(By: Trina Hamilton)

My four year old son, Timothy, got sick -- very sick. He was sick for about a week and a half, running a high fever off and on. He was not eating at all. All he wanted to do was sleep. The third day of having these symptoms, I took him to the hospital. At the hospital, he was not running a temperature, so they put him on antibiotics and sent him home.

On Friday, July 29, 2005, at 1:00 a.m. in the morning, he fell out of bed! He was unconscious, so immediately my husband and I rushed him back to the hospital. By the time we got him back to the hospital he was in bad shape.  

The doctors and nurses began doing everything that they knew to do. They ran all kinds of tests, but found nothing, so they decided our child needed to go to St. Pete All Children's Hospital.

But before sending him to St. Pete, it was decided to have the on-call pediatrician check him out. In so doing, the pediatrician decided that their was no reason that my child should be sent out after all, so the pediatrician admitted him instead to Florida Hospital at about 6:30 a.m.

There, everything seemed to be smoothing out, at least my husband and I thought, but at about 7:00 p.m. that evening things got extremely traumatizing. Our boy started having multiple seizures. The right side of his body became paralyzed. The pediatrician started ordering multiple testing to be done, only to discover nothing still could be found causing the severe sickness. 

They tried giving him different medicines. Out of all the medicines that was given, nothing seemed to work. Worse yet, the pediatrician was becoming more anxious about not having a clue of what was going on with this poor child, as one could imagine! 

With the pediatrician dialoguing with the previous physician's advice to have our child sent out to St. Pete, we were uncertain as to who now to listen to. It was like we were playing Russian roulette, but it was with our child. There was little time to know what was the right thing to do, but the decision was made to medivac our boy by helicopter to Tampa.  The chopper arrived at about 9 p.m.  

By this time, family and friends were being contacted.  It looked for sure that we were going to lose him. The whole thing just seemed so hopeless.  

So I started praying - desperately praying! 

All of a sudden . . . I felt peace! In spite of everything that was going on around me, it was a kind of peace that surpasses all human understanding.

While waiting out in the lobby at Tampa General Hospital, I remember my sister saying to me, "You seem mighty calm!'

I looked at her . . . not saying anything. All I could hear in my mind was that God said that He would give me peace in the midst of a storm, and that's exactly what God did while I was in the midst of the worse storm of life I had ever encountered.

The words of Jesus Christ as recorded in John 14:27:  

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."   

The doctors still could not find out what was wrong with him, but thanks be to God, he lived through the night.  

The following morning, Saturday July 30, the doctor said, "I have some good news and some not so good news. First the good news: Your son hasn't had any more seizures. However, he is unresponsive. He's in a light coma, and still running a high fever. Twice a day we'll have to put him on a ventilator to help him breathe. His vital signs are not good. He's unresponsive, but he made it through the night and that is very encouraging to us."

We gave a sigh of relief and we thanked God for being so gracious.  

On Sunday, the doctors still weren't able to diagnose what was wrong with our boy. However, by this time, the word had gotten around and so many people were praying for him, and that's all that my husband and I knew to do, was to pray, and keep praying.  

However, we were praying alone, not together. Late that Sunday evening, God spoke to me and told me to get with my husband, and pray together in the room with Timothy, our son.

We held hands and began praying ' together. We prayed for the longest time.  

We thanked God again come Monday daybreak -- that Timothy lived another night.

A little later that morning  -- around 8 a.m. -- the words that nurse spoke were the most glorious words I could have heard! 

"Mrs. Hamilton, I have good news! At 5:00 a.m. this morning Timothy woke up and started following me with his eyes!"

My husband and I immediately rushed over to the hospital. We thanked God on the way for our son regaining some stability.  

The doctor gave us a further update: "Your son doesn't know anyone. And to complicate matters, your child is the most critical we have in Pediatric ICU .. and we still don't know what has happened to cause him to be the way he is. However, he is now stabilizing rapidly, and it appears that soon we will be able to take him off the ventilator and let him breathe on his own."

By late Monday he came off the ventilator and was breathing on his own. The doctor's report to us then was, "If he makes it through tonight without any high temperature, I will release him from ICU."

The report on Tuesday, August 2, 2005? "Your son made it through the night with no high temperature."

At noon on Tuesday, Timothy was released from ICU. Wednesday, he started recovering very slowly, yet steadily. His memory started coming back, praise God!  

He still could not walk or talk, so the doctor decided that he needed to be sent to Rehab.  

Prayer continued to go forth.

Late Wednesday night Timothy began to recognize my husband and I!  

Thursday morning his memory was back completely! That afternoon he started walking, talking, and eating.  

Because he was pretty much back to normal, the doctor decided to release him. Still, they weren't certain what had caused his body to shut down, and that greatly disturbed them, understandably.

One hour before his release from Tampa General the doctor came into the room were I was sitting and shared excitedly, "We found out what was wrong with him! Your son was bitten by a mosquito. He was infected with EEE disease. That's short for Eastern Equine Encephalitis. It's a rare disease you see very rarely, only two or three cases a year."

"Mrs. Hamilton, you should know, no one to my knowledge has ever recovered from this infection, but your son has recovered very well!"

All glory to God, our son was released from Tampa General on Thursday, August 4, 2005. The doctors assured me that of all the medicines they had used to try to help him, and none of them did -- they did him no harm either.  

"The only prescription we're sending you home with is Rehab for Timothy, because most likely, your child will never be the same,' said the doctor."

Are you ready for this now? I took Timothy to Rehab for therapy the very next day and the therapist thoroughly evaluated him. In shock and disbelief, here came the astonishing report:  

"There is nothing wrong with your child! It's as though nothing ever happened! This is incredible. This is the first patient we've ever had referred to us that didn't need our help!" She continued to share excitedly, "I heard about your son on the news and was eager to work with him. But God has done a miracle here, truly."

We joined in with her and praised and glorified God. We knew God had done this by his merciful, miraculous power. Don't ask us why He did it for us and Timothy, but not for so many others who pray and ask Him for miracle healings of their own, for their own loved ones. Only God knows.  

Timothy was scheduled to go back to Tampa General for a final check-up. The Neurologist said she needed to do another EEG of his brain, because when his body was going through all the trauma, his EEG came back abnormal.

This appointment was on September 3, 2005. On the way, I purposely stopped by on the fifth floor, the Pediatric Unit. I wanted to show the nurses that worked with, and on Timothy, what God had done. I wanted the medical people to see that God controls life and death, and not a mosquito!

The nurses were shocked, and speechless. Could you blame them?!  

Three days after the EEG was done, they contacted me about 7:30 a.m. by phone. Fear gripped me and I refused to take the call live, letting the answering machine record the doctor's findings.  

Praying, asking God for courage to hear their report - here is what I heard:

"We just want you to know that everything was fine with the test and good luck with Timothy in the future."  

I was so thankful to God, you can't know how thankful I was.  

Here is what this miraculous touch from God on Timothy's behalf has taught me, and brought me to. I have made up my mind that I will live for God and will die for God; not just half-heartedly like before. Even though I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, He knew that I wanted my son to live and not die. He granted me my heart's desire, and for that, I owe Him the best that I have the rest of my life, and I'm going to serve Him 100% now. If you are not serving Him with all you have, with less than 100%, I hope and pray that somehow God uses this testimony to help you give Him your all  -- help you to live for Him and not selfishly and sinfully for just yourself, as we all tend to do for the most part.   

I've heard a lot of testimonies in my time, but now I have a testimony of my own to share, and a song of my own to sing.  

I have something else to say as well. God is a healer and a miracle worker. The Bible itself says that, "If you can believe, all things are possible." (See: Mark 9:23) It also says, "That with God, all things are possible." (See: Matthew 19:26).  

If the doctors tell you that you are going to die, they have no more hope for you, or hope for a loved one who is dying, remember - what God did for Timothy, he can do for anyone. It's not a matter of if God can either. A person can die of any sickness or disease or accident and God can raise that person back from the dead! No miracle is too hard for God.  

The question becomes if God does perform the miracle, does answer the prayers, will your life change after that to serve God more fully? Will you glorify God every way you know how? Those are two very important factors God looks at when prayers for a dying person are coming up to Him I believe.  

The other side to that may be more important. What if God doesn't answer your prayers, and the loved one you are praying and believing for dies anyway? Will you still serve God fully?

I know faith played a large part in Timothy's healing. God gave me a supernatural peace that Timothy was going to be okay at a very critical time. God probably didn't have to do that, and probably could easily have healed Timothy whether I had peace or not about it, but, God gave me a supernatural peace, and maybe it was enough faith to break through to release God's healing power. Who's to say for sure.  

Secondly, I believe obedience played an important role as well. When God told my husband and I to go into Timothy's room and pray together, instead of praying outside his room separately, it's very possible that either Timothy needed to hear our prayers in his spirit, or demons trying to kill Timothy needed to hear our warfare prayers for his life, or the angels did - fighting on God's behalf. Again, who but God can know, but I wonder what would have happened in the end to Timothy had we not obeyed God and gone into his room to pray together?

Obedience is very important when asking God to answer any kind of prayer, especially a miracle healing prayer that is being prayed.  

Anyway, it's the least I can do to write this testimony to be published on the Internet. I want the whole world to know how good God was to my husband and I, and when Timothy gets bigger, I want Him to know that God has kept him alive to accomplish a mission or missions that God has destined for him to accomplish.   

I'll end this by challenging you, do you know what mission you are to accomplish for God with the time you have remaining? Don't let anyone or anything stop you from finding out from God what that mission is, and fulfilling that mission and purpose with God's grace and the Holy Spirit's guidance. None of us were given a chance to live on this planet just to live and die and never have peace in our heart's that we have fulfilled the purposes God created us for.

Finally, remember, mission and purpose is never what saves us from our sins. Only our faith in the finished, completed work of Jesus Christ on the Cross is what saves us from our sins, our confessing to Him our sins and sinful nature, and acknowledging Him as the ONLY worthy Lord and Savior who can be trusted to save us from eternal punishment of our sins.  

Fulfilling mission and purpose has more to do with spiritual growth in Christ, and spiritual growth in others.  

Dare to believe God for the impossible, with all humility, accepting the final outcome of whatever unfolds. God never allows anything bad to happen to those who truly want to serve Him. What we consider as 'bad,' God considers as our trials and tests, and He desires that we learn Godly wisdom and Godly character through these tests and trials God either designs, or allows us to go through. No test is too bad for us. God desires that we learn and grow through them, though some of them seem to be so painful. Once in eternity ' we'll appreciate God's wisdom for all the pain we've had to endure during our lifetime. We'll understand God's wisdom in it. 

Jesus Christ was spared no pain to pay for the sins of the world. Are we to think of ourselves more special than God Himself, Jesus Christ, The Savior of the world, and never experience pain in this life? It is pain that causes us to either pull further away from God, or draw us closer to Him. Pain tests us to see which way our heart is going to respond to God. He already knows, but He wants us to see for ourselves how we are going to respond to Him, then make the necessary corrections as might be needed.  

Thank you for reading my testimony  I just want everyone to know what God did for our Timothy. May God so richly bless you!

(Trina Hamilton can be emailed at:  lisa4spts@yahoo.com )

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-20 is our assurance)