Facing Impossibility
I remember preaching a sermon once entitle “Why do bad things happen to good people”?
Perhaps of recent times you have been confronted with the sad news of friends who have passed away or others who seemingly have lost the battle of faith in circumstances beyond their control.
There are many mysteries in life and it would be a brave person indeed who could say they have all the answers.
This is a story worth telling particularly to encourage those who are facing what seems an impossibility in their lives!
In this post let us as the Bible says “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15
Nathan & April Hitzke are a young christian couple who have walked the walk of faith.
Here is their remarkable story that attests to the goodness of God.
Psalm 126:5-6
“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”
Our small minds with our tiny perspectives try and make predictions about how God is going to move.
I’m sure there were many things hidden from my eyes that God did behind the scenes in steering us through the last twelve months.
I am happy to trust God.
Last year, we flew to the US for stem cell treatment.
Our Doctor didn’t guarantee a cure but was willing to try to reverse the disease that ravished April’s lungs.
Amazing community support was a great blessing.
Genuine concern for us, and we felt very loved.
God miraculously supplied the substantial amount of money for this trip and kept us through a devastating hurricane, without even any damage to Aprils family’s property or even loss of power for that small area even, though the power was out in the areas that surrounded them in Florida.
Therefore the medication which needed refrigeration was preserved.
We came back home to Australia expecting to get better, condition worsened.
We were confused as to why there was miracle provision and no results, but we continued to praise God anyway.
In hindsight, we believe the stem cell treatment helped a secondary cause, April’s heart.
It is a common side effect in those with April’s condition to have heart trouble because of the lack of oxygen in her system, many dying from heart attacks not the lung disease.
April’s heart was severely strained for many months yet suffered no real damage, we believe the stem cells helped keep her heart strong.
Nathan’s mother Win Hitzke continues.
The family moved in with me , (Nathan’s mother, ) on their return from the USA.
For those who do not know the family, April and Nathan have only one child called Chloe.
She turned 11 this year and is severely disabled.
She is totally deaf, visually impaired, cannot walk and is lacking a portion of her brain.
She is a delight and the object of much love.
However, caring for such a precious little one is not easy.
April’s mum Sara, from the US joined us at the end of March.
April’s condition deteriorated quickly after Christmas.
She was on 5 liters of oxygen twenty four hours a day and eventually did not have the oxygen to move or walk.
She became totally bedridden and was gasping for air most of the day.
We no longer had the ability or expertise to look after her so we took her into the hospital.
I can remember coming to see April in hospital one morning, the curtains were closed around her bed and I stood outside listening.
The room was full of doctors standing around her bed, I heard a doctor say, “we believe its too late, the disease has nearly run its course.
We want to put you into palliative care.”
And April said between gasps of air, “I believe in miracles”.
(awkward silence) The doctor replied, “What about your family?”
I said a prayer to God – ‘Lord bless that faith’.
The doctors said they were going to call the heart and lung department at the Prince Charles hospital to tell them of her condition and see what they wanted to do.
This happened on a Thursday, the Prince Charles doctors wanted more X-rays and tests and they planned to have a tribunal concerning April’s case the following Tuesday.
It was basically a meeting to discuss whether she was beyond help or not. ( comment by me,)
All these months you would think that our house would be a house of gloom.
Not so!
Nathan had his keyboard in the bedroom and when they weren’t reading and praying and declaring and reminding themselves of scriptures and praying in the Spirit, Nathan was singing to the Lord as April, unable to sing herself ,lay there with a smile on her face and hands open to heaven.
So many times the presence of the Lord was so tangible and we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt He could be trusted no matter what unfolded.
Chloe would laugh a lot for no apparent reason….although we think the angels tickle her at times!!
Back to Nathan’s notes.
That evening I came home and happened to catch a preacher on one the Christian channels talking about taking your case to the courts of Heaven.
He spoke about asking for a verdict from God first and then believing for it to come to pass here on earth.
It resonated with me so I took April before the Throne of Grace where we find help in the time of need as it says in Hebrews.
It is a real Throne and the One who sits upon it Has real power.
I presented April’s case before His throne of grace and asked for His verdict.
Tuesday came and went with no answer from Prince Charles hospital, Wednesday – no answer.
Thursday morning I get a call from a social worker in Prince Charles hospital asking me if I had somewhere to stay in Brisbane.
I inferred from the question that something had happened and April was leaving.
The Toowoomba doctors came in and they could not hide their surprise that the Prince Charles doctors wanted to admit April.
By 3:00 pm that day she was in Brisbane.
I knew in my spirit that this was a supernatural event, the Toowoomba doctors had told April she was too weak for a transplant, and they were probably right!
But God was the one who influenced the final decision in Brisbane in spite of all that was going against April.
By this point April was on ‘high flow’ oxygen and extremely weak but the Prince Charles staff were just what she needed.
The Prince Charles doctors did not promise anything and explained that there were a few complications added to her case.
April’s was extremely deconditioned which increases the risk enormously when it comes to major surgery.
Her chest cavity had shrunk with her lungs and atrophied muscles so finding a donor that would fit would be difficult.
They put April on the list and then we waited.
I awoke one morning at 5 to see a message on my phone “They have a donor for me”.
15 hours later April was receiving a lung transplant. She was only on the list for 12 days, which, I’ve come to discover, is an extremely short amount of time to wait for a donor.
On the night of the surgery I posted this,
“The doctor was very happy with April’s surgery, he said it went better than expected.”
Thank You God!
The doctor also said that in one more week it would have been too late. (Her lungs looked shriveled and black with a strange honeycomb texture)
April will be moving to recovery soon.
Thank you to all who prayed, God can always be trusted.
I don’t know who the donor was but my heart breaks for the loss suffered by her family.
I pray God’s peace upon them during this time.
The surgeons and staff here at the Prince Charles hospital are of the highest quality.
I thank them from the depths of my heart.”
Now here is an exciting part of the story.
A friend from Toowoomba was attending a medical conference in Sydney.
There were a thousand people there of which she knew only one.
A stranger sat next to her and got into conversation about work.
It turns out he was from Prince Charles , and when the friend mentioned she had a friend there who had just had a transplant, he was really interested.
He knew all about it and said it was amazing how it happened.
April’s shrunken chest capacity was unable to take a normal sized lung.
However, the donor just happened to have an abnormal lung.
The surgeons name was Doug, a magnificent and highly skilled surgeon who was also very humble.
He claimed he was just doing a bit of plumbing.
When she was in intensive care, most of the nurses who attended her were Christians which was a pleasant surprise.
April was able to pray with them and they encouraged her.
Here she is after the surgery and breathing without the oxygen !
When she arrived home the local television station broadcast her story on the evening news.
https://www.facebook.com/9NewsDarlingDowns/videos/251383095705778/
A few months later she was singing with her husband who is a brilliant musician at the Centrepointe Church In Brisbane. Worth a listen!