A friend of mine (Barbara over at
Chase The Star) started a recent post with this - Warning: I'm about to get all Jesus-y up in here. And that made me smile at the time, but now as I write this post, I wonder if I should post the same warning before this entry. I decided not to, but I will tell you that if you don't want to know that God performs miracles, you might want to stop reading now. Because I'm about to tell you about a honest to goodness miracle, one that came today, one day before my 30th birthday.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how frustrated I was becoming since one of my best friends, Melanie, was seriously ill. For over a year, Melanie has suffered occasional
debilitating migraines, which we thought to be sinus related. In May, she thought the sinus pressure had
blocked her ear to the point where she could no longer hear and it was in
constant pain. The doctors gave her
antibiotics, which failed to help, and the pain spread throughout her head and
face. The migraines became a daily battle,
and she was in such horrible pain that her children had to go stay with her
mother, since she was in too much pain to take care of them. The doctors did test after test, and gave her
drug after drug, and ultimately, diagnosis after diagnosis. Nothing seemed to work. Finally, about a month ago, Melanie said they
had discovered a tumor in her brain and she was being sent to the nearest major hospital (Ottawa). Since then, they have discovered that the
tumor is cancerous, but has managed to stay in her brain and not spread to
other parts of her body. She was given a diagnosis of lymphoma in her brain, which has an absolutely horrible prognosis.
Our church, and actually many churches across the country and even in the States, began praying for Melanie frequently. She was constantly on my mind. I lost my mother just over two years ago, and while I was extremely sad for Melanie and her family, I was selfishly afraid for myself. I didn't want to face death again and I didn't want to lost someone else that I loved so dearly. I prayed for her, but it was always with a protected heart - I didn't want to invest myself too much into believing that she would be healed. That would mean I was getting my hopes up, and when you get your hopes up and things don't work out, the fall is so much harder. My heart was also very full of doubt - I had lost my mom, so why would God save Melanie?
Last Tuesday, our senior pastor, a church deacon (Ron), and myself went to Melanie’s house to pray with her. When we got there, she was completely beaten down. She was angry and discouraged, and felt like
she was being abandoned. She was in total pain, pain like you have never witnessed unless you have known someone who has been in this situation. As we prayed
for her, Melanie said “I feel like something just popped in my nose – I haven’t
felt anything in my nose in a long time, and now it feels runny.” Ron then shared with us that God had shown
him a vision of the cancer flowing out throw Melanie’s regular body
functions.
I went home and after everyone had been in bed, I prayed and asked God why he wasn't healing her. "Look at all these people who are praying for her. They're all believing for her. Why aren't you helping her?" and God said to me "But you don't. You don't believe." It was like something hit me over the head. Why was I expecting God to heal my friend when I didn't even believe that He could? I spent the rest of the night in prayer, asking God to take away my doubt and fear and to help me totally believe in His word and His promises.
The next day,
Ron called me and shared an interesting story.
He had been awoken in the dark of night with a special poem that God
laid upon his heart for Melanie. He came
into the church to have it typed up, and when he got here, a lady who was also
praying for Melanie, told him that she was awoken in the middle of the night
from a dream that Melanie had cancer flowing out of her nose. She had no idea whatsoever of the events that
had happened the previous day at Melanie’s house.
Ron said he felt
something powerful had happened that day, and it was almost discouraging to
learn that Melanie was hospitalized later that afternoon. She had been throwing up all night, and was
placed on an IV to keep her hydrated. I
went to visit her in the hospital, and nothing could have prepared me for what
I saw. You could have told me before
hand, and I likely wouldn’t have believed it.
Melanie was sitting up in her hospital bed, wide awake, chatting on the
phone. Now, Melanie hasn’t talked on the
phone since this all started, because it is just too painful. I looked at Brent, her husband, with wide
eyes, like “What is up with this” and he shrugged as if to say he had no idea. Melanie was cheerful, alert, and
talkative. It was a state of mind that I
hadn’t witnessed in at least three months.
I was in shock, and tried to process everything. Ron came in, and he told us not to give up hope – God had shown him that Melanie was going to dispel this
cancer through her normal bodily functions.
It could be no coincidence that she spent the day throwing up and
then was feeling, as she said, “The best she’s felt in a very, very long time”. They wanted her to go to the city hospital to meet with an oncologist, and on the way, she got Brent to stop at Pizza Hut.
Melanie was
admitted to Ottawa on Thursday for observation, and on Friday morning I received
a text message from her. It said “I just
slept all night!” To us, that may seem
like an insignificant task, but to someone who hasn’t slept for more than two
hours at a time since May, that is nothing short of a miracle. I was so excited that I told everyone the good news. Little did I know that I should have waited, because more good news was on the way. Melanie called just after lunch in what I can only call a state of delirium. The oncologist had been in and said that after looking at the tests again, they have concluded that she doesn't have lymphoma, she instead has another form of cancer that is in fact very treatable.
What does that mean? They are hoping to start chemo tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. She will need to stay in the hospital for about a week, but after that, her pain should be close to gone, and totally gone within the month. She will need chemo once a month for 6 months, 8 tops, and then she will be cured. Did you get that? Cured. Not in remission. Cured! The prognosis? The doctor says he expects her to live a long, healthy normal life, and die at an old age of something totally unrelated to cancer.
I just about bounced off the wall. Melanie and I screamed together on the phone. She was stuffing her face while she talked to me and she said "I'm sorry, I can't stop eating to talk to you, its like I'm catching up for the three months that I didn't eat. I've gained 6 pounds back in the past couple of days".
I am through the roof. Everyone says I was brought to Melanie because God knew she needed me, but I think Melanie was brought to me. Because of her, my faith's been completely restored. Three days ago, Melanie was honestly sitting on death's doorstep, and I didn't know how much time we would have left together. I never thought we would be able to go out and have fun together again. And now God has shown me that He is able to do whatever we ask in faith believing. There is no way that anything else could be responsible for this change in Melanie - she has had no new drugs, no new tests, no new procedures - just new faith.
If you are one of the many people who left me a message saying that you would be praying for Melanie, even though you didn't know me or her personally, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and thank God for your faithfulness. Isn't He amazing?! Thank you so much for giving me the absolute best birthday gift I could ever ask for. And all he asked for in return was faith.
