The following blog was written by my former teammate and friend Sarah Hoffman, with a little section from me at the end. It is about a miracle we witnessed while in Tanzania. Yes, I said it. MIRACLE 🙂 Please read this blog all the way though. It is worth it. Trust me! Pictures are on my other former teammate Holly’s camera and she is in another part of Uganda so those will have to wait!!!
“As you go, preach this
message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received,
freely give.” -Matthew 10:8
I never expected to see a God work a miracle.
When I walked
into her bedroom, I held back tears as my gaze landed on the frail woman
huddled in the corner. She was sitting on the floor with her legs
stretched out in front of her. She had morsels of food stuck to her face and
held a clenched handful of rice. Her eyes and smile held a sweetness but
told the story of a mind no longer able to fully comprehend.
Her daughter had
accepted Jesus as Lord only moments before and eagerly brought us in to meet
her mother. A believer for less than 10 minutes and already she already
possessed stronger faith than mine as she requested prayer for healing.
We asked for the circumstances surrounding the health of her mother and
listened carefully as she explained.
“Her legs are paralyzed.
She has not walked for 10 years.
We have brought her to see the
witch doctor and Prophet Joshua (a false prophet within the community) but they
have been unable to heal her.”
Bek, Ellen,
and I gathered around her along with our translator, Dawson. We layed our
hands on her and lifted her up to the Great Physician. We prayed that she
would be able to walk again, that her confusion would be lifted, and her mind
made clear. And at the end of the prayer, we stared at her lifeless limbs
hoping they would move.
Nothing happened.
Or so we thought
The next day, we
returned for a follow up visit. This family had remained heavy on all of
our hearts and we wanted to check in and see how they were doing. Upon
arriving, the daughter said something in Swahili which we didn’t understand and
then walked away. We stood there awkwardly for a few minutes. I
turned to Ellen and whispered, “can you imagine if her mother walked
around the corner towards us right now??”
And that’s exactly what happened.
I turned away
from Ellen in stunned disbelief as this precious woman turned the corner and
walked towards us. Walked! All by herself without any help, she was
walking! We couldn’t believe it. Ellen and I turned toward Dawson, our
translator and repeatedly asked him multiple questions all in one breath.
“She was paralyzed right? It had been 10 years since she
walked? Did we misunderstand due to the language barrier?”
Dawson looked at us and answered our questions and seemed a little taken aback
by our unbelief. He said, “this
lady has been healed.”
This is a moment I
will never forget and to God be all the glory, honor, and praise. The
daughter kept saying, “God has healed my mother!”
After spending some
time with their family, after praying for continued healing over this lady’s
mind, and promising to return back soon for another visit, we stood up to
leave.
As I was saying
goodbye to the mother, she clenched my hand and wouldn’t let it go. She
stared deeply in my eyes as her own filled with tears. She tried to speak
but I couldn’t make out the words. She continued to hold my hand and my
gaze for another long moment before motioning she wanted a hug. It was a
moment I never wanted to end.
We were standing there, the two of us, locked tightly in a moment that
will last forever in our minds. But it wasn’t about her. And it
wasn’t about me. It was an awareness that something beyond the two of us
had occurred. Something bigger than us. And not a something, a
Someone. A Someone who reached down with love and healing and changed a life.
Make that two lives.
“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems
your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.” –
Psalm 103:1-4
I wanted
to repost Sarah’s blog for many reasons.
The first is God BLOWS MY MIND sometimes. The second is I saw it for my own eyes. I never would believe a story like
that. I know that miracles can
happen, but to be there and witness it, to see this woman walk and talk, to
have are squeeze my hand is a whole different story. I hope you reading this draws you into aspects of God you
never thought possible. I have been
like Thomas in the book of John.
“They
told him, “We have seen the Lord.�
But he replied, “I wont believe unless I see the nail wounds in His
hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His
side.� Eight days later the
disciples were together again and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked and as suddenly
as before, Jesus was stand before among them. “Peace be with you,� He said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my
hands. Put your hand into the
wound in my side. Don’t be
faithless any longer. Believe!� (John 20:25-27)
Later
Jesus goes on to say, “You believe because you see. Blessed are those who believe without seeing.�
I
needed to see and feel for myself to fully believe. I knew intellectually that all the stories of healing and raising
from the dead (yes, that is what I said) couldn’t be lies, but part of me
didn’t fully believe. In my heart
I still had doubt that I could ever be a part of such an amazing miracle. Over the next two weeks we continued to
visit our dear friend. Each time
we would pray for more healing and each time she would get a little bit
better. We prayed for her eyes to
see better, her mind to sharpen, for her mouth to be able to sing praises to
the King of Kings, and that one day she would not only be able to walk but she
would be able to dance in joy for what God had done in her life! On the last
day, her eyes were bright and full of life, no longer the cloudy gray they once
were. She no longer stared
blankly, but made eye contact while tracking conversations. Her sounds and grunts were now strings
of words that were in context of conversations. She even was able to say, “Bwana Asifiwe� which means praise
the Lord. To top it all off, she
walked us out of the house holding my hand the whole way and took some beautiful
pictures with the most amazing smile on her face. All of our prayers for this amazing woman were answered but
one. But I am no longer like
Thomas. I don’t need to see to be
confident that God will bring her healing to completion. I believe that, even though I was not
privileged enough to be a witness, she will be dancing one day full of the joy
of the LORD.
