Testimony of Healing December 23, 1985 Issue

Many years ago, when our daughter was...

FLORENCE B. GOFF with contributions from HARRY GOFF, MARTA CONE

Many years ago, when our daughter was very young, the driver of her nursery school bus brought her home early one day and told us that she had complained of feeling ill. I put her to bed but the situation worsened rapidly. She had developed a high fever and refused food and drink. I prayed for her but my prayers seemed unavailing. By early evening the symptoms were more aggressive; my husband and I became quite alarmed.

We were not too deeply involved in Christian Science at that time, although we attended a branch church fairly regularly and had called on Christian Science practitioners at various times for prayerful help with our personal problems. However, we were hesitant to rely completely on God for the healing of our daughter's ills. So we called a doctor, who came to our home and made a thorough examination. He took a spinal tap and told us that he would inform us of the results as soon as he heard from the lab.

Later that night the doctor called and told us that the tests showed our daughter had infantile paralysis. He said that we would have to have her admitted to a children's hospital for contagious diseases in a nearby city. He added that it was his belief she would probably never walk again. We were terribly shocked, but our first reaction was a silent denial of this negative prognosis. We told the doctor that we would need a few minutes to consider his findings and that we would call him back. No medication had been administered to the child. During those few minutes, we prayed for direction. We then felt led to dismiss the doctor and call a Christian Science practitioner.

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