03/31/2008: "God Heals"
From the Journal of Raymond Gaea...
August 7, 2003 was a beginning of a night that would change my life forever.
My fourth oldest child Katarina, then ten years old, came home from the first day of fifth grade not feeling well. She had a slight fever and was feeling tired. My wife Wendy gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. Rina, as we call her, had never missed a single day of school since pre-kindergarten. There were many times she wasn't feeling the greatest but she always managed to make it to school.
The next morning, Rina was still not feeling too good and we helped her walk to the living room and laid her on the couch. I felt if she had seen her younger sister and brother, Lexy and Junior, getting ready for school, it would motivate her to go also.
I went ahead to work and was considering a normal day ahead. This would all change when I got an emergency phone call from Wendy around 2 pm.
She had said Rina was not responding to her at all. I rushed home immediately to see what was wrong with Rina. When I arrived, Rina had lost control of her eyesight and her vocal cords. She was moving her head from side to side and moaning. We kept calling her name, "Rina... Rina!" but it was as if she couldn't hear us. Calling 911, the paramedics arrived and took her vitals but had no clue as to what was going on.
We continued to rush her to the hospital's Emergency Room where they continued to check vitals, CT Scans, and blood tests. Nothing resulted positive to give us any firm answers. University Hospital ER did everything they possibly could and ended up referring her to the Medical College of Georgia Children's Hospital(MCG). MCG proceeded with many tests and they also had no answers. We began to pray for a healing from God Almighty. Morning, day, and night, we prayed continually for God to heal her.
About three days had passed with no answers. Rina could open her eyes and smile but still could not talk. One day, we asked her to draw a picture of a stick figure person. I drew the head with a smiley face and she drew the body. Instead of drawing arms, she drew the wings of an angel. This is something she had never done growing up. Looking back on it today, this is the way I felt God was letting me know that He sent His angels to care for her and to be patient, to have faith and trust in Him.
The very next day the doctors came to check on Rina; she was not responding at all. The staff rushed her from her room to take an emergency MRI of her brain. She had slipped into a coma and doctors still had no answers of what was wrong. They had ran many tests to guess what was wrong but all came back negative.
I continued to pray for a healing and thank God for my daughter as well as my other five children. My every waking moment was dedicated to prayer to our Father. We had so much support from family, co-workers, and also our church family. We had many prayers, songs, and scripture readings. Several pastors came and laid hands on Rina for a healing from God. Five weeks into her coma, we stayed obedient with fasting and prayer. Our main focus was prayer and complete communication with God. We never gave up hope; our faith and trust in God's mercy continued to grow stronger and stronger.
The doctors usually gave us updates at bedside or outside the hospital room. I'll never forget when the head doctor called myself and my wife to a private room in the hospital. He explained that he tried everything he could think of and all test results came back negative. He continued to tell us from this point, he couldn't make any promises of the outcome. We thanked him for his honesty.
I felt in my heart that God was about to take my ten year old Rina home with Him.
Such a great daughter full of love and happiness. What a wonderful personality she had and many memories that was built in ten short years; I loved my daughter with all my heart. The Bible says God knows every man's heart so He knew how I felt. He knew after many prayers and fasting, I had endured all I could. After five long weeks that Rina was in a coma, I was finally ready to give her back to God. I remembered the story of Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his only son that he loved dearly. The story describes his obedience to the God he loved and the sacrifice he was willing to give. This story touched my heart and I was willing to give Rina back to God because I was obedient to Him.
I cried out to God, "Whatever is in your will, I accept it. I will serve you as your servant. If you take her, I love you. If you heal her, I love you. Either way, I will serve you and will be a vessel to witness for you."
God had mercy and heard all our prayers and answered them and woke up Rina from her coma. Thank you, Jesus.
Rina had to learn how to talk and walk again in rehab. She's doing fine and will be 15 years old in December 12, 2007. Praise be to the God that deserves all the Glory.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
**Note: You can read the story of Abraham and his great sacrifice in Genesis 22.
"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
- John 14:13-14