Make a DonationJasma Lynae Powell, “Jazzy,” was born on October 22, 1990. In September of 1994, Jazzy was diagnosed with kidney cancer; a Wilms tumor. The impacted kidney was surgically removed. She then went through a round of chemotherapy and subsequently radiation treatment. Her team of medical doctors and oncologists informed our family that they weren’t sure if the cancer had impacted her lymph nodes. Jazzy went into remission for a period of 8 months after the chemo and radiation treatments. However, the following year, the cancer returned with a vengeance.
In November of 1995, a week before Jazzy’s transition, her aunt and President & CEO of this organization had an “open vision” while driving down the highway on her way to visit her beloved niece in the hospital. Tei saw a small white and gold casket with pink and white flowers all around the casket. She began to wail and scream. Tei stated, “Lord, please don’t take my niece, please don’t take my niece.” She was so distraught and distressed that she pulled over on the side of the highway. Tei then asked God a question; “Lord, why, why Lord, why?” As the peace of God began to fill her heart and mind, the Lord responded to Tei’s question in a very still small voice, saying, “WHAT WOULD HEAVEN BE LIKE WITHOUT CHILDREN?”
Tei, while still seated in her vehicle on the side of the highway, began to have a paradigm shift in her thinking, an epiphany. She began to think about all the love, joy, laughter, purity, and innocence that “Jazzy” brought to her and her family. Tei’s response to the Lord was, “How much more to YOU Lord!” “I can’t say that I fully understand all of this, but I trust YOU LORD, I trust YOU!”
Three days prior to Jazzy’s transition, while seated in her Mommy’s lap in her hospital room, Jazzy stated, “Mommy, I had a dream!” Her Mother’s response to her was, “What did you dream, Jazzy?” Jazzy said, “I had a dream I was in this place, and Mommy, it was so bright; it was so bright, and it was so beautiful and pretty, Mommy. It was so beautiful! And Mommy, I was playing with all these other children that I didn’t even know!!!!!”
The Lord, in HIS infinite wisdom, grace, and mercy, gave Jazzy a glimpse of what would be her home just 3 short days later; “HEAVEN!!!!!” Jazzy’s glimpse of heaven gave us as a family so much more peace, confidence, expectation, and “HOPE!!!!!” We are thoroughly convinced that we will see her again in the place that she now calls “HOME.” HEAVEN IS HER HOME!!!!! Heaven is real. Heaven is absolute beauty and perfection wherein there is no cancer, sorrow, pain, or death. Because we know that heaven is real and absolute, even as traumatizing and painful as the passing away of a child can be, we can have HOPE. HOPE for the eternal present future, HOPE in this very moment, HOPE right now.
“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’” - Matthew 19:14
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So, we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” - II Corinthians 5:1-8