This month, my team and I are in Rwanda. As soon as I walked outside shortly after getting of the airplane, I was completely stunned by the beauty of this country! I know I say that a lot, but Rwanda is really something else. The bus ride to our ministry site was simply stunning. The plant life here is very lush and green, even more than I ever could have imagined! Looking across to the horizon, you can see the rolling hills. And the sky! I know it’s not accurate, but the sky itself seems bigger than I remember it being. But that’s probably because where we are living, there are no huge buildings that obscure your view. It’s just sky for miles and miles. But as beautiful as this country itself is, the ministry we are a part of this month (International Healing Center Ministry) is even more beautiful!
This month, my team and I have a bunch of different ministry opportunities ahead of us. Every week, we will be spending two days in the classroom aiding the teachers with their lessons plans, one day helping out with construction at the school, one full day preaching at the church, and one day going to the hospital to pray over the patients and staff. The evenings look a little different, but it ranges from door-to-door evangelism, two separate church services, and sports ministry (with the children in the area).
Each of us have loved this ministry so much! It’s only been about a week, but we already feel like this is going to be a country that we will not be ready to say goodbye to. All of the ministry opportunities so far have been incredible, but the hospital ministry was particular exciting to me (as if that would be hard to guess). Hospital ministry combined two of the things that I love: prayer and taking care of people. We were able to pray over several people, and many of them started to feel the pains in their bodies start to disappear. It was such a cool moment getting to see the Lord love on His people here.
What’s really awesome to see is how the Lord has cultivated a culture of healing around us: we are seeing more and more all the time! The Lord loves His people, and He loves to reveal His power to people. Why wouldn’t He want to show them His love through powerful healing? My team (my whole squad, really) has become accustomed to praying over any ailment we come across whether we are in ministry or just hanging back at home. It is not uncommon to hear people say, “Has anyone prayed for you about that cough yet?” Sure, most of the prayers we pray don’t seem to have any visible results in that moment, but we still pray with total faith that the Lord can do something amazing in that moment (because we’ve seen it)! Every so often, we will see the Lord show up, and that’s because we are always giving Him the space to do what only He can do (if He wills to do it).
It makes me think that maybe we would see more healings in America if we were to become a society that prioritizes prayer (even over the “small things” like allergies or colds). I’m not saying we don’t pray. But we don’t make it a lifestyle. Think about what Jesus said when he healed the demon-possessed child that the disciples could not heal. He said that the demon could only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Jesus showed Himself to be a man of intentional prayer and intimacy with the Father. If we lived in such a way as Jesus did, we would see a lot more miracles that even “the best of the best” (as some of the disciples may have believed of themselves) haven’t seen.
Sure… Maybe not everyone we pray over will get healed, but that’s ok. We don’t always know why someone has an illness and why they don’t get healed, but the Lord does. He knows what He is doing. We just need to play our part and give Him the space to work if He so chooses. If you pray one prayer and no one is healed, it’s easy to get discouraged. But if you pray each time with the expectation that the Lord will show up, one day He WILL. You may have to pray 1,000 prayers before you see anything miraculous. But even if you only see the Lord show up one time out of thousand, it makes the other 999 prayers worth it. And each time He moves, you grow in faith that He will show up again the next time. The cycle continues over and over again. But in the end, what does it matter how many prayers you prayed that were “unanswered?” You won’t think, “Man, I prayed so many unanswered prayers.” You will think, “Wow! The Lord really did something those times when I prayed!” Let us commit to making prayer a lifestyle not just a thing we do when we are out of other options.
The way the Lord has been moving here has been nothing short of amazing. I cannot wait to see what all the Lord will continue to show us for the rest of the month!
In all things, be blessed!
AG
