During a church service we went to out in a village (a church service that lasts for 12 hours each Sunday! But we were only there for about 5 hours.), at one point they asked for all the sick and sailing to come forward for prayer. You see, in most churches Ive been to around the world during this trip, they have a time of prayer for healing for the sick. This is not just a general elder or pastoral prayer over the ailing, but they ask all who are sick or hurting to come forward, and then the people of the church surround them and lay their hands on them and pray for them.
But during this church service in this small dusty mud structure, one man caught my attention. All I could see was that he was hobbling and leaning on a walking stick. I saw one of the pastors pray over him, but it was just one of the many prayers he was praying. This man needed more than just a quick prayer in a line of prayers. He needed special care and attention and concern. He needed the kind of compassion that Jesus had when the Bible says that Jesus had compassion on them and then out of that compassion healed them.
I felt an urging to go over and pray for him. But I hesitated. And then that prayer time was over. That man started to head back to his seat in the far opposite corner of the church from me, and then other people began taking their seats around him, making more of an excuse for me not to go over there because it would have been difficult to get to him and I would have drawn attention.
After that pray time, people once again started to get up to sing and dance altogether (a very common thing here in these African churches). But I could not stop thinking about that manhow other people were singing and dancing in joy, but how this man could barely walk, let alone dance. He could not dance; he could only merely watch others in their joy.
Perhaps I should always be able to rejoice in the Lord, singing and dancing and shouting to God. But in that moment of compassion, I couldnt. But then again, Scripture does say to rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. What made this difficult was a man mourning in a setting of much rejoicing.
The pastor noticed that I was not up dancing with everyone else, so she asked our contact if I was feeling alright, and he in turn came over and asked me. In a moment of truth, I told Moses (our contact) everything I had been thinking and feeling. He then went and told that pastor.
It was my intent to still pray for this man, but I thought that church was about to be over, so I would just pray for him outside once we were all dismissed and heading back home (little did I know at this time how long this church service actually went for). But the pastor went and called this man over to me. So in the middle of all of the singing and dancing and rejoicing, I got to pray for this crippled man.
As he hobbled across the room, I saw that he did not merely just have a limp, but had had a legitimately crippled foot which he wrapped around his walking stick so we could drag his foot with him.
He told me that he was born fine, but he later contracted polio and his foot now is a result of that.
This to me is a clear sign of the effects and results of sin and injustice in the world (not in this mans life, but in the world). Polio is preventable, but this man never had access to the vaccine growing up (whereas every child in the United States has that shot as part of the routine vaccinations, mandated by law), so now for his whole life he walked with a crippled foot. This is result of mens greed and neglect, a result of unevenly distributed resources around the world. This is the same with poverty, especially with food. So how could I not pray for him! How could I not pray for his healing in Jesus when his sickness was a result of mans sin.
So I spoke with him, and I prayed for him. I told him that I cannot heal, but I can ask my Heavenly Father who can, in Jesus name. I cannot guarantee healing, but I do know that God is good, that He is a good Father who gives good gifts to his children.
I prayed for him then, but I also asked for 7 children to go to him for the next 7 days and pray for him. Although I would have loved to see my first incredible miracle of healing right then and there, the miracle is not for me to see, but for that man out of love and compassion for him. Jesus could heal from afar, and many times he was not present to see the miracle happen. I dont need to be there either.
I made this request for 3 reasons (besides the fact that I just felt this was from God). First, I did not want neither him nor the church to think that a Mzungu brought healingI want them to know it was truly Jesus. Second, Heidi Baker, a charismatic evangelist here in Africa, in her own ministry had children pray for healing because she says that a little child has just pure trust and faith in God and is not worried or distracted by human expectations or theological controversies but just simply asks God, believing that He can do it. Finally, my hope was also to bring cross-generational healing through relationships and understanding, for Scripture said that in the last days God will turn the hearts of children back to their fathers and fathers to their children.
Perhaps healing was brought a little at a time each day, perhaps healing was all at once at the end, perhaps this was just a part of the whole healing process that will take much longer than just 1 week. I do not know. I might not ever know. I never heard back from that village church.
But I do know that God is good. I do know that He is sovereign. And I do know that His word never returns void. I do not need to get caught up in the theological debates over where God does or doesnt heal today; I just need to obey God when He calls me to do something.
After I was done praying for him, this man told me that he has been a Christian for 5 years, and although he has received prayer during the service (and who knows how many other times), he has been waiting for someone like me to come and pray for him like this.
