Praising God for Heart Surgery

Anjan, Jerin, Oli and Badli

Saturday afternoon Anjan and Badli invited our entire community to participate in a thanksgiving service for Oli’s successful recovery from heart surgery.

The thanksgiving service was in the format we use at LAMB for our twice weekly prayer meetings in people’s homes. We started with a couple of worship songs, there was a ‘sermon’ and then prayer before snacks were served.

One difference was that Oli’s father, Anjan, narrated the events from when, two years ago, Oli had been diagnosed with a hole between two heart-chambers.

He focused on their worries as parents, including fears about her admission into Hebron School in India which was not stopped by this, about finding funding for the surgery – more than a year’s salary – and naturally mostly concerns for Oli’s life.

Anjan praised the medical teams, both at LAMB and in Dhaka and gave thanks for the funding from Korean Global Health. He narrated how, throughout their time at National Heart Foundation Hospital in Dhaka, more members of their extended family than they knew they had, visited and supported them. He also shared how the answers to their prayers for God’s presence and peace were evident in that Oli, as she was wheeled away into the operation theatre, waved goodbye with laughter in her voice and a smile on her face.

Anjan’s narration was followed by our church council chairman drawing parallels to how Jesus healed when he walked this earth. In doing so, he not only put Oli in good company but also firmly placed the honour with God.

The celebration finished with communal prayer and praise for Oli as well as prayer for other issues brought the people there.

How appropriate it was and how right it is to celebrate God's salvation the way Oli, her family and the over hundred guests who came did on a Saturday in October 2014.