Time to Practice

Yesterday morning, I woke early to finish writing my previous post about Isaiah 43 and my struggle with fear. Little did I know how I would need those truths in the day to come. On the previous day Evie had a fairly high fever, but no other obvious symptoms. We tested for malaria and it was negative. We assumed it was a viral fever that a friend had for about 24hours. When Evie woke and didn’t seem to have a fever we decided to go on to school and have Evie with the woman who cares for her while I teach in the mornings. At about 10am, while I was teaching my second class, our friend drove up to the school quickly. As I walked out of my classroom, I saw David running toward the clinic with Evie in his arms. As I ran to him, I saw that her eyes were rolled back and her body was limp. My heart nearly stopped. 

We quickly decided that we needed to take her to the clinic in town, so I went to get the van and returned to school. As I returned, I moved to sit in the back seat and David handed Evie to me. She was non-responsive and all I could do was hold her limp body and pray. David was driving us to the clinic as quickly as possible. I was alternating between praying for Evie and telling her how much I love her and God loves her when she began moaning and holding onto me a little bit. After a while she started saying, “Mama.” As we were on our way to town, the words of Isaiah 43 kept passing through my mind. 

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43:1-5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The clinic in Jinja did some bloodwork, and as we waited for the results I walked outside with Evie and sang Isaiah 43. By this time she had recovered significantly, but was hysterically crying from the several attempts to draw blood. The bloodwork did not show anything abnormal and the doctor referred us to Kampala. After another long drive and more tests, the doctor there determined that Evie had a febrile seizure brought on by a fever related to a throat infection. It was 8pm by the time we reached home. 

We certainly had a day that felt like passing through fire. I am thankful that God prepared my heart to survive that day by equipping me with the truths from the beginning of Isaiah 43. I can’t say that I went through the day without fear, but I can say that God was with me and He was my God and Savior in the midst of an extremely scary day. It occurs to me that the passage does not say, “if” you pass through the waters and “if” you walk through the fire. No, it and “when.”  Yesterday was one of those times for us. And my faithful God kept all of His promises.