The “Final Trek” series up to this point has been to some degree within my scope of comfort. Most of the lessons learned has been further confirmation, prime examples that make old lessons seem anew, and helped with the challenging process of moving head knowledge down to my heart. Knowledge going from your head, to your heart is one of the hardest but most rewarding experiences because then begin to truly live it out.
Healing is outside of my scope. A realm I believe is out there but haven’t explored it regularly. It’s kind of like a dream vacation….you know the location exists, you have seen the pictures, and you even know people that go regularly…but you haven’t quite made it a priority yet, to make the sacrifice to go check it out.
My cliff note version of my experience of healing is I don’t have any. I grew up Southern Baptist, so it wasn’t taught on Sunday morning or in Sunday school; I have prayed at hospitals but never experienced anything. I have been going to a non-denominational church ever since becoming a follower of Jesus; so nothing new in the teaching department of healing. Then World Race training camp happened; my world was rocked as there were two guest speakers that teach the Holy Spirit at a Bible college. Healing stories saturated every talk they gave, backed by scripture, and even practical application. Since being on the race I have had two distinct experiences: one in Malawi (No Beeps, No Monitors) where I witnessed relief, and second in China (Can God Still Heal?) where I personally experienced my knee being healed!
The “Final Trek” came around and I was excited to see what was going to happen! The plan was to go to remote unreach villages and spread the news about our program. The program consisted of a couple short inspirational video clips of Nick Vujicic, the Jesus film, testimony/preach the Gospel, then pray over anyone that wanted to receive prayer.
Every night we had a huge crowd of 200-300 people from the village. Afterwards they streamed to the front to receive prayer; actually it turned into somewhat of a mosh pit as people we trying to be next to be prayed over. It was a humbling experience as they were desperate to have a Christian pray over them, and have relief from the physical pain they were experiencing. Then live first hand testimonies started to come from the Hindu village people. Confessing that they experienced Jesus, and the pain was gone! I was overjoyed that people were coming to know the Lord right in front of me. That God was using us, to call His children home and restore them spiritually, mentally, and physically!
A lot of the pain was centered around their back, knees, feet, head, and just overall body pain. To me the proof was in their facial expressions. As they walked forward humbled, tight faces and looking down while they talked about the pain they were experiencing. Once everything was translated, we covered them in prayer. Afterwards we would ask them how they were feeling, but their faces said it all. Joy rushed back to their face, the muscles loosen, and smiles started to crack. It was a night and day difference from how they appeared when walking up, to how they held themselves as they went out to share how they felt with their friends.
Reading through the Gospels; there is countless stories of Jesus healing the sick. Everything from the blind, to the cripple, to the lame, and especially to the spiritually dead. Jesus goes on to say in John 14:11-12, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” How awesome is that! Yes, I believe people were healed those nights, and that some now have a personal relationship with Jesus. I pray for continued revelations to happen in those villages, that they would walk in obedience, and love God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength!
This concludes my “Final Trek” series! Overall it was a huge blessing to spend time with a Nepalese pastor, Keshab, spread the Gospel to unreached villages, and be fully immersed in Nepali culture!
