MACHÉ JOUBERT: FEATURE STORY

I AM MACHE JOUBERT, AND I LIVE IN DE DOORNS.

I am married to my wonderful husband Niel, and we have three children, Nielan, Lira and Juben. I am very excited to share my story. I knew this day would come, although I actually hoped that it wouldn’t because, in a way, it feels like it is not really my story to share. Although, it did happen to me, and I was the lead character. He is the one who wrote the story, and everyone else made it happen.

Recently I listened to a teaching by Andy Stanley called “When Life Happens,” which impacted me, because “life happened” to me. At the end of the teaching, he spoke about a section in John 9:3 about the man that was born blind, and the people asked Jesus to tell them why this man was blind. Was it because he sinned, or his parents? Jesus looked at them and said: “It was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him.”

When I read this, I realised that my story happened so that God’s works may be displayed and so people could experience His miracles. It has nothing to do with me or anyone else…it’s God’s work on display. I went back and tried to remember everything that happened, listened to and read messages and realised what the theme of my story is: “God’s perfect timing.”

I love detail, so I will try and do it as shortly as possible. There are so many small things that God did and so much detail that contributed to my survival. How I made it through my time in the hospital and that I came through the time at home, and that I can sit here today, stronger than ever before, knowing that God came through for me and that He still does miracles today.

On 29 December 2019, we visited our good friends at ‘Misverstand Dam’. There was a retaining wall outside the house, the kind that you can plant plants in. They used them specifically to build stairs leading up to their deck. Throughout the weekend, we used these stairs without any concern.

I carried Juben, our youngest, who was about nine months old at the time, and when I got to the second last step, I lost my balance and realised that I was going to fall. I realised that I was probably going to get hurt and maybe have a few bruises, but besides that, I just could not allow Juben to fall because if that happened, he could get seriously hurt.

Never did I think that it would be me that got seriously injured. I was unable to stop myself from falling. The moment I hit the ground, I let go of Juben, and as I sat up, I realised I was severely injured. I looked at my husband and told him I had injured myself badly. He looked at me and said: “Mache, I know, the blood is running down your back.” Then I lost consciousness. No one could figure out what had happened at that moment, but everyone jumped to action and started helping and working together.

The first miracle of this story is the significant number of people that were available to help. Our friends’ mom is a nurse. They immediately called her, and she came to help. They got me into the car and rushed me to Piketberg Hospital because ‘Misverstand Dam’ is in a very secluded place, and the ambulance would have taken too long to arrive.

At the hospital, where there was only a junior doctor, they were struggling to get me out of the car, and I was screaming due to the excruciating pain I was experiencing.

There was a pint of blood that was the right type, available at the hospital that day (apparently, that rarely happens), which was a miracle as I could receive it immediately.

Johan (our friend we were visiting) made many phone calls to Discovery Health (our medical aid). He explained to them the seriousness of our situation in order to get a helicopter. We were too far from critical care, and at the rate that I was losing blood I wouldn’t make it. Niel and I were recently talking about what happened, he realised that if the helicopter had not come, I would not have been here today. Another part of the miracle.

Initially we were informed that the helicopter was unable to fly at that time due to the amount of ‘air pockets’ and the strong wind that were blowing in Cape Town. But, 10 minutes later we were informed that the helicopter was on its way. Once it arrived and the paramedics took over to fly me to Christian Barnard Hospital, my husband finally had hope that everything would be okay.

I regained consciousness on the theatre table. I remember the doctor and anaesthetist standing next to me, informing me that they were about to operate. I looked at the doctor and said, “Doctor, please, I have three very small children.” The seriousness of what was unfolding suddenly hit me. They struggled for four hours to stop the bleeding, and I received six units of blood. I’d fallen onto a rebar (a steel reinforcing bar), that was hidden upright in a shrub next to the stairs, and no one knew about it. It penetrated 20cm deep into my body. (Niel said we should keep it as a daily reminder of my miracle.) He showed a picture of this object to the doctor, giving them a clearer picture of what happened. The rod entered my side, punctured my lung and damaged the main artery between my heart and lung. This is what caused the heavy bleeding.

I was in theatre for five hours, and after surgery, the doctor’s exact words to me were: “Mache, I stood with your one lung in my two hands, and I had a God moment.” She said that this type of injury she had only seen three times before. One patient lived for 48 hours and the other for 24 hours thereafter, so she had this moment with God asking Him what she needed to do. She decided that in my case, she would put my lung back because the probability of her having to operate and open me up again was very high, due to the rusted object that could cause infection.

I was kept under sedation for three days and when I woke up I still thought we were in 2019, although it was the 2nd of January 2020. It was quite a shock to realise that this was not over and that there was quite a road ahead of me. I was on a ventilator and it was so unbelievably tough not to be able to talk, but to see everyone around me cry because they were so happy that I was alive. Besides not talking, I was frustrated by being awake all of the time, the pain and negative emotions, on top of not being well looked after by the staff, got me to a place of shifting my focus from weekly or daily to “breath by breath” - every breath was a step closer to my victory.

One of my highlights of the month in the hospital was on the morning of my 8th day. I’d gone to sleep feeling heartbroken and defeated, hoping someone would just come and help me. The next morning I opened my eyes, and standing before me was this beautiful blonde girl (she looked like an angel). She informed me that they would remove the ventilator, and she worked so gently with me. This caused new hope to arise within me. After removing the ventilator the process of learning to get up and walk again started. Only two days later, I walked for the first time… it was a fantastic day!

Infection set in again…. I couldn’t believe it because I was on the road to recovery, and I had just started walking. Another surgery was scheduled, I thought the extent of it would be to rinse the lung. But, they had to remove a third of my lung, as it was completely rotten due to the infection caused by the rusted object.

I woke up in excruciating pain. I couldn’t explain to the nurses what was happening as I was on a ventilator again. Something wasn’t right with the drip, so I got no medication at all, which led to my body going into complete shock.

My amazing mom moved into the hospital that day due to the poor care I had received the previous night. She refused to go home and slept at the hospital, in the ICU, on a couch, and in my room. At 3 in the morning, they came to draw blood, and I fell asleep again. When I woke up, I couldn’t move my arm, and I realised something was wrong. I told my mom I was struggling to breathe, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe at all. She ran to get doctors to come and help. My diaphragm was paralysed so that I couldn’t breathe at all. It was the closest I came to death. Everything around me went white, and I couldn’t move, I couldn’t hear anything, and I felt like I had no control. Miraculously they got me back onto a ventilator, and later during the day, it was removed.

Throughout this process, my faith was up and down, but everyone around me prayed with unwavering faith. On the morning of the 19th of January, I was very discouraged because after doing so well, I regressed again, and I didn’t see how I would get out of there. That same morning a lady from my mentoring group sent me a message and explained how she had gone forward for prayer in church; which she had never done before, not even for herself, but that morning when she saw the bottle of oil, she knew she had to respond and go forward to pray for me. She said it was the most amazing experience. After church, she sent me a message saying that she believed the bubbles in the drain would clear (this was a prerequisite for the drains to be removed and for me to get out of ICU). I remember listening to this message and thinking, “Lord, I’m so thankful for what you are doing in her life. I’m so proud of her, but I don’t really believe this because they told me it would take 2-3 weeks for the bubbles in the drain to clear.” I knew it would happen sometime, but I definitely didn’t have the faith for it to happen soon.

Every morning the same doctor came to check on me. She would open the curtains and very enthusiastically say, “How is it going here today? Let’s quickly check the bubbles.” I thought these bubbles would make me lose my mind, but that morning she saw there weren’t any bubbles there.

I couldn’t believe it. I just wanted to cry. This miracle caused others’ faith to be stirred and built up. The next day the bubbles came back, and on the 21st of January, I experienced the next setback. My progress was up and down, and it was so discouraging.

After three weeks, I could finally shower by myself for the first time (it was amazing), but, while doing that, a nurse burst through the door telling me to get out immediately due to another infection that they had picked up on. Right there and then, I thought, “I can’t do this anymore.” I felt like I could die. How was I ever going to get out of there?

Esthea and Marcelle came to visit me. I just sat and cried. They prayed for me and encouraged me. Soon after that, the doctor walked in and explained that it wasn’t an infection, it was something completely different and not that serious, but they drew the blue curtains, and there I had to stay in my little room.

I was quite negative at this stage, and in walked another miracle, a nurse from India (I think) she turned my bed around so I could look at the view and, by doing that, gave me an entirely different perspective. I felt like there was hope and life. She made me aware of my words and what I was saying, constantly reminding me that there is power in my words. Although I know this and have said this to others, it was something that I wasn’t aware I was doing at that time, and there were so many things happening. It challenged me to be mindful of my thoughts and speech.

The next day they removed my drains and moved me to a private room. It felt like I was in a hotel. It was amazing hearing no beeping sounds and being able to shower by myself. Then reality hit me. How was I going to go home? What was this journey going to look like? Marcelle sent me a message saying, “Don’t let the entire staircase overwhelm you. Just focus on that first step,” This meant so much to me because every day and week was different. I couldn’t look at today and know what next week would be like.

Jesus’

hand was in every day.

As I previously mentioned, I learned to live ‘breath by breath.’ He is there every step/every moment of the day. We just need to go forward and focus on the ‘now’. What can we do now?

On the 26th of January, I went home, and there a whole new journey started. I can talk about that for ages, but a few things that I learnt from the process that I would like to highlight to you is:

1. Pray in the Spirit

Romans 8:26 says, “And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times, we don’t even know how to pray or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.”

Everyone around me was praying in the spirit because no one knew exactly what to pray for, but they knew it was time for warfare.

Pray in the spirit because God knows what we don’t. He allows things to happen the way it is supposed to. God is in control of every step and every breath. I am so grateful for those who fought in the spirit for us and kept praying.

2. God’s work on display

I did not see Jesus, and I did not have this heavenly encounter, but many people around me did and could see God at work…experiencing God doing miracles. This happened to me, but it was God’s incredible plan and His work that He came to do.

3. Gratitude generates Joy

In 2019, someone told me:” Be grateful, Mache, and if you look for the things you are thankful for, you will have joy.” It gave me so much peace.

I’m still not completely sure what the purpose of this whole story is. When I heard someone say, “it’s about intimacy, not fruitfulness.” This deeply impacted me. It’s all about our intimate relationship with God and not about what we do or how we talk, or how my testimony will impact others. I can’t concern myself with that; it’s not my battle. It’s about what God wants to do. My focus should be my intimate relationship with God.

The Lord showed me a picture of a kaleidoscope. I am an “all over the show” kind of person, and I love colour, and I got this promise over my life that God is busy putting all the small pieces together and creating one big amazing picture. In this life, I might not even see the full picture, but while God’s light is shining through this kaleidoscope, He is creating and putting together this beautiful picture that will make a difference for His Kingdom here on earth.

This is my story!