Ouch! That’s all you can think when you see this photo. It is the shot that our son, Joel, made of his injured arm during the follow-up visit to The Burn Center in Washington DC one week after an outdoor cooking fire ignited and hurt (really hurt) his right arm. That’s the arm he uses in his job/ministry as worship pastor at Hunt Valley Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) in Hunt Valley, Maryland. He leads with a guitar or keyboard and really needs that right arm.
The medic warned him that day that he might have to have surgery, i.e., skin grafts, I suppose. She wanted him to prepare himself mentally because she said it was worse than she had originally thought.
Joel sent me this photo to show me the seriousness of his arm’s condition. It immediately triggered in me the need to call up reinforcements to join me in a prayer crusade, standing on the Matthew 18:19 promise to agree in prayer with someone on earth. I contacted two of my favorite prayer warriors who have stood by me for years now, Diane and Jan.(Mentioned in my first book, Alabama and Beyond) I also sent them the photo to see for themselves why I needed their help. A local friend (Betty) also joined us. I’m sure others at his church, his friends, our extended families, and his in-laws also called on God.
When Joel returned to the burn unit for his next follow-up visit, the same medic who had warned him to expect the worse, checked on him again. She commented, “I can’t believe what I am seeing.”
There was no redness, no swelling, no pain. And the flexibility of his right hand was returning.
Wouldn’t you label that an answer to prayer? A miracle. What a relief!
Today, I often go to his church’s YouTube site (Hunt Valley PCA) just to gaze at that healed arm. The accident happened between Mother’s Day and Father's Day. I watch his May 8 “shout out” to me for Mother’s Day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w37TqAf51Zg), then watch the restored arm in a recent video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4EzVmxwEGI)
Joel was also spared recently after a knee operation when a large blood clot formed between his knee and ankle and pieces broke loose and travelled toward his brain. They were stopped by his lungs before they reached his heart or brain, which could have caused a heart attack, stroke, or death. He has much to praise God about!