During June of 2015, I hit my head on a door. I did not lose consciousness and initially had no pain as a result of the injury. As the days went on, I started to experience slurred speech. I went to the emergency room several times assuming I had suffered a stroke or aneurism of some kind. Everything was normal. I eventually went to my primary care physician where she diagnosed me as having a traumatic brain injury. It progressively affected my ability to speak clearly and succinctly as well as sing. I experienced severe pain, major intracranial pressure and weakness when talking and singing. I had developed a condition called speech aphasia where my speech was labored and my words were often expressed in a hesitating fashion. I had severe pain throughout my head that felt as if an ice pick was hitting different portions of my head. The pressure in my head felt as if my head was going to explode. All of my other cognitive abilities, the ability to make decisions and physical/emotional abilities were fine.

Speech and Singing Difficulties

The inability to speak clearly was devastating because I had to limit my speaking to a few sentences a day because the pressure and labor that occurred during speaking was almost unbearable. If I spoke too much, I felt weak and had to rest my head or take a nap just to relieve the pressure and because my body had gotten so weak. When I would talk or even attempt to sing, the pressure in my head increased the longer I spoke or tried to sing. My head felt as if it were a bicycle pump about to explode as the pressure increased.

I enjoyed singing praises to God. I loved to use my singing voice to praise God. I enjoyed feeling the presence of God while I entered into worship with Him through songs of thanksgiving, praise and adoration. I knew that God dwelled in the midst of the praises of His people. Worship to God through song breaks chains in a spiritual sense. Singing praises to God and worshiping Him helped me to have godly thoughts and swayed away ungodly and evil thoughts. It would change my atmosphere. In order to avoid arguing or getting upset, I sung praises to God and my whole perspective and mood would change for the better. When I was discouraged, I sang songs of praise that encouraged me and I would immediately start to feel better. I sung when I woke up, when I went to sleep, while I was at home, when I went to work, when I left work, when I went to church, when I left church and more. I enjoyed singing praises to God with and to my children, my husband, my family, loved ones and many more. I enjoyed encouraging others through song.

My inability to sing was the worst feeling I had ever felt in this world! When I lost the ability to express praise and worship to my God through song, my faith in God was shaken. I questioned God and asked, “God, why would you take the singing voice of a person who sings praises to you and worships you daily? God, please help me to understand.” I cried daily and I felt almost hopeless.

Telling My Loved Ones

I tried as long as I possibly could to appear as if everything was fine to those around me. During one particular instance, and around the beginning stages of this horrible sickness, my sister asked me to sing for her graduation. I immediately responded with a resounding, “Yes! I would love to!” I love my sisters and would do almost anything for each of them. I was so proud of her academic achievements. When she contacted me, I was also suffering with bronchitis for which I had already had for about 2 weeks up until this point. The cough was horrible. I knew that it would be nearly impossible to sing with bronchitis so I prayed to God and asked Him to heal my body so I could sing for my sister’s graduation. God healed my body that same day! The cough was completely gone within a matter of hours! God had healed me of the bronchitis; however, the pressure in my head was still there.

During the graduation I sung even through the massive pressure that permeated my entire body. I have a recording of me singing that day. I lead the song, “Thank you, Lord.” After the graduation, we met at one of our family member’s homes. I tried to limit talking as much as possible. This was nearly impossible because much of my family was there and I wanted to speak to everyone. This was very difficult as my speech was greatly labored.

After a few days, the illness became worse. At that point, the pressure was worse and my ability to sing was nearly gone. People would still ask me to sing at different functions. I would push through the pain, but be in agony once I left. I had a desire to sing; however, my body did not own up to it.

I finally gained the confidence and humility to express my situation to my friends, family and loved ones so they would be informed of my debilitating health. It hurt me to see them sad because of my failing health; however, I had to tell them. Once I reached out to my family and loved ones, they were very supportive. Some would come over to the house to assist in household duties, watch my children and so much more. All were praying for my recovery. I also rarely spoke at my job and communicated mostly through sending emails.

My Road to Healing

I prayed a little bit above a whisper every day and throughout the day even through the tears and debilitation. It was a struggle to talk; however, I was persistent. I was determined to pray even if it hurt because I knew that prayer or communication with God was needful and changed situations around.

In addition to receiving medical evaluations and consultation through my primary care physician and the emergency room doctors and healthcare professionals, I also consulted and was referred to multiple other physicians, neurologists, radiologists, therapists and more. Furthermore, I was given multiple CT scans, 1 failed narrow, closed-bore MRI due to feeling claustrophobic and 1 successful wide-bore MRI. All of the tests came back normal! They were also able to come up with multiple reasons why I was sick; however, they could not heal me. I was devastated and left with more confusion and fear as well as an avalanche of unanswered questions and high medical bills. My faith in this present world’s healthcare systems to heal me had diminished greatly. I knew that I had to increase my faith and confidence in God and trust in Him completely because no one else could heal me.

I knew that any healing would need to come from God. God was the source of my healing. God had healed me multiple times before and I knew that He could heal me this time as well.

I prayed to God, meditated on His word and took action to receive my healing based off of God’s word, including, but not limited to, receiving prayer through the laying on of hands from my big Sister Natalie and my friend and Pastor’s wife Lady Vivian. They are two exceptionally anointed women of God I look up to. My big sister Natalie laid hands on me and prayed for me at a church picnic inside the park’s women’s bathroom. Immediately before she prayed, there was no pain in my head; but, as she anointed my head and began praying for me, I could feel sharp pains shooting throughout my head. My faith was starting to waiver since pain was there; but, I was patient and continued to believe God for my healing. Once my big sister Natalie finished praying for me and released her hand from my head, the shooting pains were completely gone and I immediately started speaking clearly with no hesitation or pressure! I walked out of that park’s women’s bathroom rejoicing in God’s goodness for the miracle that just occurred. My big sister Natalie, my Dad and many others at the picnic were praising God for my healing as well. A few days later I asked my Pastor’s wife Lady Vivian to pray for me that my singing voice be restored. She laid hands and prayed for me and the Lord restored my ability to sing again! Hallelujah! I trusted God for complete healing.

Walking in my healing

God healed my body and restored my ability to speak even clearer than before. I am now an instructor and trainer with nearly 10,000 students globally. He restored my ability to sing with an even greater eloquence unto His awesome glory. God gave me back more than what I asked for. Hallelujah! Since my singing voice was restored, I recorded my first FULL song in a cathedral in Cozumel, Mexico, Monday August 3, 2015. That song was Amazing Grace. I have a recording of me singing that song on my website dawnkellumsings.womenunspotted.com. It had to be recorded in order that God would get the glory for His healing power.

Since my singing voice was restored, I recorded two albums (“The Call” and “There All the Time”) and 1 single album entitled “We Will Sing” in June 2019. The song “We Will Sing” is a song of triumph and victory rejoicing in God’s faithfulness, mercy and love to miraculously heal me to sing again for Him. I believe that this song will inspire people around the world to never stop believing in miracles because they do happen. It is also an anointed song of praise dedicated to the glory of God and shows how deliverance comes through singing the praises of God in humble surrender to His divine will.