Ministry in India has been difficult. I am not a public speaker, and I have always felt slightly uncomfortable with praying vocally for large groups, or individuals. Needless to say, I was not thrilled when I found out the majority of our ministry would be prayer and talking to congregations at the churches in the surrounding villages. However, God has a way of showing us that sometimes doing the things we don’t want to do can grow us and strengthen our faith in ways that nothing else can.
Let me preface the story I am about to tell you with a little background information. Just about everyone who prepares to go on The World Race spends time reading blogs from racers on the field or race veterans. Many of the blogs I read told stories of miraculous healings and other stories about how God was moving in the lives of people on the race. The skeptical side of me did not want to accept these stories, and I often found myself trying to explain away some of the stories. But secretly I was excited at the possibility of God showing up in amazing ways while I was on the race.
After several days of praying for people in the villages, I began to feel extremely discouraged, and honestly tired of the ministry we were doing. It became as routine as brushing my teeth to lay hands on someone and pray that they would feel better. However, this all changed just the other night.
After having some encouraging words spoken over me by my squad leader, we left yet again for a night of ministry in a village about an hour from where we are staying. It was dark by the time we arrived in the village, and we were all worn out as we entered into the hot sheet-metal church building. As usual, we sang some songs and spoke on several stories from the Bible. Then, we asked the people to come forward who would like us to pray for them. A line of men filed in front of me, and I began to pray for them. But the difference was that on that night I came expecting: expecting something miraculous to happen, and believing that it could.
I don’t understand why God heals sometimes and doesn’t other times, and I am not sure we can know, but I think that God was calling me in that moment to have faith that something awesome could happen. So as a man came before me and told me that he had been in a bike wreck and had neck and back pain I began to pray that the pain would leave. After praying for a while I asked how he felt, and he said a little better, so I continued to pray. After I had done so for about ten minutes I looked up to see his face full of joy. I asked the translator to have him tell me how he felt, but I didn’t need a translation, because the next few words to come out of his mouth were “Hallelujah!”
I have struggled to understand why I am here, and what God’s plan is for my life, but in that moment, I was amazed to see how God had shown up. He continued to show up that night and as each person who was healed helped me pray for the next person I was able to witness not only healing, but also empowerment take place in the lives of those men I prayed with.
This is just one story from the race, and this is just the beginning of my journey. I thank you all for reading, and I hope you take some encouragement from this. I will keep you all posted and look forward to telling you more awesome stories of how God is moving in the world.
I still really need financial support to continue my work on The World Race. So if you feel led you can help support my journey by clicking the “support me” link on the left side of the page, or by emailing me.
My email is: [email protected]
Thanks for reading
Sincerely,
Garrett
