After 2 Hip Surgeries, Little Grace Walks With God
New Zealand girl learns about the power of prayer.
Ten-year-old Grace liked playing tag with her friends in a big field across the street from her home on the outskirts of New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland.
She liked running back and forth, laughing, tripping, playing.
One day she suddenly she felt a pain in left leg as she ran around the field. Her leg hurt! Grace stopped and rubbed her leg. It felt like she had a cramp in the calf of her leg, and she hoped it would go away.
But the pain remained for the rest of the day and then the next day. Grace tried to ignore it, and sometimes she forgot about it. But the pain only grew stronger. The pain moved up her leg to her knee and then higher. It hurt to walk, and Grace began to limp.
Teacher noticed that Grace was limping at South Auckland Seventh-day Adventist Primary School.
“Are you OK?” Teacher asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Grace replied.
Grace’s friends also noticed the limp. Mother noticed, too. Everyone asked Grace if she was all right. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Grace said. She wasn’t fine, but she kept hoping that the pain would go away.
A month passed, and Grace couldn’t bear the pain any longer. She went to Mother.
“My leg hurts, and the pain doesn’t go away,” she said.
Mother looked worried. “It might be the same thing as your brothers,” she said.
Grace had two older brothers with SUFE, a condition of the hip joint that requires an operation. Grace didn’t want an operation.
“I don’t think I have that,” she told Mother.
Mother didn’t do anything, and Grace kept limping. Several days passed, and Mother abruptly told Grace, “We have to go to the doctor.”
Grace was scared. She didn’t know what would happen. Mother assured her that everything would be all right. Before leaving the house, Mother prayed, “Please help Grace, and be with us if she needs to go to surgery.”
At the doctor’s office, Grace lay down for some tests. The doctor asked her to raise her leg and move it back and forth. It hurt to move her leg.
The doctor looked serious. “You have to get an X-ray at the hospital,” he said.
Mother prayed in the car before driving to the hospital.
After the X-ray, Grace waited nervously in the hospital waiting room. She told herself that the leg pain wasn’t a big deal and that she would go home soon.
After an hour, the nurse came out and told Grace that she had to be admitted to the hospital immediately for surgery. Grace was placed in a bed and wheeled away into a room. She was frightened and began to cry.
Mother comforted her. “God will be with us,” Mother said. “There is nothing to worry about.”
Grace nodded her head silently and stopped crying.
Grace underwent surgery the next day. While she was sleeping, the doctor put some pins in her hip to make it stable. She woke up, feeling dizzy, and a nurse gave her an ice cube to suck on. Then she saw Mother waiting for her in the room.
“Are you OK?” Mother asked.
“I’m fine,” Grace said. “I didn’t feel a thing.”
With a big smile, Mother thanked God for the successful operation.
Grace left the hospital two days later and, after using crutches for a few weeks, was walking normally. She was happy that the pain was finally gone.
For five months.
Then Grace noticed a pain in her leg as she and her family were walking around on vacation in Europe. But this time it was her other leg. She immediately told Mother.
“We will check when we get back to New Zealand,” Mother said. “Probably you will have to go to the hospital again.”
Mother ended up being right. Grace had to undergo a second operation at the hospital. But this time she wasn’t scared. She knew God was with her.
“We prayed before the surgery,” Grace said. “But I knew God would take care of everything. No problem.”
God did take care of everything. A few weeks after the operation, Grace was walking on crutches and looking forward to playing tag again soon in the big field across from her home.
Grace has advice for other children who are scared.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “Know that God is always with you. Bless you.”
New Zealand schoolgirl Grace Teao says God is near to those who are struggling. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)
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