Tuesday, September 2, 2008

A Dreadful Providence and an Endurance that ONLY comes from God

Jason and Vanessa Delgado came to Sovereign Joy Bible Study over a year ago through hearing about us via The Way of the Master Radio. They are avid listeners and have a heart for the lost. From the moment they arrived they both began to serve tirelessly. Jason built the Sovereign Joy Community Church website, he leads worship for our services on a weekly bases, and is practically at our home every week doing some sort of project for the church. Vanessa has become a close friend of mine, she helps to oversee our children's ministry and is an encouragement to young mothers like herself. I was so excited when they announced the news that they were going to have their second child.

It was on August 19th that they were scheduled for their first sonogram. She called me the same day--shortly after the appointment. The sonogram revealed that they were having TWINS--I screamed with joy into the phone when I heard the news. But that wasn't all she had to share. Vanessa went on to explain...

"But Trish...." She added. "....they are conjoined."

I paused. In shock. I couldn't believe my ears.

So I repeated,

"Vanessa, Did you say they are conjoined?"

"Yes" She answered. I paused again. And didn't know what to say. I hadn't met anyone my entire life that even knew of anyone with conjoined twins. All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind. But at that moment, I knew that God wanted to use this dreadful providence to receive glory.

She explained what happened when the doctor told her the news, "I started crying for a few minutes and then the Lord just comforted me I remember saying, 'Well, these are our babies and we are going to take care of them and love them no matter what.' I also remember saying, "I am so thankful that God gave us these babies and not someone who wouldn't take care of them."

The endurance that they have shown the past couple weeks is an endurance that can ONLY come from God. They are a testimony to me and have blessed my heart beyond measure. You can visit their blog and read more HERE. Below is a word from my husband.

"As a pastor, it has been my deep privilege to know these two saints of God, to watch them hold up God as being absolutely good and sovereign in the midst of unbearable circumstances. Jason and Vanessa Delgado have served Christ with a selfless heart, looking only to God to please, and never complaining about one thing--their example has been Christ like. Jason has served us at Sovereign Joy Community Church (SJCC) in endless ways. Vanessa's invincible love for children has made the nature of this trial particularly vexing and hard. Vanessa has been serving in children's ministry from the moment they came to Sovereign Joy. The prayers and the hearts of the SJCC members are united behind this family, we are praying that God would work His will, that He would do miracles, that He would receive utmost glory, and that we would humble ourselves beneath His sovereign hand." Emilio Ramos (Pastor for preaching, Sovereign Joy Community Church)

5 comments:

Spence Ohana said...

This story brought back memories for me of my Tante (aunt) who gave birth to a dwarf. The entire family was shocked. Surely with a dwarf child comes medical problems and life long obstacles. But like you, our family was comforted by God and we knew He would not give a special child like this to my Tante if she could not handle it. My cousin is such a blessing to our family. She's now 29 and married and will one day have a family of her own.

Praying for your friends. That her pregnancy with these special twins will go uncomplicated. That their twins will be born healthy. And that their future holds hope, success and overwhelming love all rolled together in God's hands.

Mark Sohmer said...

My family will be praying for Jason and Vanessa and their precious little ones.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Javier said...

Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5

I really enjoy their fellowship, and love little Kenya. I'll keep them in prayer. :)

(ShiVeR)Curtis said...

Hey Trish,

I'll tell you about our twins/twin. Alsmost 3 years ago we found out that my wife was pregnant with our 3rd child. All was well and we were really excited, this would be our first child that we saw as a gift from God as we were only saved a few months earlier.

After some pains in her side my wife went to the doctor only to be told that she may miscarry, we were rather heart broken, but we thanked God for the trial and for the strengthening of our faith. Well a few days later while I was at work I got an overwhelming sense to call home(NOW!). I did, and my then 4year old son answered the phone(something he never does), my wife was on the floor in the bathroom, dying.

I rushed home, to find her miscarrying, or so I thought. She was now almost 3 months along, I rushed her to emergency, they rushed her to the U of A hospital(one of the best in Canada) where they were going to have to do emergency surgery. You see she was bleeding internally pretty badly as the pregnancy was ectopic(in the tube) and it had just burst. The doctors weren't sure in my wife would make it as she had lost alot of blood and was fading. The baby was lost, but now I needed to focus my prayers on my wife.

You know something for all the panic of the situation up until she was being taken to the ambulance to be transfered, I was extremely, well terrified. But as soon as my mind came to thinking about Gods hand and His providence an amazing calm came over me, I understood that it was all in His hands, whether she lived or died, and I thanked God right then and there and an actual smile came to my face, I still don't understand it.

Anyway, she was taken in for surgery which they estimated would be about 5-6 hours, so they sent me home to get some sleep and they would call me when it was finished. So I get home, and just finish explaining to my mother inlaw what is happening, hug my kids, and the phone rings. It's the hospital,a nurse in the operating room. "hello", I say. "is this Curtis", she askes, "yes, I my wife ok?", "she's going to make it, but I have a question about the pregancy." she says, "was it a natural pregnancy, or artificial?" I say"natural", she askes " Are you sure?" "umm, yeah pretty sure, why?" I ask. "well, the baby that was in the tube had to be removed and wouldn't have made it, but the other baby is doing fine."

"WHAT?!?, other baby!, What do you mean?"
"well we thought we might have to remove the uterus, but as we examined it, we discovered another pregnancy, and it is doing just fine. Could you please come down to the hospital right away as we would like to discuss this with you further."

Needless to say I was there quite fast. It turns out that with artificial fertilization it happens quite often(1 in 20) where there is an ectopic(tubal) pregnancy with twins, but with natural pregnancy it's almost unheard of, and the specialist says especially where when it ruptures that it will survive.

So in the end, we had a beautiful boy, named him Caleb and can't wait to see his twin brother/sister when we go home to be with our Lord. They said that it would be very difficult for us to have anymore children, well within 5 months of our 3rd(Caleb) my wife was pregnant with our 4th. We named him Job, and are considering what to name our 5th, if or when the Lord is willing to give us another.

God bless you in all the ways He chooses to grow us.

Fish With Trish said...

(shiver) curtis, thank you for sharing your beautiful story...praise God for your son Caleb!