Ana was two years and eight months old when we first noticed it was difficult for her to put weight on her left foot.

It was almost undetectable at first, but grew worse by the day. When neither her orthopedist nor her pediatrician could diagnose the problem, they ordered a CAT scan.

The test results and prognosis were devastating. Ana had three malignant tumors in her brain—medulloblastoma, a very aggressive type of cancer, already in the fourth and final stage and already affecting the bone marrow in various parts of her body. The doctors urged us to have great courage, but to prepare for the worst, as this cancer usually advances very rapidly in children. Our world went dark.

Ana was admitted for emergency surgery. Due to the size of one of the tumors, we were told that she could slip into a coma at any moment. The surgery lasted seven hours and didn’t go well. It was only possible to remove one of the tumors—the largest. How much longer would we have Ana with us?

We gave our daughter to the Lord, for Him to take care of as only He could.

The doctors suggested chemotherapy to slow the inevitable growth of the remaining tumors and to give Ana more time. We showed Ana’s records to other doctors, and they confirmed that chemotherapy was our only recourse.

The next twelve months were a daily fight for Ana’s survival, with many side effects from the chemotherapy treatments and subsequent surgeries. Eventually the progression of the cancer slowed, and the treatments were suspended.

Six months later, one of the tumors began growing rapidly again, and Ana underwent another emergency operation. It was getting harder and harder to restrain the cancer.

As Ana’s condition continued to worsen and the doctors offered no hope, we needed a miracle from God—the kind we’d heard that other people had experienced when they were beyond medical help. How wonderful it would be, we told each other, if God were to do such a miracle for Ana! For a year and a half we had pleaded with God to heal Ana, but He hadn’t answered. Why? What were we doing wrong? We had to find out!

We began studying the Bible and some books and audio materials that we had gotten from a member of the Family International, and the more we studied, the more our faith grew. We had been praying, but we hadn’t been praying in full faith, truly expecting the answer. That was why our prayers had fallen short! We had both believed in Jesus from childhood, but He had always seemed far removed from our present world and its troubles. Now, as we searched the Word of God, we began to comprehend that Jesus truly is alive and working today.

We dug deeper and found other promises: “To you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

If God could do what medical science couldn’t, how could we avail ourselves of His help? Once more we found the answer in the Word: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:23–24).

We memorized and clung to His promises with all our strength, and we claimed them in prayer. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).

We gave our daughter to the Lord, for Him to take care of as only He could. We talked to Him about everything, asking for the treatments to go well and seeking His guidance for the difficult decisions we faced each day, but we left the outcome entirely in His hands.

As soon as we gave our daughter to Jesus, when we surrendered completely to His will, Ana’s physical condition started to improve and the aftereffects of her last surgery—infections and fevers—started to clear up. God took care of every aspect of her life until the day, four years later, when another scan showed no tumors whatsoever. The cancer was gone!

The only explanation the doctors could offer was that “the sickness had behaved abnormally,” but we know that God had intervened in answer to our desperate prayers. “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Six years after our ordeal began, Ana is a God-blessed child—happy, healthy, and with faith the size of the world. This was without a doubt the most difficult time of our lives, but it taught us that there is a living and all-powerful God, a God for whom there are no impossibilities, a God who stands ready to work on behalf of all those who trust Him and claim His promises as their own. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). n

        Photo caption: Ana with a new hairdo, July 2005

Paulo and Rosa Rodrigues are Activated subscribers in Portugal.