Over that past few months we’ve started a ministry called Healing in the Streets.  We’ve gone down to the Ithaca Commons, and prayed for healing for anyone who wanted it.  One of the reasons we decided to start this up, is that although we saw God heal people on a regular basis in our church, we wanted to find a way to allow people in our community to experience God in this way.

This next story isn’t from the streets but rather from Anna Cherian who has been part of our church almost since we started.  I thought this was a great example of how God often works in our lives, and asked her to share it here…Thanks Anna!

Intrigued by the story James shared in his message last Sunday, Bob asked me to share more details as a guest blogger. So here goes:

In mid-May I was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder. I had no symptoms, there was no reason for the doctors to suspect it, but my OB ordered the tests just to be thorough. I was at a 6 month follow up appointment after our son Cyrus was stillborn last fall and after reviewing my records and noting that his cause of death was still undetermined, she suggested checking for clotting disorders. A blood clot in the placenta is a fairly common cause that is often undiagnosed. We had come to terms with never knowing what caused our son’s early death, but if I carried risk factors for clotting, there are treatments available if and when I might get pregnant again.

So, I came back positive for 2 clotting disorders – moderate protein S deficiency and moderate/severe protein C deficiency. These proteins work together to break down blood clots in the body, so deficiencies in both meant that my body was prone to embolisms, particularly in the legs and lungs, and possibly also in my heart (heart attack) and brain (stroke) as I aged. Compounding that was the fact that in pregnancy there’s a 4x greater probability of clot formation. I was referred to a hematologist (blood specialist), who told me my low levels were very rare, and he might have to refer me to a specialist in NYC. But first they needed to do more tests to confirm the original diagnosis.

In the mean time, James and I were both really worried, but we felt that God was in control, that He was working in our lives, and that He wanted to do something about this. I felt like serious group prayer was necessary, so after fasting and praying all day with family, I invited a handful of friends who had faithfully been praying and caring for me over these last few months. We prayed together, and there was a sense among the group that God was in control, and that “there is no deficiency”. I felt very comforted, and later in reflection felt that I would be fine. Either God had healed me, and the tests would show no deficiency, or God had made me this way on purpose, giving me some advantage in life that I should not consider myself deficient. I had no current symptoms, so I had no way of knowing whether God had healed me or not, but over the next 4 weeks of waiting I lived with confidence that things would be OK; whatever happened God was in control.

A couple weeks ago we went back to the hematologist for the results of the second set of tests. Both protein C and protein S tests came back completely normal! He said he wasn’t sure what to tell us, how this happened, but he had to withdraw the original diagnosis and that he wouldn’t be able to treat me anymore! After questioning, he said the labs are closely regulated by the FDA and that it’s unlikely this was a mistake. Basically, 6 weeks before I had a potentially life-threatening disorder, and now I was completely healthy!

I’m immensely grateful to God for healing me, and grateful to my dear friends and family near and far who prayed for me and supported me through this.