Testimonies of Christopher

About 10 months ago, when my wife had this premonition that she could be pregnant, she was in a confused state of mind. She then went for a second opinion to another doctor. The doctor scanned and informed her that she could not confirm the presence of an embryo in her womb, but did mention that the womb contains a small ‘dot’. At this moment we were still unclear. She mentioned that in most cases the ‘dot’ will be washed away.  A week passed and we went for another scan and this time it is certain that my wife is pregnant with our third child, and it has been 5 weeks.  We were wandering what to do and we prayed to God and brought our problems to God. We told God that we were not ready for an addition in our family mainly because of our ages which were in the early forties. Furthermore we have just moved in to our new rented apartment and expenses were just nice to handle our current family. To add to that our second born was diagnosed with ADHD, a mild case of autism. We have not gone over the hill with him yet. ( I have been fasting for almost 6 months for his recovery).  In our minds we had a lot of ‘what if’ esp in this area where what if we had another case of ADHD in our hands. Even myself, when I first heard the news, abortion did play a major decision making in my mind. Without doing anything drastic, we sat down with our Pastor and told him this challenging news. He was obviously shocked and marveled at the same time. He did not give us an immediate answer as he has requested time to speak with God. At that time, we had a seminar in Muar which we have registered to go. He told us to go to that seminar and wait upon an answer from God. The seminar was about two weeks away . Even before going for that seminar my wife and I made up our minds to accept this third child not knowing what lies ahead of us. We see the road ahead of us, but it was dark but  we are convicted that God is waiting for us at the other end with a torch that never can be put off, we were made strong.  It was a marvelous week we spent  in Muar.  God confirms through this seminar for us  to keep this child.  We discussed and the first thing that came to our minds upon reflection of the past, were that Daniel (first son) and Nicholas (second son) birth was assisted. Before Daniel was born my wife  had to go for an operation to remove a cyst in her ovary which  was preventing her ovaries to be fertile. And before Nicholas was born, we had to inject  Janet’s womb to get it strengthened to be fertile as well. And this time the third pregnancy just happened.  Deep within ourselves we know that our God’s hand was strong now than ever before. So, we have permitted God’s will to prevail and it is no longer our will takes precedence.  We thanked God so much that we have asked him to bless us with a baby girl this time. We thanked God for giving us this strength to make the right decision. We obeyed and moved on.

Now when I reflected back on the decision that I made to keep this child, I asked myself would I have made this decision a few years ago when I was still in the wilderness. A few years ago, when I didn’t have GOD in me, I would have gone for that abortion. Life would have gone back to normalcy once again and suffering can be tremendously negated.

Now that we have withered the storm and have made our decision, we continuously lifted up our third unborn son  in our daily prayers. In our prayers we do ask God to bless us with a baby girl.  Life was back at it’s normal pace and it’s normal fulfillment.  For the first three months we were praying earnestly to God to bless us with a a baby girl. And our expectation of a baby girl was very high. We were totally confident  that this time around, it will be a baby girl. The fourth month we visited the doctor, as he was scanning Janet’s womb with that ultrasound machine, we were lifting God in prayer and declaring that it’ll be a girl this time. But as everything in life, God’s will always prevail before ours. The ultrasound was not very clear as to the confirmation of the gender of the baby. However the doctor uttered that it ‘might’ be a boy. He wasn’t conclusive though. Confirmation will be made clear the following month. Then the doctor did mention the possibility of couples in their forties will stand on a high percentage in having a down syndrome baby. He asked us if we wanted to go for a test that will prove to us that he is free from down syndrome but the baby will be at danger during this test. He did mention that the ratio is 30:1. Of course we were quite concern of this number too. Surprisingly enough we did say to the doctor that, we will skip that test. We wanted this gift from God unhurt. We relied on faith that the baby is save.

There goes our dreams of holding a baby girl down the drains of hopelessness. Our shattered dreams  came rolling before our minds. If only one can feel the disappointment that we felt.  After the check-up, as we were driving back home, there was total silence on our way back home in the car.  Then I told Janet ‘Why worry when the doctor himself has only given us that 50% confidence level, we will pray and ask God’s hands to be ever so present with us, we will pray like we have never prayed before’ Well it was quite a difficult situation to pull off a conversation during this torrid time. But as we agreed together, we have started claiming for a baby girl. The prayers have taken a different dimension now, we were claiming for our birthright from our heavenly father. We thanked God for His hands on the confirmation of the gender..

Reluctantly we disagree to accept the inevitable. After a long month of fasting and praying for the baby in the womb it was that time for Janet’s monthly check up again. As always we prayed in the car before we arrived at the clinic. The prayer was for us to be blessed with a baby girl. The 50% confidence limit that we had in us we believed that GOD will turn that to 100%. We held our faith. We waited for our Doctor to arrive but was told by the nurse that he will be late today. But she directed us to see his partner instead. We stepped into her office and performed the ultrasound scan.  She had this scanner rolling over and over on Janet’s stomach like as though there was something amiss. This intense scanning method never happened to us before and at that time to clear my doubts I asked Dr Jacqueline that,  is the baby a boy or a girl. She answered somewhat angrily. “Can you hold on a minute, I just want to clarify something first, that is not important right now”. At this time our heart beat was beating so fast that we could hardly breath. Now Dr Jacqueline voices out after some thorough scanning “I think you might have a cleft lip baby” and then she continues scanning and  added ‘Let’s make sure that it is not the umbilical cord that is blocking his mouth”.  Judging by her bodily reaction she was pretty certain that we have a cleft lipped baby in our  hands. She continues scanning for other parts of the baby’s organs and was satisfied with the rest. She says “Let’s wait for the senior doctor to arrive and get his opinion on this”.  At this time our hopes of holding a baby girl completely shattered to ground zero. We no longer desired for a baby girl.  Our desires were that the baby to be born normal and healthy. We  sat down at the waiting room at the clinic for half an hour waiting for the Senior Doctor to arrive. Even at this torrid time we were lifting God’s name and praying in tongues not for a baby girl but for a healthy baby  without cleft and without disabilities. We were drained out of our energy undergoing this trauma of hearing this bad news. The senior doctor arrives and started the ultrasound on Janet once again. The reconfirmation finally came from the senior doctor “Yes you have a cleft lip and palette baby” and he added “Would you like to perform a DTS (detail scan) to check out for further disabilities, I’ll make an appointment to see you next week” . At this time we were too shattered to perform any other checks. I told Janet ‘let’s go’. While we were in the car Janet burst out in tears and said ‘Why do these things happen to us, why is God so cruel to us, what have we done wrong, each time we move closer to Him he puts something like this to distant us further” There was no consoling words for her that I could offer. Beyond my wildest expectation, I did not breakdown, I held up my nerves and kept strong for her and told her ‘Let’s pray for a miracle”  as I laid my hand on her stomach and prayed “Lord when we asked you for a baby girl you did not listen, but we thank you Lord for this baby boy. We want you to work a miracle in him as we know Lord, man gives false reports but we believe that you will overturn this report, you have a higher calling for him.” We did not plan to have this baby but we believed ever so strongly that it is a gift from our heavenly father. We can’t back out now or bail out from this situation, the baby has grown to his sixth month already. At this point we were totally helpless. I told Janet this “If God has taken us this far, let’s leave it for Him to complete His course on this baby, after all it is only Him that we can depend upon”. Days were passing so soon that we dreaded going for another check up with that ultrasound machine fearing that we’ll probably be lumbered with another bad news. Of course I prayed and prayed like I have never prayed before for a miracle to take place. I prayed ‘Oh Lord please see me through this, I have no one to turn to Lord and you know that I have repented from my former sins and have been washed away from the blood of the lamb, I stand in awe of you cause I know you will take this pain away, I rest my pains upon your shoulder Lord. Give us strength to endure this fear we have of this baby”.  I have never blamed God for this predicament. On the other Janet the strong spiritual one is slowly losing grip with our Lord. She has told me once “Why is God testing me so much, I have been doing all that He has told me to. I have no more energy to pray, even now when I pray I am not convinced that God will listen to me anymore and will He grant me of what I have asked”. Knowing my wife for living with her for 15 years I know that her prayers are always answered and even the little that she receives in return from her prayers, she is grateful to God. Imagine her prayers are not being answered for the first time. Her spiritual nature took it’s reverse toll temporarily. She uses this reason for not praying and reading the bible as she used to. I guess after seeing the transformation in myself, where I have started to move closer to God, she was slowly convinced that she has to get a grip with her life and move on.  I told Janet to hold strong to her faith. We can’t anticipate what lies ahead of us. We can’t even see the future. We were living literally with a time bomb in our hands. All the joy that Janet has, carrying this baby has turned into burden. We were both living corpses, life is not so sweet anymore. Our major concern was for this baby. Of course mentally we were disturbed with this word ‘cleft’.  A normal mind would wander if he is suffering from a cleft lip, what other defects is he also carrying.

We met our pastor after the test and related the bad news to him. He was shocked and for the first time we saw him speechless.. But as a pastor he brings higher anointing to be able to hold his nerves and console us even though at this juncture we weren’t consolable. He tried his best to minister to us. He was indeed doing a fine job. He felt the enormous pain that I was undergoing. I have never met him on my own accord but this time I was seeking for peace from somewhere. I wanted this pain to go away. We were not able to find peace anywhere. In our minds we were preoccupied with anxiety and fear of what the future holds for the baby.

 The first two weeks after the news was received we were totally distraught. But life has to go on, we still need to carry the torch of life for our other two boys. They need to be fed and dressed like as though everything was okay. We tried to lead a normal life but superficially we were normal especially for the boys. I for instance have started to pray harder than I ever did before. There’s this tape that I have, that each time I seek for peace, I turn this tape on and listen and join in and sang and praised GOD in the wee hours of the morning. Experiencing this peace, I told Janet to do the same. No one could ever imagine what she was going through.   She stayed home and listened to the tape and I believed that she too was starting to feel the peace. Then she started to go to work and she comes back home  complaining that her colleagues were talking to her about down syndrome babies are more likely to be born if you are in your forties. I am sure that there are many things been said of her of going through with having this baby. They have even mentioned that they would opt to go for an abortion. Well where will she be fuelled with strength. I called her up in her office and told her ‘ Do you know how Mary was treated by everyone, knowing that she was carrying a baby and not married, what would others around her be saying, I am sure she too was undergoing the same as what you are going through now. God gives us tests and He knows that we are able to bear it. She knows that she has a destination to fulfill and so are you. We have no control of this baby, GOD has already planned for this boy. You know people has written him off in the beginning but look at him now, he is six months old leave it in GOD’s hands.” I have even checked out with the doctors and according to them that couples in their forties will have a probability of 30:1. for giving birth to a down syndrome baby.   That’s not looking good either. All these fears and anxiety we were carrying them in our minds everyday.

Then there arrived the week that we have to perform a DTS, detailed scanning on this baby. Well I have even named our baby, Christopher from Christine after failing to be blessed with a baby girl. He carries ‘Christ’ in his name because we believe that this baby is not ours but his. Christ was always with him. I told Janet ‘Shall we not go for this DTS, after all can we bear to hear if the doctor says that Christopher’s got this and that. What are we going to do if there was something wrong with him? He is six months old now, he is a LIFE form. Even if he is abnormal we have to receive him. It is God’s gift.” We agreed that we will no longer go for check-ups for the remaining months. This is the only time in my life that I surrendered everything in totality to GOD. I am an Engineer by nature and always will find solutions to my problems. This time there is no room for intellectualism but we gave precedence to our GOD. I even told Janet “The doctor says what they can see, but they can’t say what they cannot see, our GOD is able to do that, who is greater, let’s move in faith. I believe that God’s  hands are molding Christopher to perfection and let’s envision that end product to be good He is not made whole yet and only God and God alone will grant us this miracle so let us hold on in faith for him” With great burden in our hearts we did not go for that Detailed Scanning (DTS).

We attended church regularly every Sunday. But the fire in us was somewhat subdued by all that was happening around Christopher. We were seeking answers everytime we attended service. I believed  that this was the only place that we found peace. While we worshipped and prayed intensely for miracle in Christopher’s life I hear whispers from deep within Christopher’s spirit speaking to me ‘Dad , God has chosen you to be my Dad, God knows best, don’t fight his Gift, receive me, I’m OK’. Many times during worship God was speaking to me through Christopher and I will always fall on my knees and pray that He will always protect Christopher from all other disabilities. I will speak up to the Lord and  say “Lord, he has not done you no wrongs, why Lord, why him and why us? We have not asked for an addition in our family but you gave him to us, we received this gift with open arms but only to know that he has a disability”. Well we keep asking these questions over and over again but the answer was to be revealed in one of the Sunday service, The phrase ‘IT IS WRITTEN’ till today plays an important phrase in my heart. I am a Sunday school teacher and I teach small children from the ages of 7 to 12 years. Sometimes I marveled how God speaks to me. I was on this journey with the students teaching them of the three temptations of Christ. It took me three Sundays to teach them.

The first Sunday, I wrote on the board for Jesus said to Satan, It is written that man shall not eat bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the second Sunday I continued teaching them and this time I wrote, It is written that you shall not tempt your God.  The third Sunday I completed the series on the temptation of Christ and this time I wrote, It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve. As soon as I finished teaching the students, we worshipped and we sang and we praised God with all our hearts, mind and soul. I did not know what our pastor will share this week, I just sat down on the chair and listened to his sermon. This was the sermon that God spoke to me ever so strongly. And then Pastor did touch something on praying and fasting intensely to get what we want from our prayers. See, I guess it’s always a human nature that when we are faced with difficulties in our lives, what we do, we pray and fast to seek for healing, we pedal so vigorously not knowing that we need not do all that and this sermon has thought me to find rest. I was in the same situation when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus. I consider myself as being one of the disciple in the boat with Jesus. When heavy waves struck the boat and I was being rocked from side to side and in the midst of being toppled, what do we do?, We pray so earnestly for the waves to be subdued but knowing that all this while Christ was with us in the boat.  The pastor continues preaching on this topic and the phrase that caught my mind was ‘Oh men of little faith, why do you doubt’ This is a great indication for us to lay at total rest in Jesus. We’ve been praying to God for great miracles to happen, we have seen miracles happen to others personally but they never seem to happen to us. So I began to turn to faith which was an element that was being tested by Satan, I was thinking to myself, if this would have happened to me many years ago, I wouldn’t have succumb to these tests but would have rejected God and gone into depression. But this time I acted quite the opposite. Satan wanted me to do what he planned but God has already planned his path with us as a family. To make the path easier the pastor shed some light on how this could be done. The only thing that was troubling us was the bad report from the doctors saying that we have a cleft lipped and palette baby in our hands. He also preached and added to bring this bad report and lay it at his feet and believe the good report that God has prepared for us. We have started praying for that good report instead, in our daily prayers.

And then during the sermon, the moment of truth came, our pastor exclaimed the following “ It is written that we shall have eternal life, we have been set free, we are in good health, etc” When he said the word ‘it is written’ it dawn on me how God was actually working in our lives in our predicament. That phrase now plays an important antidote for our sorrows and pains. God brings this out to alight now for he knows that, the teaching that I thought coincides to this phrase. Immediately I grabbed this word and prayed, ‘Lord it is written that Christopher is completely healed” I told this to Janet, we both knew at that time that we have a friend in Christ with us, and we shall find total rest with Him. From that sermon onwards we found total rest with God. I felt like the boat that I was in was finally on calm waters.  I started to have this personal covenant with God and I spoke to God and said that I would  pray firstly for showing me the meaning of that rest through this sermon. God sends His message through a man of God, and secondly for Christopher’s healing.

Of course being human, the most difficult of all is to console a wife who is carrying a child in her womb. I was just wandering, how would a mother with a baby in her womb feel knowing that she is carrying a baby that has been diagnosed as a cleft baby. She would not be able to tell if the baby potentially had some other disabilities and that was the one that she had great anxiety about. She too was slowly coming out of this anxiety and finally finding rest with God. Every morning in the car going to work, we’ll say a prayer for Christopher and this was the time that God sends me visions,

To expect a miracle one should be anticipating in excitement. While we were praying and all in the car I got this vision of Lazarus covered with white robe standing in front of the tomb when was called upon by Jesus and I told Janet this ‘ Lazarus died for 4 days and imagine how decomposed his body would be. If Jesus could say to that decomposed body to be alive how more would  you think Jesus would do for you and I, we are chosen, so don’t worry”. Then we started claiming the same for Christopher. Janet found rest after been related this vision to her.

One of the other vision I had was that, I was  in the boat with the other disciples and the waves were hitting the boat with great venom. This boat was a special boat indeed, it had a overhead tent (covering). Even though big waves were submerging the boat from the top, all those who were in the boat did not get wet at all but small droplets of water sipped through the boat only. Then of course upon reflection, I gather the visions explained in this manner that we are covered from all the big problems that Jesus knows it will be too difficult for us to handle. He only allows us to handle what our grace can withstand. The droplets of rain represents the smaller problems that we’ll be able to handle. This vision gave me more strength to carry on awaiting for God’s will on this baby Christopher.

Since we have opted not to go for monthly check ups, Janet will still need to take her vitamins. Whenever the vitamins are slowly depleting and in need of replenishing (this is the time I hated the most)  Janet will tell me to go to the clinic to get the vitamins. I will always wander how can I go and get the vitamins without the two doctors seeing me. We have another three months to go for  being 10 months. But we’ll always find excuses to tell the nurse and the doctor through phone that we were unable to attend for check-ups. And I will always  be able to get these vitamins. This was happening every month and finally it arrived to the 10th month. Two weeks before the due date, our anxiety grew to a higher level. That Saturday, Janet and I went to see the doctor after 3 months of absence. We were asked by the doctors of why we were not able to make it every month. We managed to brush aside that question. Well, this time the doctor scanned Janet and said ‘Well I see that the baby is grown and all his limbs are OK. That’s a relieve knowing that he will be mobile, he’s not handicapped. His heartbeat was normal. Then I asked the doctor, ‘Does he still have that cleft’ she answered ‘Yes’ then I asked her again ‘Do you know how big it is?’ and she says ‘I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait. ‘

Then we concluded the check up and went home and told our pastor that the baby was OK, but he will need to carry on with his early years with a cleft lip. Our pastor was broken, we know that he too was praying for a miracle to take place in Christopher. This time when we heard the news again about the cleft we did not have fear neither did we worry. Where did this boldness came about. The only one thing that I can think about is the sermons that we hear every Sunday. It was ministering to our spirits to get well prepared and equipped for any sorts of news.

A week passed by, but now we’ll need to go for weekly check ups. This time Janet went by herself. That was definitely a breakthrough for her too. I guess the fear did not get the better of her either. She went for the CTG test to test for the baby’s heartbeat. It was erratic but later normalized. She was there in the clinic for a few hours for further observation. The heartbeat got back to normal and she was asked to go home. She came back home and continued her daily chores and all. But two days later (the Doctor knowing that Janet has another five days to go) the Doctor himself calls me to the clinic and said ‘ I saw the results of the CTG, can you ask your wife to see me, but if your wife is not available I want to speak with you’. Well this was really shocking. I rushed back home from work and at 7pm we went to see the Doctor. The doctor instructed Janet to go for another CTG. Janet went for that test but the erratic reading got us wandering. One time it read high above 145-180 which is good and then it went low 65 to 120. Most of the time the chart was reading low, which was bad. The chart was then brought to the Doctor and the Doctor knew that there was something wrong and a disaster was awaiting to happen. He spoke up and said ‘Well your pregnancy is not looking good, I advise that, you immediately take your wife to GH tomorrow morning. I will give you a referral and please submit this referral to the doctor in charge in GH’. Well by the tone of the Doctor’s voice, it kept me wandering and thinking the worse is yet to come. Well immediately I thought of the conversation I had with Janet’s sister in law. She advised me yesterday to go for that Caesarian, but I took it in but I was still awaiting on the Lord to prompt me. She mentioned that her sister undergone the same situation but the baby did not make it. So this was actually a sign that I received, I am sure God has prompted her to speak with me. My spirit was triggering me not to wait any day longer, I spoke with Janet and she wanted to wait till Monday, which was two days later. I immediately sensed that I had to take her the same night itself.  On the way back home to pick up her clothes for the journey to the hospital, I sensed, that too was a bad idea. I told Janet, we have no time to waste, forget about taking the clothes from home, let’s go to GH NOW’. All these decisions are impromptu, definitely it wasn’t me that was making all these decisions. This time around, I felt that I was definitely being guided every step of the way. Yes, I felt the anxiety but the fear was not there.  Our boat was once again facing big waves, but this time we had the faith that Jesus was with us and everything was going to be OK.

On the way there I just laid my hand on Janet’s stomach and prayed ‘Lord, let your will be done, I know the report that you have there for us it is good, for we know that it is written that Christopher will be born out of every danger, he is yours, cause I feel that he is safe and he is guided by your Holy Spirit, I have dedicated him in the womb itself and now Lord he bears your sign and we have total faith that victory is ours’. We called our Pastor and his wife and they said they’ll be there in GH in half an hours time to give us support and prayers. As we arrived there at the Hospital Bersalin, I immediately got Janet registered and handed over the referral letter to the nurse. The trainee doctor that was there called upon her partner to perform the CTG test once again. The nurse hooked up all the CTG apparatus on Janet’s stomach. I was left waiting outside the emergency ward. After about half an hour the trainee doctor appears and called me to reconfirm if the CTG test profile (chart) was exactly the same with the one that we did at our private clinic. I concurred. She called her boss and the boss (senior doctor) immediately came down to check on Janet while she was still undergoing the test. To the Doctor’s dislike she saw this nurse there at Janet’s bed side, was on her phone while the Doctor checks to see if all the sensor pads on Janet’s womb was placed properly. She yelled at the nurse and said ‘Don’t you know that we have two people’s life at stake here and, stop the conversation, I need your help”. The nurse was just finishing her conversation on her phone when the Doctor screamed at her again ‘Do you want me to speak to you in your language’. I was listening to all these commotion that was happening in that emergency ward. I was thankful to God that he sent the right person for this sort of situation. The CTG test was similar to the first test, therefore immediately Janet was pushed out of the test room and into the waiting room where I was called upon by this senior doctor and she said these words that I can never forget ‘I think we might have an abnormal baby in our hands. I know about the cleft, that is nothing but I fear for his respiratory system, he’s not responding while on test, His heart beat rate is decreasing and it is alarming, we have to perform a caesarian now’. I was a bit nervous now, and I said yes to the caesarian and asked the Doctor “what are we facing here with this baby” and she said ‘I don’t know, we can only tell when the baby is brought out of the womb and then we will be able to know what to do next’. She continued, “how many children do you have ?” we said “two doctor” and she continued to enquire our age and continued her conversation “Don’t stop at three, well if this baby is abnormal you can still try for another one”. At this juncture we felt like a heavy rock was placed in that boat that we were in. I only told Janet this, as I held her hands ‘Believe and claim for that good report” Well, I can see her anxiety on her face as I was fearing if she would go into seizure and all. The bed was pushed into the lift to be led into the operation theatre.

I went out of the building and sat at the bench there where our Pastors were seated waiting anxiously for some good news, and I related all that happened, and all of us said a little prayer and claiming for his presence. It was 11.30pm.  I thanked God that he sent this couple to be with us. While waiting, we were talking, but my mind was not focused in that conversation but it was clouded with what’s going to happen next. Janet was brought in about an hour ago. They should be out by now. I went in and I crossed the trainee doctor and asked “Hi, is the baby okay?” and she said “Yes, he’s responding, he’ll be in incubator for observation’. Then I asked her again ‘What about all the complications we had’ and she said “We do not seem to see any signs of disabilities other than the cleft lip and palette”. I asked her again ‘what about his limbs” and she said “they are all okay”. If one could feel the relief that I felt. Before the trainee doctor could go do her duties, I asked whether we could see Christopher, she was somewhat reluctant but with Pastor Michael’s persuasion to pray over the baby, she gave in and said “5 minutes only”. We immediately walked right into the baby’s ward and we found him there lying in a half incubator. I went up to Christopher and stroke his cheek and said to him “Christopher it’s all over, Daddy’s here, everything will be okay” Seeing this unification between a father and son, our pastor was not able to bear his feelings. I saw him shedding tears while placing his hand on him and saying his prayer of blessings and he immediately left the room.

After seeing him for the first time, I felt relieved despite the facial incompleteness. I looked at his face I did actually expect to see him like that, it wasn’t a great surprise. I accepted him how he was. He was at total peace himself.  I told Christopher, “I am seeing you the way God wants me to see you with “zero” facial disabilities and that’s the way you shall be”. I continued looking at him and all his limbs, to my amazement he’s a miracle baby. He is a normal child. The scare that the senior doctor instilled in us were lifted. I thanked God that both the mother and the baby had a successful operation. We were amazed how God transformed the word ‘abnormal’ into ‘normal’ just within that night itself.

I left the hospital rejoicing for God’s amazing power at work in us. The next morning is the day that I will know clinically if Christopher is free from all disabilities. I met the doctor who was with him and asked him about Christopher’s condition. But before that, I observed that Christopher was no longer in the incubator, he was breathing normal. Then the doctor said ‘ Apart from the cleft, we ran all the test and he seems to be normal”. My heart rejoiced this “Hallelujah, let God be praised”.  Since he was in the CCU room, no one was able to see him. With that great news I went to see Janet, and I told her “Christopher is okay” she asked me again “What about what the doctor said about abnormal” and I told her that “I just met the doctor and the doctor ran some test and all and confirmed that he was okay, don’t worry, leave worries behind”. Well I told her to go and see him. With a fearful heart and not knowing what to expect, she walked towards the CCU room. She went near him and looked at him closely at the cleft. She was quiet for a while and was feeling shocked. She was too weak to pick him up. She left that room not saying anything while I was there looking at all the other babies in the ward. There were some babies who were not so blessed and was actually in some sort of critical condition. As I walked pass these babies, I paused at their beds and claim a healing for them as well.

I met Janet at her bed and I asked her ‘So how’, she was lost for words. This was the first time that she experienced a cleft baby. As for me I wasn’t that shocked caused I have seen cleft babies when I was researching on the Internet. At that time her acceptance level was very low. She did not utter a word and she was just too quiet and weak. I told her ‘the worse is over, we have been blessed, so thank God’. And I also said this to her “Christopher can sense our spirit of rejection, so let’s not have him sense that, let him only sense our love, we have come through the hardest part of our lives. See Christopher as though that you are seeing him without the cleft, see him as an end product” After about a few hours she went to see him a number of times and finally she was able to leave the cleft phobia behind her and accept Christopher the way he is. He weighs about 3.3kg and that was partly the reason why he had to undergo Caesarian, cause he was too big for normal birth.

Now reflecting back on all these incidences, it goes to show we were put to the test by God, to see the faith that we have in him. Can we endure these tests? God has a plan for Christopher and let His plan be fulfilled. Christopher was in doubt to go the full length of pregnancy. Even the Doctors have said, “looking at your ages, I think this will not stand the course”. Not surprising, if God has planned it then he will be born, no man on earth will be able to stop it. The “womb of healing” that was prophesied by a visiting pastor in our church has definitely brought that seed of healing into Janet’s womb. Even though we are a small church we believe the grace it carries is abundant. I believe in my spirit and let me reiterate “my spirit”  says that the visiting pastor spoke that word and that word was searching and seeking to make flesh and finally it was fulfilled with us . It is like what God spoke and the word is like a double edged sword, it will not return to us void but will be fulfilled.  I have had my own relative told me this “What so great about the church you attend? You still have to endure pain and sufferings”. But I held on to my faith.   My wife and I have journeyed with this Church (ever since it became a church) for a long time now. We believed ever so strongly, that without the support and prayers that we received from our Pastors and from all the sons and daughters in the church we would have failed.  The timely sermons that coincides with our current predicament and the timely visions that was emanated from these sermons, set the direction for choices we made. God will push us to the limit to our breaking point, but he’ll only pushes us to the point that we’ll be able to endure. Through all this I have become stronger and I believe the experience that I receive from both my sons will be used for the weak people out there.

An excerpt from one of our sermons,

“It is written that the report that the Lord has there is good” We claimed that report and used this as a major antidote through this journey. We stood on that good report in faith, and in return we have a child that is a “miracle baby”. He’s born and I even can recall telling Janet this during the delivery, “If he was meant to be here on earth, he will make it, Find that “REST” in HIM and leave it to GOD” We were in the brink of losing him but God has other plans for him. We are His instruments and we are just carrying out what has been told. Even for this testimonies that I am sharing with you, I could have just not sit down and write this for hours, but it was instructed to be shared so that people with similar situation will find strength in our GOD who fulfills.

Be blessed and expect GREAT things from HIM. Persevere in all your predicaments and believe that you are not alone.

Be blessed.