Jeff: Late spring 2018 was one of the most challenging times our family has faced. I work for Pine Cove Camp (headquartered in Tyler, Texas). On May 21 I was finishing up a 22-month, $2 million project to build a camp for high schoolers. The next day my wife, Charis, gave birth to our youngest child, Nix.

Charis: Two weeks later I took our four children—including our newborn—to a friend’s house for a fun day of swimming. There were a number of adults there to supervise the kiddos from each family, including two who’d been our kids’ nannies.

At lunchtime our two-year-old, Susanna, whom we call “Susu,” had a difficult time eating. With her life jacket on, she was unable to reach her arms to her mouth to eat so I took her life jacket off. After she finished eating, I asked her if she wanted to get back in the pool and swim. She said no. Since there was an adult in the pool and others around, I felt comfortable letting her play nearby, even without a life jacket.

When the lady in the pool got out to take care of a toddler’s soiled diaper, she mentioned she’d run out. I offered to give her some of mine. We both turned to seek out clean diapers.

That’s when the older kids start yelling, “The baby’s in the bottom of the pool! The baby’s in the bottom of the pool!”

My mind immediately went to our newborn. How could he be in the pool? He’s right here with me!

Then I realized Susu was the one in distress.

Jeff: A woman jumped in the pool and grabbed her. Charis is a registered nurse and she immediately checked for a pulse, but Susu didn’t have one. Her skin was blue, she wasn’t breathing and there were no signs of life.

Charis: My training took over and I started CPR while screaming for someone to call 911. I wasn’t sure how long she was under water, but I knew it could have been as long as three minutes. I kept working on Susu and at one point shouted for the adults to get the other kids out of there. They don’t need to see this, I thought.

And then another realization hit: I’m going to have to tell Jeff that our daughter died while I was watching her.

Jeff: When emergency responders arrived, Susu had been without oxygen for at least eight to 10 minutes. Just as they pulled up to the house, Susu started gurgling and Charis found a weak pulse. I arrived a few minutes later and we were advised to head to the hospital to meet Susu and the response team. We thanked God that she was headed to one of the best children’s hospitals in the country. (Editor’s note: Please see CHM Guideline U for information regarding medical transportation sharing eligibility.)

Charis: On the long drive to the hospital we were flooded with emotions and were reminded of the words in Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

Jeff: When we got there we saw all of the emergency responders standing around. I had a sinking feeling.

She’s gone. She died.

What we couldn’t see was that around the corner doctors and nurses were working on Susu. It was eerily quiet, but that was the turning point. The initial labs and test results gave us hope. Each subsequent test brought better news.

Jeff: We later learned that when CHM staff heard what happened to Susu, they immediately sent an email to all the ministry’s staff members asking them to pray for our family.

They were so helpful in the coming weeks whenever we had a question about what to do with all the medical bills. CHM shared nearly $89,000 for Susu’s drowning accident along with nearly $8,000 for Nix’s birth!

Charis: Susu’s ordeal has strengthened our relationship with the Lord because we saw Him work and move in powerful, unexplainable ways. I remember one eye-opening moment when I thought about God’s sovereignty and His care for our family. I thought, Susu was never alone. God was with her at the bottom of that pool. He was with her en route to the hospital and when the doctors were working on her. He was with us through every parent’s worst nightmare when we couldn’t see that there was hope of life being restored.

We look forward to sharing this story with Susu when she’s older and explaining to her that God has a profound purpose for her life.

Jeff: We want to thank the CHM staff for being there for us and being gracious when our heads were spinning and we felt overwhelmed. We thank fellow members for sharing our many expenses and relieving us of a great financial burden.

God is working through Christian Healthcare Ministries.

My eye doctor looked me directly in the eye and said, “There’s something potentially wrong, and I need you to get an MRI.”

I accepted his words and said, “Okay, that’s fine.”

Then, I passed out.

A week after my appointment with the eye doctor, I had my MRI. I spent the entire hour praying, asking God to give me peace; whatever happened, I wanted Him to receive all the glory.

After my MRI, I drove back to work, thinking that I was going to complete my shift. Just as I arrived, I received a phone call from my doctor. The MRI revealed a tumor, and I needed to get to an emergency room as fast as possible.

My husband, Chris, met me at the hospital, and we talked with a neurologist. The tumor was close to my brainstem, which is very dangerous. The removal surgery would last about six hours. The doctor explained that I had almost a 100 percent chance of nerve damage and deafness in one ear.

I was in surgery for eight hours. They got almost all of the tumor. The surgeon had to “stretch” my nerves around the tumor to get it out; as a result, I looked like I had a stroke.

People around the world prayed that the procedure wouldn’t cost me my hearing. When I came out of surgery, I told Chris I could hear a little bit. The surgeon couldn’t believe it.

Chris and I are incredibly thankful for CHM. The faithfulness of our fellow CHM members enabled us to live our normal lives and focus on recovery, not on medical bills. Being a part of a ministry like CHM gives us a tremendous feeling of confidence, especially when medical bills arise unexpectedly.

God gave me a gift to draw. I started doing caricaturing and was a Disney artist at one time. I was painting dinosaurs, putting fur on monkeys, and painting sets for Epcot to open. But I had this idea that God only had me there for a short period. So, following His direction, I decided I’d work in my own business, which I called Newstart Art.

Being an entrepreneur as an artist is a little scary sometimes. If you need to stay in the hospital for a while or you have some kind of surgery—it’s expensive! I thought to myself, how in the world am I going to afford this? CHM was totally different from anything that I’d ever heard of before, but I thought, well, why not try this?

I joined at the Gold level with Brother’s Keeper. The very first time I had to go to a doctor and have some surgery done, it was so exciting to find out that I could share my eligible medical bills with CHM every time something like this happened. They took care of me very well, and after that I knew that I didn’t have to worry about my bills anymore.

As a senior, I began Medicare last year, and I stayed with CHM. I’ve used CHM for a couple of different instances since then. The Medicare summary and the Sharing Request Packet is all they need at CHM, so I didn’t have to get itemized medical bills or send the bills. I just sent the summary, and they took care of everything after that. It was very easy.

I’m glad my money is going to take care of other people and I’m bearing one another’s burdens. That’s what this is all about. It’s so good being able to help one another. I would much rather pay extra in addition to the Medicare money knowing that it’s going to Christians.

After accomplishing all the things that I’ve done for the last 42 years in the art field, I can honestly tell you that CHM is the best decision that I’ve made for any part of my life. I would do this until I’m 120 (and after).

Chloe, my daughter, is the No. 1 wrestler in the nation for her weight. One day, during training, she tore her left labrum, which is the cartilage that lines and reinforces your shoulder joint. The orthopedic doctor offered two options: get surgery or try to rehab it.

Chloe opted for rehab.

However, during her next tournament, she overdid it, tearing her right shoulder’s labrum. There was no choice now but to have the surgery on both shoulders.

She had back-to-back surgeries, three weeks apart, before she left for her first year of college. And I was having a figurative heart attack, wondering, how are we going to pay for two orthopedic surgeries?

That’s where CHM stepped in.

It was such a godsend because when you have an injured kid, you’re worried. Would she still be able to wrestle? Did the college still want her as part of their program? There were so many emotions in our home, plus the emotions of her moving to live in another state. She’s never left home, let alone in a place another 8.5 hours away from us.

CHM was there for us, handling the financial side so we could take care of our family.

Praise be to God, both surgeries went well, and Chloe is on track to compete this May at the junior world team wrestling trials.

We joined CHM after my husband lost his job in 2011, and we’ve been huge advocates ever since. We don’t visit the doctor much, so we joined on the Bronze level and added Brother’s Keeper in case costs ever rise past $125,000.

I’m an advisor at our investment firm. Many clients are concerned about paying for healthcare costs after they leave a job, but I always tell them, “If you really truly believe God is telling you to leave, then He’s going to provide for your healthcare needs.”

I’ve recommended CHM to so many fellow Christians and it sets them free. God provides through you, and I’ll keeping singing from the mountaintops about why CHM is awesome.

When I was a little girl, my dad pastored a local church and my mom worked. I decided if I was ever married to a pastor, I would never work full-time—I wanted to pastor with my husband.

I did end up marrying a pastor and we now serve at a small independent church, Prescott Valley Vineyard Church. For him to pastor, I had to work.

One day, working as a nurse, a sense of regret came over me. I was working full-time so that we could have health cost support while my husband, Lloyd, was ministering without me. I thought, “Oh my goodness, I’m literally doing what I said I wouldn’t do. “

When our friends told us about CHM, it opened a door. With CHM, I have the freedom to walk alongside my husband and our ministry. I don’t have to go one way and he go the other—we can serve together.

I was nervous because I have a rare heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD), which occurs when the muscle tissue dies and is replaced with scar tissue.

We found out about this because I kept having chest pain and passing out. I had all kinds of weird rhythms on the EKG. ARVD isn’t treatable, and you can’t medicate for it or operate. They diagnosed me on a Wednesday and by Thursday morning, I had a defibrillator pacemaker at work within me.

Lloyd and I were able to ask CHM very detailed questions. They answered all our questions and walked us through the bill-sharing process.

Even though I already had this condition, because it was maintained, CHM said they would help me by using its different programs for pre-existing conditions. Within four years of joining, my pre-existing conditions were eligible through the ministry’s regular sharing program.

Now that we’re CHM members, we have help with eligible medical expenses—and fellow Christians willing to share that burden with us. We help take care of each other. That’s the whole story of Christian Healthcare Ministries.

It takes a lot of weight off knowing that we have people around us who want to help and are willing to share in our stresses or struggles.

Through CHM, we’re investing in other Christian families who are then investing in other Christians. We’re a part of a family of God, investing in each other’s lives.

If God chooses to move us to a different location, it doesn’t affect us. CHM goes with us. Our decisions aren’t based on medical needs.
Because of the experience we’ve had with CHM, we want to give our staff an avenue to join CHM too. We want them to be free to serve God, just like we’re free to serve God.

So, if you’re a pastor and you have a small church, I highly recommend that you look into CHM for your own church staff. I highly recommend that every Christian look into CHM and ask the Lord: “Is this something for me?”

At 32 weeks, my water broke. My mind raced: It’s too early!

I rushed to our local, rural hospital, but they couldn’t deliver a baby prior to 34 weeks. I hurried from there to a larger hospital, where they were able to stop my labor. I stayed there for a week before baby Alice was delivered at 33 weeks, almost seven weeks premature.

It was a difficult pregnancy. There were issues with my placenta, which caused bleeding, and then we had hospital stays on top of that. Once Alice was born, she stayed in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for 10 days before we were able to bring her home.

CHM was helpful with every part of the process. Since we stayed in two different hospitals and the NICU, we had bills coming from all over. I negotiated discounts with each healthcare provider, and CHM helped me secure those discounts and sent my reimbursement check quickly.

I was so grateful for my Brother’s Keeper membership because our bills exceeded $125,000. I can never fully describe my overwhelming gratitude when we received the amount we needed to pay the remaining bills.

Just as my sister recommended CHM to me, I recommend CHM to everyone. The process was very straightforward, and I knew that everyone I talked to was looking out for me. For any questions I had, I could call the ministry and talk with the Member Services representatives or consult their maternity guide.

Having a premature baby is scary, but CHM was fantastic. Because of generous members, the financial side of our pregnancy was smooth as possible. Thank you for being a blessing to me and my family!

Things were going well with my fourth pregnancy. Then, during my third trimester, I started feeling weak and fatigued.

I was 36 weeks pregnant and we were on a picnic with friends and family. As I was talking to people, I kept feeling worse, and entered a bad brain fog.

My sister took me to the emergency room. They drew blood and found that my counts were very low. I was covered in bruises. They suspected leukemia.

Doctors didn’t want to do the bone marrow tap to test for leukemia while I was pregnant. Instead, we decided it would be best to deliver Maggie first and begin testing and treatment for cancer afterwards.

The C-section was risky because I didn’t have much blood. They gave me bag after bag of blood to get me ready. If I bled too much, my body wouldn’t have anything to replace the loss of blood.

The C-section went well. When I woke up, they wheeled me down to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit to see Maggie. I was able to spend one day with her before I had to be tested for cancer.

It came back positive for leukemia. It was a long, nine-month fight before we were able to stop my treatments. Now, I only go for six-month checkups to verify the cancer is staying away.

We were blown away by the love and support of everyone. A local business in town called Koch’s general store raised enough money for us to get a second car, which we really needed because I had to drive an hour to my treatments every day.

CHM members also shared 100 percent of our eligible medical bills, but there was more to it than just financial support. A friend of ours, Aaron, helped us with the medical bill sharing process. As a fellow CHM member, he felt God’s call to help us in that way.

That’s the beautiful thing about CHM—it’s the greater context of the church. It wasn’t just our local church helping us, it was the church from around the world coming together the way the church is supposed to.

As an entrepreneurial family, we’ve learned the value of flexibility. My wife, Krissy, owns and manages a retro camper company, providing a photo booth and other services to weddings and events. I manage rental properties and am a realtor.

One day, as I was listening to The Ramsey Show, I heard him mention CHM. It seemed like it had exactly what we needed with our self-employed lifestyle, and so we joined at Bronze.

We didn’t need to use it at first, but when the worst-case scenario finally happened, we were lucky we had CHM.

On a chilly February day, I was trying to take my garage door down. I was working on disassembling the spring when suddenly it snapped back and crashed into my hand.

I looked down: My fingers were crooked and bleeding.

I called 911. Krissy, my wife, pulled in with the kids as I was standing there in the driveway staring at my hand in shock. She heard the ambulance sirens coming, but I couldn’t explain to her what had happened.

I was rushed to the hospital, and they stopped the bleeding. However, I needed surgery, but since the surgeon was already performing a cancer surgery, I had to wait for the entire day. When I woke up from my operation, he informed me I’d broken three fingers and he’d put pins in them all.

“Your index finger, though,” he said. “The joint got pretty smashed. It will not move much. You’re going to have pain and trouble with it.”

It was hard trying to recover from this surgery, not knowing how things would turn out. I do everything with my hands; would my hand be damaged forever? I was also thinking about my kids. They were still young, and I was thinking about how different things would be with a damaged hand.

Additionally, I wasn’t sure what things would look like with CHM. Would they share my bills? How long would it take? Would my provider work with CHM? As bills came in, I scanned them in and submitted them to CHM. Every eligible medical expense was shared. I didn’t have to worry about any lingering bills from the surgery.

My hand also healed up well. I even have 90% mobility in my index finger. That’s a huge blessing from God.

CHM has given us the opportunity and the flexibility to follow our passions and dreams. Shortly after my hand incident, Krissy and I bought and restored a neglected building in downtown Canal Fulton, Ohio. In the downstairs, we were able to empower a mom to start her own business by providing her with a storefront, and the upstairs is an Airbnb suite.

When it comes to healthcare, CHM is how it’s supposed to work. We’re so thankful for this ministry.

As a self-employed business owner, I needed something for my family that would take care of our medical bills while also staying budget-friendly. When I found out about CHM and the Bronze program, I knew it would be a perfect fit.

I started experiencing symptoms at the end of summer. At first, I suspected an ear infection. But after two weeks of feeling very tired and dizzy after eating, I thought maybe I had COVID-19…or was I having a stroke? I didn’t know what was happening.

I finally went to urgent care. A nurse took my blood pressure and, suddenly, looked at me strangely. I asked her if everything was ok, and she proceeded to tell me that I needed to go to the emergency room ASAP because my blood pressure was extremely high—almost at stroke level.

I was shocked. I’d never been admitted to an emergency room before or stayed overnight in a hospital. My wife, Yolondria, took me to the hospital. Doctors ran all types to tests on me and I stayed in there for two days. They discovered that my blood pressure was extremely high and I had pre-diabetes.

I was told that most people do not experience symptoms until they are in full-blown diabetes. Praise God I found out before then!

The pre-diabetes diagnosis spurred a couple of changes in my life. I started blood pressure medication, altered my diet, and lost over 20 pounds. Praise God, I’m doing well now, but I have to eat more salads now and less steaks! It’s challenging because I’m from Texas.

CHM exceeded all my expectations. Any time I had questions, the staff was there with answers. Since I’m self-employed, I don’t get sick time. If I’m not working, I’m not getting paid. CHM supported us by reimbursing all of my eligible medical bills.

I thank God for His provision through CHM!

Editor’s note: Bronze shares for hospitalizations and surgeries above the $5,000 Personal Responsibility. Urgent care is ineligible for sharing under the Bronze program. For more information, please see the CHM Guidelines.

Friends told my husband, Darik, and me about CHM. As we learned more about the ministry—and especially about the Gold maternity program—we knew it was the right decision for us. We were impressed with the thoroughness of maternity sharing and how well the Gold level fit within our budget. We also decided to join Brother’s Keeper. It’s important to have that extra level of protection because you never know what will happen in your future, like having three babies at once!

Several months after joining CHM we were excited to find out that I was pregnant. We had one daughter, Gemma, so we thought we knew what to expect. Imagine our shock when we learned I was carrying not one, not two, but three babies.

I called CHM right away. I wanted to make sure that our high medical costs were eligible under the CHM Guidelines. The staff members were helpful and friendly, reminding us that because I was a Gold member with Brother’s Keeper, our medical costs would be eligible.

Because my pregnancy was high risk, I had to see a specialist in addition to my normal obstetrician. By the end of my pregnancy, between them I had two appointments each week.

Reese, Royal and Wren were born at 34 weeks, five days. They stayed in the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) for 20 days; then they all got to come home on the same day. This is a rare occurrence for multiple births, and we were very blessed by it.

Before discounts, the bill total was nearly $1 million. Thankfully, we negotiated discounts and the bills were reduced to $600,000.

Were we ever glad we joined Brother’s Keeper! Our triplets have been a huge blessing in our lives, but they were completely unexpected. We’re deeply grateful for Brother’s Keeper; bills were nearly $400,000 above the $125,000 per illness Gold-level sharing limit. Enough stress comes from bringing three babies home; it’s amazing to not have to worry about a large bill on top of that.

Instead, we sent the huge stack of bills to CHM along with the sharing request packet and they handled it from there. We had some difficulty obtaining discounts from one hospital, but CHM staff negotiated with them until we got the discount.

Members took care of us, too. I still receive the nicest cards from CHM members who are praying for us. Though we haven’t personally met these members their letters are heartfelt and encouraging.

We are forever thankful to CHM and all of the generous members who have taken such good care of us. We have three happy, healthy babies. We have been able to give them our love and attention without distraction from worries of giant bills. CHM has been the biggest blessing in our lives. Thank you!