Miracle of the Lime Green Posters (and the power of prayer)

By the Rev. David Knight, rector of St. Simon's on the Sound, Fort Walton Beach

Many of you in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast have followed my challenging health journey in 2025 and have been gracious in praying for me and my wife, Jennifer. This is an attempt to let you know what your prayers meant to me.

I have a blog, https://itinerantpriest.org/, where I have in much greater detail chronicled the first three months of 2025 and this terrible illness I will have for life. If you want the full details, please check out the blog post and Jennifer’s Facebook page. To keep this story from being too lengthy, I will not delve into those details, but I will add the ones below as a way of thanking the people of this wonderful diocese.

After we were transferred to the ICU at Ochsner’s in New Orleans from the hospital in Pensacola and after a week or so there with no improvement, the team decided I needed another colonoscopy (the third in four weeks) in order to get a new look at my colon and take biopsies to help them determine next steps. The scope was done on the Friday of Diocesan Convention. Little did I know that Bishop Russell had asked the attendees at the convention to be praying for us and provided three lime green posters where they could write messages to Jennifer and me. Following the scope, the lead Inflammatory Bowel Disease doctor, the brilliant, kind, and amazing Dr. Shamita Shah, came in on her day off to let us know the colon looked even worse and surgery was most likely the only option for me to survive. The surgery for my disease, Ulcerative Colitis (UC), removes the entire colon and makes a “new one” from the small intestine, with an ostomy bag as part of the deal. This was my one fear and one thing I hoped would not be in my future. It was devastating news. They gave us the weekend to get used to the idea, and I also received a dose of a biologic to see if it would help my symptoms any.

On Sunday, after two days of diocesan convention and doing a Sunday visit, Bishop Russell (who was an amazing pastor to us through all this) drove to New Orleans and presented the posters to us. I cried like a baby upon seeing them and all the messages of prayer and comfort on them. Jennifer taped them to the walls of the room, and everyone who came in (there are TEAMS of doctors and therapists involved with their IBD group) saw them, read them, commented on them, and asked about them. I even had an Occupational Therapist who read the posters and, turning around, asked if I was an Episcopal Priest and had I ever served in Mississippi! Turns out as a young child she attended my church in Long Beach! Deeming me too weak for surgery yet, we continued the IV steroids and other drugs, along with the dose of the biologic, when my symptoms, miraculously, began to improve. Within a week, I experienced significant improvements in symptoms, nutrition, and lab results. Within a week, I was well enough for them to consider releasing us to our home.

I call it the Miracle of the Lime Green Posters. I have no doubt the prayers of so many, along with the support of my family and the praying folks of St. Simon’s on the Sound, made all the difference. For now, I am in remission, will continue the biologics most likely for the rest of my life, and am progressing with diet and exercise. I am back at work on a limited basis, and all of this comes with a deep, deep appreciation for how blessed I am, how fortunate I have a wife not only so knowledgeable in medical issues but willing to go far beyond the usual to care for me, and a parish, diocese, and bishop so committed to prayer and love. Thank you all so much. And lime green is now my favorite color!