At 29th week into pregnancy, my water bag broke because of an infection and I was admitted to hospital for bed rest. The objective was to keep my baby within me until she was 34 weeks for delivery.

In that week, if a day passed without any sign of labor, that was a miracle. Friends who knew about our situation prayed with us, encouraged us and believed with us for the birth of a healthy baby. My husband and I also partook of the holy Communion as frequently as we were able to.

At the 30th week, I started to have contractions and bleeding. The gynaecologist suggested we let nature take its course, and go into labor. After all, the infection index within me was increasing which was not good for both baby and myself.

My husband and I felt peace to go with a C-section during the delivery, even though initially, I had wanted to have natural childbirth. During the delivery, my uterus did not contract as it was supposed to. I lost a litre of blood and needed a blood transfusion. Only later did we find out that delivery by C-section actually made it easier to limit the blood loss, which I recovered quickly from.

Baby Jesse was born at 30 weeks, weighing 1.5kg. We thank God that she had no major complications. She was able to breathe on her own without oxygen support. All her organs were intact and functioning properly despite her premature birth.

She stayed in the neonatal ICU for 7 days, and in the Special Care unit she was 36 weeks old. During this period, we saw how she progressed from a tiny baby supported by tubes and needles to gradually progressing to needing only tube feeding to normal feeding.

But truth be told, the daily routine to hospital was tiring. I was thankful for kingdom friends who kept us in prayer. Many of them partook of the Holy Communion on their own as they prayed for us. Our firstborn daughter also reminded us to receive Communion for her little sister.

Baby Jesse was discharged on the 40th day of her stay in hospital. She was permanently off the feeding tube and weighed 2.2kg. We were elated to bring her home with us.

However, when we got home, I noticed that she was very drowsy, did not want to drink and did not even cry for milk. Everyone told us that that was very normal for a premature baby but I couldn’t help feeling there was something was not right with her.

We brought Jesse back to the hospital. While her blood tests and other tests showed nothing wrong with her, she still could not feed well.

On the 4th day upon readmission, we were told that her heart rate suddenly went critically low. Further tests at the hospital revealed a virus affecting her heart. She was immediately placed in the ICU.

I was devastated. How much more did her little 2 kg-body have to go through, I cried to the Lord. I was out of prayer and out of faith, but my husband kept encouraging me to look to Jesus, to how He had already paid the price for Jesse’s healing. Healing is bread for the children of God, he reminded me. Our leaders and close friends in church also never stopped praying for Jesse.

Not long after, Pastor Prince released the word God had for our church for 2019—that it was going to be the year of the latter rain. He went on to explain how this year, we would see the manifestation of partaking the holy Communion.

I remember thinking, This is it! We were going to see the Lord’s healing manifested in Jesse. I determined right then that we were not going to give up partaking of the holy Communion and claiming restoration for Jesse.

Jesse received IVIG (Intravenous immunoglobulin), blood transfusion and was put under medication while she was in the ICU. And just when we thought she was responding well to treatment, her heart rate escalated till it was too high—it was constantly over 200 beats per minute.

But as we continued to partake of Communion and pray for our daughter, the infection index went down and her heart rate began to normalize until she was out of danger, and we could take her home.

I thank the Lord for His protection over Jesse. She had no appetite and lost weight when she was readmitted, but left the hospital with a good weight gain (she was discharged weighing 3kg) and a great appetite for milk!

Today, Jesse is doing so well! She’s alert—very alert for a preemie, her doctors tell us. She is feeding very well, cries loudly to let us know she’s hungry, and is an all-round joy to the family.

As I think of how Jesus healed the paralytic based on the faith of the four friends who brought the paralytic through the roof, I thank God we also had these "four friends". Our friends continually prayed for Jesse, encouraged us to press in to claim God's healing, and to partake Holy Communion.

And as I think of the two months of evil days we spent in the hospital, I am sure God will restore to us many, many good days ahead. He will restore to us everything that was stolen from us during those dark days!