Today is our third day here in Rusape, Zimbabwe and today we are going on a treasure hunt. for those of you who are unfamilar with treasure hunting let me explain. At launch one of our team exercises was to sit quietly before the Lord and just ask him what he had in mind for us before going out on a “treasure hunt”. As we sat in a circle things like “tall grass”, “red”, or “the joy of the Lord” will come to mind and we write them down. Then we start walking. Sometimes Jesus gives us a direction and sometimes we just wander. Today he gave me a direction we were supposed to walk. I should tell you that I really don’t like treasure hunting because I think it’s weird and I know friend back home will think it’s weird too but today my team was going treasure hunting so here I went.
As we were walking Amy, the sweet and sassy one, begins greeting and talking to one of the many people always walking along the dusty roads of Rusape and we see a man in a wheelchair. Oh did I forget to tell you that Amy said she was going to pray for a crippled man before we left the house? Well stuff that like is pretty typical so it must have slipped my mind…
We approach the man who was wearing a striped shirt and begin to ask him about his wheelchair. Oh yeah I also saw stripes before we left our housing too but I didn’t tell anyone because I thought it was weird and I didn’t want to go on this little treasure hunt but whatever. His name was Samuel and he said he had been in his wheelchair for 7 years. We asked Samuel if he knew Jesus and he said yes. We also asked if he believed that Jesus could heal him and he said yes! With that established we lay hands on him and begin to pray. As we were thanking God for Samuel and inviting the Spirit to do his thing a crowd began to circle us on the side of the street. I guess praying for crippled people isn’t considered normal not to mention we were the only white people I had seen in days.
I was praying and thanking and praising and begging for God to honor this man’s unwavering faith. I was pleading with God to use this opportunity to show the crowd that had gathered how good he is and how much he loves his kids but nothing happened. Seriously nothing happened! After about 20 minutes I was fighting sobs because I couldn’t understand why God wasn’t doing anything! How could God not be moved for a man who had been confined to wheelchair for SEVEN WHOLE YEARS! Samuel was God’s son who had continued to follow Christ even when he was bound to a chair. He told us he could feel blood flow in his legs which was unusual so we prayed for God to continue the work that he had started in Samuel’s legs.
I wish I could tell you that he later jumped out of his chair the next morning after we went to his house to pray but that isn’t what happened. When we left he was still in his chair believing and professing God’s goodness and grace. Praying for and seeing someone be healed really grows your faith but praying for someone and watching someone NOT be healed is really where you are stretched and grown. I’ve read stories of gradual healings over time and I really truly DO believe that Samuel’s faith will heal him but unfortunately I will never know for sure. In times like this I can only hold onto God’s promises that if we continue to ask he will give it to us like he says in Luke 11:5-13. Either way blessed be the name of the Lord.
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