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From: Wishart
Category: Category 1
Date: 20/10/03
Time: 14:24:13
Remote Name: 219.89.113.167
Walking the streets of Auckland as you read this is a child who, by rights, should be dead. Last July, six year old Ethan Faletaogo was diagnosed with fluid on the lungs and sent to Auckland’s Starship Hospital for further tests. On August 4, last year, the worst fears of family and doctors were confirmed: Ethan had contracted a nasty form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But it gets worse. On 11 September, Auckland evangelist Josephine Martin received a phone call from a fellow attendee at Kelston’s Community Christian Fellowship church, the same church that former All Black Michael Jones worships at. “It was Ethan’s aunty,” says Martin, who also assists in healing meetings organised by the Forerunners Ministry around Auckland, “and she explained to me that her six year old nephew not only had leukemia, but he’d just been diagnosed with a fungal infection called rhizopus. “As I was talking with her on the phone, I felt God telling me that I had to go into the hospital and physically lay hands on Ethan.” They made arrangements to meet the next morning, September 12, at Starship’s Ward 27B. While the rest of the world were glued to their television screens watching New York disintegrate, Josephine Martin was entering a hospital room and meeting a very sick little boy. “The whole family had gathered - Ethan’s grandparents, his mum, aunty and other family members. The aunty spoke to the grandfather in Samoan to explain that I’d come to pray for Ethan. “I took one look at him, and said to God: ‘Look, I really need clarity here, Lord. I need to know that you’re with me in these prayers and I really need to know how to pray for this illness’.” As Martin closed her eyes and laid hands on Ethan in prayer, she was acutely aware that she had no medical knowledge, and didn’t have a clue what rhizopus was or what it did. “As I prayed and asked God for guidance, he gave me visions of a huge dark spot inside Ethan, shrinking in size. “I prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that it would be cursed at its root and that it would die at its root. The Lord gave me some specific instructions to pray for certain symptoms, and I just followed his lead. “After I finished the prayer, I leaned over to Ethan’s mum, Ripine (pronounced Ri-penny), and told her I believed God was indeed going to touch and heal Ethan.” Just as the prayer had ended, the medical team at Starship who were handling Ethan Faletaogo’s case arrived to brief the family on their overnight test results. “Before they started,” says Martin, “I sensed they wer bearing bad news, so I told Pene ‘No matter what the doctors say, remember that the Lord has revealed that he’s going to touch Ethan and heal him.’ I made it very clear to her that she needed to hold onto that.” Sure enough, the news was grim. Dr Lockie Teague grimaced as he told the family that rhizopus was an extremely rare complication with leukemia, and nearly always fatal. “We’ve never had a case at Starship, or Auckland,” explained Dr Teague. “The only other case in New Zealand involved a little boy in Wellington, and he died.” “What are Ethan’s chances?” someone asked. “About 95% of the similar cases worldwide have been fatal,” confirmed Teague. Josephine Martin says she could feel the hearts sinking in despair around her. “You could literally cut the air with a knife. The doctors said the fungal infection was the size of an egg, making it too large to operate on, and its location was difficult as well. “They said to us that on its current growth rate Ethan had a maximum of three weeks to live, but if it grew any faster death could come in literally just a matter of hours - days at the most. “Dr Teague told us the hospital was stopping Ethan’s chemotherapy. There was no point. The rhizopus infection was terminal, in their view. “I was quietly praying, and I asked the family if I could speak. They agreed. “God was telling me that I needed to share his Word with the doctors and the family. I thanked the doctors for everything they did for the children in Starship, but I explained that where the medical profession could give no hope, it was left to us to have faith in the one who gives all hope, Jesus Christ. “I explained to Lockie Teague that we had prayed over Ethan in the name of Jesus that morning, and that the Lord had clearly shown me a large black spot in him decreasing in size. I said I believed that spot to be their fungal infection. “I said I didn’t know how God would do it - sometimes he works through doctors and medication and sometimes he works miraculously - but I told Lockie that the Lord had worked in Ethan that morning and that I truly believed he would be healed.” The meeting ended in a prayer, but Josephine Martin’s role in Ethan Faletaogo’s life and death struggle was by no means over. The six year old wanted Martin, who he’d never met before, to remain with him constantly. It became a routine that he would not sleep at night until Josephine had either prayed over him physically, or over the phone. A clue to Ethan’s utter confidence in Martin came in an emotional phone call to the evangelist just an hour after leaving the hospital on that first strained night. “Just as I got home, around 10.45pm, I received a phone call from his mum. She was in tears as she told me what Ethan had just said to her: ‘Mum, when Jospehine prayed for me, when her hands were touching my body, I felt God come into me. And Mummy, God’s going to heal me’.” Spurred on by the child’s inherent faith in God, Josephine Martin invited Ethan to become a born again Christian when she returned to the hospital the next morning, September 13. Within two days, evidence of a miracle was emerging on Starship Hospital’s Ward 27B. Dr Teague and the medical team called the family together to announce a puzzling discovery - the fungal infection was dying off and reducing in size. They didn’t know why, but they were trying to find out. Within two weeks, the egg-sized infection had shrunk to the size of a pea. Death was no longer waiting at the foot of the little boy’s bed. Ethan’s family, naturally, were more than convinced that the power of God had saved their son. The medics, on the other hand, while having no other viable explanation didn’t want to leave it entirely in the hands of divine intervention - they asked if they could operate on Ethan to remove the remnants of the infection. “Ripine asked me what I thought,” recalls Martin, “whether the surgeons should operate or not. They told us it was still high risk - particularly because they had never done an operation of its kind ever before and had no experience with this particular fungal infection. “They also wanted to remove some bone marrow to check on the progress of the leukemia, and they warned that even if the operation was successful it would be a month or more before Ethan recovered from it.” The family and Martin debated the merits, with Martin pointing out to them that God had expressly decided to save Ethan, and therefore nothing the doctors did could harm him if God was willing him to live. “Whichever way it goes,” I said to Ripine, “God is with Ethan.” So on October 12, the operation went ahead. It was set down for 11.30 in the morning, and Martin was worried for her young protege because she wasn’t going to be able to be there - another friend was in Auckland Hospital undergoing a critical operation at the same time and needed her support. Martin eventually made it across to Starship at 2.30, assuming that Ethan would now be in recovery after surgery. He wasn’t. By what Martin believes was more divine intervention, the operation had been delayed, and she arrived just in time to see Ethan being wheeled down the corridor to the operating theatre. She prayed beside him as they moved. “The bond between myself and this little boy was incredible,” she says. “I really believe God had held this surgery back until I could be there for him.” She told Ethan that Jesus was watching over him. The little boy smiled and squeezed her hand. As the hours ticked by, Martin remembers feeling an “overwhelming presence of God” descend on Starship. She knew all would be well. The operation was a success. In defiance of medical predictions of a month-long recovery, Ethan was up and walking within three days. On October 17, just five days after surgery, the lab results came back in the hands of a stunned medical team: not only had the fungal infection vanished from the boy’s system, so had the leukemia. Completely gone. Word spread like wildfire through the staff and patients on Ward 27B. Ethan’s assigned nurse, Jody, and social worker Vicki, both revealed they were born again Christians. His doctor, Lockie Teague, is not, but he admitted to nursing staff that “Ethan is a walking miracle”. Starship re-started Ethan’s chemotherapy treatment - probably more out of the need for a scientific anchor to cling to than out of any medical reason. Indeed, the hospital has conceded to the boy’s family that he is “too healthy” to have many of the chemo drugs, and Josephine Martin has been told by God that Ethan is fully healed. “This is a testimony to the power and glory of Jesus Christ,” says Josephine Martin. “There is no other explanation that withstands objective scrutiny. That little boy had faith that Jesus would save him, and God told me he would do so. “Many New Zealanders, and even some churches, deny the power of Jesus. I believe God is sending New Zealand a sign. I believe we’re going to see a lot more of them.”