Revived during the Israel Challenge
Good morning, Bishop!
My name is Jessica, I am from Caxias do Sul (Brazil). I would like to share my testimony from the Israel Challenge of December 2012, when an unfortunate event took place, but God showed us His mercy.
During that Israel Challenge, God asked for my husband’s job. At the time, I was 7 months pregnant. After speaking to each other about it, we decided to obey the will of God. My husband went and quit his job. His boss offered him a better position, but he refused. The company divided his last check into three parts, and the first part was to be received in January 2013.
Time passed and the Israel Challenge finished, and so we decided not to give his last paycheck anymore. We even made plans of what to do with the money. I began feeling a lot of pain and contractions, but it was not time for the baby to be born yet, I had just entered my 8th month of pregnancy. But I couldn’t hold him in any longer, and he was born on December 29.
Because he was premature, he was born with a lung infection and was kept under observation. He was unable to breathe on his own. The second day after he was born, the nurse came to my room and brought me to the NICU, but no one explained to me what was going on. I found this strange because my husband was not in the room, and when I arrived at the NICU, he was not there either.
She asked me to wait. I sat down on a chair, but they continued not to say anything. Then my husband came in, hugged me and said that everything would be fine.
The doctor called us over to where my baby was. She began to explain what they had done, in terms of procedures, to revive the baby but it had all been without success.
But before my husband got there, he had already been given the news and went straight to the UCKG. It was about 10 o’clock at night and there weren’t any pastor there at that time, but he knelt at the Altar and offered everything he had with him – about R$120, which was everything we had –, he asked God for forgiveness and promised to give what was already His before we went back on our word. Then he returned to the hospital.
When the doctor said those words, my husband asked to put his hand on the baby’s chest. She seemed very arrogant and in a rush to turn off the machines, but allowed him to do so. The surgeon and all the nurses were gathered around us because they had been trying to drain his lungs, yet nothing worked. His saturation level was 14, but this was only because of the machines.
My husband put his hand on the baby’s chest and said, “God, I’ve done my part, now You have to do Your part. I’ll give you 2 minutes to bring my son back to life.”
Bishop, it didn’t take 2 seconds, his saturation level went up to 99.98 and stabilized. The surgeon was amazed and asked us to leave so they could finish the procedures. My husband turned to the doctor and said: “You are not going to say that my son is dead, my God is much greater than this!” I saw God’s mercy right there and then.
We still had not been given a date to be discharged from the hospital. Every time we received an installment of my husband’s check from his former job, we would put it on the Altar and my son’s health would improve.
When we received the last installment, I said to my husband: “When we place this on the Altar, he’s going to come home the next day.”
I was right!
We handed it in and the following day I went to the hospital to see the baby. He was ready to come home.
Bishop, this experience taught me a lot, and today I no longer say NO to God. We will give our Extraordinary sacrifice in this Israel Challenge!
Today he is 18 months old and my child is a blessing, our John Mathew.
I am sending you some pictures of him.