Three days of a 103° fever and no eating, Rebecca Coleman, J Squad Second Generation, was in bad shape. Realizing the doctors and nurses in Carrefour, Haiti could do nothing for her, she had to wait for Jesus to show up. And show up he did.
Fever, nausea, headaches, diarrhea, cramps, vomiting, body aches, rashes, and fatigue — Rebecca had every symptom imaginable. And with no running water, electricity, or furniture, Haiti in the summer was not a fun place to be sick.
“I missed things that made me comfortable. Things I was so use to relying on — my mom, eating tapioca pudding, lying in my bed, watching my favorite sick-day movies: The Never-ending Story, Fantasia, and Dirty Dancing,” reminisced Rebecca.
On arriving to the hospital, Rebecca saw children wrapped in barbed wire, bullet-pierced bodies, and broken bones penetrating through skin.
She couldn’t help but wonder, “If this was a normal day, I cannot imagine what it would have looked like after the earthquake in 2010.”
This was a place with no hope,
a place where people came to die.
A man hooked her up to a blood pressure machine and began asking questions.
“How long have you been sick?”
“Four days.”
“When did your fever break last?”
“It hasn’t.”
“Low blood pressure runs in your family.” Not a question, but a statement.
“No, it does not.”
Rebecca looked to a squad mate for help, “Can you please tell him to stop? I am going to pass out now.”
Darkness.
“In this moment, I came face to face with the fact that I could not protect or save myself. I was completely out of control. The hospital could not fix me. Everything that this world could offer me to rely on had failed.
“And as the world around me grew dark, one thing was illuminated — the one that could save me, Jehovah Rapha: God the Healer.
“I woke up and felt water dripping off my earlobes. Within moments I realized I was dripping all over — elbows, chin, eyelashes. I grabbed my shirt and pulled it up to wipe my face.”
“I think your fever just broke,” said my squad mate, Liz.
Amazed, Rebecca steadily rose to her feet and exclaimed, “I feel wonderful. Healed.”
“I laughed and thanked Jesus,” recalled Rebecca. “And as I did, my other two squad mates walked up, drenched in sweat. We had been in three different parts of the hospital with no way to communicate and no one who could help. And miraculously, all of our fevers broke at the same time.”
They praised Jesus out loud, whooping and hollering.
Soon people began to approach Rebecca and her squad mates, asking them for prayer. They had seen a miracle and wanted one for themselves, so Rebecca prayed and watched as people were healed.
“A woman with kidney pain opened her eyes wide in wonder and joy as the pain left her body. Another girl, with a Ziploc bag for an IV, stopped seizing and woke up when we prayed.
“You could feel the atmosphere change. Joy spread faster than an airborne contagion. ‘Jezi, Jezi,’ the praises went up to heaven from Haitian lips.
“Since then, I found out that we probably had dengue fever. Nasty stuff. But I wouldn’t trade this experience for an all-expense paid trip to the moon.I learned how to trust and how to be loved. I received constant prayer, and always had someone to hold my hair back when I was sick.
“Accepting love and service from others brought healing to the deep areas of my heart where I believed I was unworthy to be loved or served.
“It kills me to look back and see how much I doubted God’s goodness, his ability to care and provide. I relied so much on my own strength.”
Through this trial, Rebecca learned what it meant to surrender control to the Lord. She chose to trust. And even though she faced death, Rebecca’s realization of God’s goodness was worth the risk.
Has there been a time when you were faced with your own lack of belief?
Share your story below.
