Inspiration Behind G.O.D.  |  Share Your Story  |  View Stories

Have you ever stood by while a friend or loved one’s life turned upside down in a matter of seconds?  To say that my friend’s husband could probably empathize with Job right now is an understatement. I received a phone call early Monday morning on February 18th.  It was my very good friend Terri’s husband Steve who was calling and audibly upset he asked me to pray for Terri.  He informed me that she had had an aneurysm and was in a coma.  My first reaction was disbelief, fear and sadness.

Terri had a Subarachnoid Hemmorhage while at a church meeting on Sunday afternoon.  They had care flighted her to Medical Center of Plano where they induced a coma to repair the aneurysm.  The doctors were able to stabilize the vessel with a coil procedure called embolization.  They kept her on life support in the ICU for a week where they monitored secondary vessels spasms and treated her for pneumonia.  Initially when they lowered the sedation they were able to get her to respond to commands and she was able to move most of her body.  However, by the end of the first week, with lowered sedation, she was no longer responding and her CT scan showed that her injury was severe. Steve was then told by the doctors that her chances of living were in the single digits and they began discussing end of life issues.  I can’t imagine how dark this must have felt for Steve. He told me that he spent the night weeping & praying to God to please show him either way.

Terri, my friend of 16 years, devoted wife to Steve, beloved mother of 4, dedicated nurse, loyal friend to so many.  She had become a spiritual mentor and sister in Christ to me.  It is Terri who helped me to open my heart to having a living relationship with God.  She showed me the importance of practicing spiritual disciplines of prayer and bible study. She showed me what it looked like to turn to God’s word in life. She is my selfless and amazingly calm friend.

Steve showed so much strength in the Lord as he waited in what became the longest weeks of his life.  I got a sense of hope & peace by witnessing Steve’s confidence in God.  I watched him live out his faith in our loving God as he stood by “his bride” (that is what he called her) to tenderly love and care for her.  He diligently reported to a huge community of friends and family (who waited on pins and needles to hear every update) at least once and sometimes twice a day on a Caring Bridge site.  In his reports whether good or bad, he always gave praise and thanks to God for all the love & support surrounding his family.  God’s love was poured out and revealed in all the journal posts where over 7,000 visits were recorded.  In the posts, people proclaimed their love for Terri & the Lytle family.  Many people spoke of the ways in which God’s love had touched them in some way through Terri.  People reported that they were praying ceaselessly and several turned to God’s word to offer strength to the Lytle’s through this time of tribulation.

Steve’s answer came when the next morning the Dr. removed the ventilator and Terri began breathing on her own.  She was then taken completely off the sedation.  She was unable to respond but she had her eyes open and was moving her head from side to side repetitively.  Her breathing was labored and erratic and she was trying to cough because of the pneumonia.  We all felt encouraged when she showed a glimpse of awareness this day.  She cried in response to a song and seeing her friends.  Steve said that it would probably be the only time that he would rejoice over seeing her cry.  The following day Steve reported her pneumonia had cleared up and most tremendous was that he had a 45 minute lucid conversation with her.  The Dr. reported her CT scan revealed the blood had cleared and she had no permanent brain damage.  We were ecstatic to say the least and gave thanks and praise to God for his grace, compassion and mercy!!!

Terri had no memory of the details around her episode.  She was speaking to a group of ladies regarding an upcoming women’s retreat that she was going to lead.  After living in Belgium for a year, she had traveled to a place where people had been on a spiritual pilgrimage.  She was so moved to share with the other woman and had been writing about this for quite awhile.  She stood up at her meeting, unrolled her poster and was asked by someone what was the scripture written on the poster?  Terri recited it by heart (Psalm 84: verse 5-7)
“Blessed are those whose strength are in the Lord.  In whose hearts are the highways to Zion.  Passing through the valley of Baka (weeping) they make it a spring.  The early rain also covers it with blessings.  They go from strength to strength.  Every one of the them appears before God in Zion.”
Terri sat down and within a minute became unconscious.  Those were her last words for 2 weeks. I have experienced when God’s answer to my prayers did not turn out the way I hoped it would at all.  I accepted this because I believe in a loving God that cares for us, that has a bigger plan that I don’t fully comprehend and that His love will win in the end.  Before Terri recovered, my mind went to a lot of “what if’s..”  It was so scary to imagine the possibility of saying goodbye to her for now and seeing her family be without her.   I considered, with recovery, the many obstacles that she could possibly face and for how long would she face them? I turned from this way of thinking after I observed Steve call in the troops for prayer and not sit long in a place of fear but instead trusted in the Lord.  The Lytle’s have been living their lives for God’s glory for as long as we’ve known them and from what Terri’s shared with me it’s been longer than that.  The body of Christ called out to God on Terri’s behalf and we were blessed that we got the answer we were hoping for.

God answered our prayers to heal Terri and He has allowed us more time on earth with her.  She was moved out of the ICU on March 2nd and is now going through the rehabilitation process.  She’s taking baby steps to walk and to do all the things that we take for granted everyday.  Her greatest desire now is to be able to swallow again so that she can get off an NG tube.   I ask that you continue to pray on behalf of Terri and her family as they work their way out of the valley of Baka.  When I told Steve that I was going to share their story, he said, “Let it be a testimony to our Lord and His faithfulness to His Bride, the Church.”  Well, I have to say that I will never view life the same again and can only hope that my mustard seed of faith will be sufficient to get me from strength to strength.

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