[see also the Brazilian Portugese version]
Yes; a supernatural healing is what I’m claiming, and I can substantiate it with both my history of stomach problems and the systematic way in which I’ve experimented over a two-week period by trying out the various, numerous foods I haven’t been able to eat — most for many years — , since the suspected miracle. I went about it pretty much as the Church does when it investigates purported miraculous occurrences of various sorts, with an examination entailing empirical evidence and reason. That’s not skepticism; rather, it’s the blending of belief in the miraculous, with objective ways of determining when a specific purported miracle has actually occurred or not, so that it can more effectively be shared to the world as a testimony of God’s power and mercy and love.
I’ve never been skeptical of miracles since I dedicated my life to God in the spring of 1977. I have defended them in my writings and have always believed — both as a Protestant evangelical and as a Catholic — that all the charismatic gifts are operative in the Church today, and that even the most dramatic, extraordinary miracles still occur: such as the raising of the dead. In fact, I have been saying since 1978 that I was healed of serious, clinical depression, that I experienced for about six months in 1977. I’ve never had serious depression since that time.
Let me describe my background in this respect. Once it’s understood, the striking nature of the miraculous healing is all the more manifest. I used to eat absolutely anything I wanted (and — those were the days! — wouldn’t gain any weight, either) up till about roughly the time I got married (October 1984) at age 26. But in 1983 I started eating a lot less sugar, as I had hypoglycemia.
At that time, many doctors were very skeptical that the condition even existed (it was usually collapsed into a variant of diabetes if it was acknowledged at all): much as many doctors today are skeptical regarding fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease. But I read a few books, figured out that it was likely what I had (since I felt lousy at the ripe old age of 25 and otherwise healthy). So I started the new diet and in due course (after a withdrawal period) I felt great.
My wife Judy and I have tried to eat as healthy as finances allowed throughout our entire marriage, and we strongly believe in holistic health, alternative medicine, and herbalism (while not in the least discounting the many great treatments of conventional medicine: “both/and”), and have experienced the relief or disappearance of many symptoms and maladies through the years, that I have written about, so others could benefit from the same knowledge.
The first thing I remember with regard to difficulties when eating certain foods would have been in the second half of the 80s, with mushrooms, extracts, and almonds. I remember one time we bought these carob almond candies at our favorite health food store. I had bad stomach problems after eating them, and since that had never happened before with any food, we thought that the candies were rancid. The store graciously refunded our money, but now in retrospect I know it was just me.
The problem with extracts may have also been with alcohol, because they all have them. I discovered that after we made various puddings and cookies that included extracts. The next thing I recall having a problem with is salad dressing, where the culprit is vinegar. Acidic foods are very numerous and go far beyond citric acid (as in orange juice) and acetic acid (vinegar). I also noted somewhat of a problem with too much fat content, such as with hamburgers. As a result, I started eating a lot less red meat around 1990 or so and ate mostly poultry and fish and was a semi-vegetarian, with some exceptions, such as hot dogs at parties, etc. I simply lost my taste for it.
Increasingly through the years it became clear that I had the classic ulcer symptoms, and had problems with acidy foods, herbs and spices, pepper, concentrated or dried foods, extracts, alcohol, and carbonated drinks. Scientists now know that ulcers do not derive from simply worrying too much and/or stress in general (‘m not a worrier-type anyway). The most common cause is a bacteria, Helicobacter pylori. A second cause is the over-use or extended use of NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines): pain and fever medicines such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen (none of which I take; I use acetaminophen [Tylenol]). Back in the 90s we used to think that Judy had ulcers. If so, it seems to have gone away in her case. I never really had serious stomach problems.
In the last ten years or so I also seemed to have difficulties, off and on, with wheat (gluten). At times I would give up wheat to feel better, but I could never handle the taste of gluten-free bread and would give up. I noticed a correlation with soybean oil and problems, too. Then in the past year or so I started to notice a seeming intolerance of lactose and most dairy products, along with garlic and onions [see my ADDENDUM at the end, on this topic]. About a year ago, I had the latter two foods, and (probably) olive oil in a very “greasy” Italian dish at a dinner after a funeral and violently threw up six times that night (vomiting, thankfully, is very rare for me, as is nausea, though eating the “wrong” foods sometimes brought on diarrhea). I’ve taken various digestive aids for many years (particularly one called Super-Digestaway, which has become very expensive), but now it looks like I won’t need any.
Then just in the last few months the list of “forbidden” foods extended (sadly!) to peanuts and eggs. I was even having problems with potato chips and Fritos (probably the oil in them). In addition to an ulcer, I seem to have developed IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or something like it. This caused me to have trouble digesting food just about every day. The problems (usually bloating) generally started in the mid-afternoon and extended into the evenings and sometimes overnight, too. Not infrequently I’d wake up in pain in the middle of the night, and pop Rolaids and/or use the heating pad. I also increasingly had difficulties when I didn’t eat often enough. It’s thought that the onset of IBS may be triggered by a great amount of stress. I did indeed experience extreme stress and even trauma in the year 2024.
So that’s where I was at on March 10th (eleven days ago as I write): chomping Rolaids like candy, using a heating pad almost every night to relieve the bloating, heartburn, sour stomach, cramping, and plain old stomach aches. At the worst times I would take a hot bath or drink chamomile tea. Blessedly, all four of these remedies worked pretty well. But they were temporary, and I wanted more than a “Band-Aid”. I resolved to try to get rid of the root causes, because it gets old having to do these things every day. I was starting to not even enjoy eating, which had never happened before.
I tried the standard conventional “triple therapy” treatment for ulcers (having no objection to it: “if it works, it works” [pragmatism]). According to one study in the journal, Digestion, it brought about a cure rate of 84%. But for some reason I was in the 16%. Then I tried various and sundry natural (usually herbal) remedies, including one herb known in Brazil, recommended by a doctor there who knew me on Facebook. That didn’t work, either. So I restricted my diet more and more, eventually trying to eat less at a time, too (which is said to help), but nothing worked. I’ve also sought to avoid excessive seed oils, after doing some research on that, and bioengineered foods and harmful additives to food, in the last six months, and to eat as many non-GMO / organic foods as I can find — and afford, as they can be quite pricey.
Apart from my family, people who have been following my work, especially on Facebook, are familiar with my stomach problems, because I have written about them several times and put up low-acid / low-spice recipes. They know what I’ve gone through, and that it has been a long-term and relatively serious problem. Of course “in-person” friends are also aware of this, since it comes up every time I am at some gathering and food is provided, or at restaurants. This also verifies the miraculous nature of what has happened to me.
That’s the backdrop behind my daughter Angelina telling me about a healing service; part of a Catholic organization that she has been involved with, called Encounter Ministries, co-founded by Fr. Mathias Thelen, author of the book, Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization (Wipf and Stock, 2017), and Patrick Reis, and advised by Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, author of many books, and advisor to Pope Francis.
I attended this event at St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish in Brighton, Michigan, on Monday evening, March 10th, 2025. After a time of worship and a few testimonies of past healings, several teams of prayer-warriors (usually consisting of four people) were formed in order to pray for specific healing requests. When my turn came, I explained to one of the teams what my problems were (basically a very brief capsule summary of the above). They started praying, together at first and then one-by-one. While the fourth person was praying, I experienced a “flushed” feeling, or warmth in my head which then went down with a sort of tingling to my stomach: what I described to them as “like goose-bumps.”
Apparently, in healings, there is often some sort of feeling like this. They then prayed a second time, individually, but the experience didn’t happen again. I thanked them all and wondered if I had been healed or not. I didn’t rule it out, especially since my daughter had told me that according to what she had learned in her studies attending Encounter, that sometimes it took a day or two before people experienced healings after prayer. Time would tell.
On either Monday or Tuesday night (this is the only detail I don’t remember for certain), as I was laying in bed about to go to sleep, I experienced an intense sort of little “explosion” in my stomach and very intense pain for maybe 10-20 seconds, which then went away. I thought that this might possibly be another manifestation or sign of a healing, because of its unique nature. I had the usual problems and symptoms on Tuesday, the day after the prayers for healing. But starting on Wednesday, they disappeared, and have not returned since (thirteen days ago as I write).
Being systematic and methodical as I am, I decided after three days of this (on Saturday, March 15th) to start testing out foods, to verify whether a miraculous healing had occurred. I started slowly and ate some frozen breaded fish that contained garlic, onion, and pepper: all of which had been murder on my stomach for a long time. Then on Sunday (March 16th) on the way to church I announced to my wife and daughter that I may have been healed, and after church the first thing I ate was a large order of crinkle fries at Arby’s, with a significant amount of ketchup (it has vinegar, onion, and sometimes, garlic, too).
I had said for many years that french fries were my favorite food, but now I think it’s pizza. I could still eat fries, but it had to be without ketchup (boring!). Even so I noticed that when I ate them at home, I would react to the (acidy) olive oil on the potatoes (even from an organic brand that we bought). I couldn’t win for losing! But this time, I had no adverse reaction at all.
On Monday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day!) my experiment was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (my staple lunch as a kid: just about every day) because I had been having trouble with peanuts. Again, no digestive problems whatsoever.
On Tuesday, March 18th, I had a granola cereal that gave me trouble the time before (from oil, cinnamon, and cardamom). Then for lunch I had a tuna sandwich with mayo, pickles, and pepper. For dinner I had homemade pizza on pita bread with (acidy) pineapples, and at night, Triscuit crackers. The oil in those had caused me problems a week or so earlier. But after all of that “forbidden” food in one day, my stomach and intestines were perfectly fine.
On Wednesday, March 19th, “Day Nine” after the healing, I had another tuna sandwich and hot rice cereal with raisins (the latter had been a digestive problem, as a dried food). Again, success!
On Thursday, March 20th, Day Ten, I kept experimenting, with a second peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Rice-a-Roni (Herbs and Butter) for dinner. It contained onion, pepper, and garlic. I had more fries and ketchup for a snack in the evening. I had no problems again.
On Friday, March 21st, Day 11, I wanted to test whether I still had lactose intolerance, and so I had regular milk on my cereal for breakfast and also some milk in a Hershey’s candy bar later. Lunch was more Rice-a-Roni and more Triscuits and cheese. For dinner we had what used to be one of my favorite foods: tuna salad, with whole wheat elbow noodles, sweet relish, mayo, and pepper. The mayo (from the brand Simple Truth, sold at Kroger’s and with a taste very similar to Miracle Whip) itself contained vinegar, soybean oil, egg yolk, mustard, and lemon juice: all of which I couldn’t previously eat for some time.
It was fabulous! I remarked over dinner how I was really starting to enjoy food again, as it should be. I had almost lost that pleasure, even with my favorite foods: perhaps largely because of the boredom and repetition of a severely restricted diet. I guess the anxiety about adverse reactions might psychologically work against the pleasure of taste buds, too. At night, I snacked on toast with butter, honey and cinnamon. But now everything was again fine. It’s incredible to experience all this and to realize that I can now enjoy basically whatever I want to eat. The four young prayer warriors had also graciously prayed that I could enjoy any food I wanted. That was part of the prayer request, and God honored that prayer, too, and my desires. He’s so good and loving!
On Saturday, March 22nd, Day 12, I had regular milk again on my cereal (previously I had used either rice milk or lactose-free milk), strawberry Greek yogurt with whipped cream (strawberries had long been too acidic for me to eat) and whole wheat pita bread and hummus for lunch. The hummus was the True Goodness organic brand available at Meijer: “Roasted red pepper.” It contains red peppers, canola and olive oil, garlic, citric acid, paprika, vinegar, and chili peppers: eight ulcer-hostile foods that were strictly out of the question for me to eat just eleven days earlier. In the afternoon I had four peanut butter chocolate cookies.
Then at dinnertime I “dared” to attempt the “nuclear option”: pizza (Jet’s, Detroit deep dish style) with pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms: a combination on a pizza that I hadn’t had in probably 40 years, if not longer. I know I used to before I was married, but then the mushrooms soon had to be eliminated, and eventually the pepperonis, and last of all, green peppers (just a year or so ago). I used to love mushroom soup. I think it was in 2016 that I threw up while we were on vacation, after having eaten pizza with pineapple (from Pizza Hut, as I recall). For years, I have continued to eat pizza made with pineapple chunks, which were removed before I ate (one still tastes the juice). At least I could still eat that. My drink at dinner was A&W root beer. All of this was successful too.
On Sunday, March 23rd, Day 13, I continued testing by having a ham sandwich with mayo, mustard, ketchup, and “hot” pickles, and a mint chocolate chip milk shake from Arby’s. For dinner, the “new” foods were sweet and sour sauce (Kraft brand) on breaded chicken (I used to also love that combination as a kid). No problems!
On Monday, March 24th, Day 14, I had a granola cereal for breakfast with seven ingredients I used to have trouble with: almonds, canola oil, dried cranberries, raisins, coconut, pecans, and walnuts. For lunch I had root beer for my drink. No symptoms at all. If anyone has a “natural” explanation for this, feel free! I’d love to see it.
I think I can safely say that the healing is by now more than abundantly confirmed. I have eaten virtually all of the types of foods that I couldn’t eat before: some for many many years. The healing seems to have included all four of my digestive problems: ulcer, IBS, lactose-intolerance, and most of my food allergies (but see the ADDENDUM). A lot of this stems, I think, from having a very strong immune system, which sometimes causes problems with various foods. I get very few colds and virtually never get the flu, either (no shots needed). And I have bad allergies to dust and dander, and get hay fever twice a year.
Praise God! All glory and honor to Him! It gives me great pleasure to be able to proclaim this testimony and report (with evidence from my own experience) that God is still in the healing business today, just as He always has been. I’ve experienced it now twice. As you can see, this miracle has been thoroughly and exhaustively documented. Others in my family have had healings, too. My son Paul had a serious knee problem that was healed on the same night. And he had been healed before some years ago of a muscular and bone issue.
The two mistakes people all too frequently make with regard to healing miracles involve going to one of two extremes: believing either that God never heals in this day and age or that He always does, by our command, as it were (a serious and dangerous error that I refuted at length in a paper way back in 1982, as a Protestant charismatic). Don’t let the devil mislead you with either of these lies. What we do know — from the Bible and from scientific and eyewitness verification — is that God still heals today: in His own time and place and for His own purposes: usually unknown or not fully known by us mere mortals. That said, no one has anything to lose and has a lot to possibly gain by asking and praying for healing. It’s very real. I urge all to believe it, and pray for it. Don’t ignore this part of the Bible. Unfortunately, however, most Catholic parishes do ignore or disbelieve it, and that’s a great shame.
To top it off, I looked up what feast day fell on March 10th: the day I was healed. It’s St. John Ogilvie (1579-1615), a Scotsman who was raised in a noble family as a Calvinist, converted, and became a Jesuit priest and martyr. He’s the only post-“Reformation” Scottish saint. Being part Scottish myself (Armstrong being a border clan), and a convert, I think it’s very appropriate. I love how God is involved in every detail.
ADDENDUM (3-26-25): Garlic and Onion Factors
I did experience last night my first adverse digestive issue in two weeks (semi-diarrhea). So what I did is do what I’ve always done: trace what I ate and what ingredients correlate with the problem. And what I ate was, in the space of a few days, two 8 oz, bags of Lays’ Barbecue Chips, mostly accompanied by French Onion dip. I had a lot of that last might at about 11 PM by itself, so there was a clear correlation. Now, what do they both have in common? It’s dried onion and garlic. I did a little quick research on that (and the related onion and garlic powder) and discovered, apart from the obvious matter of greater concentration, that dried onion and garlic often have unlisted preservatives added to them, too. I think it’s this distinction, plus the great quantities I have eaten in testing the miracle, and my usual not-enough-water, that are the culprits.
I don’t think this disproves the healing of my ulcer and IBS at all, because I’ve been able to eat acids and spices and milk with no problem, which was simply impossible before, and have not had any of the bloating that typifies IBS. What it reveals to me is that I am still sensitive (if not allergic) to at least the dried / dehydrated type of onion and garlic. I have, in fact, been eating “straight” garlic and onion for years with no problem, in our old standby, Little Caesar’s pizza. And I had had it in spaghetti sauce (Prego or Ragu) that we use for homemade pizza, our entire marriage; and we would put onion slices on top of homemade baked beans in the crock pot, etc. This shows me that it’s the dried, concentrated element and/or “hidden” preservatives added to it that is the problem. As for potato chips, I like plain ones, too, and can have them with sour cream, minus the onions and garlic. So that’s not a total loss.
With the above qualifications in mind, I have removed the foods that I listed that had dried onion or garlic in them, so I’m not misrepresenting anything. The many and various foods that remain listed in all my days of testing, have been eaten without any adverse reactions.
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Photo credit: Healing of the Blind Man, by Carl Bloch (1834-1890) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]
Summary: I explain in great detail and specificity, the miraculous healing of my serious digestive problems on 3-10-25, including a rundown of numerous “tests” I did to verify the change.
