Greetings from Africa!                                                                                                         1 November 2004

 

I am writing this at 6:00 pm on Monday, days earlier than usual, in order to capture the events of the day at their freshest. I was scheduled for cataract surgery on my left eye this morning, and in fact went to the hospital, was admitted for the (semi-)outpatient procedure, was taken to the same room and the same bed as the last time, prepped for surgery, taken to the OR and further prepped – including the injection of the nerve block under the left eye. Just seconds before beginning the surgeon stopped, looked intently into the eye, and announced that I had an eye infection and was canceling the surgery for today. (It is rescheduled for the 22nd). The infection had about a 20% chance of entering the eye if he had gone ahead, and if THAT had happened there was a substantial chance of my losing the eye completely. Now, that in itself is a good story – a competent surgeon doing the right thing, and my avoiding what could have been a medical disaster. But the story is actually much better than that.

 

A friend had offered to drive me to the hospital, and gave a time of 5:40 am. I was almost ready at 5:33 when I heard a horn outside, and it was her. I quickly put my shoes on and grabbed the things I was to take. At the last second I recalled that the previous time had involved a lot of waiting and I had benefited greatly by having both a Bible and a good book to read. Glancing at my desk (see attached photo) I reached out a grabbed the indicated book – as you can see, nothing about it was visually prominent. It was small (i.e., would fit nicely in my Bible case), and I recalled having started it but never having finished it – there was nothing else in my mind behind its selection. Its title is “Praying by the Power of the Holy Spirit” by Neil T. Anderson. I had purchased the book in June prior to coming to the US, and had read the first five chapters and then, folding a corner of the first page of chapter six down, put the book down.

 

Reclining in my bed with several hours of waiting in front of me, I opened the book, wondering where I had left off. I found the folded page with gratitude and began to read from there. Within a few pages I encountered the author’s story of how his wife, on the occasion of lens implantation surgery, had suffered a MAJOR spiritual attack that lasted for 15 months, resulting (among other things) in medical bills that had forced them to sell their house (see pgs. 85-87 if you have the book; if you don’t, consider getting one – it is very good). Reading this prior to the operation, perhaps strangely, had a very cheering effect on me. I had already had the operation once and had NO problems at all, so I was happily praising the Lord for His protection and blessings. Then, the events described in the first paragraph above unfolded. After I got home I looked at the story in the book again, and saw something new. Mrs. Anderson had eye surgery, and had suffered a crippling spiritual infection. The author stresses that this did not need to happen, if there had been proper preparation for surgery WITH PRAYER. I had been in a position to also suffer a crippling infection, but the doctor stopped the operation and the danger was averted. Medical competence? Yes! The power of prayer? Also yes! A demon-stration of the love and attention to detail of the Lord, who had guided my hand to precisely the right book on precisely the right day, which I started reading on precisely the right page? Right again!

 

As though that weren’t enough, I also got a nice lesson from the paralyzed eye. Initially that eye couldn’t really see anything at all, but after perhaps 30 minutes a measure of vision returned – but horribly distorted. With the muscles around the eye paralyzed, that eye was rotated perhaps 30 degrees from normal. I noticed that, with both eyes open, the image from the left eye was weak and blurred, but also rotated and double (not lined up with what the right eye was seeing). After I was dressed and in the process of leaving I did an experiment, covering the right eye to see what I would see through the left eye only. There is no way to describe the immediate, wrenching discomfort of THAT! The world was nightmarish and my brain was yelling NO! inside as loud as it could. I thought, what a wonderful illustration of what it means to be “double minded”! In part to be seeing the world as it really is, i.e., seeing God’s way, and in part to see a distorted, twisted view that doesn’t line up with the truth. It was awful, and I’m very glad the left eye is now back to normal. Just having a bit of a cataract in an eye is as nothing compared to its being paralyzed!

 

I know that the presidential election is occupying everyone’s attention pretty heavily right now, so I may or may not send another email this week. If there is real news I of course will!

 

Love from Africa

Lary

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