There came a time during his training when Nathaniel’s calls to us stopped.  After giving it a bit more time, we became concerned and I drafted a letter to the commanding general of the base to inquire about him.  I explained that we had not heard from Nathaniel in some time, that it was out of the ordinary, and that we were concerned.  I asked if he would have someone check into it for us.

A couple days later and in response to our letter, we received a call from the Executive Officer of Nathaniel’s unit informing us that Nathaniel was in the hospital, was not doing well, and we should plan on coming down as soon as possible.  The Navy made arrangements to fly us down from Vermont to the Naval Nuclear Submarine Training Facility in Goose Creek, South Carolina, and then provided transportation to the hospital in Charleston, South Carolina where he was being treated.

On arriving at the hospital and meeting with the medical staff, we were informed that they still had not identified the cause of Nathaniel’s illness however his condition was grave and he was not expected to live through the night.  His weight at that time was down to 90 lbs., he was ventilated, and he was being fed intravenously.  In addition to the chaplain who met with us, his Naval Training unit had assigned a death watch to be present at the hospital so that there would be someone with him he knew; should he die before we arrived.

Prior to our arrival, Pat and I had already determined that whatever was going on in Nathaniel’s life was serious and life threatening.  Having gone through a previous life-threatening event with Caleb as described in the story “29 – God intervenes: the doctors said Caleb would not live through the night!”; Pat and I determined that we would again call upon God, this time to intervene in Nathaniel’s behalf.  We remembered again the scripture in Mark 11:24 (which is an admonition to believe in prayer) and determined that we would set a guard in our mind, as we had done with Caleb, against any doubt that God would heal Nathaniel and determined that we would do so in the same manner as we had done with Caleb.  On the slightest appearance of doubt in our mind, we would reject that thought with the affirmation “God will heal Nathaniel”.

God did intervene and contrary to the expectation of the medical staff that he would die that night, Nathaniel began to improve the very night of our arrival.  As a side note, Pat, in talking with the Navy Chaplain when we arrived the day before, had told him that Nathaniel would recover.  The next morning, when it became evident that Nathaniel was recovering, the Navy Chaplain came to Pat and, in amazement, asked her: “How did you know that Nathaniel would recover?”.  Nathaniel’s improvement was evident to all and his improvement continued with each passing day.  In addition, the doctors were finally able to make a diagnosis that Nathaniel was suffering from Wegener’s Granulomatosis, an auto-immune disease.

Nathaniel’s disease went into remission.  Over the years he has had to go in for checkups and a treatment once or twice however Nathaniel is now 40 years old; 21 years after we were told he would be dying that night.  The story is, however not quite over.  Remember the church sign associated with the story “32 – The Holy Spirit says: “You can’t win the race if you do not stay in the race!” that I spoke of and that it would again assume a significant role.  The next story, “34 – God honors his precepts!”, is also associated with Nathaniel’s recovery and it is in this story that the sign plays a role again.