There were certain situations Christ encountered along the dirt roads of Galilee that stopped Him in His tracks and moved Him to compassion and action.
I walked into one of those situations two days ago on a similarly unpaved road outside Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Gracie, our missionary contact for the week, had asked if we would visit a little boy who was badly ill and report on his progress. Upon entering his small adobe home, we were greeted by his father, who explained to Gracie’s assistant that Olan, his precious little six-year-old, was almost totally deaf, could not speak, and had now contracted what looked like some form of hand, foot and mouth disease. To make matters worse, the father did not have enough money for adequate medical care.
In a matter of time Olan’s father went to retrieve him. The first thing we noticed about Olan was not his malady but his electric smile that shed a lot of light on a dark situation. As I looked around the room, as I gazed into Olan’s eyes, as I listened to his father, as I prayed to my heavenly Father…I had the gathering sense that we were here for a distinct reason and that I should pray prayers that reflected the bigness of God.
My mind flashed back to three scenes from the days prior. As we were crossing the Atlantic, Bekah Shearin, my former teammate, handed me an encouraging note. As she had been praying for me, she felt the Lord lead her to Acts 3:6, where Peter, directing his attention on a man lame from birth, told him, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And the risen Christ healed that man and made him leap for joy.
I remembered as well that the day before we visited Olan—when as of yet we had not even heard about him or his situation—a single specific verse came to mind. In Mark 9, a desperate father approached the Lord Jesus and told him about how his son had a spirit that made him mute and epileptic. Christ first questioned and counseled the boy’s father, and then, staring down the boy’s demon with His fiery gaze, thundered, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again” (Mark 9:25). Why had this verse flashed like a lightning bolt into my consciousness the day before I met Olan?
My third recollection was that in the early morning hours I had dreamt of casting out demons.
All things considered, what was a good Christian to do in such a situation? I had to pray for the little boy, right?!
And so, reaching down into my pocket, I grabbed the tiny bottle of anointing oil that Gracie had gifted to us, recalling her words that before the week was over, we would anoint the sick with oil. We anointed Olan’s ears and forehead and mouth with what little oil we could muster—there was a hole in the bottle that caused the oil to stain my pants the previous day!—and prayed in concert with his believing father.
Nothing happened. Yet. As far as we could tell.
So on Saturday afternoon, I want to go back and visit Olan and his father again. I want to speak with them, encourage them, and pray for a miracle. I know that God has His reasons for allowing atrocities like this. Sometimes, He chooses not to heal a boy like Olan because Olan’s miraculous joy in the midst of his pain will bring greater glory to God than a miraculous healing. And sometimes, when we pray for physical healing, the Lord chooses to heal emotionally. But as I read Acts 3 and Mark 9 and elsewhere, this is precisely the kind of situation in which our loving God is glorified in stretching forth His hand: a believing parent, a hurting child, an empty wallet.
Going into the Race, I wanted desperately to see what my best friend Jake saw on his Race—the blind seeing, the deaf hearing. I yearned to return to American soil armed with stories that would challenge everyone I met to stretch their view of God’s power to the breaking point.
But none of that matters as of right now.
Right now all that matters is that there is a little boy in Honduras who is suffering greatly, and a big God in heaven who deserves to be glorified greatly.
Someone recently told me that to an infinite God, all prayers are equally easy to answer. To un-stop the ears of the deaf is as easy for Him as moving a molecule a millimeter to the right or the left.
I, for one, am fed up with praying anemic prayers to an almighty God.
Will you pray with us and with Olan’s father that Olan will be healed?
Will you pray in Jesus’ name that doing so would result in the salvation of many people along that dusty road?
