Family giving up prayers to resurrect 2-year-old, ‘moving towards a memorial service’

Jared Gilmour

A Northern California family is “moving towards a memorial service” after nearly a week of praying for the resurrection of their 2-year-old girl, according to their church.

The girl, Olive Heiligenthal, stopped breathing at her family’s home in Redding on Saturday and could not be revived, her family said in posts on social media. Parents Andrew and Kalley Heiligenthal have prayed for Olive to come back to life since then, joined by fellow congregants at Bethel Church in the Northern California town and other followers of the Redding-based megachurch around the world.

A movement also sprung up online, capitalizing on the hashtag #WakeUpOlive. A GoFundMe to support the family amid the resurrection prayers raised more than $50,000 this week.

But on Friday evening, Bethel Music — where the girl’s mother, Kalley, is a singer and songwriter — posted an “Olive Heiligenthal Update” on Instagram that suggests the family’s hopes of resurrection have been abandoned.

“Here is where we are: Olive hasn’t been raised. The breakthrough we have sought hasn’t come,” Bethel Music wrote in the post. “And so, we are moving towards a memorial service and celebration of her life.”

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Since learning the news of two-year old Olive Heiligenthal’s sudden death, we have sought a miracle from God to raise her from the dead. We realize this is out of the norm, but that’s what a miracle is—it’s outside the box of nature and our power. As the Bible testifies, God is the God of the reasonable & possible, as well as the God of the unreasonable & impossible. In this process, we have been asking God to fulfill our hearts desire to see His kingdom manifested in great power. When you are a friend of God and know that He is your heavenly Father, you trust Him and ask for big, outlandish miracles. As a church, we have been contending for, singing about, and witnessing God’s power to save, heal, and deliver for over fifty years. It is normal for us to ask for things, trust Him, and then glorify His name regardless of the outcome. This is what life with the King is all about. In this situation, grief has not been avoided, as we have all been grieving from the moment we heard the news. Faith isn’t denial of the facts or of our emotions, it is knowing that God cares and intervenes in the midst of them. Here is where we are: Olive hasn’t been raised. The breakthrough we have sought hasn’t come. With the same heart of confidence in God’s goodness, we receive the comfort of the Good Shepherd as Andrew, Kalley, and Olive’s big sister Elsie, their family, and our church walk together through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). And so, we are moving towards a memorial service and celebration of her life. Our community is being deeply impacted by the tragedy of Olive’s death. As we have gone through this difficult time, we are grateful to see that faith, hope, and love have been the response. The Lord wastes nothing. He will bring beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3). The joy of our faith is that, though we haven’t seen the miracle of Olive being raised, she is alive in the presence of God. Her mom and dad will see her again, and we too will join her in resurrection one day. Believers know that heaven is full of homecomings, reunions, celebration, worship, and joy. He is good, all the time. Thank you for your continued prayers for the Heiligenthal family.

A post shared by Bethel Music (@bethelmusic) on Dec 20, 2019 at 5:29pm PST

Bethel Music’s post thanked supporters of the family for their continued prayers. Bethel Church shared a similar statement on Facebook Friday night.

“The joy of our faith is that, though we haven’t seen the miracle of Olive being raised, she is alive in the presence of God,” the post said. “Her mom and dad will see her again, and we too will join her in resurrection one day.”

Earlier this week, Redding police confirmed the weekend death of the 2-year-old girl even as the family and church continued their prayers for resurrection.

Cops confirm 2-year-old’s death as California church continues resurrection prayers

“We responded originally to a medical call on Saturday morning around 6 a.m.,” Sgt. Brian Torum of the Redding Police Department said in a phone interview with McClatchy News on Thursday. “It resulted in a death.”

The Shasta County Coroner’s Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of the child’s death, but Torum told McClatchy that the child’s body was taken to the coroner, explaining that bodies are sent there “in all cases of death where an autopsy will be performed.”

Police are now investigating the death, according to Torum.

“If it’s unexpected, we’ll open up a case to figure out how the death occurred,” Torum said. “It’s by no means at this point a suspicious death — but we still have to investigate to see what happened.”

Torum added that it could be months before an official cause of death is revealed by the coroner.

“The autopsy has been done. There’s no official result,” Torum said. “It’s still pretty early. We’re still talking to witnesses and going through information. It takes time.”

As recently as Wednesday, Kalley Heiligenthal wrote in an Instagram post that “Day 5 is a really good day for resurrection.”

“I’ve never been more grateful for Jesus,” she wrote Wednesday. “He is endlessly worthy of our love, trust, faith and risk.”

Bethel Church Pastor Bill Johnson shared a video about Olive with the church Facebook page’s half-million followers on Wednesday.

“Mom and dad, Andrew and Kalley, have been praying for the miracle of resurrection. We’ve joined with them,” Johnson said. “We have a biblical precedent: Jesus raised the dead. Jesus raised the dead — not only that, he introduced himself as the resurrection and the life. In fact, in John 11:40, he says: ‘If you believe, you will see the glory of God.’”

Johnson told followers “the child has been in the morgue ever since the child died. She’s not here, we don’t surround the baby and perform some ritual — we’re just together, honestly, to worship Jesus. He’s the grace giver, we’re not.”

That video also addressed some skeptics’ questions.

“Some would ask: How long do you pray, and when do you quit praying? And I don’t have a good answer,” Johnson said. “We’re kind of in the middle of that journey right now.”

Some material in this story appeared in an earlier article by the author.