Last night I told my team that I just knew God was going to heal people while we are on the Race, and we were gonna see it. My teammate Lauren Erb goes, “He’s gonna heal someone this month!”. As we walked to the local villages today, I talked with God about His plans. I said, “Yeah! Why wouldn’t you heal people? Why wouldn’t you heal people TODAY?!” Today, was special from the beginning.
Transportation is terrible here! It takes a miracle to get anywhere! Which is convenient for us, because we happen to believe in miracles. 🙂 We were waiting at the “bus stop” and a van pulls up, stops, and lets us on. We find out later that that was a private bus, not one for public transportation and he just stopped for us. We paid him 10 lei (nearly nothing) and were on our way. First miracle of the day: Getting to our ministry site.
The first home we went to was the home of a lady named Katy who had problems with her ankle. She said she didn’t believe that God would heal her, but she could be healed in heaven. We prayed in faith anyways! She wasn’t healed tonight, but we asked God to give her a softer heart and that I believe she got. We gave away the hats we had to the children and were off to the next.
(The whole gypsy family in their home)
(Katy and I)
We decided to let the Spirit guide us somewhere. We walked up a hill and on the left side of the gravel road was a lady and her son holding 2 roosters upside down. She ran over to meet us and was extremely excited. She told us how her mother, Katalina, was sick and she had just been praying that morning for God to send someone to pray for her. Miracle number two.
(Typical gypsy house)
We went into a side room of the house, and there we prayed for her mother (Katalina not present), for the sick people of the valley, and for her family. We sang a few songs and Pastor Szombor asked someone to share a verse and small message. I heard God leading me to Romans 8:38-39 (“nothing cam separate us from God’s love”). I second guessed myself for a second because I wondered if I had just thought of that on my own, it being a popular verse. But while I was reading the verse, all the gypsies in the room were going crazy with agreement. AND, Lauren told me later that night that God had given her Lamentations 3:22 (“The faithful love of the Lord never ends”), which pretty much says the same thing but with different words. Miracle number three.
When we finished praying, there was a lady named Clara who hobbled from one side of the room to the other. She was wincing in pain and walked bent over with her cain. She sat down on the bed and showed us her ankle which was swollen and hurting very badly. We all laid hands on her and prayed for healing. The Spirit was thick in the room and I felt the need to anoint her. Realizing I had a stick of Burt’s Bees Chapstick in my pocket (my fav by the way), I whipped it out and put it on everyone’s fingers.
(Clara, Amanda, and Lauren… Don’t understand Lauren’s hand placement)
When the first lady who met us on the street heard we were anointing someone, she came in and grabbed Lauren Erb and I, and led us to her mother Katalina. Katalina was lying on her bed. Her daughter helped her to sit up because she was very out of it and kept touching her chest due to the pain. We found out that she had heart problems and her medicine was running out in 4 days. Her feet were also purple and blue due to bad circulation, caused by her weak heart. Lauren attacked the feet and I attacked the heart (no pun intended). As I prayed for her heart, Katalina became moved by the Spirit. She slumped over more and more till she was resting on my shoulder, with a steady breath. Lauren prayed over her feet while I prayed in the Spirit, anointing her head with oil. As Lauren prayed I also became heavy in the Spirit, as if there was power coming out of me. I rested my head on her head and held her tight. When Lauren finished, Katalina touched her chest again and we knew more prayer was needed. Lauren thought to ask if I should touch her heart. And right as she did, Katalina took my hand and placed it on her breast (her heart was underneath). I could feel her heart beat and it became more regular.
(Katalina and I. Isn’t her color great? She had looked so pale!)
By the end of the prayer, the room was full of people. Katalina’s husband was sitting right beside me and kept touching me while I finished praying. He tapped me on the shoulder, and couldn’t help but to cry. He pulled me closer, kissed my hands, my cheeks, and hugged me. He kept pointing up and saying “Jesus” and then pointing at me. He was flustered as if he had seen Jesus… I believe he did. Miracle number four.
Once the pastor entered the room, I had him ask Katalina how she felt. Katalina told us that she felt better and kept crying and kissing my face. She even stood up and remained standing until we left. She wasn’t holding her chest anymore and the purple and blue color had completely left her feet, meaning her heart was working better, as it pumped blood to her feet. Miracle number five.
One of the people in the crowd in Katalina’s room was Clara, the lady we prayed over on the other room. My teammates told me that she stood up, didn’t use her cain, and walked with her back completely strait. She also told them that she felt no pain in her ankle at all! Miracle number six.
When we left the people in the room were in awe. There were tears and everyone had wonder in their eyes… As if they had seen God. After we told them goodbye, we realized that the bused had stopped running. We missed our bus because we stayed longer than expected. So, we asked God to send someone to pick us up. No sooner had we finished that prayer did a school bus drive by going in the opposite direction. We asked the pastor if he thought it would turn around and pick us up. He said maybe but the school buses are not allowed to carry hitchhikers. But guess what! It broke the rules for Jesus. He stopped, picked us up, and took us to our village… For free. Miracle number seven.
We had crazy favor from the Lord today. The Lord loves His people and He loves us for using us in their lives. I am excited beyond words right now. I was a part of 7 miracles, two of which were people being healed. Glory to God in the highest. He is the God who heals.
Love,
Kaitlyn AKA Katalina
(I love that we have the same name:)
