Nine years ago I was playing rugby as a freshman at the U.S. Naval Academy. I leaned over a girl I had just tackled and she stood suddenly, driving at least 250 pounds of force into the bottom of my chin. The bones in my jaw slammed together, sending a lightning bolt of pain through my face. I spent several weeks in and out of the dental office, pleading with them to give me something other than Motrin for the pain. I couldn’t chew anything and was surviving on yogurt and milk. The dentist finally sent me to a specialist at the persistent urging of a caring upperclassman.

The next week I walked, terrified, through the doors of the National Naval Medical Center. The doctor looked at my jaw and immediately sent me to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to have surgery the same day. The thought of surgery made me shake with fear. I was 18, scared, and alone, in a strange place, having surgery for the first time.

The surgery brought more pain, leading to a year of four additional surgeries to try to fix my jaw. My last surgery went well, but I had a severe reaction to the anesthesia, sending me into a non­responsive state for a week. After I woke up, the doctors decided to put me up for a medical board to medically discharge me from the navy. This crushed my spirit. During the year, I had worked hard to keep up with my studies in between the surgeries and pain. Now my efforts were going to be in vain. I was angry at God. Why would He do this to me?

I had been raised in a Reformed Christian home and had come to know God at a young age. I was always open about my faith and trusted in God’s plan for my life—that is, when His plan aligned with mine. I had never really suffered in my young life and didn’t understand why God was having me endure such pain now. I began my sophomore year at the academy wondering if I was going to be there at the end of the year. The initial medical board decided I should be discharged, but I appealed the decision against the advice of many doctors. I prayed earnestly for God to allow me to stay at the Naval Academy.

God led me to attend a study in James through a group called Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF). The study helped me realize how much I needed to pray for His will to be done, not my own. Several months later, the medical board decision was overturned and I was allowed to continue in the navy. Truly a miracle!

The next year, I met my soon-to-be husband at the OCF. An exchange student from the Air Force Academy named Benn stood up to introduce himself, and I was drawn to his smile and charm. We were engaged four months later, knowing we would be living in different places for the next year of our engagement and the first years of our marriage. We graduated from our respective academies and married a few weeks later. I was stationed on a ship in Jacksonville, Fla., while Benn began pilot training in Enid, Okla. God led Benn to Enid Reformed Church the same week that Noah Bailey was ordained as the pastor, and the church served as a blessing to Benn during his time in Enid.

One day, my jaw started hurting again. I was devastated as I remembered the agony I had endured five years prior. I found out after minor surgery that I would need a total joint replacement and upper jaw reconstruction surgery. This was major surgery, meaning the end of my time on the ship where I had come to love my division. My head was spinning. Just like that, my navy career was likely over. I was moved to a desk job on base for the next year while I waited for braces to realign my teeth for surgery. I couldn’t chew and my jaw hurt constantly, causing a significant amount of weight loss. Being patient for the surgery was difficult, but Benn and my church families in Jacksonville and Enid provided crucial encouragement.

I was overjoyed when surgery day finally came, thinking it would end my relentless pain and enable me to chew food again. The elation of the surgery faded quickly as I became bedridden due to pain, exhaustion, and significant weight loss. I had to get a feeding tube in order to gain weight as the pain in my jaw still prevented me from eating enough food. Six months later, I was still out of work. Doctors determined my pain was nerve damage from an abundance of surgeries. The navy decided to initiate a medical board to review my case, due to the unlikeliness of improvement in my jaw.

It took a year of waiting and another minor jaw surgery before I was discharged from the navy and able to move to Little Rock, Ark., with Benn where he was stationed to fly C-130s. My inability to chew and my experience with a feeding tube developed compassion in my heart for those having difficulties related to diet. I published a cookbook for people who cannot chew and felt God calling me to become a dietitian. I started taking nutrition classes and continued to search for a doctor that could remove the pain.

I was referred to a neurosurgeon in Little Rock who was doing a new surgery in which a neurostimulator was implanted to reduce facial pain. The surgery required a one-week trial period with an external device to ensure the neurostimulator would work before it was implanted. We scheduled the trial week for a couple months when I would be on break from school. Three days before the surgery, I received a call informing me that my insurance company had denied the procedure.

I felt like my last hope for relief was gone. Benn was on deployment and I didn’t know what to do. I thought God had brought me to this surgeon to get this surgery, but, if so, why did this happen?

Someone suggested getting the surgery through the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) hospital, as the VA could get privileges for this doctor to do the surgery there. I headed down that path for the next year, and when it finally seemed that it would work, the surgeon went on maternity leave for six months. Again God blocked this surgery for some reason unknown to me. I continued to pray for healing, but wondered: Perhaps it was God’s will for me to remain like this, much like the thorn in the Apostle Paul’s side. I resolved to live with the pain and trusted that God would lead us in another direction in His timing.

Benn got a new assignment a year later as an instructor pilot and chose to go back to Enid, Okla., and be a part of Enid Reformed Church again. The decision to move to Enid seemed to confirm that I would have to continue living in pain. Enid is an hour and a half from the closest city, leaving few options for specialized health care. However, I was accepted to a dietetic internship at the University of Oklahoma. I was excited to be able to start counseling and ministering to people going through a difficult time like my own.

I saw a primary care doctor shortly after moving to Enid and obtained a referral to a local pain specialist. I had no preference on which doctor I saw and instructed the referral office to pick the doctor I could see the fastest. I figured this doctor wouldn’t be able to do much, but perhaps he would be able to send me to a doctor in Oklahoma City or Tulsa.

The next week I was waiting in an exam room full of pamphlets for neurostimulators. I figured this pain doctor probably implanted them for back pain, which is commonly done. The doctor and I discussed all the treatment options I have tried, and I mentioned my efforts to get a neurostimulator in Arkansas. He asked if I was still interested in a neurostimulator. I replied “yes” in the calmest shout possible. He stated he was the only doctor in Oklahoma that implanted the neurostimulators for facial pain, adding that he had dealt with my insurance company many times and knew the appropriate information to give them to approve the surgery.

Amazing! I couldn’t believe that God would send us to Enid to find the person to do this surgery!

The insurance company took several weeks to approve a trial surgery, but I finally was able to do the one-week trial the week before my internship started.

Miraculous does not begin to describe how well the device took away the pain. I was sad to give it up at the end of the week, especially knowing the soonest I would be able to get a permanent implant was Christmas break. Yet I was encouraged, knowing what I had to look forward to in several months.

I had the surgery to place the permanent implant on Dec. 23. Many limitations that had been caused by pain were graciously taken away. I was able to chew many foods I hadn’t eaten in years! God has given me much more profound joy in being able to do things that I used to take for granted before my injury. My past and present church families have prayed for years for the relief of the pain in my jaw, and God has taught many of us to be patient in waiting and faithful in knowing His timing is perfect. With David, I found, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Ps. 119:71).

Amanda Slikker lives in Enid, Okla. She attends Enid RPC with her husband, Benn. She is a dietetic intern and enjoys cooking, exercising, and playing with their dogs and cats. She has published a detailed story of her testimony entitled My Comfort in Affliction.