Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Prognosis: A Change in Plans

Prognosis: A Change in Plans


Dan Jacobs, Missionary, Kenya
October-December 2015

Dan and Dana Jacobs with their children, Carson, Talia, and Hope.We had been at the Africa Gospel Church Baby Centre in Kenya for almost one year, and June 24, 2013, started out like a normal day. Dana and I attended a goodbye celebration for one of our babies that had been adopted. As we left that event, Dana noticed some tingling in her feet. As the week progressed, her symptoms became increasingly worse; and five days later, she was completely paralyzed from the mid-chest down.

I rushed her to Nairobi Hospital where we met Dr. Musau, a neurosurgeon. Over the next 48 hours, Dana was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, which had grown tumors in her spinal column and had compressed her spinal cord to the point that it could not be seen. The prognosis was very grim. Our well-laid plans for the next year had now been drastically altered. This was not in our plan when we came to Kenya to take care of babies at the baby center, but God knew we needed this detour.

Dana’s and my perspectives were very different, but I believe our course ahead was the same. God had brought us to Kenya, and if He chose to, He could heal Dana in Kenya. He did exactly that! At each stage we found ourselves in, we were thankful for all He had done and gave Him the glory.
The path has not been easy, but it has been filled with countless opportunities to share about Dana’s struggle and how God has seen us through. It’s also a wonderful launch into telling about our ministry at the baby center. Through this new plan, God opened up an entirely new mission field that we were not aware of.

Even though both of us are planners and organizers and like lists and schedules, God has taught us to follow Him each day as it comes. He has given us all the strength, peace, courage, and joy to make it through each day. He has shown us firsthand that He will never leave us nor forsake us even though He may drastically alter our path.

We praise Him for blessing us with this new path that has made our end goal even clearer. To Him be all the glory forever!

Learn more about the AGC Baby Centre.
MORE: Learn more about the AGC Baby Centre, and find ways you can partner with this ministry at www.agcbabycenter.org.

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