(Check out the first part of this blog here.)
One Sunday morning, Shiloh and I were preaching at a church way outside of town in a small, spread out village. I don’t even really remember what I preached because as soon as we walked in I remembered a dream I had before going on the Race. I very vividly saw the Lord use our team to heal a man who couldn’t walk. I’ve occasionally thought back to that dream, but this time it was so intense that I couldn’t shake it from my mind. After we preached, they called forward people who needed healing and I frantically searched the building for someone who couldn’t walk. But nobody was there. I tried to dismiss it, after all I couldn’t help it if he wasn’t there. But the words “radical obedience” were stuck in my head and so after the service I approached the pastors and asked if there was anybody in the church with leg problems. They immediately said, “Yes,” there was a young man who couldn’t walk, but he wasn’t there today. They started to load up the car, ready to head back to town. But I’d come this far, I couldn’t just walk away. So tentatively, I asked where he was and if we could go to him. At this point they started looking at me like I was a little crazy. But I gained confidence as I pressed on and told them we needed to find him. They were finally convinced I was serious and so we piled into the car, Shiloh and I plus 5 African men, and headed deeper into the bush to look for this random man who couldn’t walk.
When we pulled up at his house he wasn’t there…so they sent his younger brother to get him from a neighbor’s house and we settled in to wait. It’s at this point that I started thinking a little more clearly and realized that I have convinced 5 African pastors to track down this man and I have NO idea what to do. When Andrew rolls up in his African wheelchair, everyone stares at me. Super. So I do the only thing I know how to. I talk to him for a few minutes and ask if we can lay hands on him to pray. I prayed for healing for his legs and for him to be able to walk. I prayed for strength to return to his body. And I prayed for him to be able to dance like David danced praising his God. Then Shiloh began to pray and as she did, her tears fell onto my feet and onto this man’s legs. We claimed healing over this man and believed with every ounce of faith that we had that God would heal him.And I so wish that my last paragraph here could paint a picture of him walking and jumping and praising God. But instead, we left him still bound to his wheelchair…but even then we praised God. Because we believe that God is faithful and that He is able. And that we don’t always get to see the ways the Lord works. Seeing this man healed would have given me something to point to and proclaim, “Here’s how the Lord used me! This is why He brought me back!” And while that would have been nice, it wasn’t what the Lord wanted me to experience.
Instead, once again, I get to say, “I was obedient. I stepped out in faith where the Lord called me to.” And if I got to see all the results, it wouldn’t really be faith at all, would it?
