Faith Pot

A baby born without a brain four decades ago says God created a brain for him and is inspiring others with his powerful testimony.

Jacob Phillips, 44, who is a resident of West Monroe, Louisiana, shares his story, which began at Louisiana’s Bossier General Hospital on Dec. 12, 1977. He was delivered by Caesarean section with “triple trouble,” and his doctors weren’t too hopeful that he would survive.

‘Triple trouble’

“I was born with hydrocephalus, more commonly known as water on the brain. I also had partial skull formation, which means I barely had any skull, [and] to top it all off, I had no brain,” Phillips said.

He adds, “My brain stem was what was keeping me alive. Finding this out, the doctor told my parents and family I wouldn’t live through the hour. I was given an immediate death sentence. I credit my faith in God for where I am today. I strive to keep a close relationship with God because He gave me what I needed to live.”

Phillips was blessed to have a Christian mother who prayed for God’s intervention and never gave up on him even. She had suffered a miscarriage with her first baby before some time he was born and on the day he was delivered, his dad was “extremely distraught”. “I can’t imagine what was going through [my mom’s] mind when the doctor gave the bad news. My dad was a quiet man who didn’t say much,” Phillips said.

The family received an outpouring of support from Phillips’s grandparents’ church in West Monroe. Phillips’s mother threatened to wheel herself to the nursery to feed her ailing son, despite her doctor’s disapproval, and she received the support she needed.

“I remember my grandmother telling me once that she told the doctor I wasn’t going to die. She looked him in the eye and said, ‘You don’t know what my God can do!’” Phillips said.

God created a brain

While the family was clinging on to their faith in God for Phillips, his nurse Susie also demonstrated her faith and called her pastor Don Logan, of nearby Shreveport, with the approval of his mother. Phillips’s grandparents also called their own pastor in West Monroe, Loel Ashbrook, whose friend, Duane Amis, happened to be in the office when they called.

“I call these three men the Power Trio,” said Phillips. “They came to the hospital to pray for me. God created a brain in my head because of the preachers’ prayer.” In his book ‘Born Without A Brain,’ Phillips has mentioned Nurse Susie’s recollections that she sent him via Facebook messenger, from a conversation she had with Pastor Duane Amis in 2014.

Nurse Susie wrote: “I remember the baby without a brain. His head was shaped like a peanut. He had hydrocephalus. We transferred him to Ochsner’s Hospital in New Orleans. The Lord healed that child. The neurosurgeon called him a vegetable that day; I was infuriated! The baby’s head was so filled with fluid, doctors didn’t know if surgery would help. I think Jacob [Phillips] was 3 when his mom brought him back to see me. I wept that day! I am so thankful the Lord let me see His power.”

Phillips who is legally blind and has undergone 25 surgeries in his life, beginning with a major surgery at 1 week old to have a shunt fitted in his head to correct hydrocephalus. The doctors later built him a skull using bone grafts. But at the age of 10, Phillips met with a life-threatening situation when his his shunt “supposedly malfunctioned.” He couldn’t hold down food and spent 26 days in hospital, where the shunt was replaced, and a stomach cyst caused by the malfunction was removed.

Phillips was bullied from preschool to high school because of the way he looked and felt better at home because almost every day he would return from school in tears. “That part of my life has been difficult to overcome, but I have left it behind for the most part,” he reflected. “I don’t really have a philosophy I live by; I just take one day at a time.”

He says that growing up amid people of faith helped him to overcome the negativity around him and he became “born again” at 10 years of age in his uncle’s children’s church. He was called into ministry at the early age of 17, and after 25 years he became a licensed and ordained evangelist minister.

He and his wife of 12 years, Charlene, 42, run a ministry called ‘Sons of Righteousness’ and travel across the country to share the goodness of God, “We met when I was 18, and she was 16, through a mutual friend over the phone,” Phillips said. “I went to see her a few days later, and when I stepped out of the car, I took one look at her and said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl one day.’ I couldn’t ask for anyone better.”

Phillips’ book “Born Without a Brain,” share the story of his life and inspire others in faith. He had to wait for 9 years to publish it. “I have a friend in Oregon who helped me get started, and a friend in Mississippi hooked me up with a publisher in West Virginia who would ultimately help me get published on Amazon,” he said. “I wanted to get my story out to show God still does miracles, and He wants to do something in the lives of others.”

Phillips has a message for all of us who are struggling, he says to pray to God about it. “I’m huge on having a solid prayer life,” he said. “There is nothing in this life that can’t be overcome.”

Are you inspired by this amazing testimony of Phillips? Share this story with your friends and family.

https://www.faithpot.com/baby-born-without-brain-jacob-phillips/

天生無腦 今成牧師

【特約記者／謝宜汝綜合編譯】一個一出生即被醫生宣判只剩一小時可以存活的無腦男嬰，竟然在祖母、母親、教會牧者和弟兄姊妹的代禱下得到醫治。40年後的今天，他以牧者身分，站上講台見證上帝的奇妙大能！

「我能夠站在這裡，歸因於對上帝的信心。我努力與上帝保持密切的關係，因為他給了我生活所需要的一切。」44歲的雅各．菲力浦斯（Jacob Phillips）說道。

雅各見證時分享，他於1977年十二月12日，出生在美國路易士安那州西門羅（West Monroe）波西爾綜合醫院（Bossier General Hospital）。他是通過剖腹產出生的，當時醫生診斷他患有腦積水，只有少部分顱骨形成，最可怕的是他「沒有大腦」（中樞神經系統最上層四個腦葉部分）。他是靠著腦幹維持著生命，因此，醫生告訴他的父母和家人，小雅各活不過一個小時，等於是宣判了他的死刑。沒想到，神卻給了雅各一個活下來的機會！

母親與眾人迫切禱告 搖動神的手

原來面臨這場磨難的小雅各的母親是基督徒，她堅信此時必堅心倚靠神，並請求上帝幫助小雅各，讓他活下去。小雅各的母親曾經有過一次流產經驗，因此她在上帝的面前禱告，告訴上帝，她不想再失去另一個孩子。甚至她不顧醫生的反對，堅持到育嬰室懷抱哺餵小雅各。

與此同時，醫院裡擠滿了支持和代禱的人群，包括小雅各的父母，以及在西門羅教會的弟兄姐妹，他們不斷地為小雅各迫切祈禱。

雅各回憶祖母告訴他，儘管醫生的診斷相當讓人沮喪，但是她還是必須為小雅各而戰。她甚至告訴醫生：「這個孩子不會死，你不知道我的神有何等大的能力！」

當一家人迫切禱告在上帝的面前時，照顧小雅各的護士蘇茜（Susie）也打電話給她的牧師唐洛根（Don Logan）。小雅各的祖父母也打電話給他們在西門羅教會的牧師洛爾（Loel Ashbrook），以及他們的朋友杜安（Duane Amis）。這三位牧者、傳道人不顧一切地來到醫院，一同來為小雅各禱告。上帝就在眾人的代禱下，為小雅各「創造了一個大腦」！

在雅各．菲力浦斯寫的書《天生沒有大腦》（Born Without A Brain）裡，記錄了護士蘇茜的話：「我記得這位沒有大腦的嬰兒。他的頭形狀像顆花生，他有嚴重的腦積水，所以我們把他轉到紐奧良的奧克斯納醫院（Ochsner’s Hospital）。神親手醫治了那個孩子…..小雅各3歲時，他的媽媽帶他回來看我。那天我哭了！我非常感謝主讓我看到祂的大能。」

信仰幫助他克服成長過程的一切艱辛

雖然如此，小雅各的成長過程仍然非常艱辛，他全盲，一生中更經歷了25次手術，從1週大就開始做手術，頭上被安裝了分流器，以治療腦積水，再以骨移植建造了頭骨。最讓他難以忍受的是，因為他奇特的外形，在學校容易受到同學欺負。在他成長的過程中，幾乎每天都會淚流滿面地回家。他回憶道：「我生命中的這個階段很難克服，但我大部分的時間都把它拋在腦後。我並沒有什麼哲學觀，我只是一天天的過下去。」

在小雅各十歲那年，因為分流器故障，遭遇了危及生命的重大事件。當時他無法吞嚥，在醫院待了26天，並更換分流器，切除了由故障引起的胃囊腫。後來他好起來，並在教會中「重生」了。他在信仰中成長，並靠著從神而來的堅定信心，克服了圍繞在他四周的嘲弄和負面情緒，並於17歲時被神呼召進入神國事工。25年後，他成為一名按立的傳道人、牧師。

譯文來源：基督教論壇報