I probably should have done a video to articulate on this issue very well, perhaps at an appropriate time I will but for now let me just type my thoughts.
I will describe my family as a Christian one, when I was a
child, I saw my father pray fervently every day, (he still does) and my mother
too. I can still recall some of my mother's prayer lines "Awurade hy3 wo
ho anuoyam" (God Glorify yourself) in a Fante tone. I recall how I used to
imitate my mother when I was asked to pray and how my mother will laugh about
it. We were staunch Presbyterians. My mother's father was a Presbyterian Priest
and my father, an active and spiritual member of the church and other spiritual
based groups.
So, I grew up literally in church, those who know me in
Obuasi will testify, I went through the process, children's service, Junior
Youth and YPG.
I started preaching in church at a very early age, my love
and passion for the things of God, morality and being right was top notch.
Prayer has been my thing for years; I do not even feel
complete when I step out of the house without having to spend hours in
meditation and prayers. I believe in God and in prayers.
One thing that has come to solidify in believe in the
existence of God (if you like, The Universe) is my now eight years old daughter
who lives with cerebral palsy.
Growing up, I was very curious about God and what role He
(God) played in my life. I used to ask all the difficult questions. I could sit
with pastors asking deep questions about God. I can never forget a time when my
father scolded me because I asked him something God related and he didn't know
how to respond. I remember he (my father) telling me, you cannot combine
studying religion and spirituality with your regular academics, choose one (now
I laugh anytime I remember that) I guess he was very frustrated with me.
Now I understand him, somethings are only taught you by the
Universe.
This is just a background to my discussion today. As a woman
with a child who has cerebral Palsy and who decides to talk about my child publicly,
one of the most common questions or suggestions I get is prayer. People are
very quick to refer me to one pastor or another.
I believe that most people who do this, do this from a good
place. It is very common when I meet people who suggest one pastor or another
who they believe is good in "miracles"
Initially, in the very early stages of my daughter's
development, I was interested and gave some of those suggestions a go.
For example, when my daughter was just about a year old, we
(my husband and I) visited a supposed Christian spiritual place where among
other things told me what my daughter suffers is "asram" in local
parlance. (is under some kind of a spell) They bathed her with some leaves and
gave me what I will call concoctions to be given her.
The first time I gave my daughter that concoction was the
first time we recorded a convulsion (Seizure) in her life. That spiritual Centre
also gave me something and said if I kept that thing that person who did that
to my daughter will die.
It was very expensive but I coughed money to pay for it, at
the time, I was very bitter, I was ready to fight the battles with my strength
and any resource I ever got went into fighting that battle.
At this same spiritual Centre, I was again told that all
children that I give birth to will have “Asram” as long as I breastfed them.
Today to the Glory of God, I have two healthy and strong children, a boy and a
girl after my daughter Eyram.
I do not underestimate the power of God in healing my
daughter Eyram from cerebral palsy, I know God can do it but for the last eight
years of my life, I have learnt never to be desperate about any situation in my
life.
For all the time that I was desperately looking for “healing”
for my daughter Eyram who lives with cerebral palsy, my life got worse, her
situation worsened, so called spiritualists took my hard-earned money.
I will never forget a time when a man who I have not
solicited any help from, saw my daughter and immediately started prophesying…. Yes,
that man said, “this thing that happened to your daughter is from your husband’s
family, he said other things as well” because of my desperation, I believed him,
however, I mentioned every single thing he told me to my husband.
I remember signing a fat cheque for this man because he
promised to do a few things to reverse the cerebral palsy on my daughter, I
gave him 10 times the amount he asked for, all I wanted was for my daughter to
get healed.
This man continued to lead me on, till he told me to meet
him at 3.45Am at a particular four-square junction, he was going to pray for my
unborn child, I was pregnant at the time, he said he will place his hand on my
stomach and say some incantations, at that, I backed off and never picked his
call again.
My life turned around for the better when I accepted my
daughter for who she was, this was after I have prayed over a million times
about my daughter’s situation.
I remember driving and praying so hard that one man who was
driving beside me and observing me, rolled down his glass and said to me with
the broadest of smile “God has heard you”
One day, during my usual driving and praying spree, I heard
within me, “the Solution lies within” it was after this that I went within to
find purpose. God definitely has a purpose for my daughter’s life.
I tell people that of all the three children that I have,
Eyram was the one I prayed and asked God for. Before her pregnancy, I use to
pray and ask God for a child, I have knelt down before the altar in the North
Kaneshie congregation of the Presbyterian church, alone, praying for a child
and this child was Eyram.
To the Christian and religious community, do not be quick to
suggest that it is because someone didn’t pray enough or because a person
suffers a curse or something negative that the person have a child with
disability.
You are not God and you cannot tell the mind of God, these
days, there are times that I pray and even forget to pray for Eyram’s healing,
I am seeking the higher things of God, that I should be a vessel of honour unto
God, that God’s light should permeate me, that God should use me to touch the
world in the most positive way
Who knows, perhaps my daughter Eyram is an answer to some of
these prayers I offer.
