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Testimony - Joseph’s healing
 By Christopher and Maureen Clarke
We were living in West Africa when our four-month old only son Joseph suddenly became very ill. He was jaundiced, his stools were white, he was dehydrated and he stopped nursing.
Because of lack of specialist care locally, he urgently needed to be flown home. This meant driving him to the neighbouring country and flying from there. But all borders were closed until the following day and our passports were being held by immigration authorities who were closed for the next two days!
Prayer
We rang our family, friends and church (City Church Cambridge) urging them to pray. After a long and difficult night, Joseph did seem marginally better and had started nursing again. We obtained a temporary visa for Maureen from the consulate and I accompanied her and Joseph to the border where I had to leave them as I had no passport. They were driven eleven hours to another city, where they hoped to get a flight to the UK.
In the UK, Joseph was treated at the specialist liver unit at Kings College Hospital, London. Tests showed that he had a strange liver disease and his bile ducts were dilated. But as he had improved (without any medication), no operation was considered necessary. Instead the hospital asked if he could come twice a year for further tests.
So we went twice a year from Africa to London, though after two years, the tests became annual since Joseph had no external symptoms of liver disease. No abnormalities showed in his blood, but the ultrasound showed that his bile ducts were abnormally large.
More Prayer
In October 2007 we attended a Newfrontiers conference. David Devenish was the main speaker and in one of the meetings said he felt God wanted to heal people who had liver disease. We quickly fetched Joseph, and David and others then prayed for him, with Joseph surprisingly calm despite so many strange people praying over him!
To me, this was the highlight of the conference, but then I forgot about it until Joseph’s next examination. The ultrasound showed that the bile duct had shrunk to normal size! Then we saw the doctor prior to the blood tests. But the doctor discharged him, saying that this doesn’t normally happen with liver cases but he could see no reason why we should continue to have the tests.
Looking back, we can see God twice intervened and are grateful to all who prayed for Joseph and for us through this difficult time. |
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