also knew that I had a dream planted in my heart many years prior that if I was ever going to pursue, I needed to do it then. With my family’s and, most importantly, my husband’s, full support, I took that leap of faith. We started looking for a building to open my own practice and medical spa, and 222 Gordon Street was just “too big”. I didn’t think we would need that much space. We kept looking, but we kept coming back. There are lots of “God-incidences” along the way, but the memory I will always treasure is that sweet real-estate agent meeting me up there one Sunday morning along with several of the ladies who bought into my crazy dream and wanted to be a part of it. We circled up and prayed together, and I made a final offer on the building.
We closed at the end of May and just 2.5 months later, we opened for business after nearly gutting the place and redesigning the space. It was hectic, and crazy (a word that keeps cropping up in this story!), but it was amazing! I could write a book if I were to tell you all the little miracles that happened along the way to make this possible, but I want to make a full circle here, so I will skip over a few for now.
I had seen a couple of doctors after my diagnosis, but someone recommended I see a specialist at Mayo Clinic that focuses primarily on this particular diagnosis. So, we made an appointment and made plans to travel the week of Thanksgiving in 2017. 3:16 Healthcare had been open just two months, but during that time, a very special friend, who knew nothing about this diagnosis, came to visit me. She brought along a vial of healing oil that was from the Bible in Dalton, GA. (If you don’t know about this oil, google it. That’s one crazy story too!) I was raised, and still am, a good Methodist girl. Anointing with oil is something I believe in, but not something that is done often where I worship. But my friend wanted to anoint my hands and prayed that they would bring healing to all who enter our doors. I also took that oil and anointed all the spaces in our office while praying over the rooms and my employees and patients. (I had already written healing Bible verses on the studs when we were remodeling; we really wanted this to be a place where God does His thing!)
Fast forward again to Thanksgiving week. David and I flew up to Minnesota. I was a nervous wreck and riding a serious emotional roller coaster. I had previously had 3 confirmatory lab tests and had seen three physicians in our area that I believed and trusted. But now we were at Mayo clinic for another battery of tests and for another opinion, and it just seemed so heavy. When you travel from out of town to a medical facility like that, they schedule all the testing for you on day 1, and you see the doctor for the results on day 2. I thought day 2 would never come….I am pretty sure I didn’t sleep at all. But day 2 did arrive and with it came the good news from the doctor that all the tests, all the labs, were completely normal! There was no evidence whatsoever of this illness!
I am convinced of two things. First, if I had never gotten sick, I would never have been in such fervent prayer and seeking such desperate answers as to quit my job and open 3:16 Healthcare. All those bad things worked together. Secondly, the anointing oil my precious friend brought to me was used to bring God’s healing to my body, and all for His purposes and for His glory.
The past two years have been thrilling and fun and exhilarating and, at times, completely and utterly terrifying. Erika is who came up with the name 3:16 Healthcare (3:16 Family Medicine & Spa 3:16). We hope for those who believe and know Jesus, it will be a reminder of Whom we serve. For those who don’t know Him, we have had multiple opportunities to explain where the name comes from and hopefully show those people the love of Jesus. We have outgrown our fist office at 222 Gordon Street two times over–we had to first rent the “Little Blue House” next door to us for office space, and then we moved the Spa over to 211 Gordon Street in the “Big White House”. And now, we are back to having people working in closets once again!
Like I said, I could write a book, and maybe someday I will, about all the small and large miracles God provided for us along the way. There have been lots of God winks and signs and help and doors opened and reminders that this is not about us, but about Him, from whom all blessings flow. God gave me a verse in those weeks between being diagnosed and opening 3:16 Healthcare. Isaiah 43:19 was given to me over and over as a reassurance that this “crazy idea” was nothing to fear: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Friends, I don’t know what wasteland you are facing today, but I am living proof that God is always faithful when we live in His purposes for our lives. Have faith, take courage, rise up,and do it! God will make a spring in the wasteland for you too!
God bless, Allison Key, MD