Jesus Christ Took Away Our Disgrace!!!

Mrs. & Mr. T. R.Matthews
Navi Mumbai
Email: [email protected]

Testimony

JESUS CHRIST TOOK AWAY OUR DISGRACE!!!

“He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.” Ps. 113: 9

This is a testimony from my family life and how God moved and proved to the world once again that He is the Mighty, Loving God and those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.

Let me start by introducing us. I am Matthews and my wife is Maya. We are natives of Kerala, presently residing in Navi Mumbai. We got married in 1997 on the 27th of December at the age of 24 and 21. Both of us are the eldest to our parents. After three months (March 1998) I had to leave for Dubai hoping for a better job but all my efforts were in vain and I had to return back in October. We moved to Bangalore to settle down with a job and start our new life together.

Our life took a different dimension in 1998 October. As my wife started gaining weight tremendously without any reason and we decided to go for a check-up to make sure everything was alright. Her blood reports showed that she was suffering from Hypothyroidism (which is a condition where the Thyroid gland is producing lesser amount of the hormones). The Doctor, who saw the test reports, bluntly told us that she would not conceive and if at all she did at that point the child would be mentally retarded or crippled. To them it must have been being open about the after effects or what medical science has seen so far in such cases. But for us it was shattering. And it is hard to explain the pain and fear that we went through hearing those words.

During the following years the Doctors did further investigations to find out how was she progressing but with every visit to the Doctor all we heard was one problem after the other. We got to know that she had Poly Cystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD) and the Follicular Studies showed that she wasn’t ovulating on her own. So now the Doctors started ‘practicing’ their knowledge on her. We got to meet the ordinary to the most renowned so called ‘Infertility specialists’ of the country in Bangalore. A few of them were so nice and understanding but most of them just saw this as a business and saw money in people’s pain and desperation to have a baby. There were Doctors who insisted that we do all the tests at their clinic itself which was costing twice than what the regular labs were charging. We had been to a very famous Doctor who asked us “So what is it that you want now? 1. Treatment for Hypothyroid. 2. Weight reduction. 3. Baby. What is it? “, without having a heart to understand how sensitive and emotionally hurt a person would be to visit an infertility specialist and how much more heart breaking it would be for such couples to take such arrogant talks from such Doctors, who are expected to counsel them and encourage them.

My wife was put on tablets to ovulate but it did not help her. Later the Doctor suggested that if she underwent a Laparoscopic surgery to puncture the cysts in the ovary it would help and medicines would work better. So we did the Laparoscopy and after that too she wasn’t responding well to medicines though they gave her a higher dosage. So the Doctor decided to stop the tablet and start with Injections for better results. With injections she started ovulation, but the follicle would not rupture on its own even though it grew to the perfect level. She had to undergo so much of pain and trouble through these treatments like Laparoscopy, HSG (hysterosalpingogram – An X-Ray done to see if the tubes were blocked or not by injecting a dye).They tried artificial insemination. There were times when my wife had asked her Doctor would she conceive and the Doctor would reply “I can do all I can from outside but to implant that life in there is beyond my limits.” Those words revealed to us the limitations of a Doctor and during the course of treatment we understood money cannot help us be parents. Finally, after 4 – 5 years of treatment we decided to put an end to it as it was leading us to depression. But in this whole process, I must say I gained knowledge of a qualified Gynaecologist and most importantly to see how wonderful God’s creation is.

Though we were born and brought up in a Christian family, as Christians, we came to know the truth only in 2004. Until then we used to go to a Marthoma (Protestant) Church. But once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour and we started to learn His word and give ourselves to Him, life started changing for us. But there were times when we waivered in faith and were confused and lost but our Lord was so faithful and loving that He just waited for us and held us in His arms and strengthened us at those points. In 2005 December my wife took Water Baptism and I kept keeping away from it, rather buying time from God. But time passed by and I was being told by God through my wife and many other men of God to go ahead and take Water Baptism, which was to surrender to and obey the Lord.

Slowly we learnt to trust in God more and more. Finally we decided to give up all thoughts about going for treatment and just trust in God for the ‘Fruit of the Womb’. It wasn’t easy for us to stick to our decision to wait on the Lord for this blessing as we had our family and friends compelling us to continue the treatment. Everyone would tell us, “hummm, it’s alright to have faith and trust God but you’ve got to do your part as well.” But the Lord told us “None other than ME can do it the best way”. He had Promised us a miracle baby many times through His servants on earth.

There were times when we struggled to hold back out tears and the pain of our heart. It was tough for us to face the society and comments and criticisms of the people around, as in this nation that is one unfortunate thing of the society. In the mean time our younger siblings got married and became parents. Though we had a tough time going through this phase God moulded us, groomed us and filled us with His grace to be patient and come out of the fear, depression and self pity. He taught us to be bold and to cling on to Him no matter what the situations before us were. It took us 10 years to learn what faith meant! It took 10 years for us to trust God completely and not to lean on our own understanding! It took us 10 years to know what a Christ centred life meant, though we were born and brought up as Christians! Many a times either one of us would waiver in faith, the other one would stand strong and say if we go for medicines, and God’s Promise is made to happen at that time the Glory will go to the medicines. This thought kept us going as we did not want God’s Glory to go to someone else. In the meantime I finally made that one step forward to God and He opened His arms to me. This happened on the 3rd of January 2008. I surrendered to the Lord and obeyed His Word and took Water Baptism.

And in May….which is after 10 years and 5 months of marriage….on the 21st of May 2008; we got to know the great news….that we are going to be parents!!! Our baby is due in Jan 2009. The surprise doesn’t end there….my wife had stopped taking medicines for Hypothyroidism since 2006 (where as the medical science says that medication has to be lifelong). Her thyroid levels are absolutely normal. The Doctor was surprised to see the test results normal and told us, “It is hard to believe that you had a history of hypothyroidism. This seems to be the report of a normal person.” There are no signs of PCOD now. Her ovaries are absolutely normal. And she did ovulate on her own and follicle did rupture without any medicines!!! We don’t know when and how!

Our God is an Awesome God! He loves surprising us. The long wait of 10 years and 5 months was really worth every bit. It is only now when we started calling and mailing the dear ones who were praying for us that we realised how many had been praying for us for this MIRACLE, which God did in His time but as one of the preachers said “in the Most Beautiful Way”. It did wonders and I can proudly say when we announced this news most of them cried out “Oh My God!!” though in surprise… Isn’t it amazing to see that this little life God planted in our lives was a reason to Glorify His name!! Many non-believers came forward telling us that “when you always used to say that God will work His miracle, we just nodded as we did not want you or Maya to feel bad, but this is truly amazing”. We were so proud to be reasons for Glorifying our God, our Lord Jesus Christ’s Name. Now she is going through her 6th month of pregnancy and everything is too perfect even for the doctors to say anything…though the devil keeps testing our faith now and again through the doctors wisdom and many others’ words, with the usual ‘IF’s and ‘BUT’s. We just rush to the Bible and seek God’s face in such situations and God spoke to us empowering us to counter the evil one with His Word “Having begun in the Spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh” – Galatians 3:3. Isn’t that so wonderful a thought? When the Spirit of God has planted it there, who is man to alter it or shake it? So we got the confirmation again not to heed our thoughts to such negatives as when we know the Spirit has given it to us why would we look at the thoughts or deeds of the flesh.

For those who are still waiting on the Lord for an answer to their prayers we can tell you very confidently what we learned…

“…your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2: 5

“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”
1 Corinthians 15: 14

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN AND IS STILL ALIVE! HE WILL RESPECT YOUR FAITH NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES….

We have seen well that the Lord is ready to perform His word. – Jeremiah 1: 12

May our testimony be a blessing to many others and may this lead many to faith and be the beginning of many more testimonies! But of all these things that happened in our life and of all that we have seen till now, the most important thing is “patience”. Wait on the Lord (with patience) without murmuring. May God bless you all exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think, according to the power that works in you!