Testimony of William and Laila Naranjit - An editorial by Christal Benjamin
“I thought I had faith in God but I was scared. And I had to find out who is this God that I am supposed to know because apparently I did not know him well enough. So then I went into the Bible, started in the Old Testament and saw really big miracles there. God could open a sea, God could rain hailstones down and kill the enemy, God could stop the sun in its tracks and do even greater things than I could imagine. He is in charge. He surely is a God to trust!”
These are the reflections of William Naranjit, a man who experienced God’s miraculous healing from a sudden, debilitating illness, which disrupted his life in September, 2017, and threatened to cause even further deterioration of his health.
Before this experience, Naranjit, a former engineer who had a career in Instrumentation and Control Systems (Trintoc/Petrotrin Oil Refinery), and his wife Laila Naranjit a former secondary school teacher, were no strangers to hardship. The Naranjits were blessed with a son and daughter. However, their son Wayne was born with muscular dystrophy. This incurable illness caused the degeneration of Wayne Naranjit’s muscles over time, and he required assistance from his parents and caregivers to perform simple routine tasks and activities. The Naranjits did not allow this situation to limit Wayne. Laila Naranjit retired early to assist Wayne in attending classes at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (UWI) campus, where he did a degree in Management Studies. With his mother’s perseverance in ensuring that the university provided the conditions necessary to facilitate his learning, and the understanding of his lecturers, Wayne did very well at UWI and passed away two elective courses shy of a first class honours degree. Wayne held a summer job at the National Gas Company, and achieved all of the goals that he set for himself before he succumbed to his illness in 2005.
Although the Naranjits learned to trust God while raising and caring for Wayne, William Naranjit found his faith being tested when he began to suffer from a pinched nerve in September, 2017. He started experiencing severe pain which made it difficult to straighten his back. As a result of this, he was unable to sit up or lie down properly. Naranjit, eventually had to use a wheelchair to move around, and Laila Naranjit had to help him with many of the tasks that he was no longer able to do on his own.
The Naranjits reached out to other Christians for prayer and also sought medical advice. William Naranjit visited several doctors and did many tests some of which were very painful (like an echocardiogram) because of the difficulty he had in lying flat. The doctors recommended that Naranjit do surgery to reduce the pain he was feeling, but the decision to do surgery or to not do surgery both had risks. If Naranjit chose not to do surgery, the pain could have increased and he could have lost control of his bladder and bowels as a result of the pressure that was being placed on nerves in his back by surrounding vertebrae. However, doing surgery could have resulted in full or partial paralysis since the procedure involved operating on nerves on his spine.
As Naranjit delved deeper into the scriptures and pondered on the mighty works of God, his faith began to grow and he asked God to heal him. He also told God that he would do the operation if this was His will. A few days before he was scheduled to do the surgery, two men visited Naranjit’s home to pray for him. Naranjit states, “they prayed and something…a kind of revulsion just came over me and I said I don’t want to be in a wheelchair ever again, and I got out of the wheelchair and pushed it aside!” It was at that moment Naranjit was healed but he did not realize it just yet. He states that when a miracle happens it can cause you to become astounded and you might not be able to comprehend it immediately. Naranjit walked the men to the gate and immediately started to do other things the pinched nerve had prevented him from doing. As he moved around and felt no pain, it dawned on William and Laila Naranjit that he had experienced a miracle!
When Naranjit went to visit the surgeon who was supposed to do the operation, he was shocked to see him walking up stairs and standing in an upright position. The surgeon asked him what had happened and he stated that he experienced a miracle. After doing some checks on Naranjit, the surprised surgeon told him that he did not need an operation. He advised him to do physiotherapy to strengthen his core abdominal muscles, but after doing four of twelve recommended sessions, the physiotherapist had to admit that he did not need these sessions. Naranjit’s doctor gave him a clean bill of health and he immediately started driving again, and resumed his normal life.
William and Laila Naranjit both agree that this experience has changed their lives. They state that their faith in God has grown tremendously and they are able to trust Him even in times of uncertainty. Their hunger to know God also increased and they have not only spent more time studying the Bible for themselves, they also started a Community Bible Study (CBS) group at their home which continues online. Laila Naranjit states that having witnessed a personal testimony of God’s intervention in their lives also helps her to evangelize and to share messages about God with others.
Willaim and Laila Naranjit encourage everyone to get to know the God of the Bible who has not changed, and who still saves, heals, and transforms lives.
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