A few weeks ago I was ending a conference in another city when I was approached by a family and asked to pray. Honestly I was tired, but I prayed and trusted God. I did not feel the power like I sometimes do. I did not see any Angels but God came and did something wonderful for this family. A few days later I got this email from the Mom.
Hi Nigel,
Going back to 10 weeks ago, I now understand that I was desperately looking for a form of escapism. Yes I was going through the motions of listening to ‘soaking music’ and praying but that wasn’t fully satisfying so I went on Youtube to find stories with happy endings. I came across dog rescue stories and every weekend I would watch these stories and cry as they were rescued and then placed into loving homes. (I was aware but never voiced it that I needed rescuing from the situation that I found myself in) Around four weeks in to watching these I came across a link that said something about a rescued dog helping a boy with autism. I clicked on the link and it was like a whole different world opened up to me.
I was so desperate as to what I next needed to do to try and get Sharon out of ‘her world’ that I investigated and found out that you can get autism service dogs in South Africa and they can be a form of therapy for the child. I felt at the time that this was the only thing that gave me any hope. My husband, was against the idea for various reasons plus we did not even have an official diagnosis of autism although many significant signs were there. (We had suspected that she had Aspergers autism for the past 2 and a half years and I had done a whole lot of praying and implementing ideas from Danny Silk’s “Loving our Kids on purpose” book which worked AMAZINGLY with her but I NEEDED more help – amongst many other things I felt like a prisoner in my own home and so did our other two daughters because Sharon let it be known that she hated being anywhere else other than at home)
Thinking it would be unfair to apply for one of these highly trained dogs without having an official diagnosis we decided to take the plunge and get Sharon diagnosed.
Around the same time (about 4 weeks ago) a friend encouraged me to listen to Bethel’s “You Make me Brave” song. I went and looked it up on Youtube and selected what I thought to be the song. Only it wasn’t the song but another one of the songs on the CD called “It is well”. Sharon ‘happened’ to be in the study the same time that I was listening to it and she started singing along to it especially the part that states over and over again that “it is well with my soul”. I started to play that song over and over whenever I thought about it as the words were such an encouragement to me and they also got Sharon singing and more importantly worshipping – which is getting her to focus on and have relationship on someone other than herself -autistic children tend to be very self absorbed. Little did I realise how prophetically significant the words of the song were to be for both of us.
On Monday the 29th September 2014 (6 days before the conference) My husband and I were read the diagnosis by the educational psychologist. We were told that Sharon had not Aspergers Autism (upper end of high functioning autism) but full blown moderate to high functioning autism and ADHD. She would require sensory integration therapy, and speech/auditory therapy, and occupational therapy and a whole lot more other stuff and longterm forecasts of were she might end up. The psychologist also stated that she was amazed that Sharon was where she was at with her speech and imagination without having had all these therapies and that the principles in Danny Silk’s book played a big role in getting her socialised – I knew then that God had already started healing her life and that He had already been answering my prayers!!!!!!!
As any other parents would, we had a full range of emotions from relieved, to sad, to concerned and every other emotion in between, and a whole lot more questions about what do we do next? Was there any relief for me, my husband, and the other two girls, never mind Sharon?
I sent out a sms stating what the official diagnosis was. One of our friends said that it was good to know it so that we all could pray correctly for her. I didn’t know how soon we were actually going to be praying for her and certainly not in the way that I had expected. I hadn’t even thought at the time that God could heal autism – I just thought that maybe she could be remediated with a whole lot of therapy!
On Saturday afternoon I felt that I could never move anywhere else because I wouldn’t have the support system that I have here in the form of friends that understand Sharon and our family dynamic. This is significant as my husband is looking for another job and we would more than likely need to move unless God decides otherwise.
Before we had the soaking time on Saturday evening you ended your talk by saying something along the lines of God is gentle and kind to you. It felt like God was saying that directly to me through you. Thanks.
When we brought Sharon to you on Sunday I was so desperate for you to pray for her that I would not have let you leave if you hadn’t!!! You see Sharon had just had a fight with a boy in Sunday School and we had found her sitting in the 1.5 x1.5m shed behind the church crying. Sharon admitted to throwing a stick at him because he was teasing her about always making mistakes and she chose not to have self control and was now bearing the consequences or marks on her body because of her lack of being able to control herself. At this point I knew that only Jesus could make this big ache get better, on many levels, and she needed healing on many levels.
Your last prayer of the Conference asking God to rewire Sharon not only touched and healed her but our whole family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our eldest daughter Cate was able to give her a hug yesterday and Sharon had a very tender sweet look on her face as she looked at her big sister that’s NEVER been there before. Cate said tonight that she likes it when Sharon doesn’t fight with everyone as its much calmer!
Then Sharon told me that she loves me yesterday voluntarily and with sincerity that I’ve never heard before and she sat hugging my legs for 15 minutes this morning while chatting to me (the educational psychologist had said that Sharon needed to go to speech therapy to learn how to chat – well she was chatting this morning!! and Sharon needs sensory integration therapy because she didn’t like the touch of certain things or to be touched – well we touched!!)
For four nights in a row now Sharon has not had “going to bed” insomnia – she used to be awake until 8:45-9:15 pm because she couldn’t go to sleep and she used to come to us complaining that she could not go to sleep. Lack of sleep every night makes for one very grumpy child to have to deal with!
Her attitude to schoolwork has changed. Sharon told me yesterday morning that she wanted to persevere with her work until it was done!!! She used to have a very frustrated, grumpy attitude about trying anything never mind schoolwork and she would often (9 times out of ten) give up on things.
Sharon’s still brushing her teeth voluntarily!!! – this was another sensory issue which has caused major arguments from her side every time she had to brush them, this happened everyday twice a day never mind all the other things she had issues with!
I told my husband on Monday night that I did not want to get the Autism Service dog anymore as there has been so much change in her since you prayed that we would be going backwards and that the labeled dog would stop us from moving into more miracles that are coming our way! We might just get a family dog instead.
Now I’m okay if my husband gets a job elsewhere because I know we are going to be well and able to find and make new friends.He says he is feeling blessed as he sees the real Sharon emerge!!
Whenever I see a sign of autism rearing its head I just say something along the lines of “Sharon, God has wired you perfectly and you are so healthy and normal from the top of your heads to the tips of your toes.” I say the same sort of things over the other two girls as well so they don’t feel left out and just to bless them because it’s fun to do so. The best is to say these things while tickling them from the top of their heads to the tips of their toes Cate and Kylie (Sharon’s twin) often asked me why Sharon is different and I’ve always said that Father God made us all uniquely and some people have differently wired brains just like we have differently shaped noses, and hair colour etc. So none of them including Sharon’s know the diagnosis.
The song “It is well” says:
Far be it for me to not believe
Even when my eyes can’t see
and the Mountain that in front of me
will be thrown into the midst of the see
I used to cry tears of anguish when I sang the line about the Mountain going in to the sea wondering if this would happen for me? Not anymore! Now I cry tears of relief knowing that it has and is happening!!
So I decided to draw the words autism and ADHD like a mountain and then I drew the letters from the words falling into a picture of the sea as a prophetic picture of what has happened in Sharon’s life.
Thanks for giving your time to our family this weekend and for reading this account of God’s gentleness and kindness.”
I emailed Sharon’s Mum and asked how old Sharon is and she told me Sharon is 8 years and 8 months old. I told her that 8 is the number of new beginnings. (Eg. Every 8th day is a new week) then she told me this part of Sharon’s story.
Hi Nigel,
Felt to look in to the Biblical significance of the number eight even more than what you stated and I found something AMAZING!
Another whole long story in itself was when God gave me a vision that I was going to have twins and all the opposition that I faced when I told people in the church I was attending about it.
Then eight months later when I had the scan and there were twins (without fertility treatment or any twins in either family tree) my GP put her head in her hands and for various reasons said, “You and they only have a 0-5% chance of being alive at the end of this pregnancy!” and implied that I should abort them.
I remember standing up and saying something along the lines of, “I will survive and they will be born alive and I’m paying you for your medical expertise to help me by doing what you can to make sure that they are born alive, and more importantly I’m going to hold on to and believe in the vision and the verse that God has given me”.
The scripture was 2 Cor 2:9 “No eye has seen, No ear has heard, No mind has Conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” and these things are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Sharon (and Cate) were born 6 weeks early. Sharon was only 1.8 kgs at birth and dropped down to 1.675kgs. This means she had no Brown fat and was unable to self-regulate her own body temperature and we battled for her to survive in NICU for three and a half weeks. In Hebrew “eight” also means “to make fat” or “to cover with fat” which means to super-abound!!!! Sharon has supernaturally received her “Brown fat” today to make her thrive!”
Let’s all continue to prayer for Sharon and her family, that God’s goodness would be manifested in them all!
*All names have been changed to protect the privacy of the family involved*
