Phoebe's Miracle

It wasn't too long ago that I wrote about my friend, Phoebe (whose name has been changed in the retelling of her story), which you can read about in my previous post "Phoebe's Call". Her story has been an ongoing one, and I feel that a chapter has just come to an end and another one is just beginning. 

She sat on my couch with a smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes, I realized that this was the moment I had been waiting for. All those other times we had met were so hard, so painful - discussions about how to help her with her health problems, how to handle her case, how to pay for another medicine or another intervention, how to keep going when everyone is tired and doesn't know if it's worth it. And now finally, we were here in the place I had been longing for since the beginning of this whole case back in March. A place of praising God for what he has done. 

I met her for the first time back in March, but her story actually begins way before that. 

She had a prolapsed uterus for five years. Why so long? Partially because people wait until the last minute or until a problem is severe to get help. And partially because you have to navigate the Healy care system for months before you actually get anywhere. 

She started at the local primary clinic, which is medical care at the most basic village level. She kept getting referred up and up to the next level of care until she finally arrived to the regional hospital in the city where we live. Here they told her she needed an operation, one that she couldn't pay for. Next stop was social services, who didn't have money either. Just when she thought all her resources were exhausted, she met a man on the road that she recognized from social services. He called her out and asked if he could personally recommend her case to someone. He was vague and gave her no details and no promises, but she was out of options, so she said yes even though she was suspicious of what he was up to. 

That's when he came and talked to us. The social worker is a dear friend of ours and knows how we help people, so he showed us her picture and told us her story and asked us if we wanted to help. 

Now, eight months and three surgeries later, Phoebe and Madame Kambire (her family member who has accompanied her) have been through it all. They waited outside a hospital two weeks waiting to be seen; meanwhile I was trying to contact every possible resource to get her in. Once admitted, they had almost all their money stolen. After the first surgery - a hysterectomy because of uterine prolapse, her rectum prolapsed. So we did a second surgery and then a few weeks later her bladder prolapsed. Before they could repair the bladder prolapse, the had to treat a rampant infection. Two weeks later at her follow up, the infection persisted. The expected one-week trip to Ouaga turned into a five week wait for the infection to pass. Once the infection cleared, they finally did the bladder prolapse repair. Looking at my records, I saw that I sent money to her for her needs on twelve different occasions. She brought her paperwork to my house today and she could have made a library out of it. Two chest X-rays, an ECG, abdominal ultrasound, cardiac ultrasound, blood work on four different occasionS, and enough prescriptions to make a book out of. 

I hope you feel tired just reading all that. Because going through it was very exhausting for all of us involved. 

But we "guarded hope", as it is said in French, and now look what God has done! 

This week Phoebe and Madame Kambire came to have lunch with me, and I can announce with joy and thankfulness that Phoebe is walking normally, eating normally, and going about her daily activities without the pain of a prolapse and the embarrassment of urinary incontinence. She is healed. 

"It's truly a miracle," Madame Kambire said. "When we left our village, everyone thought she would die, that all this would be a waste of time and money. But God did not accept that!" 

This journey has not been easy for this woman either, who is currently undergoing enough personal, health, family, and job related problems of her own. Yet she stuck with Phoebe through all the waiting and the wondering and the persevering, and she is barely a distant relative by marriage. 

"If I gave up when it got hard, I would be taking their word as the final word instead of God's. Now when she returns to her village, the people will see that she can walk normally, get up and down, and sweep the porch. They thought there was no hope, but God has shown them hope." 

She prays that this will wake them up to see that God is real. Perhaps that is the greatest miracle of all.

"God truly did a miracle for us. I know that he is with us and hears our prayers." 

We spontaneously burst into a very appropriate praise song that says:

Hallelujah! He heals the sick, he resurrects the dead

He is still alive, he does not change

He will do miracles, miracles

He will do them again

Before they left, they took a verse from the "take what you need" wall, and it came from 2 Samuel 22:47-50.

"The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, 

and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, 

the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, 

who brought me out from my enemies...

For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations,

and sing praises to your name."

"The Lord has delivered us from our enemies," she proclaimed. Enemies of sickness, disappointment, discouragement, and despair. 

If you ask me, this was a medical case gone right - one that resulted in worship and thankfulness to the name above all names. It all becomes worth it just to hear his name praised and his glory recognized. May his fame and renown spread among the villages and to the ends of the earth! 

He will do miracles, miracles,

He will do them again.