My dear ones in Jesus Christ,

Praise be the Holy name of Jesus. Greetings in the precious name of Jesus.

Today I am going to tell you about my encounter with Jesus or how Jesus called me to be close to him and to be in his service.

I am a medical practitioner by profession, Anaesthesia being my speciality did my specialization from CMC Vellore. Long before that, from my medical college days I started getting attacks of asthma (from the 4th year in medical college onwards ) every time I travel in the train using steam engine. Later on when I came back home I started getting attacks on and off.

When I was doing my house-surgeoncy I got married to a young , energetic and ambitious ophthalmic surgeon, Dr Tony Fernandez.Soon from Madurai Medical college hospital we planted our roots in a small 70 bedded hospital in a small village in Kerala, named Angamally.

Before long this soft spoken, good natured and kind hearted Dr attracted lot of crowd from all over India and abroad ,even patients from middle East and other countries came to see him. Soon this village grew to be a town because of the big moving crowd daily carried on my work with daily attacks of asthma. Both of us had heavy schedule of work and he worked for almost 18 hrs a day. Outside hospital hours he was busy conducting free eye camps on Sundays (most of the time missing the Sunday Mass) attending conferences in and outside India , presenting umpteen number of papers in national and international levels. In short he became a shooting star roaring to greater heights in short time. But we did not have time to pray. At the end of the day we half-heartedly said a small prayer to a distant God whom we thought was far far away somewhere in Heaven. Actually we were too busy to pray. Moreover we had everything we needed and so we thought we did not need to pray that much and all the benefits and the name and fame was all due to our hard work.

It was during those days some time in '81 that I attended a charismatic retreat to get healing from my asthma. I indeed attended one came back home happy but I was not cured of my asthma. But soon we came back to our old routine.

It was during this time that God intervened. The intervention came as a chest pain for Tony one midnight. God gave me the presence of mind and soon we took him from Alwaye to Angamally about 14 km away to the hospital where we worked. Soon he was declared to have a heart attack. There he was lying helpless in the ICU, in the prime of his life, at the height of his fame, fighting for his life, with 30 and odd cataract with IOL surgeries in his list for that day , and with five young children (three of whom are girls) to be looked after.

Our elder three children had just started or have come midway in their professional studies. Now I sat in my room and cried day in and day out pleading for his life. After
24 hrs doctor said that the critical period was over. I continued my prayers and sos were sent to all convents for prayers and to Potta retreat centre.

The Director of Potta, Rev. Fr Panackel came and prayed over him , that was 20 days after the incident. We gained lot of confidence with that prayer. Then we sent for Rev. Fr. Matthew Naikomparambil , he came and asked us to go to Potta the next day and attend a convention that was going on there then. Hesistantly we went, little diffident because of his fragile state. We listened to the word of God for about 2-3 hrs and came back to the hospital.

After coming I realized that inspite of our present situation I was extremely happy and in my heart I was bubbling with joy. I was wondering what had happened to me. Then I realized that I was filled with the Holy Spirit. This joy lasted with me for a long time.

Then we went for the bypass surgery and there also complications waited for us. But by now we learned to pray crying from the bottom of our hearts. This heart attack of Tony was the turning point in our lives. About a year after this thunder and storm we attended one retreat in the Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor. There we realized our mistakes.

I learnt many things from the Bible. I was wondering why inspite of many peoples' prayers he had complications in the post-operative period. I got the answer to it, as the eagle teaches the young ones to make them strong to fly, God was teaching us to be strong by taking us through hard times and by now we took interest to read the bible and understand it and we realized that without Him we can do nothing. It is then I came across this verse-from the book of Hebrews 12:6-8 Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves,and punishes everyone he accepts as a son.Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his sons. Was there ever a son who was not punished by his father? [Please read on till verse 11.

Even at this retreat I did not get cured of my asthma.Only after few retreats and God made me steady ,that at a subsequent retreat that I got complete cure of my asthma. God wanted me to teach his ways, wanted me to be steady and sincere in my prayers, correct myself and be faithful to him even in small things before he could give me this gift of healing. This is what we do to our children too, we lay a condition to them if they want a gift from us. Now we enjoy the bliss of walking hand in hand with Him. Before, we were praying to a distant, very distant God. Now we feel the presence of Him when we pray,we feel his closeness.And more than anything our children are walking in his way.

I am happy for this because at the time of judgement when Jesus asks me where my children are I can happily show him where they are. I am praying that they remain as they are now. Four of our children are professionals and well settled, the elder three married, and the youngest daughter is a MBA student. I didn't ask for all this, God knew that we wanted all this. He sees to our needs even before we call out to him.

The mission hospital at angamally is now a 900 and odd bedded hospital, having about 25 eye surgeons and they train students for postgraduate exams. I am reminded of the Romans. 8:28  We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose. So my dear ones , do not be disheartened when suffering , illnesses, loss,and calamities come.You just cry out to God. He will listen to you but before that mend your ways. But do not wait for calamities to come to turn to God. Don't you think that it was because of God's love for
us that he gave me asthma for 35 years and a sudden heart attack for Tony and all that suffering so that we could turn to him. Now we thank and praise God for giving the heart attack for Tony.

Now I am helping in counselling in the Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor (DRCM) and in another retreat centre once or twice a week taking leave from my regular work.So now I realise that God had a plan for me and that there is a silver lining for every cloud.

Thank you Father, I praise you Father,

Thank you Jesus, I praise you Jesus, Thank you God the Holy Spirit, I praise God the holy Spirit. My lord thou has been kind to this poor sinner and you raised us to the status of your children. Please Lord, raise the whole mankind to the status of your children. Make us all members of the family of God . Fill everyone with your Holy Spirit.

Thank you Lord. May God bless you all. Kindly take a print out of this for you and send
copies to as many friends as possible.

Loving greetings in the name of Jesus.

Yvonne Fernandez.

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