Johannesburg: Awesome God...

I met Pauline's cousin who came in from Nigeria. Apparently he knew before boarding the plane in Abuja that she had passed away but still decided to come and take her body back home. It was really hard to know what to tell someone in that kind of situation but I did my best to comfort him.

The next day, I was informed that Kechi was stable during the night and the respirator problems did not repeat themselves. She had been scheduled for surgery that day for debridement of the right arm. This meant that they would scrape away dead tissue so as to prevent infection and also prepare the area for skin grafting.

The anesthetist was there to inform me that they were spacing the surgery out a bit so that they did not destabilize Kechi and lower her body temperature for too long. Again, I shut my mind to what was going to happen to Kechi in the OR, and just focused on the fact that every trip to the OR was a step towards her total recovery. This kept me sane.

Pauline's cousin sought me out in the visiting room to tell me that he was going back to Nigeria. He would not wait to take his cousin's body with him after all because an autopsy had to be performed on her at a different hospital and then her body would be flown back. Then he shocked me by giving me quite a bit of money to help defray my expenses. Even in his pain, he reached out to me. I was truly humbled. I cried as I hugged him and he comforted me and told me he would continue to pray for Kechi. When he left, I went to pieces. Luckily, I was alone in the waiting room.

I called Ulo, told her what happened, and asked her to please tell me something I could do for God. There must be something more than just praising Him and giving thanks. Ulo told me to just bask in His love and to praise Him.

When I had settled down a bit, Uloma asked me to please not call her to cry on the phone, or had I forgotten that I was there with a very sick child? This made me laugh because I realized that when I called Ulo and was crying on the phone, she assumed that the worst had happened, that Kechi had passed away. I apologized but told her that Kechi was not going anywhere.

Ulo spread the news like I expected her to and soon Mom and Dad called me to remind me that God is Jehovah Jireh, the God that provides all our needs, and He would continue to provide even before I asked...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: Trusting God Daily...

By day four, I had started to develop a routine. I usually left for the hospital between 7am and 7.30am. In the ICU, there was a white board just inside the door on which all the names of the patients were written. A patient’s name was rubbed out if he or she was transferred to another ward or if they passed away.

So every morning, I would go to the ICU, peer inside the room to look at the board, frantically search for Kechi's name, find it, exhale, and then go to the waiting room to stay until the first visit of the day which was from 11am to 12pm.

On this particular day (day 4), I noticed during my visit that Kechi's breathing seemed to be a bit unstable. It seemed as if the respirator was halting and restarting.

When I mentioned it to the nurse looking after Kechi that day, she said that this had happened through the night and they had in fact called in the people that installed the machine to take a look. Meanwhile, they had replaced the one Kechi was hooked up to. This was not exactly the kind of news I wanted to hear but I was told not to worry, they were on top of things.

I left everything in God's hands and continued my usual pattern of praying over Kechi, reading to her from the bible, and singing to her.

Visitors continued to stream in. Brother Dotun, of the South African brethren of our fellowship group came to visit with me, to encourage me, and to pray with me. I also had a visit from the Nigerian High Commissioner and his entourage. I took him into the ICU to see Kechi. He was very kind and they all said they would pray for Kechi...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: Inspired To Hope...

Pauline passed away!

I was truly distressed. I had prayed hard that she would make it. I hurt so much for the family that had pinned their hopes on the fact that her coming to South Africa was a sign that she would be fine.

Pat sent some of her friends to visit me - Gbemi, Layi and Magdalene. Magdalene was also my friend, Ijeoma Udensi's sister-in-law, and she was a cancer survivor. She gave me her testimony and I lapped it up because at the moment, anyone that had survived anything life-threatening was an inspiration to me.

Layi informed me that she had been in touch with the Nigerian High Commissioner and had told him about Kechi's presence in Johannesburg...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: My Feelings...

God is sovereign! That much is clear and incontrovertible. There is a certainty and an assurance deep within me that this is an established fact. He is mighty and awesome and He is my father. He loves me and all He wants from me is an acceptance of who He is and an unfailing, blind, total, unwavering trust in Him, no matter the situation.

He wants me to love Him back.

Unconditional love is not a helpless kind of love, like saying, 'I have no choice but to love You, after all, You are God and You do whatever You want'.

It is more of a certainty, a conviction deep within you that you have been created to love and trust God.

That the Creator loves His creation you so much that He sent His son to die when it appeared that if He did not intervene, His creation - you - will perish forever.

You have the assurance that one day you will be with God for eternity and that life on earth is just a preparation for eternity with your Creator.

That this Creator is willing to forgive His creation - you - just about anything just to ensure that you get back to heaven.

That everything in His Word points to one thing - Return to Me! He is truly an awesome God.

To be Continued...

Johannesburg: Concerns And Expectations...

I could not wait for Kechi to open her eyes so she could see me. I spoke to her over and over again, prayed over her, sang to her because I believed she needed to know that I was close by, and I believed she could hear me.

I was content with the way she was resting because I knew that her body needed rest to recover from the trauma of being thrown from a burning plane.

It still seemed like a dream, like it did not happen in real life. I was so overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God and I now realized that I had really made Him small in my eyes.

I had not seen Dr. Plani since the first day we came, and the nurses advised me to come early so I could catch him after his early morning rounds. I got there pretty early the next day, but I could not see him because new patients had come in from a bus accident in Nigeria. Matron informed me that the hospital staff were now calling Trauma ICU 'Nigeria ward.’

Distressingly, Matron also informed me Pauline's condition was deteriorating and that they had called the family to inform them. My heart was breaking. “God”, I prayed, “please do that which You are known for and give her a miracle also”...

To be continued...