Never met him. But I heard so much about him. Andrew is a 9-year old boy who was confined at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center because of dengue. Last friday, his uncle and aunt attended the retreat that I was facilitating.
They were obviously in some pain but did not express them right away. They had these empty look upon their eyes that seem to convey something that was not hard to miss.
A couple of hours into the discussion – they shared that their nephew Andrew is at the hospital for dengue.
We prayed for Andrew as we closed the session last Friday night. It was about 9:15PM and we were all getting tired. We bowed our heads and prayed for God’s comfort and restorative rest upon all the participants. And in the middle of the prayer, I remembered Andrew and prayed for him.
I did not know the status of his condition but we just simply lifted him up. Lifted his parents, their need for the hospital provision and Andrew’s well-being.
The following morning, the couple were conspicuously absent from our morning sessions.
They arrived a couple of minutes before we broke up for lunch. They mentioned to the pastor that they wanted to share something with the rest of the group.
They shared the story of Andrew. It was in their native dialect (Waray) so I struggled to understand some of the key elements of their story.
The night before at about 9PM, Andrew’s condition grew from bad to worse. The doctor mentioned that he could go either way. They simply gave him a 50/50 chance of making it. Blood was already oozing out of his nostrils as the hemorrhagic fever raged on.
The nurses upon hearing the prognosis started taking off the medical tubes inserted on the small boy’s dying body.
When the doctor returned, he was surprised that the nurses had taken off everything. He said “put them back, you never know… things could still happen for him. The only thing that could save him would be prayers…”
The parents were in shock and could not even react to what the nurses were doing.
But it was around that time, when we were wrapping up the evening session of that Friday night during that weekend retreat.
At a little past midnight, the boy’s dramatically improved. And throughout the night, the boy was steadily showing signs of improvement. When the morning came, he was declared by the doctors as on his way to sure recovery….
From death to life….
From the certainty of death – to certainty of life.
From hopelessness to “hope-filled-ness…”
Crossing from death to life….
There were no dry eyes in the whole room when they finished their testimony. We sang a couple of hymns declaring the faithfulness of our Father in heaven….
Thank you Lord for allowing us to see through the eyes of our faith.
Thank you for remembering Andrew even if did not know the extent of his condition.
Thank you for allowing us to hear of this testimony.
Thank you for your utmost love for the little and helpless ones.
Thank you for this miracle.
This miracle called Andrew.
Thank You, Lord!
Praises be to Your Name!
Thanks for visiting the blog. Take care. Keep on taking awesome pictures.
Wow!