From Fear to Faith: How Queen Found Peace in the Operating Room

Zambia is a young and vibrant country in Southern Africa with a tapestry of rivers, wildlife, and resilient people. It is a democratic republic where relative peace has taken root. But access to specialized medical care remains limited, making many medical journeys precarious. 

In a small village of Mumba, a bus set out for the capital city, carrying a young girl named Queen toward an operating room. With each kilometer, the weight in her heart grew heavier. She was heading to Beit-CURE Children’s Hospital of Zambia, where doctors would operate on her bent leg—a condition that had shaped her young life. But it wasn’t the physical pain that frightened her most. It was the uncertainty, the fear of what lay ahead in that operating room.

CURE Zambia is a faith-based teaching hospital that provides specialized surgical care and spiritual support to children under 18 with treatable physical disabilities. It’s more than just a medical facility. Beit-CURE is built on the conviction that healing must address the whole person—body, mind, and spirit. There, surgery and Scripture walk hand in hand. Doctors pray with their patients. Nurses speak words of encouragement alongside medical instructions. 

When Queen arrived at the hospital, the reality of what awaited her crashed over her like a wave. 

But then came an unexpected gift.

Just days before her scheduled surgery, OneHope launched a pilot program at the hospital called Journey to the Unknown, a series of five lessons designed to help children like Queen process their emotions in healthy ways. At first, Queen wasn’t sure what to expect. But lesson by lesson, something began to shift inside her.

The program didn’t shy away from hard feelings— fear, sadness, anger, even the disgust that can come with medical trauma. Instead, it met those emotions head-on, giving them names and teaching Queen that it was okay to feel them all. But more importantly, the lessons introduced her to a truth that would change everything: she didn’t have to walk through this alone.

Through stories from God’s Word, Queen discovered that Jesus walks with people through their darkest valleys, through their deepest pain. One particular truth lodged itself deep in her heart like an anchor: Jesus is with me, even in pain. She whispered it to herself, again and again. “Even in pain, He is with me.”

By the time her surgery day arrived—just one day after the final lesson—Queen entered the operating room with a remarkable confidence that surprised everyone, including herself. The fear hadn’t completely disappeared. But it no longer controlled her. She had learned something powerful in those five sessions: courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s knowing you’re not alone in it. As the anesthesia began to take effect, Queen whispered one more time, “Jesus is with me.” The operation went well, and in the recovery room afterward, both Queen and her mother felt God’s presence, tangibly wrapping around them like a blanket in that sterile hospital space.

The day after her operation, the OneHope team returned to check on Queen. What they found was remarkable. There she was, her leg bandaged and still healing, but her face radiant with joy. The anxiety that had clouded her eyes just days earlier had been replaced with something brighter—a peace that surpasses all understanding.

“I remembered what we learned,” Queen said, her voice steady and sure. “God helps people in pain or when they’re tired to be strong. Jesus is my Shepherd, and all through it, I had peace.”

Standing beside her hospital bed, Queen’s mother wiped away tears of gratitude. 

What began as a journey filled with fear had transformed into a testimony of faith. The lessons hadn’t removed the need for surgery or erased the recovery ahead, but they had given Queen something far more valuable: the assurance that she wasn’t walking through it alone.

Today, Queen is still healing, but her spirit is already made whole. She and her mother continue to trust in Jesus. They’re not returning home the same way they came. They’re going home with a deeper understanding of God’s faithfulness, a lived experience of His presence in the trials, and a story that will inspire others facing their own unknown journeys.

Queen’s story reminds us that true healing isn’t just physical; it’s also spiritual and emotional. When we equip children with God’s Word and teach them to process their fears through the lens of faith, we give them tools that last far beyond a hospital stay. We give them courage for every unknown journey that lies ahead.

In the end, Queen learned what so many of us need to remember: No matter how dark the valley, no matter how uncertain the path, we never walk alone. The Good Shepherd walks beside us, and that changes everything.

Know someone who needs encouragement? Share Queen’s story and remind them that Jesus still transforms lives today.