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Praying and singing hymns to God in prison - focusing on Dani’s latest state

Acts 16:25,26  “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

  Looking back on the past one year in 2015, it could have been likely for me to live a tired and hard life from day to day, craving for Dani’s recovery while at the same time all my flesh feeling pain due to leukopenia and thrombocytopenia because I suffered from cytomegalovirus; the same has been the case for M. Deborah, attending to Dani and praying for our son with tears, moreover serving even me, who am weak and deficient.  

  Whenever now too we continue to be faced with such difficult situations, such as when Dani vomits every day because of saliva gathering in his throat and his choking on it, we are also under stress and can not but be grieved at it. Most recently, my son had his ‘tracheostomy’ removed, which was previously inserted in his trachea to help his respiration (on Feb 18: in e-mail on Mar 13; this testimony was written by M. Andrew Kim on the end of Dec, last year; *note by editor), because he already breathed regularly, as referred to below.

  We pray that the hole in his neck that was left from removing the tracheotomy will close and heal; in particular this is important because of its connection to swallowing saliva and not vomiting anymore; it takes 40 days to 60 days for such holes to close. Till now, Dani has a feeding tube placed in his stomach and bowels to administer pap, medications, or water to him; though our son presently receives food through his mouth, we can’t remove the feeding tube till he will swallow and eat food with his mouth better than the present.      

  His eyes look at an image of hand-phone and follow the light; though he does not recognize usual things, his sense gradually is recovered; he looks pleasant to hear CD songs, hymns, and story-telling, but he can not yet express his language or will, nor can he support his head or keep his balance.   

  However, thank God because we could not have bore living day by day without depending on Him only, and fixing our eyes on the Lord Jesus, the Author of life, the Lord of the Resurrection, and pleading with Him; God sustains and protects Dani’s precious life, though not yet fully recovering our son’s consciousness, by listening to not only our insufficient prayers, but also prayers of our co-workers around the world, churches here, and the staff of our company. 

 The Lord, in His good will, revived Dani’s heart-beat in 25 minutes through the physician in charge, after our son had an unexpected accident on Aug 14 of 2014, and let our son’s heart and intestines continue recovering; He revealed that this was not a simple accident, but was for His glory! 

  In particular, in 2014 when Dani had been at an intensive care unit, I had a good time to be with him, depending on ‘the Lord, my Rock,’ praising “Oh, the faithful Lord,” looking at him by my son. Then the Lord granted me comfort, peace, and hope. When our son was opening his round eyes, making his unfocused eyes lively, I was moved to tears. How lovely was Dani! Further, when he began to breathe regularly, and his expressionless face recovered his smile and laugh, how joyful and thankful we were!   

   We had moments in which we were truly anxious and were at a loss, like when Dani had such frequent convulsions of agitation that we used several intense drugs for him. As a result, not only was his liver function test bad, but all his body was also red. However, the Lord allowed us to nearly stop all medications for him and prepare for leaving the hospital. After leaving the hospital on November 2014, we began doing home health care for him without nearly as much medicine.    

  Thus, the Lord has calmed Dani’s convulsions down, that his brain may tranquil. In the hospital or at home, another thing that broke our heart to watch was when Dani would bite his tongue, bleed from his mouth, and be in pain, because of his convulsions. Having these broken-hearted pains reminded me how Jesus had his body broken on the cross, and his tongue had stuck to the roof of his mouth, I felt that I could understand a little the pains that God had felt in giving us his one and only Son, Jesus.  

  In addition, Dani had a period when he could not move his bowels normally: he barely had a bowel movement once in a few days. Now and then, as it was not possible either in the hospital, he would be given medicine to loosen his stool, and his stools were taken out. Or at home introducing a suppository into the rectum, the stools were taken out. By the way, his bowels have moved fairly now, through prayers, a belly massage, feeding Acai berries good for constipation, feeding a diet prepared by M. Deborah’s own hands, and exercising him, and so on.  

  Though there were lots of pains and anguishes for about one year and four months, now looking back on the period, I confess that God has been with us moment by moment, and has let us pass every crisis and has healed us; here I realize that the present difficulties and pains are indeed trivial, compared to the past. So I can’t but thank and praise God, having a conviction that the faithful Lord will let such things also pass by. 

  Furthermore, God, in his good will, has one-sidedly raised and used M. Deborah and M. Sarah as teachers of the Korean Language in Campinas State University. God first allowed other people to prepare the environment to establish the department of Korean Language in the University. Then the opportunity was open to M. Sarah and M. Deborah. And through this, He performs a work to invite students of the University to the Lord Jesus and his gospel; indeed, we can’t understand the Lord’s great will and plan with our superficial way of thinking. We pray earnestly that we may be only with Him to bear His grace, thanking the Lord’s grace to faithfully guide us moment by moment.   

  When Paul and Silas were put in the inner cell and their feet were fastened in the stocks, about midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God; they were not anxious about how to free themselves from the present difficulties and pains or from the prison immediately, but believed in God’s faithfulness, almightiness, love, and His good will, and prayed to God and praised Him. At that time, God let the earthquake occur, and opened all the prison doors. Most importantly,  through this event, He saved a jailer, who was among the first members of the Philippi Church along with his household.  

  I pray that the Lord may let me always pray, thank him, and praise him. Through such pray and praise, may all the prison doors fly open, not only Dani’s recovery, but also works of salvation and life take place during the year of 2016. Lastly, we ask you to keep praying that Dani may no longer vomit and all his sensations and body movements may be recovered, so he may live a life to reveal God’s grace and glory as a resurrection witness.

One Word: We believe that the prison door will open and that salvation will be attained, thanking God  and praying even in the prison.

by Andrew Kim