I grew up being told that if I had faith as big as a mustard seed I would move mountains. Literally. For those of you who don’t often deal with mustard seeds, those things are tiny. Like the size of a pin-head. If you have faith that small, you can move mountains?? Watch out, world. You’re getting a new layout.
Except, it turns out that having even that much faith is really hard when it comes down to times you really need it. Enter Kouamé.
For our month in Cote d’Ivoire, we stayed in a cozy little village called Zépréguhé. Zépréguhé has about 3000 inhabitants, so there are multiple churches around where we were staying. Our first Sunday in country, we were taken on a tour of the churches to meet all of the local pastors. All of the meetings were accompanied by some elders and members of said churches, and in one of the meetings, we were graced with the presence of Kouamé. Kouamé was introduced as a blind man, and not much more was said about him. As soon as I was told he was blind, I felt the spirit move in me to pray for him. I waited until the meeting was over to pounce on the opportunity.
I thought of the story in the Bible when Jesus heals the blind man by spitting in the mud and rubbing it on his eyes and decided that’s exactly what was going to be done for Kouamé. As dehydrated as I was (sorry mom) I couldn’t muster up enough spit to make a decent amount of mud, so we used water instead.
We all gathered around Kouamé, I spread mud across his eyes, and we prayed. I was shaking and on the verge of tears, and so ready to see this miracle happen, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. We prayed and I said “in the name of Jesus this man can see.” We washed the mud off of his eyes and waited for him to open them.
He was still blind.
The Annie I was just a few months ago would have been so completely discouraged by this and probably would have given up on praying for healing altogether, but I was at peace. Kouamé was overjoyed to have been prayed for and thanked us over and over again as we left. I thought about it a lot that evening and asked God why it didn’t happen in that moment, but I got no answer.
The next evening, Kouamé came to our house to ask for prayer again. He was lead by some of his adorable grandchildren, and waited patiently as we got him a chair. We gathered around Kouamé again and prayed. We played guitar and sang for him, we washed his feet, we quoted Bible verses, we kissed his eyes, we spoke truth. We ended in the name of Jesus and Kouamé opened his eyes again. He was still blind. He was overjoyed as much as the first time to have been prayed over again. Kouamé carried a joy with him like no other. It’s evident just sitting with him.
Kouamé continued to come almost every morning and every evening of the entire month. Every morning and every evening he came expectant of a miracle. Every morning and every evening we prayed over him. Sometimes we sang to him, sometimes we anointed him with some essential oils, sometimes others joined in if they were with us at the time. Every morning and every evening he walked away blind, but seeping joy and love.
He learned our names. We learned about his life. We learned how he got blind. He had gotten something in his eye 10 years ago that steadily increased his blindness until it took full effect 2 years ago.
Y’all, I ain’t gonna lie. Watching Kouamé walk away blind everyday after praying for healing, and having faith bigger than a mustard seed, was incredibly disappointing. I wanted him to be healed so badly. I wrestled hard with God on this one. I knew God loved him. I knew God wanted to heal him. I knew we all believed it was going to happen. So why the heck wasn’t it just happening? What was standing in the way?
Our last few days in Zépréguhé, Kouamé didn’t come by our house. It was a little surprising not to see him. We kept praying for him when he wasn’t there, but everything was so much better when he was.
Our last full day in Zépréguhé was a Sunday. Kouamé came by our house that morning to be prayed for. I woke up that morning with renewed hope that Kouamé was going to be healed that day. It was our last day there, and we had been telling him that he was going to see our faces before we left. And I believed that he would. We prayed for him before we left for church, but he was still blind. He came to church with us that morning which was a blessing in and of itself, but what happened at church made our hearts melt. Kouamé danced like we had never seen before. He danced like dancing was all he knew to be true in the world. Kouamé spun around in circles and jumped up and down and emitted joy across the building. This man had been prayed over countless times for the same healing day in and day out, with little change in his circumstance, and still he danced like there had never been a day wrong in his life.
We asked Kouamé to come by again that night so he could be prayed over. We surrounded him, this time taking communion. Communion is a reminder of what Jesus did on the cross and standing faithfully in that. We passed around our stale cornflakes and coke and thanked the Lord for already healing Kouamé’s blindness, and we prayed over him again. Kouamé opened his eyes after our prayer.
Blind.
We left the village without Kouamé seeing our faces. Even so, Kouamé was one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met. What struck me more than his joy, though, was his faith. I have never in my life seen a faith like Kouamé’s. I’ve never seen someone walk away so happy when their prayer still went unanswered. I’ve never been around a person who literally radiates sunshine. I don’t know why we didn’t get to see Kouamé healed while we were there. But I do know that his faith changed all of our hearts. I do know that we got to see this man be genuinely happy when things didn’t go his or our way. I do know that he WILL be healed, even if it isn’t in our timing. I do know God knows what He’s doing.
Sometimes having the faith of a tiny little mustard seed is a really big task. But it’s worth it.
Matthew 17:20 – “For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”
