Five hours into their marriage, Gospel minister Isaac Serukenya developed a high fever and received emergency treatment. He did not let the sudden impediment ruin the precious moment leading to his honeymoon with newly wed wife, Janet.
We went to our honeymoon while I was recovering, he says.
During the honeymoon however, Serukenya’s wife on the other hand developed pain in her stomach, which subsided with pain killers.
Unknown to the couple then, there was more to come than they anticipated.
“A day after our honeymoon, she collapsed on her way to work and was hospitalized with a call for immediate surgery to remove the fibroid that was becoming malignant,” Serukenya said, during an exclusive interview with a state linked news daily.
The doctors told Serukenya that due to the severity of the surgery his wife had gone though, there were slim chances of the couple ever having children.
All of this happened in a space of one to two weeks after their wedding!
Years later, when it seemed like all was finally settled, Isaac got a stroke. This was in 2015.
It was a trying time in which he required physiotherapy to restore muscle function and absence from the things he loved to do. The couple however urges that the previous experience with illness gave them confidence that God would enable them go through the ordeal.
Through it all, Serukenya and his wife, Janet were determined and convinced that getting married to each other was the best decision they had ever made and that with God at the center of our marriage, it would be well.
“Seventeen years later, God has been good to us. He answered our prayer and blessed us with four healthy children. Surely, a chord of three strands; you and your wife and God cannot be easily broken just as it is recorded in Ecclesiastes 4:12. Nothing can break up a marriage where two are submitted to the same and only wise God. Such a marriage and family with thrive, even in the midst of adversity,” Serukenya told the news outlet.
The couple now married 17 years believes that a firm belief in God and the “two of us together [are] an unbeatable team.”
On the other hand, they urge that one of the major elements of a healthy marriage is effective communication.
“We do our best to talk to each other. For me, this does not come naturally. I would rather keep something and sort it out on my won, but I have had to learn to be intentional about talking to my wife over even the most trivial of issues. If you cannot talk, you build castles in the air and monsters out of mere shadows. These are subject to misunderstanding,”
To couples out there, Serukenya advice is, “love God and each other because love causes one to protect, to seek the good for the other before ourselves and to continuously want to improve oneself for the good of the other.”
editor@ugchristiannews.com
