for with guidance you wage your war, and with numerous advisers there is victory. Prov. 24:6

In hindsight, I can clearly see the past months as a long test. Peirazoœ, in New Testament Greek, has a strong athletic overtone not meaning merely testing, but testing to prove the quality of an athlete.

Hebrews 4 says our High Priest was tested just like we are, and now stands before God on our behalf.

James encourages us to consider testing with joy because it develops us and helps us grow the distance (teleo: which can mean to maturity or completion).

Elsewhere the New Testament describes testing as a way to show us the quality of our faith. It also says being hard pressed on every side allows others to see the power of God within us.

Africa may feel remote in c0mparison to the modern Western world. But God blessed us with a wealth of advisors, some had walked the mission field for decades, others were well trained in medicine. Still others were family and supporters back in the US. From these different camps, we heard one message: Prepare as much as you can for the baby coming early.

Dr. Patel told us that Jack’s chance of survival was pretty low (maybe 30%) if he emerged right then. Breanna was 28 weeks pregnant, and she would be fine, but the hospital could not say the same for the baby. Dr. Patel hoped to get Breanna to 34 weeks, which meant about 80% survival for Jack.

The back of my mind nagged at me. I had recently heard an amazing testimony by a very respected missionary about supernatural healing he had witnessed. In the US we don’t think much about it, but Jesus promised to those that believed they would be a part of such things. Surely a miraculous healing would be a more dramatic proof of God’s power, plus it saves a lot of headache for planning and a lot of money, too. I also realize God doesn’t use a cookie cutter approach to anything. Deliberately. He doesn’t want us to get comfortable following a checklist or a manual instead of following Him.

So, with the advice of a great many, we made phone calls and sent e-mails to the US and to South Africa, and started doing as much homework as we could. Then we called people over to pray, and asked God to work however He wanted to.

During a prayer time over Breanna, the same missionary said something that drilled into my heart. He spoke of needing clarity, and one way we would see that would be improvement at Breanna’s doctor’s appointment.

I realized that our attitude of “wait and see” often comes across as an act of faith, but I don’t think it makes much sense or is supported by the Bible. I realized I felt like I was holding a stable approach into a short airstrip, and things were going OK, but I was at full power, and there were probably downdrafts ahead.

That changed my plans.

Breanna and I agreed to be ready to go immediately to a hospital with a better chance for premature babies unless everything started to improve at the doctors appointment on Wednesday. We also knew and trusted God could heal Breanna.