About the Author

          Amy has always had a love for writing. Even as a child her play revolved around the stories she would create. In high school, Amy eagerly dove into every creative writing course offered, and wrote poetry regularly. She had her first and second publication of individual poems during those years. She later earned a degree from The Institute of Children’s Literature wanting to write children’s picture books along with her poetry. Over the years, Amy has had individual poems win contests and earn publication, with her first book Believe being published in 2004.

          Since the release of Believe Amy has devoted her time to ministering to others through her writing and the speaking engagements that have stemmed from it. She has shared her moving testimony with people at local churches and other venues showing them that through faith and hope you can make it over any hurdle life throws your way. You can read Amy’s testimony at her website www.amybull.com.

          In January 2005 Amy shared part of her story on the television show Living Epistles. It was aired on the TCT network and seen around the world.

          Amy lives in North Tonawanda, NY with her husband Bill. They have been married for thirty years. They have three children and four grandchildren.

          Amy plans to continue with her writing and speaking career, showing others that even being paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of an automobile accident won’t keep her from following the ministry the Lord has given her.

My Testimony

If someone had told me a year ago when my book first came out that I would become a successful author and inspirational speaker, I would think I was dreaming, but here I am. I’m proof that great things can happen if you have faith and hope in the Lord, and keep on believing.

My storm began in 1993 with my first car accident. I had severe pain in my neck that radiated down my arms. The doctors said I had a minor whiplash, and it would get better. I spent almost a year suffering, but I kept praying and believing that the Lord would find an answer. Finally, a doctor found a herniated disk in my neck that required surgery through my throat to repair it. Now at that time, I believed in God, and prayed regularly, but I didn’t know the Lord.

A few years later, I started having headaches, and lost the use of my left arm (I’m left handed). Again, doctors could find nothing wrong, other than a partially torn rotator cuff. I was sent to therapy and told the rest was in my head. One day the therapist asked me if I was okay. She said the left side of my face was drooping. She took my blood pressure, and sent me right to my doctor. He felt I might be having a small stroke and told me to go to Kenmore Mercy. I went out to my van to call my husband, Bill at work, and apparently had a stroke there, because the next thing I remembered was being in the hospital, my head pounding and hardly able to talk. Doctors did a few tests, but said they couldn’t find anything except stress and migraines. While I was there, my Uncle George (who is part of the hospital ministry for The Tabernacle) saw my name on the patient list and came to see me. I hadn’t seen him since Bill and I got married in 1975. He didn’t realize it was me (I was just a new patient) until he came into the room and saw me. After our tearful reunion he started coming to see me and pray with me daily. They were going to send me home, but Bill refused, and my family doctor agreed. He found a specialist and had him look at the films. The specialist found the aneurysm right away. I knew there was something wrong, and again I kept on believing, and the Lord sent an answer. I was sent to Sister’s Hospital for the surgery. That’s when Bill and I accepted the Lord as our Savior, right before I went into surgery. Now I knew I would go to be with the Lord if I didn’t make it through. However, the Lord showed us that He had plans for me, because Bill told me that during the surgery to clip the aneurysm the doctor came out to speak to him while they sent for bigger clips. The doctor told him, “I don’t tell people what to believe in, but someone up there is looking after your wife, because she shouldn’t be here. The aneurysm is so big I can hold it in the palm of my hand.” Again, I’m still here because I believed.

I started reading the Bible, beginning with John, as soon as I was able to. I felt an amazing peace come over me, and ideas for children’s Bible stories came to me. That was the start of the series of stories I call “Bible Rhymes” which I hope to get published. Once out of the hospital, I was invited to come to service at a church where Bill had been doing some drywall work, and they had been praying for my recovery. We were welcomed with open arms to a church that treated us like family, not a number on an envelope, and we’ve never left.

        A year later we bought a house that we loved and figured we’d retire in, but that was not to be. A month after moving in I was involved in another car accident. It was on Niagara Falls Boulevard in front of Tops. The man hit me from behind, and I didn’t think I was hurt, so I wanted to move the van so another accident wouldn’t happen. As I turned the van into the driveway of Tops, and reached up to put it in park, I felt myself falling forward onto the steering wheel. I couldn’t get back up, and realized I couldn’t move my legs either. What seemed worse was that nothing hurt. The man who hit me came and opened my door and asked me if I was okay. I told him I couldn’t move, and he went to call for help. Right after he left, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a woman told me not to try to move that help was on the way. She asked me if there was someone she could call, and I gave her Bill’s cell phone number. She called him and told him what had happened, and then told me he would be here right away. Her hand was very warm, and her voice kept me calm. As the sirens arrived she once more assured me that everything would be okay. I felt her hand leave my shoulder as the paramedics came to the door. Bill came just as the paramedics started working on me. I told him to go thank her for staying with me and calling him, but she was gone. He asked the paramedics which way she went, but they said there was no one at the or near the van when they arrived. I know she was there because Bill and I both talked to her. She must have been an angel. In fact, the one thing that stands out in Bill’s mind is that when his cell phone rang the caller ID said Amy, yet my phone was still in my purse, she had used her own phone.

        After being diagnosed with a lumbar strain and shock, I was sent home, barely able to walk, and in horrible pain. From there I spent the next 1 ½ years in and out of hospitals with severe spasms and excruciating pain, slowly losing the use of my legs with each attack, and with doctors telling me they could find nothing more than a lumbar strain and a slightly bulging disk neither of which could explain my symptoms. Again, I was told it must be in my head and I should seek psychiatric help. I guess it’s because I have a high pain tolerance and strong faith, so I don’t complain excessively which gives the doctors that impression. I chose not to see a psychiatrist and prayed for the Lord to give me an answer. For I believe this, everything happens according to the Lord’s plan and timing, and an answer would come when He feels it’s time.

        In February 2001, I saw an ad in the paper for a free inspirational poetry contest. Now, I’ve been writing poetry and children’s stories since I was a teenager, with some minor publications along the way and schooling to improve my talent, but writing has been on a back burner in my life with little time to pursue it with raising children and working full time. Somehow that article jump-started me, because I sat and wrote the poem “Believe” in less than 15 minutes. I sent it in, and a month later I learned I had won. I was even contemplating a trip to Reno for the presentation of my award.

On March 19, 2001, what was left of my home life was shattered. I was in physical therapy at Kenmore Mercy when doing a new stretch I felt the most horrendous pain in my back and the spasms started. As the therapist got them under control, she had me go stand in the parallel bars to stretch out. As I was standing the spasms started again and I got a terrible headache. The therapist thought I was having a stroke so she called the ER doctor. I was taken to the ER and no matter what the doctors did, the spasms wouldn’t stop. I was hospitalized there till April 13^th, with my family doctor calling in other doctors to find the problem, but with no results. I was sent to Crestwood Nursing Home, unable to walk, move my legs, or feel anything from the waist down, and no answer or no stop to the spasms. Then, the Lord stepped in. The doctor at the nursing home saw one spasm and said, “You have a spinal cord injury. Has anyone checked for that?” I’ll never forget those words. I told him they had done every test on my lumbar spine, and he asked, “What about the rest of your spine?”  He made an appointment for me with Dr. Gosy, who with 2 tests and a consult from another neurologist, found the damage in the middle part of my spinal cord, not the lower where all the other doctors were looking. According to him it was caused by a blood clot that formed from my spinal cord slamming against the vertebrae at the time of impact of the accident. I had an answer!

From April until October I went from one hospital to another with doctors trying to find a way to stop the spasms without overdosing me with medication. Nothing worked. Dr. Gosy tried to get the insurance company to approve surgery to implant a pump that would put the medication directly on the damaged area of the spinal, but they denied it as elective surgery. Finally in October 2001 he was able to win approval as he called the insurance company from my bedside as I was screaming from the pain of the spasms and they were beginning to affect my heart and diaphragm. The baclofen pump was implanted and has been successfully controlling the spasms ever since, and combined with the correct doses of other medications, the pain is reduced to a tolerable level.

Throughout the time in all of the hospitals and nursing home, the Lord used me. I carried my tattered Women’s Devotional Bible and my poem “Believe” with me. I read them daily, and spoke to anyone I was with about all the Lord was doing for me, and that He would bring me through everything and how He would use this all for His glory. Many listened, and some turned their lives to Him. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much about any of that time due to pain and all of the medication I was on, but Pastor Pat has assured me that I changed many hearts, minds and souls wherever I went.

Once I was able to go home, my faith was tested again. I went home a paraplegic to a house that was not handicapped usable and couldn’t be made into one, so I was carried upstairs to our bedroom as the only bathroom was also up there. My husband made our room as comfortable and usable for me as he could putting a small refrigerator, microwave, TV, VCR, stereo, and recliner, making it like an efficiency apartment. I was also able to go into my small office, but not the bathroom, as the wheelchair only made it halfway in. To compensate, I had a bedside commode, which Bill never once complained about cleaning regularly. However, the joy of being home quickly faded as I spent day after day, week after week, and month after month secluded in my “Ivory Tower”. I became my worst enemy. I hid behind the safe little cocoon of my bedroom, letting fear rule my life. Fear of failure, and yet fear of success made me quietly withdraw from the world. Now I had a choice, continue to feel sorry for myself or do something for myself. I chose the later. I prayed for help, putting myself completely in His hands. Again, the Lord stepped in saving me from depression with inspiration. Poetry flowed from my soul to the paper daily with the idea for corresponding Bible verses for each of them. He had saved me from myself! For 1 ½ years I lived up there and through my writing the Lord pulled me through.

In September 2002 we put our house up for sale, and it was sold to the first person who looked at it. Just as quickly, a house came available that was perfect for us with my wheelchair. It was at the high end of our affordability, but we felt this was all the hand of the Lord, so we did not hesitate in purchasing it. I continued writing after we moved, and started researching markets for a place to publish my book of poetry. In September 2003, I found one who believed in what my book could bring to people.

Then another setback came. I had to have another surgery. This time, it was to fix my feet. You see, from all the time in the hospitals they were rigid and pointed down like a ballerina with my toes curled under making it unable to have shoes put on. Left like that, the doctor said I would lose them in a year. Again, I put myself in the hands of the Lord and went into surgery. He pulled me through. My feet were upright again, even though my toes were still curled. Because of Him I was again able to focus on my book.

My book is called “Believe” and that’s what it is all about. It contains poems of faith, hope, and love, each with corresponding Bible verses that show how faith, hope, and love are part of God’s promises for us. I have included a reference section at the end of the book with all of the verses listed in the order they are included with each poem. My purpose for writing this book was to bring others to the Lord. I am here to say that the Lord has a reason for everything, no matter how traumatic, as long as we put our trust in Him. He showed me the ministry He was calling me to do. I am proof that faith, hope and prayer can make anything possible. I’m able to live my dream of becoming an author because I never quit believing. God gave us each a talent. For a long time I buried mine. It took until He took away my legs for me to dig it up and put it to work for Him. I’ll never bury it again. There isn’t a more powerful tool anywhere than faith. The Lord doesn’t cause bad things to happen, but He allows them to in order to make us stronger. He never gives us more than we can handle. Look at Job. He lost everything but his faith, and that pulled him through and gave him a better life that he had before.

There are only two kinds of people in this world, those who are lost and those who are saved. I have been saved, and now, through the poems in this book and my testimony, I hope to save some of the lost. In this first year since the release of my book I have had sales of over 300 copies. That may not sound like a lot, but if each of those books was read by only one person, that’s 300 souls saved or at least brought one step closer to the Lord. One woman told me that she uses my poetry as her family’s daily devotional. Another said my book has helped her more than 7 years of counseling. What compliments!

I’m healed, yet I’m broken, and it’s the best thing that could ever have happened to me. To be whole in the Lord’s realm we must be broken. We ask the Lord to break our hearts so that He may rule, and in my case, He broke my body as well. Okay, He may not have broken my body, but He is showing me that this is how He is going to use me to bring lost souls to His family through my writing and speaking. Just look in 1Peter. He shows us that through suffering, trials, and perseverance we find the hope and courage to go on, no matter what we face. In June my implanted pump quit working. I started having spasms again and the doctor put me on oral medications to control them until the surgery could be set up. While in church the following Sunday the spasms took over. An ambulance took me to the hospital with my body curled into a fetal position from the strength of the spasms. I spent the following week in a morphine induced coma as it was the only way they could keep the spasms under control. I’m grateful to the Lord for bringing me through it all because I now have a new working pump. My road is not smooth ahead, but I’ll trust the Lord to care for me. He’s there just waiting for you to call His name. What are you waiting for? After all, the Lord never promised to take away the storm, just to walk us through it, as long as we believe. So, I have only one question for you, do you believe?