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Posted by Jonathan Bingham on August 23, 2007 under Blog | 
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Henry Blackaby spoke at our church on July 29. It was a really great message. Download it at:
http://www.ebcfamily.org/Portals/33/audio/sermons/EBC2007-07-29-32.MP3
He really liked seeing Scarlett – like a typical grandfather type!
Did I mention that it was really good?
Posted by Jonathan Bingham on March 1, 2007 under Blog | Be the First to Comment
News: Kathryn Scarlett Bingham. Due 4/21/07. Born 2/22/07. 3 lbs. 11 oz. Mother and daughter both doing very well.
We shared with very few people the extent of the challenges we faced with this pregnancy. But the high (low) points include being given a better than 50% chance of major birth defects, ruptured amniotic sac and therefore extremely low fluid levels with constant leaking, and multiple emergency hospital visits, being sent home from one being told to prepare for an imminent miscarriage. The summary prognosis at that time was less than 10% chance we would ever deliver a live baby, and if we did, a less than 5% chance she would be normal.
Each time, the doctors’ recommendations would begin with, “Well, you’ve already told us that you will not terminate this pregnancy, so that takes care of option number one. …”
We rented a fetal heart monitor so that we wouldn’t have to go to the doctor or hospital each time Trenna started bleeding heavily – to check and see if this was finally the time the doctors told us would come.
Many people were praying for us, and God gave us grace that carried us through. In December, something happened that no one can explain. Our perinatologist, the lead physician at the largest baby factory in the US, told Trenna, “This looks like a completely different pregnancy.” From that time on both he and her OB would say things like, “You are a walking miracle,” “You are proof of the power of prayer,” and last week from the perinatologist, “You rank up there among my most amazing cases!”
To be honest, I’ve never wanted to be a miracle patient.
Trenna was leaking nearly constantly, reminding her over and over that things weren’t OK. Certainly she bore the heaviest load. Each visit to the hospital showed just enough fluid for the baby to develop, but not enough to do any further investigation about the birth defect – so we could at least know what we were facing. We finally just decided that God was doing a work in us that required complete patience to the end. We would find out in His time. But the perinatologist assured us that he saw no “soft markers” of any kind in the high resolution sonograms that would indicate any concern of birth defect.
Every time she would go in for a visit with either doctor, the first thing out of their mouths would be, “I can’t believe you’re still pregnant.” When we hit 20 weeks, Trenna’s OB talked with us for the first time about the possibility of having a live baby – a discussion he never expected to have. He told us the next hurdle was to make it to 30 weeks, after which the baby could come at any time and have a great chance of survival.
That date would be critical, because it came just about a week before I was to leave for a two and a half week long mission trip literally on the other side of the planet. Knowing that we would be clear by the time I left was a big relief.
Once we made it to 30 weeks there was one final step. The baby needed to flip and assume crash position. When there is little fluid it was unlikely to be possible for the baby, and therefore the doctor started talking to Trenna about a c-section. Trenna really really did not want to have a c-section, so we and many others began praying about that. Wednesday 2/21 was Trenna’s visit to the perinatologist to see if the baby had flipped. She was very disappointed to learn that it hadn’t. It looked inevitable that she would have to have a c-section.
One of the things I’m learning about God is that He not only loves to do the impossible, He often does it in impossible ways. The next step in this story is a great example.
I called Trenna from Cambodia that evening (her time) and she was discouraged. Later she began feeling like she had the flu or something. She tried to sleep, but couldn’t. And the leaking increased dramatically. She called her OB office and found that her OB was the one on call. He called her and told her to wait until morning and come in if she didn’t feel any better. At about 5AM or so she began wondering if she was in labor. She called her friend Lisa a little before 6AM, who told her she had better go to the hospital just in case. She called her friend Elmarie and asked her to take her to the hospital and for her husband Pieter to pick up the girls.
Immediately Trenna began to feel very strong and painful contractions. Elmarie picked her up and they began the drive (in AM rush hour traffic) to the hospital. Trenna was curled up in a ball in the passenger seat having strong contractions every two minutes. Dear Elmarie sped, ran stop lights, and went through packed intersections honking to get there, but they finally made it at 7AM.
At first, the nurses weren’t very concerned. They had her try to fill out paperwork. One commented, “You seem to be in a lot of pain.” Finally, a nurse checked her and then shouted, “She’s fully dilated!” Finally some action! Trenna caught her to tell her that the baby was breach. Then things really started to fly!
Trenna’s OB’s shift ended at 7AM, too, and he was nearly to his car when they paged him. Although he didn’t have to, he returned and met her in the OR, ready to do an emergency c-section at 7:20. Before he had time to do anything, he realized the baby was coming out – breach – and there wasn’t time to do anything about it. (Neither had there been time to give Trenna any pain medicine of any kind. Not even a Tylenol!!!) He told her to push, and three minutes later Kathryn Scarlett Bingham was born.
No c-section. Breach. Our OB. We couldn’t have imagined and never could have planned the sequence of events that had to happen to make it possible, but God knew, and He orchestrated it to the minute.
Trenna recovered nearly immediately and was released Friday afternoon. She’s doing great!
I returned from the mission trip early and surprised Trenna Saturday evening.
When Scarlett was born, the doctors noted three new “soft markers” that could indicate the birth defect. Even after all of this, we still weren’t free of that possibility. They did the blood test and told us we would know by early the next week.
God had given us a promise years ago that applied to this situation, as well. During all of this time we had clung to the promise by faith, and God had given us hope through it. For some reason, the last few days of waiting nearly did me in. I guess being severely jet-lagged didn’t help, but I just could not seem to bring my thoughts and anxiety captive. It was a very very difficult few days.
But Trenna did much better.
Finally, early Wednesday evening, we received the call from the hospital. The test results came back and indicated everything was normal! It was the most important and greatest news I have ever received!!!
We are going to celebrate what God has done and have already had many opportunities to encourage others about God’s faithfulness and His ability to do the impossible. I pray that our experience will prove God’s power and reality to those who don’t believe. I pray that our experience will open up new doors of ministry to those who are in similar dark times and need encouragement and faith. I pray that our experience will renew my walk with God, my commitment to live by faith, and my effectiveness in ministry.
I’ve said it to a few in private, but need to note again that this situation has been the most difficult thing I have ever been through, but I am thankful to God for it because of the work that He has done in my heart through it. I would never have gotten to where I am today spiritually any other way.
Thanks to all who have prayed for us.
All glory to our mighty and merciful God!
Related topics include: Nuchal translucency AFP Down Syndrome Trisomy 21
Posted by Jonathan Bingham on February 8, 2007 under Blog | Be the First to Comment
I leave in seven days on a 2.5 week mission into Cambodia and The Philippines. Please pray for us! Go here [link no longer active] for more info.
Posted by Jonathan Bingham on January 8, 2007 under Blog | Be the First to Comment
Darius saw the hand of God writing on the wall. Moses received stone tablets with the “ten words” written by God’s finger in the rock. When the prophets of old spoke, they spoke God’s Words, and their words were truly a message from Him. And don’t you wish you knew what Jesus wrote when He wrote in the sand in front of the adulteress’ accusers?
I was reminded of this just now when I picked up a book and noticed what appears to be marks on the edges of the pages. It’s not a spiritual book – in fact it’s a Photoshop manual. But I take such impeccable care of my books that it was a surprise to see anything other than pristine white. I closed the book to see if the marks formed letters – and in my mind I thought, “Hmm. Maybe this is a message from God.”
How many times have you just wished that God would give you a special message? A Word from Him specifically for you. I certainly have more than I can count.
Well, the marks don’t form letters and I don’t know what caused them, but they’re probably not divine. It only took a moment for God to remind me, though, that God has already given me, and you, a Message specifically for us – His Word. It is, in fact, highly unlikely that He would speak to us by any other tangible means. His Living Word, as applied by His Holy Spirit is His Message to us – and He probably doesn’t get too happy about us wanting more, especially when we spend so little time reading what He has already said.
Posted by Jonathan Bingham on January 1, 2007 under Blog | Be the First to Comment
(Preface – the idea that “the just shall live by faith” is one that has the rare honor of being declared no less than four specific times in Scripture: Hab. 2:4, Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, and Heb. 10:38.)
As some of you know, we’ve been facing some pretty hefty challenges over the last four or five months. The trials have forced me to live by faith, a condition expected in Scripture, but not common in a culture where everything is going so well in all aspects of life.
This forced me to face the fact that I have not had to live by faith in a long, long time.
Why is that?
Well, I guess it is because I live in one of the more prestigious, well-to-do counties in the most prosperous country in the world, and everything has been going just fine. I have a decent (well, actually, compared to the rest of the world, ludicrous) income. We live in a nice house (we think it’s way too small, but most of the world’s population would think it was a mansion). We have everything we need and all but the most extravagant things we desire. And even the infrequent difficulties we face are common elsewhere.
So when we faced the challenge and realized that we had not felt any great need at all to live by faith since the last (distant) challenge we had seen, I had to ask myself the question, “How does a Christian who lives in the U.S. with few real problems keep living by faith?”
An honest question, but one that probably disgusts God.
I prayed about it and was given at least one answer. (Maybe just one is all that’s needed.)
When I asked God, “How can a Christian live by faith when you everything is going fine?” He said immediately and clearly, “What makes you think everything is fine?”
Good point…
“…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8
