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Pastor Leo's Testimony
 "All my life I've been over weight, and all my life I have dieted until I was blue in the face. Up and down, up and down until finally, I just gave up!"
I know I'm not the only one who has gone through an experience like this. I know of many others who struggle with their weight. I did all my life until April 26, 1996. I was 45 years old, at my wits end and was going to a new doctor expecting to get the same old lecture about my weight. I was 406 pounds and out of control. My height is 6 feet so at 406 pounds I was almost 220 pounds over weight. I was a walking time bomb about to explode.
That day my new doctor was so polite. After my general examination he just said, "I suppose you've tried diets?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Have you ever thought of surgery?" I never had because I thought it was dangerous and although I was big I wasn't dumb.
I was introduced to Dr. Leo Murphy who heads up Pacific Bariactrics at Mercy Hospital here in San Diego. After going to a seminar and meeting others who, like myself were out of control but who then had this new French surgery called the "Rouen Y Gastric Bypass", I was amazed at their results.
I still had some pretty big obstacles in my way though. My insurance company had never allowed this procedure before and I was 406 pounds making this procedure a major risk. We later found out that I also needed to have my Gall Bladder removed.
Well, my wife and I prayed, our church prayed and we waited to see what would happen. My blood pressure was way out of control, I had Gout, leg cramps, back pain, I couldn't even bend over and tie my own shoes, and like I said earlier, I was a walking time bomb.
When you're fat, when you've been at least 100 pounds over weight all your life, you develop a pretty sour outlook upon yourself. You also dream a lot about what your life would be like if your were to lose all this extra weight and keep it off. It's been my experience that diets only take the weight off they don't keep it off. So, many times like everybody else I would go through all kinds of emotional moods and many times I would hate the day I was born, or complain about my weight. I would make all kinds of promises to myself or my family and then fail and even feel worse, so you can imagine after 45 years of this up and down, out of control behavior, there had been a lot of negative self-talk going on in me.
Well, one day while I was driving to church, I passed a car with two young people in it. The passenger in the other car turned to look at me and I was horrified by what I saw. A young woman, maybe 18-22 years of age, turned and looked at me and she had a growth on her face that looked to be about 7 to 10 pounds. It was grotesque and made her look so disfigured. It was worse than anything I had ever seen in a monster movie. Without thinking I turned away and said, "Oh God, thank you that I'm fat!" I started praying for that young woman thinking about all the hurt she must have experienced already and all the hurt she still had ahead of her. As I was praying for her, a still small thought came into my head and I heard the Lord say, "Leo, what did you say?" I repeated what I had first said, "Oh God, thank you that I'm fat!" That's when I felt like the Lord said to me, "You know, I don't think I've ever heard you thank me for this before. I've heard you complain, I've heard you make false promises, I've even heard you threaten me with all kinds of ultimatums, but I've never heard you say THANK YOU!"
I must admit the Lord was right, I had never been glad that I didn't have something worse. My whole focus had always been, "Woe is me" or "Poor me!"
A little while later I read in the Bible about how the Lord delivered the people from Egypt, and how Moses was used by God to bring the people out of their captivity. As I read their story I prayed and said, "Lord would you please deliver me from my bondage? Would you please do for me what I can't do for myself?" Now it's almost two years later. I've lost 172 pounds so far. My blood pressure is that of a teenager. No more gout or high blood pressure medicine. I exercise three times a week, I'm always full, and I feel really good. WOW! All I can say is "Thank You Lord!" "Thank you for doing for me what I couldn't do for myself!"
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