And now it is even deeper etched in my memory and recent experiences following my near-death from pneumonia only a month ago.
It is with the greatest gratitude to God that I write this letter. As you may have heard, on June 22nd this year, I came to the gate of death and then was spared by Jesus for His future service. I am still praying to find His direction for this new time here on earth granted me. I tell you this knowing that without your prayers during the two weeks I was on the heart-lung machine, I would have died around the first week of July.
Briefly, as I can now tell you, I was infected with pneumonia sometime in April or May. These were hard months for the Mission in India. The Hindutva party, the BJP, under the new dictatorship of someone called Narendra Modi, won over 2/3 of the Lower House in India’s Parliament.
Since the election results in India put in power the strongest anti-Christian government there has ever been, Philomina and I had been working extra hard on preparing the church leadership for the oncoming persecution years. Then it was time for us to do our duty to our son Arthur and come back on a quick visit to prepare his college application for next year. Yes, that’s right: Arthur is now a 12th grader!
After that, our intention was to dig in and man the trenches as we waited to see how, when and where the persecution would hit the Christian communities where the Mission has worked all these years. So we were very tightly scheduled to maximize each minute of each day. Nothing unusual in that; but it did create the conditions that a toxic pneumonia needs: tiredness, lack of sleep, and then shortness of breath which in turn leads to flooding of the lungs and even less sleep and strength.
Although we were about to start a 2 day drive to Virginia to check out colleges, my tiredness was noticeable enough that we decided to stop at a small “Emergency Clinic” near our house in Indianapolis. A quick glance by the resident doctor and a quick diagnostic test established that my oxygen was at the 62% level (normal is in the 90-95%.). We drove immediately to the nearby Regional Hospital Emergency Room. Within minutes I was on the heart-lung machine as a precaution. And then my lungs, filled with the liquid of the pneumonia, shut down.
In general, at the advanced stage of pneumonia I had, the chance of living is 1-in-10. So with my systems shut down, the doctors and nurses in the ICU could only give this advice to the prayer partners and faithful who came to the ICU to pray with Philomina and Arthur and for my life. And then the miracle happened: It’s all a mystery to me and I am sure to those who came to pray or heard of my journey through the valley of death and prayed are all part of the creation of the miracle.
How prayer does work and does make a difference! I stand before you today as a living witness. And all of you have experienced the same or know of those who have. I praise Jesus that the community of the Mission is a community of prayer and that we have Jesus to whom we can all pray with knowledge of His active interest in each and every one of us. There will come a day when we will indeed go to be with Jesus. After all, “…this world is not our home.” But when there are prayers to spare a life for further work and that prayer is answered in the affirmative by Jesus, it is a time for rejoicing and the deepest gratitude.
I will tell more about the Mission work as the College has re-opened, schools have re-opened and the churches in the villages and urban slums stand with a Bible in one hand and a shield in the other. There is much to tell. Psalm 23 makes it clear we do live in a world where there is evil and death and we have real enemies. But the central focus is that we have Jesus as our shepherd. And that prayer continues to work, just as it has since God formed the world.
“Amazing Grace…” goes the hymn. Amazing, unbelievably and yet so frequently amazing…” We serve the great Risen Savior and He is indeed in the world today.
David
