Survival Story

After eight years of teaching English to mainly sophomores, I found myself with a new assignment this year. Junior English, and one period of junior AP English. As we study American literature, I gave a new creative writing assignment to piggyback on Jack London’s short story “To build a fire.” It’s a survival story about a proud and naïve man who attempts to cross a frozen wilderness alone. My students were to write their own story of survival (either ending badly like London’s or with a positive outcome). One student wrote a story about an African man who was dying of cerebral malaria. The character’s missionary friend drove him through the night and through various obstacles to get to the hospital where he could be treated. He made it to help in time, and the man miraculously recovered. The writer? A girl named Donna.

About a week after writing this story, Donna came down with (presumably) a flu bug that was ransacking our campus. She and fifty other dorm students were overfilling our student health center with fevers and head colds and stomach troubles. After a few days of an extremely high fever and a worsening condition, Donna was tested for malaria. The test was positive, but Donna continued to slip and didn’t react to the anti-malarials. She was admitted to the hospital early in the weekend and fell into a coma by the end of the weekend. The malaria had gone into the brain—Donna had cerebral malaria, an often deadly and usually damaging condition.

Her parents quickly arrived from their country of ministry and joined her brother (also a student at RVA) by Donna’s side. The whole community (and people around the world as we all shared this prayer request abroad) rallied in prayer. From the youngest kids here to the oldest staff members—hundreds of us here cried and pleaded to God on behalf of Donna. The coma went on for two days, then three, then four. Many began to speculate about the worst.

But then Wednesday came. Donna began to move her extremities slightly. By the end of the day, she groggily awoke—a welcome and triumphant turn of events. By Thursday, she was out of ICU. And by Friday evening, her family wheeled her through the doors of Kijabe Medical Center! She improved even more over the weekend, enough to return to a limited slate of classes on Monday morning. From a coma one Monday to a classes the next! This week, she submitted the final draft of her story to me, a story of loving friends who helped a sick person get the help he needed.

Only God can heal, but what an incredible mystery that he allows us to pray and to intercede on behalf of those we love, like hundreds and thousands did on behalf of Donna! God is truly amazing and truly merciful.

Donna’s victory over cerebral malaria—a survival story only God could write.