Joshua

Just wanted you all to know how Jesus Christ healed our son of a brittle bone birth defect. He had inherited the disease from me, his dad.

I was in the hospital about 28 times, mostly as a child, with broken bones and surgeries. I still use crutches and an ankle brace on my left leg. My wife and I had been married 18 years before we conceived. We didn't even think we could have kids. The doctor warned us, after Sherry (my wife) became pregnant that there was a 50-50 chance our child might inherit my problem, osteogenesis imperfecta.

My brother had the same defect and had been hospitalized 10 times with broken legs. We asked friends from Virginia to California to pray with us for two things...#1...that our new baby would come to love the Lord with all his/her heart at an early age...and #2...that he/she would be born without my birth defect.

The day our son, Joshua, was born...we were devastated. He had the birth defect. X-rays showed almost no bone at the back of his skull, ribs crossing over each other, bent legs and a blood calcium level that was far too high. In this problem, the bones don't absorb the calcium, it passes off through the blood stream and out of the body leaving the bones brittle. No amount of calcium supplements will help treat the disease...only the chemical changes at the age of puberty begin to allow close to normal calcium absorption. But Joshua had another problem that appeared far worse. Doctors said he was premature (by caesarian) and could not take in room oxygen on his own.
So, he was rushed to a critical care newborn icu unit at a regional hospital 35 miles away. That night, while praying about his condition and asking God why, He showed me two things from his word...number one...a scripture that promised..."The son shall live"...and number two...a life verse for our son...Isaiah 61:9..."Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed."

I did not know at the time just how mightily the Lord would be true to His word. 11 days after his birth, following a roller-coaster ride of emotions and medical setbacks and improvements, including what we were at first told could indicate a serious heart problem (which, thank God, did not exist), Joshua was released to us with a monitor and without medication. Just as promised...the son DID live. But God was not done with this miracle child, yet.

At age 18 months, Joshua was like a little egg shell. We carefully carried him most places. And when he did try to stand up at the baby gate with his badly bent legs, he would slump down in a little ball after 3 or 4 seconds and just start crying. It tore my heart out. One Saturday afternoon, after seeing just how badly bent his left leg in particular was, I spent an hour on the family room floor crying MY eyes out.

We called the 700 Club for prayer that night and spent about an hour on the line with a wonderful counselor. About 3 days later, a friend who had headed our Illinois bible study at one time, called us from his new home in Florida to tell us about a man he knew who lived in Ohio who had prayed for God to lengthen the short leg of my friend's wife. It had grown out to the proper length. My friend gave me this man's phone number and I told him I had nothing to lose. I would make that call. I did. It was one of the most wonderful, awe-inspiring experiences of my life. This total stranger asked me how old my son was. I told him, "18 months." He asked me to lay hands on him and agree with him in prayer.

Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, this man told me everything I could see that was wrong with my son, some things I could not see and one thing only God could have known. He said, "Your son has flat feet. We're praying for that. He has a bent ankle. We're praying for that." One by one, he identified the symptoms and prayed for God to touch and heal our son. He correctly named his knee being out, a vertebra out of place near the base of Joshua's spine, a misshapen pelvis putting pressure on the bladder, a pinched sciatic nerve to the left leg...and then, most amazingly of all, he said, '"Your son has too much calcium in his bone marrow." The neo-natalogist had told us our son had too much calcium in his blood stream...and the bone marrow helps produce the blood cells. No one except the doctor, my wife, myself and God knew that diagnosis. Clearly, God was at work.

The man closed the prayer with, "We'll just believe God for a good report." Three days later, our son stood up in the middle of the family room floor for the first time without holding onto anything. A week later, we were at the bone doctor's office for Joshua's regular 6-month check-up. The doctor said, "He looks great." I asked, "But what about the curvatures in his legs?" He responded, "What curvatures? Your son's legs are straighter than most 18 month olds I see without his condition." Amazing.

A few days later, we were in West Tennessee, visiting the dairy farm where my father-in-law worked. My wife was carrying Joshua across the backyard to the cow pasture when she stepped in a hole, turned her ankle and she and the baby both fell. He hit his head, started crying uncontrollably and throwing up. We rushed him to the local emergency room for X-rays. No concussion. No fractures. Then, I asked the radiologist, a total stranger, how Joshua's bones looked. She placed on the screen the first X-ray that had been taken of Joshua since the day he was born. Whereas his natal X-ray had revealed almost no bone at the back of his skull...it had completely grown in. While that initial X-ray showed ribs crossing over each other, they were totally straightened. And while his birth X-ray threatened serious leg problems in the future due to acute curvatures, Joshua's legs were strong enough within one month of the prayer to begin walking and within two months to start running. 

His dad (me...still on crutches) has not been able to catch up with him since. And it is the most wonderful problem in the world.

Joshua has been healed for seven years now. He has had falls that would have sent me to the hospital immediately and kept me in casts for weeks. He just gets up, brushes himself off and goes on like the energizer bunny. This testimony has been shared elsewhere on the internet, on radio interviews, from church pulpits, even in street evangelism meetings. God is truly faithful to his word. Remember Isaiah 61:9. He loves you just as much. That I promise. And He has a WONDERFUL plan in store for your life if you'll just trust Him enough to let go and simply love Him. I remain, eternally grateful to Jesus and praying for your miracle to come quickly.

Love in Christ,
Todd Beezley
Roanoke, Va

Email Todd