Bob Sheely will never forget what his son TJ said during dinner one night last winter: “You really don’t know how close you can get to God until you have a trial.” Bob didn’t know then that a month later, their family would be going through the biggest trial they’d ever faced.
The Sheelys met on a blind date. They were both living in Des Moines. Carol moved here with three other girls to be a part of the Walnut Creek church plant after graduating from Iowa State. Bob started going to church because he was interested in Carol but then fell in love with God. They got married in 1993.
Last year, the Sheelys were learning how to be empty nesters. Their son was at Iowa State, and they no longer had his sporting events or activities to fill much of their time. Carol had decided to leave her job as a preschool teacher at Des Moines Christian. In February and March, she had been fighting a cold and cough that wouldn’t go away. Several doctor visits later, she just seemed to be getting worse. One Saturday they were supposed to visit family, and Carol’s chest started feeling tight. They made an ER visit instead.
Hidden Diagnosis
Carol was in congestive heart failure. The trouble was, the doctors couldn’t figure out why. Test after test was inconclusive. After a lung biopsy, Carol ended up in the Intensive Care Unit on a ventilator.
“It was frustrating,” Bob said, “to see her with a ventilator tube. It becomes very real.”
After she recovered, the doctors recommended another lung biopsy to take three one-inch pieces of her lungs. That very painful second biopsy came back inconclusive. There were still no answers.
“God knows your situation and your heart,” Carol said. “He’s for you. I felt like I could give the trial to Him like I could to my dad when I was little. He controls the world. I would tell God, ‘I know you have my best and I can trust you.’”
They chose joy. “We both promised each other that we weren’t going to be angry with God,” Carol said.
“We both promised each other that we weren’t going to be angry with God."
Carol clung to this verse Isaiah 40:31: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
“I was getting weaker and weaker, but I claimed this verse, not knowing if it would be in this life or the next,” Carol said. “God knew what was wrong.”
Prayer Movement
Carol was in the hospital for 21 days.
“We always felt peace,” Carol said. “So many people were praying. God had our best interest. There was peace from God and prayers and encouraging words.”
Bob would send out mass texts, emails, and posts on Facebook. “Carol would tell me she could feel the prayers,” Bob said. One time their small group was praying for them and their phones started buzzing. Bob had sent out an encouraging report about Carol. It was little stories like this that helped the Sheelys see that God was with them.
God also provided for them financially. Mayo Clinic was out of network for their insurance, but Bob appealed to the insurance company, and they allowed them to pay the in-network price.
“Whenever I sent anything out, I always closed it with ‘Trusting God.’” Bob said. “I wanted people to know I was trusting God. Some people go the other way because something bad is going on. Some people lash out. God, in His perfect timing, will show us why this happened.”
The doctors put Carol on steroids, and she began to feel a little better. The Sheelys went to the Mayo Clinic for three days for doctors to run more tests, and they finally got an answer for what was making Carol so sick: Churg-Straus Syndrome. It’s an incurable, but treatable autoimmune disease that leads to blood vessel inflammation. In the last year, Carol has undergone six treatments that are similar to chemotherapy.
A visit to Mayo in March revealed that the condition of Carol’s heart had not improved as they had hoped. “We are not through the trial, but we are getting closer,” Bob said.
They continue to cling to God and trust that He will see them through this as He strengthens their faith, their marriage, and their relationships with other believers.
“That love and support is really important because that’s your brothers and sisters in Christ," Bob said. "Everyone has a trial. When you see how people go through things, their example is really important.”