This blog is all the way from Month 1 in Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire. Since I probably will be unable to post blogs this month, I decided to schedule some untold stories to post in my absence.
Our hosts have two three year old granddaughters, Joy and Natalie*. They are both wild. They love to run around together and dance and sing. Since we got to Korhogo, we noticed that Natalie had a little less energy than Joy. This made total sense when we found out that she has malaria. As a team, we got the opportunity to pray healing over her all month, but it seemed like she was just getting worse.
One night after dinner, Sherri called us in with a worried look. Natalie’s fever was high and she was unable to sleep. The malaria medication was not working. It was starting to look bad. We came into their bedroom to pray for Natalie and I could feel that baby’s pain. You could see it so evidently on her face. We prayed and the fever didn’t break.
As our month came to a close, we continued to pray for Natalie. She had gone to get some blood work done to see if there was a deeper issue. Her white blood cell count was through the roof. My teammate, Alexis, became very worried. She has experience with childhood cancer. She read the blood tests and immediately thought, “leukemia.” My heart dropped when she told me. Natalie was going back for more blood tests a few days later, so we fought for her in prayer.
Natalie may have been sick, but she is still the sassiest three year old I know. She says everything with confidence and conviction. The weekend before we left, she marched up to Sherri and her mom and declared, “Jesus healed me,” in her sweet French voice. I hate to say it, but I was hesitant. Everyone was anxious to see the test results before agreeing with her.
We left the next morning to meet the rest of our squad and travel to Ghana. We said goodbye with heavy hearts and anxious minds about Natalie. We got the call from Sherri about half way through our trip.
Natalie was healed.
Her white blood cell count dropped drastically towards the normal level. She was healed. Jesus healed her. This story still gives me chills a month later. That baby knew that Jesus healed her, not the missionaries that were staying with her grandma. Not her grandma that is a former nurse. Not her mother. Just Jesus. Oh, may I have faith like that one day. Natalie said it with confidence. By her faith, she was healed.
