Finding treasures in darkness

August 2021 found me in deep despair. Things were shut down due to covid, masks were required in Japan, and this was not the way I wanted to live. To make matters worse, my mom in America told me she had been experiencing pain in her lower back and leg.

Two times she had called 911 to get emergency help due to extreme pain. By September, Mom was scheduled for back surgery. Somehow a little piece of her backbone had chipped off, and this chip was pressing on a nerve, creating intense pain. My sister Kristi, in Alabama (US), told me to start working on getting to America so I could be there to help care for Mom as she recovered from surgery. This was a big deal as there were not many flights. I bought tickets for mid-November, the earliest I could get time off from work.

Covid enters the story

Mom’s pain was so severe that we were all looking forward to the day of surgery. Mom’s condition was worsening, and then, right before surgery, she was diagnosed with covid.

This is an excerpt from my prayer letter on Monday, September 27, 2021.

Hello friends. Thank you for your continued prayers for my mom, Lois. Today I heard an encouraging statement, “Value the process, not just the result.” So, I am seeking to value this whole process. It seems to me God is concerned with personal relationships and drawing people together at this time, as well as healing Mom.

Prayer points are still the same.
1. Complete healing from covid.
2. Amazingly successful surgery Wednesday this week.

And in the process God is leading me to share this story so that He can be glorified, and that people can be encouraged as we’re all going through trials at this time.

I’m grateful for the way I have learned how to pray and put my trust in the faithful character of God and his word. Thank you everyone for your support!

With love,
Kari

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Ps. 34:17-18 NKJV).

Then the doctor told Kristi that Mom first needed to recover from covid before she could have surgery. Things were going from bad to worse. Kristi sent a picture of Mom lying in bed in the emergency room with a white sheet covering her. She looked dead, and when I saw it, I burst into tears, thinking that Mom was close to death. “Lord, I cannot argue with you. If this is your time to take Mom home to heaven, I will accept that and surrender her to you,” I prayed as I cried. I sent an email letter of love and appreciation to Mom and asked Kristi to read it to her in case this was the last chance for me to convey my love to her.

As I shared this news with a seasoned missionary-pastor friend in Japan, she told me to quit looking at that picture and start believing that Mom would live. My husband also told me to start praying for Mom to live. He said it wasn’t time for her to die. I embraced these words, which led me to live by faith and not by sight.

Living by faith

Taking their advice, I decided to launch a prayer siege and petition the Lord for Mom’s healing from covid.¹ By this time, I had my own Zoom account, and Zoom prayer calls were a regular part of my life. I decided to start a daily 10-minute call to pray for Mom. I invited family, friends, and friends of Mom. I also started keeping a daily journal and sending out regular updates on Mom’s condition so people would know how they could pray.

Kristi took on the task of bringing Mom to her home to nurture her back to health because the hospital was full of covid patients and there was no room for her there. It was a big ordeal as Mom could barely walk, was in great pain, and the electrolytes in her body were low, making it hard for her to get better. Mom’s best friend Carol, in Minnesota, began showing up regularly on the Zoom prayer call. We used different Scriptures to pray for healing, strength, and miracles. We even prayed that the bone chip would move and stop pressing on the nerve and that surgery wouldn’t be needed. Many days it was just the two of us. How grateful I was for Carol’s love, support, and faithfulness to pray together daily.

I wanted to send a care package to Mom, and so I asked Dawn, a friend I knew from a different online prayer group. Dawn couldn’t follow through due to a change in her schedule, so she suggested Elizabeth, another prayer group member, instead. As providence would have it, both Dawn and Elizabeth lived only about 45 minutes from Kristi and Mom!

Elizabeth filled up a basket of goodies in a creative and beautiful way and brought them over to Kristi‘s house. Elizabeth happened to be a retired nurse, and she began helping observe Mom’s health and gave Kristi insights on what to do. A visiting nurse was also seeing Mom on a regular basis. I continued to get regular updates from Kristi and would share these with my prayer people.

Kristi bought Mom a red walker with wheels and handbrakes so she could walk to the bathroom or to the kitchen table. It was all she could do to get to the dining table. When she got there, she could barely eat, and Kristi had to coax her to take a few bites. Mom lost 20 pounds over this period and had difficulty in speaking. She got out of breath easily and could only speak short sentences.

Healing

We continued longing and praying for Mom to be restored to health. Finally, after 68 days, Mom was healed of covid. God had come through. My husband and missionary-pastor friend were right. It was not the time for Mom to die, though I was at first disheartened when I looked at the photo that screamed of death.

Adding to the joy, while the surgery was delayed, the little bone chip miraculously moved! It was no longer pressing on Mom’s nerve. The pain had lifted. Surgery was no longer needed! Hallelujah! God had come through in a huge, surprising, and glorious way!

Mom still needed to regain strength and get her voice back, but she was on the way to recovery. How I praised the Lord for his faithfulness and for each one of the prayer friends who rallied with me.

By the time I arrived in America in November 2021, Mom had completely recovered from covid, could walk and move on her own again, gotten her voice back, and was free from back pain! She did not need my help to recover from surgery because the surgery was not needed. Instead, my sister, Mom, and I, along with my adult children, were able to have a very joyous Thanksgiving, thanking God for how he had granted us a miracle. It turned out to be the first Thanksgiving that my sister, Mom, and I had had together in over 30 years. Our hearts were full of praise and thanksgiving to our great God. I was able to stay through December, and we also got to celebrate Christmas together. This was completely different from what I was expecting in September when I thought that Mom might die. God had done immeasurably more than we could ask or even imagine, according to his power that was at work in us, just like it is written in Ephesians 3:20.

Postscript

In September 2024, Mom told me about a recent dream. At first, everything was black, but then a small airplane pulling a banner appeared. On the banner was written Isaiah 45:3. She remembered it when she woke up in the morning and went to find out what Isaiah 45:3 says. It reads, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” After she shared the dream with me, the Lord reminded me that I had written down this story and saved it on my computer. I felt it was time to share this story and give honor to the Lord for what he did and tell how he gave us great treasures that came through a time of extreme darkness and loss of hope.

1. A prayer siege means that you diligently and persistently pray about a specific issue.
Photo submitted by author