“‘I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will heal him.’” Isaiah 57:18–19
Tired of these stories of healing yet? We aren’t either. Here’s one story Pastor Mark shared during his sermon this week:
‘They told us our son would die in utero or be stillborn’
When I was pregnant with our first child, Kellen, we went in for a routine ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby. I wasn’t prepared for what they would find: our son’s entire body was swollen and he had a large, fluid-filled tumor around the back of his neck. The doctors gave us the grim prognosis: they told us our son would either die in utero or be stillborn. When I asked if there was any chance our son would be born normal and healthy, they said there was absolutely no hope. They asked us how we would like to “manage the pregnancy,” and we informed them there would be no abortion. We would entrust him to the Lord.
We were devastated, but soon turned to prayer as our only hope. Pastor Mark called and prayed for us. Our Mars Hill family reached out to encourage and pray, and soon people around the world we didn’t even know were praying for our son. Every month I went back in for more ultrasounds, and the doctors were amazed that each time the tumor was shrinking! The swelling in his body began to go down as well.
Our son was born completely healthy and whole. Nothing was left of the tumor except some extra skin on the back of his neck. We knew that God had done a miracle and healed our son. He is 10 years old now and he still loves to hear the story of the miracle God did before he was even born!
–Deacon Karly
Sammamish
And here are more stories people shared of Jesus’ healing children, inside and outside of the womb, in the lives of people at our church.
‘My brother had a stroke at age 2’
My younger brother, William, was diagnosed with a heart defect at six months of age. The doctors told us he would need open-heart surgery at age three. As he got older, his condition worsened and they moved up his surgery by a year. When he was two years and a month old, he had his heart surgery. He was released from the hospital three days later because he was doing so well. However, the next day, he had a stroke and was rushed to the ICU. Because of the brain damage, doctors did not expect him to live and, if he did, they said he wouldn’t be able to walk or talk ever again.
My parents and our church community began to pray. Thirty-six hours later, William woke up, though unable to talk (he was a talkative child in general), but began walking almost immediately. The doctors had predicted weeks in the ICU, but he was moved to a rehab hospital in under two weeks. He stayed at that hospital for another four before coming home, walking and talking.
Because of his brain damage, he has follow-ups with his neurologist. In 2009, five years after his stroke, he went again to see Dr. Ichord, the one of the top pediatric neurologists in the world. She was amazed at the MRIs and his development and told my parents outright that if she had never seen him in rehab or struggling with speaking, she would have called them liars for claiming their child had a stroke.
Also, the clot that caused his stroke was only two centimeters from his brain stem. Quite obviously, God had a hand in this as the ultimate physician :)
–Anna
Bellevue
‘At 16, I was told I might never have kids’
When I was 15 years old, I went for a routine doctor’s visit. After lots of testing, I was told I had HPV and Stage 1 cervical cancer cells. I went in again six months later, and found I’d jumped up to Stage 2. At the age of 16, I was told that I may never have kids due to this. I was so scared.
I didn’t know what to do. So I started to pray everyday. I still needed to go every six months to get tested. After getting positive tests three times in a row, I needed to have a procedure where they thought the cells were. After that procedure, I felt so terrible. The next year was so horrible, not knowing what would happen or anything.
When I was close to 18 years old, I got my first awesome test results back: I had no more cancer cells. I was so relieved and amazed. About two years later, I had my first daughter and just six months ago had our second daughter. I am so glad that God had been there for me through that time since I really felt like nobody knew what I was going through.
–Melissa
Ballard
‘The doctor could find no signs of life’
When my mother was roughly eight weeks pregnant with me, she began to have signs of a miscarriage. The doctor examined her and came to the conclusion that I was dead. He could find no signs of life. She had several miscarriages before she was pregnant with me and before she had my older brother. After concluding that she had lost me he had the D&C scheduled. My mother protested. She called together about 30 intercessors (all women) to pray that God would bring me back to life and that I would be born. Later she went back to the doctor and he was shocked and perplexed. He was able to hear my heartbeat!
–Danielle
Downtown Seattle
‘We were told we might as well abort’
Soon after getting married, my husband, Eric, and I got pregnant. I had been taking migraine meditation, but was told I couldn’t any longer due to the pregnancy. Off the medicine, I suffered weeks of constant migraines. I have passed a kidney stone and had a son—for me nothing can describe the pain of migraines. After weeks of vomiting, I began to have a feeling of being crushed from the chest down. We went to the emergency room where they took a blood test.
The next day the hematologist came back with the results: I had myelodysplastic syndrome, which can be the beginning stages of leukemia. We were told to get to a specialist within a couple days to begin treatment and, oh yeah, we might as well abort our child because he wouldn’t survive the treatment.
Eric and I went home, me still in pain and vomiting from the migraines, and my husband in despair. I lay in bed and cried. I wanted to go to my closet and get my handgun. I was mentally checked out and wanted to die. And then I cried out to God. I told him that I was weak, I was done, and if he ever wanted me to get out of that bed, he would have to get me up.
In the other room, Eric was also crying out to God. He was devastated that the wife he had waited for for so long might die, and he was equally devastated that Jordan, my 7-year-old son whom he wanted to adopt, would be returned back to his biological father.
Twenty minutes after I prayed, my pain subsided to the point I could stand. I went into the bathroom and got sick again. But it was different this time; I knew without a doubt something evil and wrong was leaving my body.
We traveled to the treatment center where my father-in-law, a minister, sat with us and told us he had been praying over the 103rd Psalm for us: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems our life from the pit.”
The next morning after completing the final blood tests before starting the bone marrow transplant, we met with the doctor. He could find nothing wrong. My beautiful Christopher was born a month early, one month before Eric adopted Jordan. Jordan wholeheartedly embraced Christ that year, as well.
Eric and I have decided that it doesn’t matter how you fold the towels or where you squeeze the toothpaste. Those things are so silly and insignificant compared to the only thing that’s really important: loving, worshiping, and serving our God with everything that we are.
–Deacon Heather
Olympia
Be sure to read the stories of Jesus’ healing in the lives of men and women at our church, too, if you haven’t already.
This is the last post of these stories. Thank you to everyone who shared! If you have a story to share of how Jesus has healed you at Mars Hill, share it with us at stories@marshill.com.
