SID: You know I can’t think of anything worse, you are married 25 years, you have four beautiful daughters, and then you find out that your husband is having a homosexual affair. Joan Hunter, I mean, you lived it, that is just the most, I mean you have got your children, you’ve got, did you love your husband?
JOAN: Oh yes, and one of the most difficult things to do was to go through a divorce still loving the person you are divorcing, that was very difficult. And in addition to that, we were pastoring a church.
SID: That, that make it a lot more complex, how did the church react?
JOAN: it was very devastating on them too; I mean they had lost their best friend, their pastor, they, you deal with deception, you feel, you know a lot of them feel they just can’t trust a pastor.
SID: Did he go into counseling to get rid of this problem, or?
JOAN: No, because he didn’t consider it a problem, he just considered that that was just the way that he was.
SID: Wait a second now, he’s a pastor, it says in the Bible that those that are homosexual don’t go to Heaven, that’s not my opinion, that’s what the Bible says.
JOAN: And I totally agree with you on that and, but the common comment is grace. Now I know that God, you know, has a lot of grace, that’s for sure, but I call that, you know I just call it a grace abuser, you know and just trying to push way beyond what is really in the Bible. And you know when you have a situation like that and it comes up, you know it just talks about a variety of things, of reasons that will keep people from Heaven, and, but when you are living in it, and you tend to just ignore that.
SID: Did you lose your faith in God when this occurred?
JOAN: Many times people have asked me, “How long did it take you to come back to the Lord after that?” I got saved when I was twelve, I’ve never left.
SID: And for those that are not familiar with Joan Hunter, her parents are know affectionately as “The Happy Hunters,” Charles and Frances Hunter, they have probably witnessed more miracles that any person in this generation on earth, and Joan, you grew up in that ministry, you witnessed all those miracles, so when you saw all those miracles, why didn’t you just say, “Well, God, just heal my husband?” and why wasn’t he healed?
JOAN: Well, when you find out you just don’t always just okay forget it, this is over, but after praying and interceding and you know, standing and believing and counseling and different situations, realistically for many years when I thought there was a problem, but then when he realized, or you know, made a decision that that was what he wanted to be, that’s when I released him.
SID: Okay, you’re divorced, you have four children, I assume the children are pretty devastated too?
JOAN: At that time yes they were, that was many, many years ago at this point.
SID: You actually got sick on top of all of that.
JOAN: I was divorced on Tuesday, which in itself is extremely devastating, after 25 years, you know you are co-dependent, you know you are twenty years old when you get married, you don’t know anything but that, and you know have to go to court, and divorce, and I was sobbing, they almost had to postpone the divorce because I couldn’t even answer yes or no because of the tears, because it just about killed me, and then the following Thursday I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my left breast.
SID: How can one person handle all of this, how could you Joan?
JOAN: God, you know I had to make the decision to go, I mean, you know realistically here I was dying in my heart and then I was dying in my body, I had a great opportunity to check out, and the doctor said I was
SID: What about those four girls?
JOAN: If it wasn’t for them I know I wouldn’t be here today.
SID: So, all right, how serious was your cancer?
JOAN: God healed me very quickly, and because of the healing in my heart, getting divorced, having to, because worry will bring on sickness, unforgiveness will bring on sickness, and different things like, that, and I believe that that’s what opened the door you know to my sickness, and when I walked forgiveness, when I got rid of bitterness, when I got rid of the worry of what is he doing, while I’m at work, what is he doing, who is he with, and those different situations you know you try to trust but you know otherwise, and when I got rid of all of that, within, very, very quickly my breast cancer left.
SID: I know you can’t answer this but I’m going to put the question to you anyway, what percentage of people that have illness would probably receive their physical healing if their heart was healed?
JOAN: I would say 100 percent realistically, but about my estimate in the natural, is about 85 percent of all diseases are brought on through some kind of stress, not being able to handle stress correctly, like worry, depression, hopelessness, all that kind of stuff, it, you shut down emotionally, and so your body starts to shut down like the immune system, it just starts to shut down.
SID: I have to ask this question, how does someone forgive, you know what I have found, when you love someone and they wound you, in the natural now, your love turns to hurt and then to hate and then even some, to murder, how did you stop that progression or are you still dealing with it?
JOAN: Well the latter part, I know that God did not call me to a prison ministry so, so we just stopped way short of there, no, you just want to go “errrrr” you know, because not just for devastation for me, but the effect that it had on the children, like you can mess with me but don’t mess with my children.
SID: I understand, I got that.
JOAN: Don’t mess with your daughter, you know, and so that was hardest, that was hard, you know I knew that I would go on, and I would survive, but when I saw the devastation of the children, that was the hardest part for me to forgive.
SID: Have you had occasion, now it’s how many years ago?
JOAN: Over six years.
SID: Okay, in this six years have you had occasion to bump into your ex-husband at a social event?
JOAN: Weddings, yeah, two weddings and
SID: All right, when you bump into him at a wedding of all things,
JOAN: Our daughter’s wedding, our daughter is graduating from med school in a couple of months, and
SID: Okay, now between the two of us, is there some churning that goes on inside, is there some hurt that goes on inside, is there some unforgiveness, unresolved things that goes on inside of you?
JOAN: I can honestly say no.
SID: How could you do that? Tell me your secret.
JOAN: God has just so freed me, He’s healed my heart.
SID: I mean the Bible says, wait a second, the Bible says we must forgive, we understand that, but to forgive in all of our human side, our emotions, the bubbling over, the blood pressure, the you name it, how do you, how did you do it?
JOAN: The you name it, it’s the difference between, you know if I were to give you this cup and yet pull it back, the difference to really giving it to God and letting God deal with it, none of us truly forgive, none of us truly deserve forgiveness, but be the grace of God. And unforgiveness is a poison that we drink hoping that the other one will get sick. Now if I held it against him, it wouldn’t affect him at all, it would only start killing me, and when I
SID: You know that is so profound, would you say that again.
JOAN: Unforgiveness is the poison that we drink hoping that the other one will get sick, and if I did not forgive him it wouldn’t make any difference to him, I’m the one that would be affected.
SID: How about you, where do you stand on forgiveness, who has wounded you? I mean if I had x-ray vision and could come right into your home right now, I would see your heart, and when the Bible refers to the heart it’s your spirit, and I would see scars there, how would you like to get rid of those scars? How would you like to be free? Don’t go away, I want to find out what happened to these four daughters that were involved in this. I mean could you picture the shame going on? We’ll be right back after this word.
