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Afro Puffs and Ponytails present Fabiolo Fenelon, a full time African American/Black college student at Texas Christian University.  She is majoring in Vocal Performance and she is also employed full time at a hospital.

Every since I was five years old, I have been singing for the Lord.  It wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I realized that God had given me a gift to touch people’s hearts through song.  For 16 years, I have been singing for the Lord and I have enjoyed every moment of it until May of 2008.

As far back as I can remember, I have always had a bump in the roof of my mouth (hard palate).  I never thought anything about it.  I even went to the doctor regarding this situation and he said that it was nothing for me to worry about.  Around May of 2008, the bump began to irritate my eating and sleeping habits and my brother made me aware that the bump had grown larger than the last time he saw it.  I became worried and went to the doctor and I am glad I did.  After a few tests, I was diagnosed with a tumor in my hard palate and the doctor said that I would need to remove it from my mouth as soon as possible or else it would continue to grow.

After a few hours of surgery, my tumor was removed; it was 6-10 centimeters wide.  This was not the bad part. I had a talk with my doctor and he said that I might not be able to speak, letalone sing.   He said that the hole where the tumor was removed was not  likely to close and I would need a prosthesis to speak and eat.  After hearing this news, I was overwhelmed with sadness, anger, and I felt completely out of control.  I did not know what to do, so I began to call on God and ask Him why He was taking away the voice that He had given me. What have I done to deserve this? I did not understand at the time and I had no answer from God.  All I knew was  that everything that happens would come out for my good and that I had to trust that God knows what He is doing.  With much prayer from friends and family, the Lord was healing my mouth each and everyday. Each time I went to the doctor for a check up on my mouth, the hole was showing progress of closing a little bit at a time.  After 9 months of waiting on the Lord,  the hole completely closed.  The doctor did not have an explanation for it.  All he could say was how amazing and unexplainable that this hole had closed completely.

I have learned so much from this experience, but mainly I have learned that God is in control.  His time is not our time and He knows exactly what He is doing.  Also, I learned that as hard as it is, we must be patient. I wanted so badly to just find a way to close the hole myself but I couldn’t.  I had to wait on the Lord.  Lastly, I learned that when the Lord gives you a gift, you must take advantage of it and use it only for Him, because He can take it away.  I thank God everyday for the gift that He has given me and I will use it only for Him because I know that He gave me this gift.   I need to cherish it and use for His glory. I feel very priviledged that God chose me to give such a great testimony and I will share it with everyone and anyone who is willing to listen because God has made a difference in my life.

“Encourage and strengthen him.” Deuteronomy 3:28 NIV

Be a “builder-upper!” (2)

God knew that Joshua would need all the help he could get in leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. So He told his mentor, Moses, “Encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land” (v. 27-28). God recognized that Moses was the best man to strengthen and encourage Joshua because he’d dealt with pressures and “people problems” at the Red Sea, and again in the desert when Israel grumbled against God – and him.

Everybody needs encouragement, including you! You need others to cheer you on when you’ve been battered by setbacks and circumstances. German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Correction does much, but encouragement does much more.” It rekindles your spirit and gives you the oomph to keep going. One well known pastor wrote, “Nothing can uplift more than the encouragement of a friend or loved one. It’s the oxygen of the soul. Having run two miles, a person may need to pause and catch his or her breath before running another two. Before facing a formidable task, or even the wearying routines of life, a person needs to pause for encouragement before tackling the work ahead. So become oxygen to the souls of those around you. Strengthen them to persevere for the Kingdom. Encourage them with God’s promise to work good in all things.”

Stop and think about somebody who could use a little encouragement, and before today is over, make it a point to get in touch with them. “Let us pursue the things…by which one may edify [build up] another” (Ro 14:19 NKJV).

Fabiola Fenelon

Tags: encourage, fabiola fenelon, Ft. Worth, gift, God, Lord, priviledged, surgery, testimony, texas, texas chrisitian university, tumor

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Afro American Woman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.