A powerful testimony of the faithfulness and love of God!
This is an astounding powerful testimony of a lady who actually lost her life and how God brought her back, to give her a new life! I have known Benitha personally, and she is a great prayer warrior, a lady of great faith and strength and I know God is blessing them in the family’s steps of faith forward.
Emalet Benitha Manasseh:
I grew in near the coastal town of Kanyakumari, in South India. As children, we enjoyed going to the beach, relished the sights of beautiful red-orange sunsets, collecting seashells on the beach and building sandcastles. Later on, our family moved to Ooty, a town seated in the Nilgiri Hills, Nilgiri means blue mountains and the name may have arisen from the blue smoky haze given off by the thousands of eucalyptus trees forested on the mountains.
These were happy family days. My dear loving parents were God-fearing, and brought us children up in the fear of the Lord, we read our Bibles faithfully, had daily family prayers and went to church regularly. All was wonderful and well. I used to sing in the church and even for many public occasions, danced, painted, played the piano, and excelled in art and craft so overall, my childhood was a very happy exciting one with wonderful memories.
After standard 12, when I was 18 years old, due to my father’s business, we all moved to Hosur, in Tamil Nadu, which is situated at the border of Bangalore. Hosur has a lovely cool climate but was a very quiet town. The first year in Hosur went well for me.
One day when I was in Hosur, I suddenly had a strange spell where I was feeling as if I was fading out, and had a fit where I was very dizzy and passed out.
People around me were puzzled and said, “Perhaps she had a bad dream and that is affecting her!”
Others whispered around that perhaps I had seen an evil spirit or an evil spirit was attacking me. I too was surprised because something like that never happened to me before.
Another month rolled by, and then again, it happened again, I got attacked by another fit! Medically, it would be termed as a seizure or epilepsy. This time, I was 19 years old. This time, it was advised by all that it would be better to go to Bangalore and find out what was wrong, so my parents took me to the famous hospital in Bangalore called Nimhans, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience. Strangely enough, in Nimhans, they did not take any scan, but just took an oral history and treated me with medicines. Initially, I was 40 kg but after one year of treatment with medications, my weight went up to 80 kg! I was horrified at the great gain in weight.
Then again, something new happened, when I was 20 years old, I contracted measles two times. On the second attack of measles, I was suddenly swollen and shapeless from head to toe. I actually looked frightful at that time and even strangers would look shocked when they saw me so my mother, in order to protect me from getting more hurt by the reactions of others covered me with a black dupatta (a stole for women) as people could not look at me. Everything in my life was monitored, my food and I was under strict treatment with strong medicines. All these medicines had side effects on me I actually started telling my mother to pray to Jesus and ask Him to kill me as He was not healing me and death seemed the cold dark answer to my pain and suffering.
Slowly after 40 days, I recovered from the double measles attack and then got slapped with another serious illness – jaundice! In fact, I got jaundice twice and then after recovering from that, got chickenpox! I guess my immunity was so low that I was catching one illness after another. One whole year went by where I was on total bed rest. My legs and calves and below the knees were cracked and bleeding, and could I not walk. I was in excruciating pain all the time. When I was 21, I started to become a little bit better and started walking but could not walk beyond 10 steps, or I would start getting an intense burning.
Finally, a dear friend in Hosur, my closest friend, Pavithra took me to a hospital in Hosur. There, they did a blood draw and found out that my hemoglobin level was only 4 (normal should be at least 10 and above). I had a very serious blood anemia called sickle cell anemia.
Walking through all these dark clouds, my parents’ faith and trust in Jesus was not shaken, though I was battered and broken and was losing the little string of hope I had left to hold on. My sister, Jenilin Sujatha encouraged me too and kept telling me that I would get well and whole again.
The doctors started to give me neurobion injection,(high concentrate of B vitamins) but my body did not accept the injections, and after the third injection, I could not even sit up. My friend, Pavithra, then suggested it would be better to take me to Bangalore, St. Marthas Hospital, another very good hospital in Bangalore. However, when I was taken there, the hospital authorities did not accept me on admission initially as my hemoglobin was far too low. Finally, I was admitted. I was given injections for the low blood counts and some of the nurses used to cry on seeing my condition. Later, my blood was rechecked and my hemoglobin level was now only 3! At this point, the doctors decided against hope that I would live and advised my parents to take me back home and give me whatever I want as they said “Her days are numbered, she does not have many days left…”
My brave parents did not take me back home and instead told the doctors they would take the risk of continuing to keep me in the hospital with blood infusions. There was a kind doctor there, Dr. Santosh and he counseled me telling me that my mind would have to have the courage to accept whatever happens and he prepared me for death. St. Marthas Hospital had morning songs and prayers and my friend’s granddad would come over to the hospital every morning and pray for me and give me a morning tiffin. After 2 days, the doctors tried to give me 5 ml of blood went in and after that injection, I suddenly had severe shivering. Everyone tried to hold me down to control the shivering. Dr. Santosh gave 3 more days of counseling with comforting words as my body was not accepting the injection.
In the midst of intense family prayer, I managed to receive a 2nd unit of blood, without any problem, in fact my body accepted a full unit. All the doctors were happy, and the next day, they went for a 3rd unit of blood.
On giving the injection of the 3rd unit of blood, half a unit went inside and then it seemed I was not able to tolerate it. One of the nurses suddenly was shocked to see that plasma water started to come out through the tube and in panic called the doctors. When the doctors arrived, they performed the vital signs and all the routine medical tests that confirmed that I had died! I was no longer alive! It was a horrific time for all, as I was still very young and many were in sorrow as they covered me with white sheet about to be wheeled away to the mortuary.
Dr. Santosh came back again suddenly said “I want to try and revive her again!” It surprised all in the hospital staff who were present as usually when one is medically documented as dead after all the tests, revival is rarely attempted. He prayed shortly and started resuscitation and after about 3 minutes, I started to breath, my vital signs came back and I got my life back! This was a wonderful miracle witnessed by the people present in the hospital.
After this, it was as if I got a new life, a second life. Dr. Santosh wanted me to taper down my seizure medicines. Initially, after a year of treatment, my seizures were greatly controlled and I stopped them. Now, I was back in Hosur and once again, I started to get seizure attacks. Once, if I did get an attack, it would take me 9 hours to get conscious again!
I was now a teacher in Hosur, glad that I able to work and I loved my new life and freedom. However, one day, when I got down from the bus, 20 steps to my colony, I got a fit again and fell down on the road, near Pavitra’s house. People rushed around me. The opinion by many was that I should not go to Bangalore for treatment but instead to Chennai, SRM Hospital in Chennai, a very good hospital.
Dr. Ananth, a kind cheery doctor attended to me and his first question to my parents was “I need to see her CT scan.”
When my parents replied that a CT scan had never been done, he was shocked and said
“How could they treat her so long without a scan?” He immediately ordered a CT scan and Dr. Ananth was stupefied to see that in my brain, there were 22 areas of calcification!
Dr. Ananth said to my parents, “There is a 99% she will never be cured, but 1% that she may be cured. Pray to your God that she will be cured and her bones will always be very weak and her eyesight will be weak too.”.
I overhead him saying that though no one knew that I heard it and I was very discouraged and sunk into a well of depression and decided I would commit suicide as I was not fit to live in this world. In that well of depression, I tried tablets though I did not succeed in dying.
At that time, I was taking 19 tablets at a time for my treatment. I began to feel I was a burden to my father and mother. On one occasion, I had been engaged to be married to a man and when the people around heard about that engagement, they went to the man and his family and warned them never to let him marry me as I was very sickly and also would never bear children. After hearing this, the man told broke off the engagement by saying, “I am sure God will give you someone better.”
Though I had not succeeded on my first attempt at suicide, I was determined to try again. I told no one of my plans. The next day Sunday, I planned to kill myself with all the long list of medicines that I was taking, planning to overdose on all of them together. That Sunday morning, the television was on and a preacher was speaking. I never believed in TV messages as I never found any wonderful things happening to me in my own personal life as they claimed would happen.
That morning when I planned to commit suicide, Mohan C. Lazarus was speaking on TV and he suddenly said something very strange out of the blue on the TV. He suddenly seemed to look straight at me and said very clearly and loudly “Dear sister, suicide is not a final answer to your problem please change your mind, dear sister, I am speaking to you, suicide is not the answer for your problem!” He repeated it 3-4 times. I was amazed! Was he speaking to me?! I then started to cry loudly in shaking rasping sobs and my parents rushed in worried, asking me what had happened.
When they heard how I had planned suicide that day and how I heard the message on TV spoken by Mohan C. Lazarus imploring “me as it seemed” not to commit suicide, they too cried, and assured me “You are never a burden us, never think that… your life to us is life is precious whether long or short.”
That Sunday morning, we all went to church and amazingly, the same message was preached by the pastor saying suicide was not the answer to life’s problems. With this, I was greatly comforted and for the first time in my life, felt the personal touch of Jesus on my life and felt calm and peaceful inside.
I, however, decided will not marry, live with my parents and work for Jesus.
By now, for every treatment, we used to go all the way to Chenanai from Hosur, approximately 271 kilometers distance apart. We went to Chennai even for fevers, cold, etc.! After 2-3 months, I wanted to reduce the tablets. Dr. Ananth said my weight should come to 45-50 kg in order to reduce the tablets. Within 2 months, I surprisingly lost weight and came down to 48 kg which even amazed the doctor, so he slowly reduced the seizure tablets.
I used to sing in the church and after 2-3 years, one day, a particular family liked me and decided I would be good for their son in marriage and the marriage actually was fixed. A group of people approached the would be groom’s family and gave them a report of my illnesses and also emphasized that I could never give birth and my life was short, I may not even life, so once again the marriage was cancelled!
It was the height of rejection for me. Deeply wounded, I retreated, but this time, the Lord was with me, healing me from within and outside and I continued getting healing, my tablets reduced. Once again, I made a firm resolve never to marry.
One day, when I was singing in a program, a particular lady liked me, and decided she thought it was wonderful if her son and I could get married. Of course, I was not so open to the idea, but this family seemed quite clear in their hearts about me and even brought their pastor, who spoke also. My parents told them about my illnesses, but my future mother-in-law was not deterred and responded by saying “It is all in God’s hands!” Her son was working as a teacher, Manasseh William, who was a brilliant musician and singer. Once again, when the same band of people heard about my engagement, they came again to speak against me to stop the marriage, but God started lifting me up. By God’s grace, the marriage was fixed.
At the time of my marriage, I was taking 50 mg of seizure tablets, so I was advised by the doctor that for six months, I should not conceive. But the next month after marriage, I conceived surprisingly and without planning. I was badly frightened fearing harm to the baby in the womb. The doctor was calm and reassuring and said to me “Do not be afraid and do not worry, it is your God’s wish. Since your God has healed you so much, surely He will take care of this too!”
With this comfort, I had a peaceful pregnancy. Then in the 7th month, I got another fit attack. Once again, the people around me again started saying “The baby will abnormal and never be okay, she should have never conceived.”
In that strong spirit of judgment from the people, I leaned more on my Lord and got special strength from Him. Special scanning were performed again in Chennai to see the baby. My sister also strengthened me by saying “God cured you and He will perfect all that concerns you!”
I was delighted to learn that the scan was normal and the baby said baby fine. In the 9th month, I again got measles and once again in school, the people said the baby will die.
It was during this time that both me and my husband got stronger in our faith and walk with the Lord. My parent’s prayer support gave us rich support. At the time of delivery, the doctor said I need to go through a c-section. That dawn, I got pain and at 4:20, went to hospital as my membranes were ruptured. I did not have too much pain, but my husband was made to sit inside the operating theater to sign the forms etc. In an atmosphere of deep powerful prayer, at 6 am got pain and was very drowsy. All this happened before the doctor came to the hospital and by 7 a.m., I had a normal delivery with no pain at all, only a bit and delivered a beautiful normal healthy bright baby girl. Her name is Elvina Carlin. With her delivery, all judgmental mouths were silenced!
Now, I run a play school and at present, my husband and me have received a call for full time ministry. We have stepped out on the waters with eyes of faith, not knowing what will await, but we are seeing the hand of God doing wonderful and new things in this new road, and experiencing and seeing God doing great miracles!
I wish to end with this verse, very personal and real to my life:
Isaiah 55:8-13
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
Emalet Benitha Manasseh:
Comentários