Acts 28:8 (New International Version)
8His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, right? Right. But also faith may come by trials. It may come by suffering. Isn't it true that when we face trials of many kinds we're to count it as pure joy! Why? Because the testing of faith develops perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so we can be mature and complete.
I've never been in so much need of prayer and I've never seen such blatant answer to prayer.
In no particular order and certainly not covering it all:
1. Luke's latest bout with dysentery (yes a fever and dysentery...just like from Acts 28:8). Luke had amoebic and bacterial dysentery. The treatment is fairly simple and after 24 hours, there is improvement and after 48, they are much better. We began treating Luke and after a day and a half felt it was improving enough we could return home. We'd been in the capital because of the malaria but the dysentery came day two of malaria so we hadn't returned home. After 3 days on medicine the condition was worsening. We called the Doctor in our town and realized that because of the loss of blood (sorry if that's too much information...I'll be as specific as you want in person for all you interested in the details) and because of a few other possible problems, we were told to grab the passports and head to the capital in case he needed further treatment. Now, further treatment can mean a lot of things, one of which a blood transfusion. No one wants that for their child, but in Africa, it's to be avoided at all costs. We asked for prayer via my mom (THANKS MOM!) and by the time we got to the doctor, the dysentery began clearing up and the stool sample showed that he was free and clear. We were able to go home the very next day.
2. A few days before that, Luke was diagnosed with a 7 count malaria case. That's pretty high, especially considering his age and the fact that he is on good medicine to prevent malaria. (And yes, of course we were doing everything within our power to prevent malaria the good old fashioned, avoid the bites in the first place way.) The fact that the diagnosis came was nothing short of miraculous b/c the only doctor with adequate training (in my opinion) within about 3 hours was able to see him and give him the shot of treatment he needed in order to help him immediately. We went to Dar in case things got worse. He seemed okay at the moment we made that decision. However, he quickly began getting worse. His fever was coming down (with alternating medicine) to the 100-101 range but within hours, even with alternating meds and cooling him down, his fever began shooting up. It read 104.5 and often reads 2 degrees under what it actually is...for instance, that same time, mine read 95. That's with us doing everything we could do. We got him to Aga Khan, a hospital founded by people from the Islamic faith and it was in fact reading over 104. They couldn't give him medicine b/c he'd had all his body could take. We ran a few other tests, and found that he was also battling a bacterial infection (which we found out later was dysentery.) A prayer request had been sent on the way to the hospital and by the time we left, he was fever free for the first time in days. Malaria can do that...spike and then go away. The issue was, however, that it happened immediately following prayer. The doctor marveled at what he saw and said it must be the "magic of a hospital." We were able to share with him that we had friends and family praying in the states and we attributed it to that.
3. While we're on malaria, the time before when Luke and Levi had malaria at the same time, they never really got very sick. I look back and see that was on a Sunday when many were gathered together to pray for them. I see how mild the cases were and originally thought it was the medicine. That wasn't a bad assumption b/c their medicine is really good. BUT...now I see that God was sparing them and answering prayer.
4. Here in Dallas, Luke's unexplained fever was getting higher every day. There were a few scary possibilities, but I was at the point I could handle any diagnosis...I just wanted to know what was wrong. We went to the hospital and had many people here in Dallas, as well as at home praying. Again, the fever broke at the hospital and never came back. Now he is right as rain.
5. Our first week in Africa, I looked around at how different life was and would be and realized that only by God's grace could we minister in such a different place with different people. God, through prayer, took those misgivings and fears away and I was able to see the people as they really were...just people created by God to worship Him.
We did pray (often) for health. God didn't shield us from these storms (though he did shield us from other ones), but he saw us through them and revealed Himself to us through them. We had to persevere and were matured through the difficult times. Some would say that to persevere would have meant to stay longer. Some would say we shouldn't have gone in the first place. Time can settle much, but I can tell you that God saw us through each time and was, is, and always will be faithful! We (all of us, kids included) gained much...one thing being, God is big enough to hear our prayers and good enough to intervene on our behalf.
