While I’m writing I wanted to give you a healing testimony about “H”.

She was about 4 when she began having pains in her legs, particularly at night. She ran very stiffly and did not have much muscle strength. When she was around 5, she hurt her ankle at school and the swelling never subsided.

The doctors said it was just a sprain. Then she hurt her hand and it swelled dramatically. She was waking in the night crying with pain in her legs, she had no strength in her grip, and she could not stand on her toes at all. I remember taking her to a Orthopaedic surgeon who said she was pretending.

Two years on and after a series of doctors, one sent her to PMH to the Rheumatology Dept where it was discovered she had fully blown Juvenile Arthritis in about 36 joints through her body: knees, toes, ankles, fingers wrists.

They put her on strong anti inflammatorys, masses of exercises and booked her in for cortisone injections to all the joints they could work on. We were also told she had a particular blood type which meant the arthritis could carry into adulthood. She was in a wheel chair for a while and had to wear huge plaster casts on her legs at night to keep her knees straight and she had big plastic orthotics in her shoes to help her to walk properly.

When she was 8 “H” fell off the roman rings at school, breaking her elbow badly and basically pushing it about about 4cm up her arm. After the screws in her elbow, we were told (both by specialists and several well meaning Christians) she would never be able to straighten her arm, one: because it was her elbow and two: because of the arthritis.

Well, I took her off the anti inflammatorys after about six months because they are very strong and can do internal damage. I changed our diet and have continued to tweak our eating habits over the years.

But ‘H’ has had heaps of prayer, since her first diagnosis. Whenever there was a call for people who needed healing, I would drag her out to the front of the church to be prayed for. I refused to believe this was going to continue into adulthood or that it was going to stop her from doing anything sports wise or that she would have any serious physical disfigurement. It was only for a time.

She has continued to be monitored by PMH and they have been astounded by her progress. In the last few years the specialists have often said she was doing remarkably well in comparison to the other children who attended the clinic.

The last time she saw the specialist, he signed her off. The door is always open (until she’s 16) if we need them, but they could find no trace of arthritis in her joints so she was free to go!

Yes, ‘H’ should be careful what she eats, because anyone who has arthritis is often told to change their diet and take certain vitamins.(Have you ever watched You Are What You Eat?). But this is such a testimony to God for her healing, where other children continue to suffer terribly into adulthood.

It’s not just that. It’s believing that God is who He says He is and He heals just as much today as He did 2000 years ago. And why not! It’s believing that as a Father who loves us totally, He wants the best for us. He wants us well and whole spiritually, physically, emotionally and everything else. God does not regard one person over the other. What He has done for ‘H’, He can do for others.

– Helen (Mum of ‘H’)