“A Precious Gift Given, And A Memorial”

Thankful For The Two Who Died For Me

In 2010, my doctors told me they had exhausted all medical options to improve my respiratory condition. The only option left was to have lungs transplant.

I did not know how to pray.

How do you pray for someone to die so you can live?

We asked friends to pray along with us.

It was hard for me to process this option of lungs transplant. I took it to the Lord in prayer. He gave me a word that gave me an anchor for Hope and Faith.

“For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom; I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honoured, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:3–4 NLT).

I found that I am so precious to God, and because He loves me with such extravagant love, He would give lives in exchange for mine. I knew at that point that God wanted me to have the transplant. Lungs transplant was His answer to the chronic respiratory disease I had endured for 17+ years.

So I asked God to do everything possible to make my organ donor a candidate for heaven. I desired to see him in heaven and thank him for the decision to be an organ donor. I ask God to keep me for as long as it would take. That was the only prayer I could pray concerning the lungs transplantation.

I was on non-invasive ventilation and on high-level 24-hour oxygen supplementation for the next three years on the waiting list. I knew in that season again that I was kept in the land of the living solely by the mighty hands of God.

It was around 4:30 pm on Saturday, April 13th, 2013, when the phone rang. One of the Professors in the Transplant Team was on the line. He introduced himself. I knew what had happened; “Madame Olumese, we are ready for you…”

I knew someone had given me a precious gift I would never be able to say Thank you for on this side of the divide. My heart melted within me. All I could picture in my mind was a family grieving at the bedside of their loved one.

Life had been given in exchange for mine.

The ambulance arrived at my doorstep about an hour later. The paramedics came up the stairs. They asked me if I could walk down. It would be difficult to bring the stretcher up the spiral staircase. I responded, yes. I was on the ventilator because my heart was racing, and I was struggling to breathe.

I got up from my black leather sofa, walked with support down my milk-white marble staircase, and got on the stretcher waiting in the hallway. That was my last walk on my natural legs.

The ambulance sped to the hospital 60km away from my house. When we arrived at the Emergency, I was asked to put on the theatre gown. For reasons I still don’t understand, I chose to get off the bed and stood by it. My husband helped me to remove my clothes and put on the gown. That was the last time I stood on my legs.

It was around 11 pm when they came for me and wheeled me to the theatre.

To be continued: “A Gift Received. A Promise And Next Steps.”

Please pause now and pray for the family of my Unknown Benefactor. Today is the 7th year memorial of their beloved one. Pray that joy and peace will flood their hearts today because the gift they gave me is making a difference.

Give thanks and praise God with me for the precious gift of the healthy lungs and for the memory of the last time I walked and stood on those beautiful pair of legs that served me for almost 47 years.

Thank God today for those who give so others may live — organ donors.

More reasons to be thankful and to give jubilant praises to God in this unfolding testimony of God’s sustaining grace continues on April 14th.

Everything God does is good, and it is infused with grace. I rejoice in the Lord for the two who died for me — my Lord Jesus and my Unknown Benefactor.

I AM TRULY GOD’S PRECIOUS DAUGHTER!