The Im Family
This is the story of the Im’s. May their story of miraculous healing encourage you today.
From Hannah:
We are Isak and Hannah Im from Korea. We came to the US from Korea in 2010 to do my (Isak’s) postdoc course at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. We struggled with infertility for four years and eight months. But we had no known medical problems. Doctors said that they couldn’t find any medical issues to our having a baby.
We thought that God would give us children “someday.” It was not like solid faith. It was a somewhat self-comforting idea while we had no answer. As time went by, doubt and fear that what if God doesn’t give us a child arose in our heart. Sometimes, we thought that because of our sin and shortcoming, God is training or punishing us.
Then we started to read books of various authors from the “faith movement” and the Pentecostal movement, which were new to us. We were excited to find out “hidden” biblical truths about healing and other supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then we attended some healing meetings to see some evidence. Our faith about healing has grown continually as we participated in more meetings and experienced real healings of our own and others. We started attending the Vineyard church in Urbana, Illinois, to pursue this work of God, because our former church was not open to that and we had some conflict.
In the summer of 2011, we received healing ministry for the first time in Chicago from a pastor from Korea. When we received prayer at the healing meeting, my wife experienced several healings such as back pain, one shorter leg growth, cold hands and feet. She felt some warmth at her womb when she received prayer as well.
There was no sign of pregnancy for about one year since we had followed this supernatural healing secretly. It had been three years since we’d been married at that time. My parents wanted us to get some help from the hospital and we decided to do in-vitro fertilization. So Hannah went back to Korea to receive the IVF procedure, and I remained in the US, because our health insurance in the US didn’t cover the IVF.
There was a good sign of success at the beginning, but it failed because there was no heartbeat. We were very sad and frustrated. Hannah came back to Champaign with a wounded heart and body. All the effort and money we had spent for six months resulted in failure and disappointment.
While Hannah was gone, I joined the Vineyard church in Urbana and attended a small group. Our small group members prayed for Hannah while she was in Korea. When Hannah came back, our small group leaders, Steve and Ana Price, introduced us to Dianne to receive prayer for infertility on 8/12/2012. It was a very good meeting. We felt loved by Dianne and other members who attended the meeting.
Although we tried many things, including natural and supernatural things, we didn’t receive an answer. But our heart became closer to God. Our faith in healing became stronger. We didn’t give up, and requested prayers and received prayer when we had the opportunity. As we sought God’s presence and the work of the Holy Spirit, infertility was not really a problem in our life. We were happy to see what we couldn’t see before. We were happy to know the truth that we didn’t know before. And fellowship with the people following the same faith really helped us and cured our hurt. It was really encouraging and helpful when we had a community of the same faith.
We traveled to Washington, DC (October 2012) to attend a meeting held by a Korean church group. It was a small meeting, and we had a group training time about prophecy. One guy from Korea who is a total stranger to us gave me (Isak) a prophecy. At the end of his prophecy he mentioned that he saw a picture of a sonogram. He felt that its meaning was more in the physical realm than the spiritual realm. He said that God wanted to give us a child as a gift. That was really encouraging because he didn’t know our family situation.
Then we returned to Champaign. At our small group meeting that week, some of our members felt some special heart for our family’s baby issue and prayed for us. Ana Price shared something like, “The time has come and you are ready” (I don’t exactly remember). Then I remembered that Josh, who plays guitar at the Vineyard, gave me a prophecy about the blessing of a child to my family on Sunday morning ministry time the week before we went to DC.
That week was the perfect timing. That week was also the only available week for us to have a baby. We knew it was God who planned this. We couldn’t deny that God was working behind this. So, two weeks later, we took a pregnancy test. It was positive! A few weeks later a doctor confirmed it. Our healthy, handsome son, Daniel, was born on June 29, 2013. We are so thankful! On June 18, 2020 we were blessed with a healthy daughter, Sun-A Esther. Her name means good and beautiful (God) in Korean. We are very thankful and joyful for this baby.