This month we’re talking about miracles, stories of seeing the power of God in supernatural ways.
When Andrea Chavatal of 2015 Q Squad prayed for an elderly woman’s knee in Mozambique, God answered by healing it. Then the woman dropped her cane and started to dance!
I’ll always think of it as the ultimate dance party in Mozambique.
That month my team served a local church, our host ministry, in whatever way they needed. Most days that looked like helping out around our host’s home during the day and participating in church every evening.
But for two days during we went out into the African bush and helped run a crusade. We knew this would be an opportunity to share Christ with people, but we had no idea how God would show up.
The first day we set out into the bush in the midday sun, going door-to-door and offering to pray for people. As the day passed and the sun set, the environment changed.
As the sun descended behind the tree line, music began pumping out of the 5-foot tall speakers arranged on our flatbed truck. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could hear the pounding of the bass for miles around. Over the next hour, people slowly began to show up.
After some time of jamming out, dancing around, and laughing with all the children, our host began talking. He spoke in the local language, so we couldn’t understand it — but we could feel the Spirit moving without question. There was singing, preaching, and then a request for prayer. The three elders of the village came forward first.
That is when I saw her.
She looked to be in her late 60s or 70s. She was a petite woman leaning on a walking stick and wearing a traditional sarong in a bright, tribal pattern and a yellow sweater. As I walked towards her, I felt a stirring in my chest and a desire to pray for her right knee.
I’d never experienced anything like that before. It was more than an impression; it was like God told me what this woman needed before she could.
So through our host I asked this woman if she needed prayer for her legs. She nodded excitedly. I asked her if her right knee that needed prayer.
Her expression read something like, “How did you know that?” She said yes, so I placed my hands on her shoulders and began praying.
I felt my hands get warm as I prayed for complete healing in her knee. As I was praying, I heard God say, “Get on your knees and hold hers.”
Um…Okay?
I wasn’t sure what that was all about, but I knelt in the mud-covered, trampled grass and wrapped my hands around her knee.
Instantly, I felt an overwhelming presence and my heart filled with the enormity of God’s love for this woman. I prayed and prayed, lifting up to God anything and everything that came to me. After, I stood to smile at her and she gave me a hug. When I looked around for our host, he had moved on to help other racers with the people they were praying for. So we began our game of charades.
I pointed to my right knee and then to hers, and asked, “better?”
She looked at me confused. I then started lifting my knee up to my chest, and other movements that might have been painful to her before.
After a few minutes, she began to move her leg around. I will never forget the look on her face. It was a face of AWE.
She could not believe there was no pain. She could not believe that she could jump and dance again. She hugged me again and again, and then she dropped her walking stick and joined in the dance circle that had begun while we were praying.
Thank you, Jesus!!!
For the rest of the evening her face was lit up. This woman was filled with joy, and she could not stop showing people what God had done for her.
I believe that Jesus gave her a new knee that night. I believe He showered his love for her all over, and the result was a new knee and a new life for this woman. I will never forget that moment because that day, Jesus showed us both that He is our Healer and Physician, and that He can do anything — even the impossible.
Do you want to experience God’s power while serving Him on the World Race? Click HERE to find out how you can GO in August or October 2016!
