Tenn. Woman Healed of Incurable Disease
By Tiffany Rose/Trunews Reporter (Dec 13, 2007)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.— Each new day seems to hold bad news of its own, with reports of natural disasters, violent shootings and widespread disease; however, there is still a reassurance of hope that God is hearing the prayers of the faithful and working miracles great and small. Four months ago, one Tennessee woman received a miracle healing that has forever changed the way she lives.

Thirty-year-old Jennifer Wood of Cleveland, Tenn. has been sick her entire life with a rare, incurable blood disease known as Porphyria type EPP. According to the Web site, www.wrongdiagnosis.com, one of the world’s leading providers of online medical health information, Porphyria is a disorder that causes the body to produce too much of the chemical Porphyrin and accumulates in toxic amounts in the body. Two of the main side effects are extreme sensitivity to sunlight and muscle pain.

Wood, who was born with this illness, went misdiagnosed by doctors for most of her life.

“My life was a medical mystery. For 28 years they didn’t know what was wrong with me,” said Wood.

As a child, Wood said she stayed indoors as much as possible, although some people around her did not always understand.

“It’s really hard for someone that’s normal to understand that being exposed to sunlight is physically painful,” Wood explained. “It’s like my skin is literally lit on fire—a million beestings at once. And anytime I would get any prolonged exposure, I would blister, and I would swell up and turn purple.”

Her first outward symptoms of the sun’s harm came when she was 18 months old. She said doctors told her it was just a jellyfish sting. As she became older, the explanations she heard for her pain ranged from being anemic, having allergies, reactions to sunscreen and detergents, among many others things.

It was not until over two years ago doctors have been able to put a name to Wood’s condition as she became more ill and even came close to dying in the hospital. Because of this disorder, her diet was heavily restricted; she slept during the day and stayed awake at night to avoid sunlight; she experienced severe pain and muscle spasms and had to cover her body from head to toe if she was to be exposed to light.

The Rev. Jack Smith, pastor of ministerial care at North Cleveland Church of God in Cleveland, Tenn., visited Wood when she was in and out of hospitals.

“She was frail. She had lost a considerable bit of weight. You couldn’t really touch her, because the slightest movement would set off excruciating pain for her,” Smith said.

Wood received approximately eight blood transfusions the last year and a half, which would help ease her pain for a short time, but medical science offered little hope of a cure.

“After a year of going through all of that, I had just about given up on hoping, having faith for a miracle, because I knew that was what it was going to take,” Wood explained. “Doctors said the closest thing to a cure I would ever find would be a bone marrow transplant, and it was still a slim chance.”

After suffering physically for 30 years, one conversation with her brother brought renewed hope to Wood’s life.

“It was a Friday night. My little brother calls me up and he goes, ‘I just got out of a prayer meeting. I need to come over and talk to you.’ We just went out on the back patio and talked, and he sat me down and he goes, ‘In my prayer meeting tonight, I was told that by Monday morning you would be healed.’

I just broke down and cried and said, ‘I don’t know if I can have enough strength to believe on my own,’ because the day before, I can been once again in the emergency room,” Wood said

That Sunday morning, Wood said she woke up before the alarm went off and spent time praying for God to give her strength. By the time she was ready for the service, her body was in so much pain she had to fight the urge to crawl back in bed.

“My brother showed up, and he picked me up and had to help me get to the car,” Wood said. “Once we got to church, he had to help me get in to sit down. I had to walk with a cane, and I was dressed in my typical garb; I had on long skirts, long sleeves, gloves, hat, veil and a hooded cape that kept the sun off of me.”

According to Wood, the focus of service that morning at North Cleveland Church of God was on missions. Near the end of the service, the missionary read Mark 16:18 from the Bible.

“When he said, ‘They will lay their hands on those who are sick and they will get well,’ I knew right then that was for me.”

Before the service concluded or the pastor had a chance to announce an altar call, Wood took a step of faith.

“I picked up my cane, and I hobbled down to the front, and I laid my cane down on the altar. I took my gloves off. I took my veil, I took off the hat, and I laid them all down, and I knew something was different.

I was so photosensitive that I couldn’t even be exposed to the spotlights that they had at the front of the church. “People don’t think about them, but those spotlights would cause such burning pain on my skin, and when I didn’t feel anything, I knew something was different,” said Wood.

Smith said he was at the same service Wood received her miracle.

“I went down there to the altar area and there she was. I looked at her, standing up there, this healthy looking young woman, and I said, ‘You’re Jennifer.’ She said, ‘Yes, I’m Jennifer.’ She was excited too.

I grabbed her and hugged her, and she hugged me, and I said, ‘I can’t believe this wonderful miracle!’ All the pain she has lived with all these years and now here she is, whole and healthy and happy and released from all of that. It’s just one of the most uplifting and fantastic things I’ve ever experienced personally,” exclaimed Smith.

After the service was over, Wood spent time outside in the sun.

“I went outside, and I actually got to do what was fun for me. I had to go look at my dad’s car. He’d had a little coolant leak, and before I got sick I used to be a mechanic, so I went out and rolled up my sleeves and got down in his car—out in the sunlight and it didn’t burn. It felt good; it felt warm. I’ve never felt in my life the warmth of sunshine without feeling pain,” said Wood.

Four months have passed since her healing, and Wood said she has been eating regular meals, spending more time with her husband Todd of four years and savoring the small things that are often overlooked in everyday life.

“It’s been really amazing. There are times I step outside during the daylight just because I can,” said Wood. “To be able to feel the warmth of sunlight is something that so many people take for granted. Now I feel like I’m looking at the world almost from a child’s perspective.”

Wood went to the doctor the day after her healing for an appointment. She said her doctors at Blue Ridge Medical Oncology in Cleveland were stunned when the test results from her blood work turned up normal for the first time. According to Wood, that was extra proof to her and others that she had been miraculously healed.

“I have a whole new body. It has taken some time to get used to, but it literally feels like I have new bones, new muscles, new skin” said Wood.

Wood said she is living proof for anyone who does not believe God does miracles today. For those who do not believe God still works miracles, Smith had encouragement to offer.

“First of all, read the Bible. It’s full of miracles from front to back, and God is a God of miracles; in fact, everything that God does is a miracle. People say, ‘Well I wish God could do a miracle for me,’ well He’s done miracles for everybody. Just saving us from sin and eternal damnation is a miracle, probably the greatest miracle,” said Smith.

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