This is an incredible story that took place in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia in August 2002. It's a story of God raising a 4 year old child from the dead and restoring her sight twelve hours later, after she was found hanging lifeless from a rope. It's a testimony to the fact that miracles happen today.
August 26th 2002. This was the day the Lyn family changed. At morning breakfast devotion, we read Psalms 114-118 together as a family. Independently God dropped the words of Ps 118:17 into Nancy's (my wife's) heart and mine. It reads: "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord". We did not communicate this simultaneous impression we received from the Lord at the time but it was to prove a critical verse for prying open the doors of faith for us later in the day. Later in the morning, Frances my daughter, rang me with the delightful news that she had scored an A with distinction in one of her O level (high school public exams) papers she had sat for a couple of months back. So the day began well.
At 3.50pm, I was in my clinic and received an urgent call from my son, Andrew who virtually shrieked into the phone "Dad! Dad! Come quick, Sarah's dying! She's dying!" Sarah was our four-year old daughter. After quickly ascertaining from him where he was, I flew out of the clinic and drove with my nurse to the house of the violin teacher, Frieda. It took us a whole fifteen minutes to get there. When I arrived, I saw Sarah lying unconscious on the grass at the back of the house, a dark (rope) mark round her neck. Her face was bluish and she had dark spots round her eyes (petechiae, for those medically initiated). The rest of her body was pale. I touched the body. It was bathed in cold sweat despite the hot sun. She was barely breathing. There was a weak pulse and audible heartbeat. I could see the spirit of death upon her. Frieda was praying and crying tearfully aloud to God asking Him to save Sarah, heal her and revive her. "Jesus, Lord, please God" were common words on her lips.
Apparently Frieda had discovered Sarah lifeless and hanging from her neck by a nylon clothes line rope at the back of the house around 3.45pm. When brought down, Sarah's face was "blue/black", she was motionless, with no breath nor pulse nor heartbeat. She was dead (Please see Frieda's testimony in the Skyline website). After crying to the Lord for what seemed a long time and after making a few incorrect and feeble attempts at CPR, Sarah's breath returned... more by God's mercy than anything else. It certainly wasn't her atrociously inadequate CPR as Frieda would testify. By then Sarah had probably exceeded the critical period of permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation.
On my arrival, I was deeply shocked to see my beloved daughter in such a perilous state... her life hanging by a thread, her breath barely perceptible. For a moment, every cell in my brain wanted me to throw myself on her and weep. At almost the same instance it dawned on me that this was a demonic attack from the pits of hell. An interchurch citywide prayer conference I was due to chair and lead was only two days away. This was scheduled to culminate in a major "Merdeka" (Independence Day) rally for the whole city three days later. Now my Sarah was in the grips of a life-death struggle! The timing of this attack was overtly demonic. This was no mere "coincidence". It was timed to stop the rally from going ahead.
I shouted to Sarah: "You shall live, you shall not die! Jesus heals you and gives you life!" Then I cursed the spirit of death, scooped her into my arms and ran for the car. As I did so, I suddenly realized that Sarah had probably suffered massive irreparable brain damage. I noticed her limbs were in what doctors call the "decorticate position": neck arched, limbs extended rigidly, eyeballs rolled up: meaning the higher intellectual of her brain had probably been destroyed and it was only the lower part of her brain that was keeping her alive. This was an ominous sign that I had a potential "vegetable" on my hand. Richard, Frieda's husband offered to drive us to the hospital, which he mercifully did with remarkable calm and speed. All along the seemingly unending journey to the Medical Center, I prayed in tongues crying out to God for Sarah's life and speaking words of endearment to her. She was in a coma and totally unresponsive.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the hospital to find that one of my church elders was there at the X-ray department having sustained a fractured shoulder blade at precisely the same time as Sarah was found hanging from a rope! Coincidence? No, demonic. It was another instance confirming that this whole episode was a spiritual attack.
I had rung one of my medical colleagues and he was waiting in the emergency room when I carried Sarah's frail body in. Oxygen was given. A drip was set up. Shortly afterwards Nancy arrived. An emergency CT scan of Sarah's neck mercifully did not reveal any dislocation. As Nancy and I waited in the darkened CT room for her scan results we squeezed each other's hands and whispered the words the Lord had given us that morning. They were now a promise of floodtide proportions to us: "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord!" Sarah was still in a coma. But even at that stage we believed by faith that God would restore her to us whole. There was now little else that could be done except to pray and she was sent up to the ward for intensive observation.
Friends, church members, church leaders and pastors started pouring in to visit. The news had spread like wildfire. Many looked stunned, few knew what to say. They saw the pain on our faces and wept with us. We managed to thank everyone who came and asked them to pray. Many did, forming spontaneous prayer groups outside the ward and in the visitors' area, holding hands and praying fervently. Many came and prayed over Sarah in her bed including a whole group of children (her friends) who came to lay hands on her. Pastors from other churches dropped by to comfort us and pray for Sarah. This helped to grow our faith so much. Every time a wave of sustained prayer arose, Sarah stirred. It was an incredible sight to behold and testified to the power of prayer.
The rest of the family came to visit later including my mum and dad who were visiting us and staying with us. For Frances and Andrew, they were both devastated but we told them to pray in faith with us at this critical time. They cried. Nancy had her head on the bed the whole time, crying to the Lord as she held Sarah's still hand, pleading silently with tears, except for an hour when she went home to collect some personal items.
At no time did we lay the blame at anyone's feet. To us it was obviously a spiritual attack from hell. We found out later that the spare length of rope with a noose had been carelessly left hanging from the clothes-line by Frieda's maid for quite some time before the incident. Nobody realized its implication or its potential implicit attraction to children. But in addition the maid had left a permanent stool in place for her daily washing basket below the noosed rope. We think Sarah, being a gung-ho and active "try-anything-once" type of child would have found a way to stand on the stool, experiment with the rope even to the point of placing her neck in the noose and possibly panicked and accidentally kicked the stool away and strangled herself.
If not for little Madeline, Frieda's 3-year-old daughter who had been playing with Sarah and had witnessed the whole incident, Sarah would not have been discovered until much much later. Frieda recounts that she was in her living room teaching my son Andrew the violin and Madeline had come in to her and said: "Sarah.. got string" and she had shooed Madeline away thinking she was just making a nuisance of herself. Madeline had gone out to the back and a while later returned with the same insistent message: "Sarah got string.. come.." and had yanked her mother's hand. It was only then that Frieda went out to discover the horrible sight of a 4 year old suspended from the clothes' line one and a half feet above the ground. We estimated conservatively that the time it took for Sarah to be "discovered" from the time she was strangulated to be around 4-5 minutes plus another minute or so before she breathed again. This adds up to a total of possibly 5-6 minutes of total oxygen deprivation in the hot sun. Medically this leads to death or irreversible brain damage. So even if Sarah were to live all indications were that she would probably be a "vegetable" for the rest of her life.
By midnight, the number of visitors had reduced to a trickle. All over the city, prayer chains were in action. In many churches all over the country and overseas intercession was made. We knew by then that Sarah would live but she had shown no indication of recovery of her intellectual functions. She had awoken briefly at 10pm but had not recognized anyone. Then at midnight, quite suddenly, she opened her eyes, gazed around vacantly and said her first words "mummy". We were overjoyed. Nancy hugged her and soothed her but her stare remained vacant. When asked to "kiss mummy" she had to feel around for Nancy's face before pulling her cheek towards her lips. In that awful moment I realized she was blind. She continued to stare vacantly at me. I pretended to hit her face with my hand, stopping short by an inch. She didn't blink.
Oxygen deprivation had probably permanently damaged the visual cortex of her brain, giving rise to "cortical blindness", an irreversible condition. Pastor Lam, our dear friend remained behind with us to pray through the night. At 2 a.m. Sarah woke again. I un-strapped my watch and moved it across her field of vision. She was totally unaware of its presence. She was still blind. All hopes I had of recovery of her sight virtually evaporated that moment. Only God could restore her sight.
By 3 am I retired to sleep in an adjacent bed. Nancy and Pastor Lam continued to intercede for Sarah. In those few minutes of sleep God gave me a dream of her. I saw Sarah awake, holding up her hands and counting her fingers saying: "See daddy, 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... 11!" as she began recounting again. I awoke excited only to realize it was all a dream. Within a few minutes however an incredible sequence of events unfolded in rapid succession. Sarah awoke at precisely 3.45 am, twelve hours after being found lifeless on the rope. She was alert now and after asking to pee, she pointed to a clock on the wall and said: "Daddy, it's nine o'clock. I can see a clock!" She could see! I pointed to her it was only four o'clock and not nine. "Four?" she asked and then held up her hands in exactly the same way I had seen in my dream and counted: "1,2,3,4, then she continued 5,6,7,8,9,10,11!!" I broke down and wept.
In that one moment in time God restored the sight of my girl and with it restored her memory and her linguistic ability and mathematical skills. She read a book with us and conversed animatedly. The she sang a beautiful song: "Jesus loves me this I know" among a couple of other songs. It was a sacred moment that brought tears to our eyes. Pastor Lam stole out of the room to leave us alone. He later told us he felt like an intruder and went down to the hospital car park to worship and thank God in the dark and to weep in gratitude. Such was the love of this friend.
At the same time Sarah woke healed, another pastor was awoken from his sleep. Pastor Arthur sensed the Lord telling him to drive to the hospital some 15 Km away to see us at 4 o'clock in the morning! As he drove the Lord gave him a word for us: Deut 23:5 "the Lord your God has turned your curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you." When he walked into our darkened room with dimmed lights and saw that Sarah was healed, he broke down in tears. Such was the awesome presence of God in the room. The timing of his visit left him in no doubt that God had broken through in Sarah's life. He then shared Deut 23:5 with me. Together we prayed and offered thanksgiving to God. Nancy went back to sleep with Sarah. Daybreak found the three of us: Pastor Lam, Pastor Arthur and I on our knees weeping with thanksgiving in the visitors' area. Later as I walked back into Sarah's room, I realized there were angels there. I nodded in appreciation and whispered a word of thanks. Then I walked out to make phone calls to a waking world with the good news that Sarah had been healed. To God be the glory!
Sarah woke up at 3.45 am on her fourth birthday 27 August 2002. She was discharged by lunchtime the same day. Today she is a bubbly, bright and beautiful four-year old girl. Her intellectual and physical faculties remain completely intact. She has little memory of the event and has virtually no scar from the ordeal save for a faint and fast fading rope mark round her neck that is barely visible today.
Dr Philip Lyn, Sarah's father pastors Skyline SIB church in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. He has a private medical practice and works as a private consultant physician during the weekdays. He is married to Nancy and they have three children Frances (15), Andrew (11) and Sarah (4).
August 25th, 2002 will forever be etched in the minds of the Lyn family, as a glorious day of victory over evil, a day of grace. It began like any ordinary day. Our family had gathered round the breakfast table and together we had read a few psalms. One verse was later to minister significantly to our situation. Philip, my husband had left for work and homeschooling for the children had begun.
This was a somewhat special day for all of us and especially so for Frances, our 15 year old daughter who had just obtained her first IGCSE result with an A+ for Bahasa Malaysia. Little did we realise that the delirious screams of delight were to be soon drowned by our heartbroken cries and pleas to God for Sarah's life.
That afternoon, Andrew, our 12 year old son was having violin lessons at Freida's house and as usual Sarah our four year old daughter would tag along and play with Freida's three year old daughter, Madeline. It was her weekly treat, and it was something she looked forward to, eagerly every week. Usually I would pick them up at around 4pm or 4.15pm. For some reason that day, Andrew requested to be picked up at 3.30pm. I remember telling him I would come around 4pm so as to give Sarah more time to play with Madeline.
At around 3.45pm, I was ready to leave the house but a call from a friend deterred me and I left the house only at around 4.10pm. By the time I arrived at Freida's house, Sarah had been taken to the Medical Centre. My son, Andrew dashed out when he saw my car coming up the driveway. The moment he saw me he broke down and began to tell me between uncontrollable sobs what happened. (Looking back, I believe God spared me the ordeal of having to be at the scene when Sarah was first discovered.)
Hearing Andrew's account made me realise that Sarah's life was hanging precariously. With the realization, came God's Word in a flash to my mind, one of the verses that we had read earlier in the morning from Ps 118:17, "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord..." Together with Andrew, I confessed and declared it on Sarah's behalf and then continued to pray in the spirit. At this point I was very much aware of God's peace. My heart was racing but inwardly my spirit was calm.
Fleeting thoughts ran through my mind. "How did such a thing occur?" I was initially tempted to question how Freida's maid could be so negligent in keeping an eye on the children, but I quickly rejected the thoughts. I really couldn't blame anyone. Wasn't God sovereign? Thus, on the way to the hospital, I surrendered Sarah to the Lord's hands. Amidst the turmoil, I told the Lord that no matter what happened, I would still love and trust Him. It came naturally from within and certainly looking back now, I don't think I did it to twist God's arms. I meant it with all my heart. I believe this was one opportunity He gave me to show my love for Him.
Seeing Sarah at the hospital in her comatose state, and noticing blood spots all around her eyes numbed me with shock. Thoughts of her struggling on the ropes and her sense of abandonment broke my heart. I don't know how I could have gone through those dark moments, if I hadn't known that the Lord was with us in this, and if God's people hadn't rallied round and prayed with us.
Being in the stuporous state that I was, I had no recollection who came to visit. To me they were just a "sea" of faces. I was utterly lost in my own thoughts and prayers to the Lord. However, I remembered distinctly the powerful prayers that were uttered and in particular, one prophetic prayer of Sister Lean Kee, who prayed specifically that when Sarah wakes up she would do so as though nothing had happened. I must confess that I doubted that part "as though nothing had happened". And yet that was precisely what happened several hours later. (Read Philip's account)
Through all these, one incident stood out significantly for me. Whilst Sarah was still in a comatose state (this was around 7.30-8pm), I decided to drive home to collect our belongings for the night. I was told that some brothers when they realized that I was making my way home alone, quickly followed after me, but it seemed I had given them the slip (not intentionally of course). God had meant me to be alone with Him.
It was raining and like the rain, my tears flowed freely. I began to pour out my heart to the Lord, and as I did so, I found myself "howling" with grief and possibly groaning. The next moment, His Spirit was upon me and I began to worship Him as I drove. It was as though God had just opened my eyes and allowed me to have a glimpse of Him. His love swept over me powerfully and I could only worship Him. I found myself even saying, "Lord, I don't deserve this... You're so good to me". Although circumstances at that point were just as bleak, God enabled me to worship Him.
It was at this point also that the Lord spoke clearly to me that the fact that Sarah was alive was not in any way because of our righteousness but because He is loving and merciful. This has been a truly humbling and awesome experience. It has once again proven to me that God is faithful and He is there when we need Him. God is so good to us... even these words have now taken on a new meaning.
Similarly, Sarah's Chinese name "En Mei" (¶÷ÃÀ, En meaning God's grace and Mei meaning beauty) truly relects God's abundant grace towards her and us. Having been nearly or indeed been choked out of existence Sarah has been granted a new lease of life on her 4th birthday to declare the mighty works of God. To God be the glory for the things He has done.
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