GERALDINE RIDEOUT
MIRACLE!
Geraldine's Testimony was carried by CBC TV across Newfoundland twice and across Canada once on the Take Thirty' program. Her medical doctor appeared with her as well. The following interview was done in Edmonton in 1984.
Pastor Solbrekken: A father and mother carried their little girl into our gospel meeting in Newfoundland
She was 16 years of age, approximately two and one-half feet tall and weighed twenty-five pounds. They laid her in my arms for special prayer. It was the month of May, 1968.
The little girl had never walked, never stood; she was dying! That little girl was Geraldine Rideout! She was healed that night; and from that night and on she began to improve. At the age of twenty-one, she started grade one in school. Now she is over thirty years old and in grade ten.
Not only did she receive this tremendous miracle, but in November, 1982, she was almost killed in a tragic school-bus accident. Forty-three children were in the bus. She was thrown through the wind shield, the bus rolled over her and missed her by just a few inches. They found her in a ditch of water and mud.
Ruth Rideout, her mother: Geraldine was two pounds at birth so we had no hope of her even living.
Doctors had given her up to die.
They said she MIGHT live to be six years old. But, I thank God that she lived and she is now over thirty years of age. I thank the Lord for Jesus. He has done a real miracle in Geraldine's life. There was nothing anyone could do.
All I could do was give her loving care.
I took her to many doctors and they told me to take her home and love her; as I wouldn't have her for long!
I wasn't planning on giving up easily. I used to say, "Lord, raise her up for your glory; by your stripes she is healed". I would get up in the morning, send the other children to school and then I would sit by her little crib.
I would tell her about Jesus! I told her if we believed together that one day she would be like other girls. She would say, "Yes, I will be like other girls because Jesus is going to heal me for the glory of God".
BECAUSE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS
Many times I was discouraged and sometimes the enemy would come and tell me it was no use to pray. But I said, "Lord, I am going to trust you". I know this is why we are here tonight, because of the love of Jesus.
The mighty power of God raised her up and healed her for His Glory. I thank Him tonight for all that He means to me and for all He has done for Geraldine.
We love Geraldine very much, I don't think I could live without her. Sometimes I wonder what I would do if anything happened to her, but, I know that Jesus is not going to take her from me yet. He has a work for her to do.
When she was in the bus accident and they came to tell me that they had taken her to the hospital, it really hurt. I didn't know what to say or what to do. Pastor Ken called and asked if I wanted him to go and see her. When we arrived they had her on the table and they didn't have much hope of her living. She had twenty stitches in her head and she was really bad to look at.
I thank God tonight because He brought her through it. He is continuing to do a real work in her life.
SHE WAS LIKE A LITTLE BIT OF DOUGH
God has done many miracles for her. One time she had a bad back. When she was born, she was very deformed and twisted. Her little arms and legs were deformed, and her feet were turned right around behind.
She was a like a little bit of dough, she had no bones in her body. Her little hips used to lay just as you had put her down. You couldn't put any clothes on her.
The night she was born I just didn't know what to do. So I said, "Lord, you know all about her, and I know you are going to raise her for your glory". That night we called on our preacher, Pastor Charlie Roussel, and we laid Geraldine in his arms and he prayed. I gave her to Jesus that night and I'm not taking her back now because she belongs to Jesus.
I believe Jesus has a real work for her to do. I am believing and waiting because there is not much time left to tell others. I believe Jesus is coming soon and I want to be found ready when He comes. Today, if there is anyone who needs healing or salvation, or anything from Jesus, He can do anything that you would ask Him to do.
There is nothing too hard, too small or too big for Jesus; because Jesus is a miracle worker and He can do all things.
Don't be afraid to reach out because Jesus is waiting. Whatever your need is tonight, reach out and touch Him and He will answer your prayer.
Pastor Solbrekken: "Sister Rideout, you fed her from an eye dropper for about four years"?
Ruth Rideout: Yes, the night she was born, she would not take a bottle or the breast milk. What I used to do was squeeze the milk from my breast and put it in a little dish and I would feed her with a medicine tube. That is how I fed her for three years. That is how I kept her alive.
She couldn't such as she had no strength in her little mouth to draw the milk into her mouth. Until she was fourteen years old, I fed her from a spoon. I took her to doctors and they would say,
"Take her home and look after her yourself, because we cannot do as much as you do". When the time would come to feed her, they wouldn't stop to feed her; if she wouldn't take her feedings they would just leave her. He told me I was a wonderful mother and was doing a real work in her life. But, they didn't think or believe that she was going to live.
I WOULDN'T GIVE UP!
When she got sick, I would say, "Lord, nothing is going to happen to her. She is going to live and be raised up for your glory".
That is how I used to pray! I would spend my days praying. I would send the others out to school and I would come back and lean over her crib. If you could see the tears I shed, you could say that I shed boxes of tears over her crib.
She would cry out to me "Mom". She couldn't turn away or move her body in any way. I would have to hold onto her hand through her crib, and this was the only thing that made me feel safe.
In the winter, dad and I would take turns of fasting and praying. We would run back and forth to see Geraldine and feel her arms and legs to see if the lumps were gone and if her feet were right.
When she was sleeping, I would tie her feet together with ribbon, believing that when I untied the ribbon that her feet would be normal. One day I untied the ribbon and her feet were healed.
I really have something to thank the Lord for! That is how she was brought up until she was sixteen years old.
SHE SUFFERED IN PAIN!
There were times she would cry but no tears came. As soon as she saw me coming, she would begin to cry. Both arms and legs were broken. I would prop one leg up on a pillow and place another pillow under her arm. The doctors said her legs were like egg shells.
At one time both her arms and legs were broken, as well as her jaw and back. Every bone in her body almost has been broken at one time or other during her first 16 years of misery until Jesus healed her in the Max Solbrekken crusade!
Her brothers and sisters would want to hold her, but they couldn't, as her bones would break. We couldn't even dress her. That is how fragile she was!
Pastor Solbrekken: When you brought her to the crusade, did you expect a miracle that night?
Ruth Reidout: Yes, I did.
Pastor Solbrekken: For the first time in her life she stood to her feet, in 1968?
Ruth Rideout: Yes, the next day we brought her to our married daughter's home, and she walked right into the house for the first time in her life!
GERALDINE RIDEOUT TELLS HER OWN STORY!
Pastor Solbrekken: Geraldine Rideout, the only person in the entire world, according to medical science, as far as we know, that has ever been cured of "Osteo Genesis Imperfecta".
As a matter of fact, if I have my figures right, most babies born with this disease die within a few hours or days. Only four babies out of every one hundred thousand that are born with this disease, even live.
She is one of the four! Most of them are crippled and die at a young age. But here she is, over thirty years of age, started school at twenty-one and now in grade ten; and has come through a terrible accident.
Her doctor sent a message to me and said, "You tell Pastor Solbrekken that if he had seen you in that ditch, he wouldn't believe that you could be alive today, because when she went through the windshield of that bus in November of 1982 and was lying in a ditch with both of her ankles broken and her head bleeding for three weeks, hemorraging, twenty stitches! Now that is really another miracle!"
Geraldine Rideout: It is a real thrill to be with Pastor Solbrekken, and I want to tell you that he is a real sport. Believe me. I have many things to praise God for; but the first thing I want to thank Him for is saving me. I was just a little girl of four, and VERY SICK! I didn't know what it was like to be able to go out and meet with people like all you nice people tonight.
My mom came into my room and she began to tell me about Jesus and what He could do and how He could save and heal us if we believe, together.
In my rom, I gave my life to Jesus and have been serving Him since that day. He means everything to me. I used to have two broken legs and two broken arms all at once, a broken back and turned up feet; clothes couldn't even touch my body.
My mom would come in the mornings and as she would begin to move me, I knew that when she would leave the room, my body would be full of pain.
My bones were soft as egg shells.
That is what the doctors were telling us last year. They said, "no one lives, but if they live, they would need to be carried in a wheelchair. They would probably only live till about six or seven years of age". But Praise God, I have lived over thirty years. Today I am going to school and I am living a normal life like any other girl.
JESUS WAS ALWAYS THERE!
My mother always stood with me when the other children went to school and my dad had to go to work. He used to work away in the lumber camp and he would pray. When the pain got real bad, I would say, "Mom, write dad a letter". I knew when he got that letter, the pain would ease off.
It is not always easy suffering with broken bones, it was very painful. That is why I couldn't eat, I couldn't sit up, I couldn't do anything because I was just suffering too much in my body.
As mother would read the Bible to me, she would always repeat "By His stripes, we are healed". Sometimes now when I am travelling I hear that verse and it brings me back to my childhood days.
My mother would send the others off to school then come in to see me. I was having so much pain, there were mornings I would have given the world to be able to get up, dress and go to school with my brothers and sisters. They would come home from school and would tell me what they had learned that day. Mom would bathe me with cold water.
I just couldn't take the pain! They would want to get near me, but no one could even sit on the bed I was lying in.
You couldn't believe,my friend, how bad I was, but God can do anything if we put our trust in Him.
I LOVE GIVING MY TESTIMONY
I love giving my testimony, even though I have told it many times! The students at my school have accepted me real well even though I am much older than they are, butthey don't take it like that. They just take me as if I was fifteen or sixteen, just like themselves.
Last week, one fellow came in and said, "I think you should write a book about how sick you were and how you are now healed". I said, "You know, that is a good idea; when I graduate from school, I might do just that".
I owe all the praise to Jesus for what He has done for me. Approximately six months ago, He filled me with the Holy Ghost and Fire! I was in Summerford Church
I went up that night, praise God! It was a nice little walk and I felt just like I was walking on air; like I was dancing around. I said, "My, do I ever feel good tonight". I told the Lord, "Lord, let something happen", but I didnot know it was going to happen to me.
That night He filled me with the Holy Ghost and Fire! Since that time, my friend, I have felt different. I have travelled more than ever, since the accident. I was getting many calls, but I was so sick. I said, "Lord, if you want me to go to those churches, please touch my body and make me whole". I was bleeding from the head so bad I didn't know what to do. Every night my mom laid me in the bed and it reminded me of when I was little. She could hardly handle me, I was so badly bruised.
She laid me in the bed and my head was bleeding heavily. I thought to myself, that I can pray myself and be healed. I am going to take the pad off my head and go to sleep. I hadn't slept for more than an hour at one time in three weeks.
I said, "I am going to take off the pad in Jesus Name and I am going to have a good night's sleep. I took off the pad, lay it on the dresser and slept the whole night. The bleeding stopped and never started again. Praise God!
God has healed my body many times in little ways and I take everything to Jesus. Lots of times, I think of mom saying, "Geraldine, only take one day at a time". It is so true, Lord. One day at a time, Sweet Jesus. We can do anything if we just put our trust in Him. We must be willing to accept what we are and to do our part and then Jesus will help us.
Anyone who needs healing for your body, salvation for your soul, or whatever it is, Jesus is able tonight. Why not come and accept Him as your Saviour. God Bless you all!
Pastor Solbrekken: Geraldine tell the people a little more, about Osteo Genesis Imperfecta and the disease that is incurable without God's intervention!
Geraldine Rideout: When I was one year of age, my mom took me to a doctor and he wouldn't even take off the little suit I wore. All he had to do was look into my eyes and where normal eyes are white, mine were blue. That is how he knew that there was something wrong with the bones.
Mom took me home and she gave me to Jesus!
Mom and dad fasted and prayed over the years, but we didn't know the name of the disease. At the age of twenty-eight, I went to St. John's Hospital
Now I can see how everything worked together for good. We did not know the name until that day. Just as I was admitted, they came with this large book and they began to talk to mom about how I had been living over the years, and how it came that I was still alive.
They were really amazed.
They didn't know what to do. They were just gathering around me, like they were afraid. That is how it looked to me. They wouldn't even give me a needle. The doctor came in and said, "I am going to give her a needle". I don't want anyone else to touch her.
He was amazed to see that I was still living with Osteo Genesis Imperfecta.
THE NEXT DAY I FELT REALLY STRONG
After the night Pastor Solbrekken prayed for me, with every step I took, I would say, "One step in your name Lord, two steps in your name, Jesus". The next day, I said to mom, "I feel real strong, I can walk around the table".
I was like a baby in a way; I had to learn how to walk. So I asked mom, to give me my coat, and I walked down to my sister's house for the first time in my life. I guess it took me about ten minutes to walk and mom watched me from the window.
I just started off for the first time in my life.
MOM AND DAD ALWAYS HAD CLOTHES ON HAND FOR ME BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED SO MUCH THAT SOME DAY I WOULD BE LIKE OTHER GIRLS. THEY WOULD BUY CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN MY ROOM.
I think about it now and it was not like it is today, it was not easy. No cars, just a kerosene lamp and a woodstove, but mom stood with me and today that is why she means so much to me!
I JUST COULDN'T TAKE THE PAIN
Another time I had a broken back and when I would say, "Mom come", I would cry but no tears would come. That may not sound correct, but it is true. I would just stare at her and cry as she came near because I knew that she was going to try to move me. Sometime during the day, they told mom, "She is not going to live, she is going now", but mom would pray over me, and I would come to and see her there.
It was only this week I was thinking about how I got smashed up in the bus accident and I didn't even hurt my back!
I thank God because He did it. It wasn't because of the goodness of myself or my parents. They would just stand with me and give me the prayer support I needed. God did the rest!
200 TO 300 DOCTORS SEE ME
Just a couple of years ago I was asked to present myself before approximately two to three hundred doctors, in a large place. I went in, not knowing what I had to do; I thought I was going to have to answer alot of questions. I was sort of preparing myself, but, when I got in there, there was nothing to it.
I guess they got a big fright when they saw that I could walk, talk, use my hands and do the things that I could do.They just asked me a couple of questions like, "what I was going to do when I finished my education? How were my grades in school?" and a few questions like that. I asked the nurse if I could leave and she said, "You are free to go; everything is over". I went into the other room and told mom, "I am finished, I can go home".
They just couldn't believe that I was living, they wanted to see me and touch me and see that I could walk and do all the things that any normal person could do. They said:
"NO ONE ELSE LIVED!" THAT'S WHY THEY WANTED TO SEE ME IN PERSON!
My doctor told me to tell Pastor Solbrekken, that if he had seen me after that bus accident, he wouldn't have believed that I would be alive today!
It is all Jesus; He had His hand on that bus. The first thing that came in my mind was, "I am ready to go, but what about mom and Joan and the crowd behind?"
It happened just five months after I lost one brother. This was all going through my mind. It was just like claps of thunder, that is when the bus was hit. That is all I know.
The next thing I knew I opened my eyes. My face was up to Jesus, and I was praying, "Lord don't let me have any head injuries". I knew they were working on my head because my hair was all wet. A man from the church came and prayed that my hair would grow.
In the front, where I went through the window, there was a large hole and this is where I kept bleeding for three weeks. He came in and prayed, "Lord,close up that hole and let hair grow there". I will never forget it.
You couldn't find that hole now if you came up and searched my head; Jesus even replaced the hair on my head! It was just last week that I told mom, "I don't think I could even find that hole in my head now".
Jesus closed the hole and grew the hair! I mean that is really a miracle. Some people would have a hair loss for a long time. But you can't tell on that side, it is just as good as the other.
GOD EVEN GREW MY HAIR BACK IN!
The first thing I was concerned about when I came to in the hospital, was how much hair had they cut away, because I didn't want to lose my hair. There was a lot gone but mom said, "don't worry, the Lord will take care of your hair. Everything is going to be alright."
It seemed that her words were just ringing through my head. I wasn't allowed to sleep for twenty-four hours and I wasn't allowed to eat or move. I didn't know how badly I was hurt because I wasn't able to move. They just laid me in the same position that they had picked me up at the accident. They didn't think that I was ever going to come out of it. But mom went home and she called around for prayer. The Pastor came and we all gathered that time and Pastor Murphy prayed, "Lord, let this night be short for her" because he knew that I couldn't sleep. The first time that I got restless was at five o'clock in the morning. The night was gone. I just couldn't believe it, and I said, "Lord, you sure answered the Pastor's prayer".
ANOTHER ANSWER TO PRAYER
There was another girl there and I asked her for the time. She said, "five o'clock! The only thing that used to bother me is they kept checking my eyes, to see how I was. I would be resting in peace and hey would awaken me. The peace was from Jesus because I could never do it on my own.
The next morning they came in and moved me. I was bruised all over! They bandaged my legs right up to the knees. The doctor said he could see "no hope." We wouldn't want your mother to see you so black and beat up, he stated.
Pastor Solbrekken would call me and pray. I would tell my mother, Brother Solbrekken prayed and now all I have to do is believe. I came out of it real fast for a big accident; only through an answer to prayer!
I want to serve Him in any way I can because if He would have wanted to call me home, He could have done so. I know that Jesus can use me just as I am.
I missed out on alot when I was a little girl. I didn't know anything about childhood.
Life really started for me at the age of twenty-one when I started to attend school!
And I am not ashamed to tell it, because if it had not been for Jesus it would have never started.
LIFE STARTED AT 21
When I came to school, the first thing I noticed was the blackboard. The first one I had seen in my life. Twenty-one years of age.
He set me down at a little desk and a wee chair, and he gave me a paper and a pencil. I had to show him how much I could do. I could do a little because mom used to spend a lot of time with me.
Everything that could be done in kindergarten, I could do, so they put me in grade one.
I did four grades in one year. I went to grade four. Then I would begin to do a year at a time and now I am in grade ten. I will never forget that evening, and I said, "Lord, I am in school, but I want you to do another miracle in my life; Please take away my shyness."
I still felt shy but I sat down and the teacher came along and I found I could talk with the teachers. The first thing the teacher said was, "I heard you are a good singer". When I was really tiny, mom would sit with me and tell me words and teach me little choruses. I would sing.
He called me aside one day in a little room and this was something really big for me, after all those years.
Imagine if you were stored away for twenty-one years and all of a sudden, you were put together with many students and teachers.
It was really something!
I didn't sing with music, I just sang along with mom at home. He said, "We are having a music festival at Grand Falls , I was wondering if you would be able to come. There can only be one student picked from each school, and you are the student that I have chosen to go!"
The first thought that came to me was the mom would never let me go to Grand Falls , because I was never out of the house in my life. So I went home and told mom about the festival. The teacher had asked me to sing, "A Child of the King".
I did not know what it was all about then. At first she didn't know what to say. She said, "I'll think about it". I'll probably let you go with him because he is really a nice guy. He could not do enough for me at that time. Mom trusted him to take good care of me.
Mom took the hymn book and taught me word for word the song, "A Child of the King". There were five verses. The day came when we had to go and my teacher played for me.
We went into a real large building that was packed. I did not mind people then any more than if there had just been a few kids there, playing.
I just walked up, took the microphone and sang it perfectly without the words. By the time I had finished the song, there were microphones and cameras in front of me.
Mr. Whalen was beyond himself; he didn't know what to do. He was that excited. They were taking pictures, and we had a great time. Ever since that time I have received a lot of little gifts and cards. That was the first time I sang in public and praise God, He had taken away all of my shyness!
That was just another miracle in my life. I have had many miracles since that time. Now, I take everything to Jesus!
If you are sick, come and Jesus will deliver you. If you need baptism, salvation or whatever, come to Him tonight, my friend. He is willing!!! AMEN
PLEASE NOTE: In the 1980s Geraldine Rideout and her mother travelled to Edmonton where she testified in our church and on TV, also in Red Deer, Regina and Winnipeg. We travelled together to England and Norway and Geraldine testified and sang everywhere before TV cameras and in our crusades. For 17 years she travelled across Newfoundland with other Evangelists and packed out buildings regularly. At age 48 she got married and still lives in Newfoundland. To God be the glory, Great things He has done!
- Pastor Max Solbrekken
