Dr. Idowu - Major Blessing

On November 20th I had one of the most memorable God encounters of my life.


Dr. Idowu was amazing! He is a pediatric surgeon (I think he is the head of
pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital in Oakland). He is from Nigeria. We
sat down with him to discuss the possibility of correcting Faith’s
omphalocele (which is now a moot point because of her recently discovered
additional heart defect).
I filled him in our situation and how Shiloh and I were disagreeing about
how to care for Faith. He said, “What religion are you?” I said,
“Christian.” He said. “Okay. Me too. Born Again.”
I started crying.
Then he just spoke truth into us. In his thick Nigerian accent he said, “The
devil, he try to rob you of your joy. The devil, he try to use this to put
strain on your marriage. The devil, he is as real as our God. But God is in
control. And he will take care of all of you.” And on and on. We mostly
spent our time talking about spiritual things. Nothing he said changed the
severity of Faith's condition or our circumstances, but he was such an
answer to prayer. It's not like he said anything I had not said or heard or
thought myself. However, the past week had been very difficult and my joy
was being robbed. And Shiloh and I were having a really hard time and it was
definitely putting a wedge between us.
Obviously it is okay to be sad about our situation, but there is a
difference when Satan is at work. Anyway, Dr. Idowu really encouraged me. I
know it did not affect Shiloh as much as it did me, but I know he was
blessed by him, too.

AND here's the kicker - he was saved by an American missionary woman in
Nigeria when he was 19! So the fruit of her ministry was coming back to us!
And on top of all of this, he sent us an encouraging note yesterday. A
highlight of that note, "Let us continue to affirm God as the Lord of our
lives."


11/25/07 email from Dr. Idowu
Thank you for the nice e-mail. We are a source of blessings to each other because of the Lord's faithfulness. And because He is control we can face tomorrow and the uncertain future. Shiloh and Wendy be reassured that the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in times like this. Philippians 4:7

Stay tuned to Him.

Jire