Four years ago, my husband and I were blessed with a third little girl whom we named Hadassah. On January 23rd, 2017, my husband was entertaining a conversation with our eldest daughter, remembering that January 24th, 1950 marked the day that the Pillar of Fire appeared over the head of Brother Branham, vindicating his ministry.
Just the next day, on January 24th, 2017, I entered our local hospital with Hadassah, only three years old at the time. Since she had stomach pain for some time, her pediatrician scheduled her for an ultrasound to look further into the situation. So, I brought her to the Children’s Hospital where she had the ultrasound, but after a while too long during the procedure I felt in me that something wasn’t right.
In fact, it wasn’t. The doctors declared that my little girl had a tumor in her stomach.
Hadassah was then immediately admitted to the hospital on that same day, as she needed to undergo a series of urgent medical exams in order to assess the stage of this tumor. After seven days of thorough examinations, we went home with our daughter, claiming all this to be a deceitful lie of the enemy and believing that God would declare it as such. Although we had no idea what was awaiting us, one thing we knew was that we NEVER accepted this illness on our daughter. From the onset, we declared it a lie and claimed every promise of God in His Word as ours. We sent prayer requests to family and friends, brothers and sisters, and VGR. We also claimed Hadassah to be a Living Testimony.
From that moment, God began to speak to us and visit us. One morning, at 4 AM, as the Message tape had been playing overnight, God woke my husband up to the prophet saying:
Isn't that right? I'm not reading your mind. That's your child that's afflicted. Isn't that right? You also have a daughter, isn't that right? She's in Bible school. Isn't that right. She has a growth. God, make you well in Jesus Christ's Name.
54-0719E God Providing Healing For This Generation
Now, think: How could my husband wake up from his sleep at that particular moment? We knew then that God was with us. We printed the quote and kept it on our refrigerator next to a picture of Hadassah. When we prayed, we reminded God of what He told us through His Prophet, and applied the prayer cloth on Hadassah every night, as directed in Br. Branham’s letter.
Yet the battle kept pressing on as we faced many challenges while putting our faith into action every step of the way.
Although this type of cancerous tumor, named neuroblastoma, was contained (not generalized) and was at an intermediate stage, its size was too large, and its position lying on large blood vessels and the bowel was then deemed too delicate to be safely removed through surgery. So, chemotherapy was the next option in order to shrink the size of the tumor. We sought for a second opinion from a renowned surgeon who specializes in this type of tumor in young children. We sent a special prayer request to VGR and our brethren, asking God to use the physician as an instrument in our daughter’s case. However, his report also echoed that of our local medical authorities: Hadassah was required to undergo chemotherapy.
We had been fighting off that option while claiming natural alternatives over the treatment. Only, we found ourselves forced into it or else the hospital claimed that they would pursue us if we objected to the option they deemed best for Hadassah’s health. Nevertheless, because we didn’t trust the treatments to be the only option, we sought for a third and fourth opinion from various sources, only to realize that we were stuck with the recommendations provided by our local doctors or else we would also face the possibility of losing legal rights on our child.
So, Hadassah began her first cycle of chemotherapy in April 2017, and since we dreaded and feared the effects of that medication, watching it drip into her body was torture. Yet, we gathered our strength and reminded ourselves that the Word of God says: “… if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them…” (Mark 16:18). It didn’t. Hadassah went through two cycles of chemo like nothing happened. Her blood count stayed normal, her energy level was high, and her mental and physical state was strong. Her hair loss was the only evident effect from the treatments. However, strangely, the least important impact (her hair) became the greatest evidence that something was wrong, and that had a tremendous impact on her siblings and those around us. But God reassured us again.
God Has His Way of Doing Things
Initially our daughter’s mass was too large for surgery and chemo treatments were given to her. The plan was to monitor the progress of the tumor up to a maximum of 8 cycles, yet only two cycles were performed and treatment was suddenly interrupted. Then, the same Dr. Gerstle, whom we initially prayed for asking God to use him as an instrument, came back on the scene; the same Dr. Gerstle whom recommended against surgery given the size and position of the mass, was now recommending surgery despite that the physical state of the mass had not changed. We found ourselves perplexed and asking God what He wanted us to do.
At first, I refused the idea of surgery. The risks were very critical and it was made clear to us that this was a very delicate operation. So, I stayed with the thought that God could still do something. However, during the earlier course of this trial my mistake was that I had a tendency of dictating what God would do and when. Every time Hadassah would go for an MRI or an ultrasound, I was convinced that God would manifest His miraculous healing showing that the mass disappeared. Only, one day, I realized that I had to let go and abandon everything at His feet and let Him do things His way. It also took a letter from Brother Joseph citing the prophet to realize that I had to accept God’s healing in the way He chooses to give it.
Brother Branham:
Now, the thing is with the people, is the way God appears. Many times we want to make an idol out of God. We ask God to do something, and then He must do it just the way that we ask it, or we'll say He never answered. When we do that, we weaken our faith in God. And we weaken our testimony when we do not take Him at His Word. God always answers. No one never asked… Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive; seek and ye shall find.” Everyone that asks will receive. Everyone that seeks shall find. Everyone that knocks, it'll be opened to them. Now, that's the only way that I've always found it, that I can get anything from God, is take Him at His Word and believe it the way He sends it.
60-0326 The Unchangeable God
With the understanding that God can choose to heal his child whichever way He wants, by operating a miracle, through medicine, or surgery, I finally let go and accepted that I had nothing to fear.