…around the conference table in our church library, I witnessed Wendell Martin re-telling this experience, titled “Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,” from his book Go Now: From the Innermost Parts of the Heart to the Uttermost Parts of the World 2023 Westbow Press. Pg. 417-422. Even though my three sons somewhat concurrently attended a private school with Wendell & Daisy’s three children, Lee, Jonnie & Emily, I, not surprisingly because of my “selfish drivenness” back nearly 25 years ago, was quite clueless about the eternal impact of Wendell & Daisy’s lives and ministry, both here in Wayne Co. and in Asia. Hence, I’m compelled now to share Wendell’s account of simply “waiting on the Lord”….
2019: While visiting our daughter and family in Kauai, Hawaii…
“This is the most severe case of a brain stem hemorrhage we’ve ever seen at this hospital,” the neurologist at Wilcox Hospital in Kauai, Hawaii told me. Together we stared at an image of Daisy’s brain on the computer screen. “I must tell you straight up, Mr. Martin…” And with a pause for emphasis, he said, “Your wife is going to die! In a day or two, the pontine portion of her brainstem will begin to swell, and that, in turn, will shut down the auto nervous system that controls her heartbeat and breathing, among other things. There is nothing we can do to help her. If you have family, you need to call them right away. There are some rare cases when a person has survived a stroke like this, but at best, they were in a vegetative condition the rest of their life. So, what do you want us to do? Try to keep her alive on artificial life support or …?”
My life seemed to end with those words, pieces of it slipping through my fingers faster than I could hold on to them. Everything went gray, numb, and disconnected. It was all coming at me too fast to process.
“Just give me a few minutes.” I said, walking away without waiting for any reply while desperately trying to stifle the wails of grief that threatened to roar up from depths of my heart.
What was real? What was important? My world was being ravaged by a tsunami of emotions, overwhelming in a way I had never experienced before. What was real? At the moment, nothing seemed believable. I had to find that answer. The only thing I could think of was that Jesus is real, at least I hoped so. And if He is real, then now is the time, more than ever, that I needed to hang on to Him.
While several doctors had given me the same prognosis for Daisy, I decided to regard Jesus as one of the doctors in the hospital who had not yet given me his prognosis. In that I had a feeble flicker of hope that, in Him, some other outcome could, just perhaps, apply to Daisy. Or, was that just some kind of wild irrationality?
I never returned to answer the question the neurologist had asked. I could not be the one to decide Daisy’s future. If she lived, died, or survived as an invalid, it had to be in God’s hands completely.
As soon as word began spreading that Daisy was in the hospital with a life-threatening stroke, I began receiving calls from quite a few people offering concern, prayers, Bible verses, and advice, lots of advice. Much of what was recommended could be considered home remedies.
While I greatly appreciated all the genuine concern, I was numb and had no interest in experimenting on Daisy. Others spoke prophetically, and again, I just didn’t have the energy to process all the great things people were saying that “God says …” I just wanted Daisy to be healed. I wanted God to simply show up and make everything better.
I received a call from a pastor I not had contact with for many years. I was so exhausted physically, emotionally, and spiritually that when he spoke so confidently in my ear over the phone, “Daisy is going to be just fine,” I just wanted to reject it. What I really wanted was someone to share my inner agony.
“Don’t worry, Wendell. God is showing me that she will recover from this. Just believe!” He went on and on, and the more he talked, the more I wanted to hang up the phone. I had no faith for anything. At least that is how it felt.
“Hallelujah! Glory! God has this Brother!” he tried to reassure me over the phone. “Wendell, God gave me some Bible verses to give you from Mark 2:1-12. This is God’s Word to you. You got to read it as soon as you get the opportunity.”
I didn’t want to read anything at that time. However, after processing what the pastor said, I felt that maybe I shouldn’t be too hasty in writing off whatever, however, and by whomever God might be wanting to work. So later in the day, while eating lunch alone in the hospital cafeteria, I read the verses.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that He was back home. Soon the house where He was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While He was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above Jesus. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in from of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, “What is He saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so He asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man “Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ”Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” (Mark 2:1 -12 NLT)
Initially, when I read the verses, my reaction was dismissive, that these were just feel-good verses. They may have made the pastor feel good, but for me, I just felt more helpless and discouraged.
Forgetting about the phone call, I made preparations to head to the airport to pick up Lee and Jonnie, our two sons, who had taken the first flight possible to rush to their dying mother’s side.
It was evening when I arrived back at the hospital with our sons. Ellie, our daughter who lived Kauai, met us at the hospital. Together, we went into the room where we found Daisy in a semiconscious condition, unaware that the whole family was at her side.
To be continued tomorrow…