“Please pray for us,” Jared and Johanna Spangenberg pleaded via e-mail. “Caleb had his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday, but his recovery has gotten really complicated.”
Just days after surgery, sixteen-year-old Caleb, was expected to be well on his way to recovery. But merely over 24 hours post-operation, Caleb developed a high fever and extreme swelling on the left side of his face. In the middle of the night, he was rushed to a local hospital.
“We are here now,” they wrote after Caleb was admitted. “His white blood cell counts are over 36,000, his fever continues to be high, and he is on four I.V. antibiotics. His CT scan shows some small fractures in his sinus, and his left sinus is filled with blood and infection. Please pray for Jesus to heal his body and give him strength and rest.” (To put this in perspective, according to clevelandclinic.org, "the normal white blood cell count ranges between 4,000 and 11,000 cells per microliter.")
Prayers and words of encouragement quickly flooded the Spangenbergs’ inboxes, and they stood over Caleb’s hospital bed, reading the responses and praying aloud. As they finished praying, Caleb grabbed Johanna’s hand and remarked, “Mom, your hand is warm, and my hand is cold.” After four days, Caleb’s high fever had finally broken, and, thankfully, did not return.
Though his fever had broken, Caleb continued to experience weakness, pain, and infection which, at that point, was spreading down his neck. The doctors were puzzled, as they had never experienced a case like Caleb’s. It was imperative that they stop the spread of the infection, as it was dangerously close to his brain, and spreading toward his heart. If the correct bacteria couldn’t be identified, he could become septic.
However, it was clear that even a powerful antibiotic would only keep the infection under control temporarily. Until the root of the problem could be addressed, Caleb’s condition would remain serious. For the next eight days, the Spangenbergs would be required to wait as doctors consulted together to figure out the best treatment for Caleb’s condition.
As their own faith was being refined, the Spangenbergs determined to be a testimony to those around them. “Our perspective changed when his fever broke. It’s like we opened up our eyes and looked around and saw, ‘Okay, there are other people here that have needs,’” Jared remarked. “There were a lot of people we were running into who had been there a lot longer, whose kids were really, really, really sick. And we were like, ‘I think the Lord has us here for them.’ And also, to be a light to the doctors and nurses. [We realized] we're walking into a place where there's a lot of hopelessness. Even though we're struggling, He brought us in to bring light, and life, and His peace.”
Johanna shared in another email update: “This hospital is our mission field for a few more days…You can't just walk into a hospital and start witnessing to people...but God, in His sovereignty and love, had Caleb admitted here, and we can boldly share and pray publicly in the halls and not be stopped. What the enemy meant for evil is already being worked out for our good and for His glory!”
Jared was able to form one such relationship with the father of a child in the room adjacent to Caleb’s, who expressed that most parents of children who are hospitalized long-term are in survival mode. “He said that it was so unusual that we would have the strength to come out of our own little bubble and actually care to talk with him,” said Johanna. So, they made it a point to check in and pray. “[These parents] don’t have church families. They don’t have the community of Christ around them. [They’re] very alone [and don’t] have that spiritual and emotional support. So, we felt like the Lord allowed us to come in as a little bit of light to that darkness that he’s sitting in.”
As the Spangenbergs continued to view the hospital as their mission field, they found themselves with opportunities to encourage other believers who were walking through difficulty. One day, they met a family from Ethiopia, whose son was also hospitalized. The mother would walk the halls, praying for the children in each room. She and Johanna eventually connected over lunch, encouraging each other in their faith, and later visited their room and prayed for their son as well. “They were at such a point where they were so alone and weary and have the language barrier,” said Johanna, “So, once again, just bringing a little bit of hope and light and, for them, fellowship that was much needed.”
They also recall an interaction with a doctor, who had tracked with Caleb’s condition for three days of his hospitalization. On the third day, she expressed to Jared and Johanna that she is a believer, and she had been struggling to share her faith in her work environment. “[She said] just watching us gave her strength, that she can pray with people, she can bring hope into their situations.”
Not only were the Spangenbergs able to be a light in the darkness through their own actions, but also through the actions of their church family and friends who surrounded them with support. “[People] knew we were Christians, not just by us and our own individual love, but the love that was showered on us from the body of Christ…They saw the difference. It’s so counter-cultural. So, the whole church was this testimony of the love of Christ at work,” said Johanna.
People stepped up to bring food, provide care and safe places for Jared and Johanna’s two other sons to stay, and most importantly, pray. Caleb even had several visitors, including family, a few close friends, his student group leader, and Calvary Student Ministries staff, Alex Vocature and Joshua Brussel. It was these interactions, along with time to read Scripture and listen to the audio Bible, that sustained Caleb.
Just weeks before his hospitalization, Caleb had been baptized. While visiting the hospital, one of Caleb’s mentors encouraged him saying, “You know, you’re in good company because Jesus, after His baptism, was taken out for a pretty intense time of trial in the wilderness.” This was something that not only encouraged Caleb, but Jared and Johanna as well. Johanna remarked, “It was almost as if we were the bystanders, watching [Caleb] be taken into the wilderness and have to fast, and be tempted, and tested, and [watch] his own faith grow. And our faith grew for sure. But mostly we felt very humbled by it all. When you’re in a situation like this and people are helping out, you really need it…This is the Christ community. This is what it’s intended to be. We take care of each other, and we love taking care of others, but then when it comes back on you, it's just such a humbling experience for other people to sacrifice for you.”
Finally, after eight days of hospitalization, the doctors approached Jared and Johanna with the option for Caleb to be transferred to the care of a maxillofacial surgeon who operates at Lancaster General Hospital. After talking it over, they decided to have Caleb transferred that weekend.
Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Chambers, who attends Calvary Church, was the maxillofacial surgeon on call. His wife, Krista, had brought his attention to Caleb’s name on the hospital list the previous Sunday, explaining how she knew Johanna, and how Caleb had complications with an oral procedure. It wasn’t until Dr. Chambers received a call about Caleb’s transfer that he put two-and-two together.
“The kind of God-thing about this was that I was not supposed to be on call that weekend,” said Dr. Chambers. “I had actually switched with another doctor to cover for me for another weekend, and so the fact that we even overlapped was totally God.” While Dr. Chamber’s wife had a friendship with Johanna, Michael had never met the family. Upon meeting at the hospital, the first thing he told Johanna was, “I wish you would have called my wife!” Seeing her confusion, he explained, “My wife sings with you in Bible study and she plays in the orchestra.” Johanna recalls looking down at his name tag, seeing the name “Chambers,” and exclaiming, “What?! You’re Krista’s husband??” She texted Jared right away:
“You’re not going to believe this, but [the doctor] goes to Calvary! He saw our son’s name in the bulletin. I know his wife. I KNOW HIS WIFE! They’ve been praying for us!”
It was something only God could have orchestrated. That week, just before Caleb went into the operating room, Dr. Chambers came to talk to Caleb and said, “My colleague and I are born-again believers, and we’re going to be praying for you as we operate on you.” This gave Caleb, Jared, and Johanna overwhelming peace. “The Lord has got our son and, for Caleb’s sake, to have a Christian doctor say that to him…it was amazing,” Johanna recalls.
“I didn't really know what I was getting into until I actually got in there,” said Dr. Chambers, “so I asked one of my partners in my practice to come in and just be an extra set of hands.” He went on to say that he tries to start each day with prayer, and will pray with others he comes into contact with when the situation allows for it. “To me, that's a way to encourage a patient, just being able to [tell them], like, ‘Listen, God's going to hopefully work through my hands and be able to help heal you.’”
By the grace of God, the surgery was successful. After cleaning out an infection the size of a golf ball and removing a broken molar that was protruding into the sinus, Caleb woke up the next day having dramatically improved. Throughout his hospitalization, his pain level was consistently at a seven out of ten. By the day after surgery, it was down to a one or two. He had made such improvement overnight that the doctors cleared him for discharge.
Looking back, Dr. Chambers said that he was most amazed by Caleb’s attitude and demeanor in his short time at LGH. “Obviously any kid that's in a hospital for that long, especially a teenager, would typically be pretty miserable by the end and just pretty much be defiant and not talking to anyone,” but this was not the case with Caleb. Dr. Chambers recalls hearing several nurses comment about Caleb’s positivity, politeness, and kindness. Likely without realizing it, they were seeing Jesus in Caleb. “His actions, and the words that he was using, were really impacting a lot of people, whether they knew it or not. [It was] really a good environment for him to really just be able to share Christ. I think even our staff in our office felt that as well. I certainly was able to then share [the story with them]. So, it was an opportunity for me to be able to share the faith of a kid with someone that may not have that same relationship.”
It was truly amazing how God both worked through Caleb, and interceded to bring him to a place where he could begin to truly recover. "We were desperate in prayer before the Lord,” said Johanna. “Caleb looked so seriously ill, and we could see this, but we really had no idea until looking back just how grave the situation was. And it could have gotten far worse if the Lord hadn't sent us the right doctor at the right time. We could have lost our son. That's how serious and rare the situation was. But God.”
When asked what he took away from this difficult experience, Caleb said, “I think it improved just my faith and trust in God and not wasting time.” Johanna added that their trust in the Lord was strengthened, citing Psalm 34 as a passage of Scripture that anchored them:
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
Psalm 34: 4-9, ESV
In their final email update, the Spangenbergs expressed their gratitude: “We are so grateful to God and to all of you. Your love has been felt deeply by us, and it has also been a light to the outside world, just as Jesus promised: ‘by this shall all men know that you are my disciples: if you love one another’ (John 13:35). Caleb is going to be well again. He has been strengthened inwardly, and God has been glorified through this. What the enemy had meant for harm, our loving and perfect Heavenly Father has graciously used to refine and redeem… We have spent two weeks on our knees in desperation at the throne of grace. He has not forsaken us, and we will not be the same.”