Heart Reflections Live
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
A Night I'll Never Forget...
Last night I came closer than I ever had to losing my husband from his heart condition...Was I by his side? No, I was on the phone to him as he has been ministering overseas in Vanuatu. When the phone rang during the night I knew it was something like this... All alone in a villa he said to me, "I'm in AF. And I don't know what to do."
Without hesitating, I told him to wake someone up, while I started to pray. God gave him strength to dress himself- something I normally have to do in an emergency- and enabled him to walk to the caretakers house and bang on the door. This lovely Christian man had him at the hospital in minutes and I "went" too on the mobile phone. He saw a nurse on arrival and I heard him explain his condition, which again made evident that God was sustaining him, as he usually loses his ability to communicate clearly due to lack of oxygen by this time. The nurse gave him oxygen- what little they had- while they/we waited for the doctor who wasn't even at the hospital. The next couple of hours were a blur of serious warfare prayer by myself and Edward, the caretaker, the Pastor arriving from the church where Max was ministering, also to pray, and Max's voice fading in and out as he came close to cardiac arrest several times.
I kept telling him to hold on, that he was there for a purpose, and kept personalizing a scripture to him that God gave me- YOU will not die but live and declare the works of the LORD! The doctor finally arrived and not being familiar with his case, refused to give him a cardio-inversion. She rang the consultant who merely recommended morphine!
We kept praying, and God every so often renewed his breath miraculasly- he had never gone this long without medication or cardio-inversion before! Then suddenly he came close to cardiac arrest again, and with the little breath he had left said his goodbyes and I love you's... How petty all the little irritations like socks on the floor seemed then... the hasty words spoken in annoyance... how I'd wished I'd bitten my tongue!... He was 2 hours plane flight away, and I couldn't even kiss him Goodbye!
I couldn't hear anything but the Pastor in warfare prayer, and Max's breath returned. He was at peace no matter what might happen, and I sensed a peace too, but wasn't sure if we'd get a miracle or not... The Doctor gave him some Djoxin( is that how you spell it?) And said he would cardio-invert him in a couple of hours if nothing happened- then the battery in the mobile died... I numbly had a coffee and watched the sunrise...
The hospital allowed him to ring me on their phone, and gave me their phone number. The phone rang early in the morning with the news he'd been cardio-inverted and was getting better, but it wasn't until he vomitted blood that they whipped out the consent forms.
We are so grateful to the Lord, Edmund and the Pastor for praying and the skeleton medical staff working there fervently with what little resources they had. It was an experience for them to treat a case as rare as my husband's and they understand more now. God worked despite ancient medical equipment, and other unknown factors to bring a positive end.
God has not finished with my husband down here yet, and guess what! He can't wait to preach about it tonight giving all glory to the ONE he serves! The Lord Jesus Christ! The great Physician!
I can't wait to have Max home! Ladies, do you know what I would like you to do? Go and kiss your husband, and your children. Tell them you love them-SHOW them you love them, and live each moment in the light of Eternity. Learn from a night I'll never forget!.
Labels: testing times
posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 11:24 am
4 Comments:
Dear Claire,
I appreciate you sharing this with us. What an experience!
We surely have a good and loving Father, who looks after us in all situations. And yet, we never know when it's our time to go.
God bless You both and your beautiful family! I saw the pics Elina took, they were lovely!
Yours, Kaisa
Thankyou so much for organizing the photos with Elina! They are gorgeous!! We received the disc in the mail the other day, but I'll let Max have the pleasure of opening that on his return, tomorrow night. I'm so thankful he's coming home after this episode!
Claire
How scary! I'm so glad that he is doing well and will be coming home. I can't imagine living with this fear hanging over my head and yet I know that everything is in God's control and in the end we will all be in His presence. I'll be praying for you as well. It can't be easy to always be such a supportive and loving wife.
By the way, I've meant to write and ask if ya'll are doing alright with the natural disasters hitting Australia. I don't know exactly were you are, but I think you are between the floods and the fires. Hope all is well with you, your family and your home.
Take care!
Yes we are betwwen the floods and the fires. The fires are about 2000km away.The fire news was so shocking I actually put the Tv back on for a couple of days and watched nearly all the News reports.
It was especially poignant hearing the stories of the goodbye phone calls, after our incident last week. Sadly some of those didn't get another chance...
Claire
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