As Jason Ong lay dying in his bed, his wife Judith Halim was filled with pain.
She had already gone through a great deal, having been abandoned by her first husband in a foreign land with a child with special needs. Now it looked like she would lose her second husband.
One night, when she could not sleep and was crying and praying all night long, Jesus appeared to her. “He held me in his arms like a child and patted me and told me that all would be well,” said Judith.
The next day, Jason told her he had a similar encounter. Jesus had told him: “I am moved by the tears of your wife. I will heal you.”
DOUBLE TUMOUR
The couple did not have much time to process what the visions meant.
Ironically, the pain in Jason’s head intensified. He called his doctor to ask for morphine to help him die with dignity.
Instead, the doctor sent him for another brain scan. After seeing that scan, he told Jason to seek a second opinion with another doctor at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI).
He called his doctor to ask for morphine to die with dignity.
The NNI professor told him that a miracle had already happened – the scan showed that the tumour had grown into two, each about the size of an egg. One was in the brain and one was outside. Technically that would have pushed his brain out of the brain cavity or he would have had a stroke or be in a coma.
Yet Jason was still alive and able to talk.
The professor, however, said Jason had to have surgery soon.
“PLEASE RELEASE ME”
Three days later, the doctor removed the tumour inside Jason’s brain and cut away most of the tumour that was outside. Knowing that Jason regularly teaches and preaches, the professor was careful not to touch the main artery or facial nerves.
More than 80% of the tumour was removed and the surgery was a success.
After the brain surgery, Jason was in so much pain that he called it the lowest point in his 10 years of fighting cancer.
But Jason came out of surgery unable to see. He could not breathe well and was in tremendous pain.
“At that time I just felt so tired and it was my lowest point after 10 years of fighting cancer,” he recalled.
“I asked my wife if she would release me as I was very tired and wanted to go home to God.
“She cried and cried and said, ‘Okay I will release you.'”
“JESUS IS HERE”
That was on a Saturday afternoon in March 2013, a day after the surgery was done.
At around midnight that day, Judith, who was sleeping on a sofa in the corner of his hospital ward, woke up to Jason shouting: “Jesus is here, Jesus is here.”
Judith remembered that he was trembling so much that the hospital bed was shaking hard.
Judith woke up to Jason shouting: “Jesus is here, Jesus is here.”
She quickly made her way to his bed. But halfway there, she was so overcome by the sense of God being present that she fell to the floor. Both of them could only utter the words: “Thank you, Jesus.”
“I did not see His figure but His presence was so strong that I got a glimpse of what holiness felt like and looked like. It is so holy and awesome that I cannot describe it in words,” Jason recalled.
Feeling a hand touching his forehead, he took a deep breath and fell asleep. Judith saw him take that breath and she returned to the sofa to sleep.
A MIRACLE
The next morning, Jason woke up and saw his wife still sleeping on the sofa. He realised that he could see and breathe better, and was no longer in pain.
Attempting to walk, he found to his surprise that he could, even though he knew he was not supposed to after having gone through major brain surgery.
Jason and Judith’s team running a feeding programme for children in the mountains of the Philippines. Jason had thought his 41st birthday would be his last and his final wish was to go there to be with the children.
He decided to take a shower, careful not to wet the bandage on his head.
When he emerged, there was a commotion. The nurses were panicking and the bell was ringing because they thought he had gone missing.
“I’ve never seen anyone recover so fast in my years of professional practice. This is a miracle!”
He told them he had gone to shower and got a scolding from the nurse, who said it was very dangerous for him to do so. She called for the doctor, who asked if he was all right.
The doctor told Jason: “I’ve never seen anyone recover so fast in my years of professional practice. This is a miracle!”
To which Jason replied: “Yes, God is good.”
By Monday, just three days after the surgery, the doctor agreed to have him discharged.
COME WHAT MAY
Now in their late 40s, Jason and Judith are still keeping up with their humanitarian work overseas, their restaurant business, as well as speaking at Christian conferences and seminars.
There is still a possibility of a relapse as a remnant of the tumour is left. Jason tells his doctor that he will not go for his annual check up unless the symptoms return.
“Even if it comes back, come what may, I will still praise God and say that He is good,” he said.
This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared in Salt&Light.
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