“Do you all want to join us for prayer at the elderly home?”
This month we are helping serve at a conference center. There was a healing conference this weekend, and the attendee’s were hungry to go share Jesus’ love and healing power with the locals. One day we went with them to visit a woman who they had met the first day and had prayed for. She received healing in one of her legs, both arms, and her soul. She gave her life to Jesus after they prayed for her, and was so joyful and grateful for another visit. Thanks God! The next day their team wanted to visit the elderly home. Four of our team, myself included, went with them.
I stepped one foot in the building and was greeted by a strong smell of urine, and nurses who smiled gladly that we were there to visit. Some residents were in their rooms, and some were clumped together on couches in the hallways. The Bulgarian team introduced us all and explained that we were there to pray healing for anyone who needed it. Every single person admitted to having some kind of pain in their body. So, we did as Jesus said to do and laid hands on the sick so that they would be healed. I stayed with Ana to pray for a couple of them, and she kindly translated my prayers to two of God’s beloved kids (we’re all children, no matter how old.)
One of them asked prayer for her diabetes, and after Ana spoke to her about the gospel she said a prayer of repentance. The other one, a gentle man who was hunched over in what felt like sadness, had knee pain. He wept as we prayed for him. Snot would fall from his nose, and he would gently wipe it away with his hands. After we prayed we asked him to get up and walk with us. We held his beautiful, snotty hands, and as we walked he said he felt no more pain. He would stop every few feet to weep a little more; he said they were not sad tears, they were happy tears.
We walked him back to one of those wafting-urine couches and sat with him. Ana shared the good news of Jesus with him, and helped translate things that I felt God saying to him. He continued to weep. Snot still falling from his nose, still being wiped away by his hands. Vanya, another local girl then came over. She came with Ana and I as we went down the hall with him once more. When we reached the end one of the nurses came out of a room and invited us in to pray with a resident who could not get out of bed.
Vanya and I; it was also her 22nd birthday today
Vanya and I went in to pray with her, a tender woman named Nedyalka. She was skin and bone, torso curved like a tree under extreme wind-severe scoliosis-had a tumor the size of a large fist on her right collar bone, a left hand bent from arthritis, weak limbs and a failing heart that kept her from walking. When we introduced ourselves, I asked Vanya to tell her what my name was in Bulgarian, and to let her know that I believed God wanted to send her some hope today. She cried and nodded in agreement, Spirit already at work.
Nedyalka and I
We prayed for her healing. Muscles be strong, bones straighten, tumor disappear, heart work well, potential breast cancer be cancelled, and body gain strength to walk. Afterwards we chatted with her about God, and then invited her to try walking. We held her elbows and lifted her up, guided her across the room and then back to her bed where she told us that she hadn’t walked in 12 days. 12 DAYS! Thanks God!
Nedyalka’s roommate came in as we were getting ready to leave. She had horrible kyphosis, the ‘hunchback’ disease, and we asked to pray with her too. As we prayed she was encouraged to try standing straight. She walked with us down the hall and to a chair where she told us that she was feeling a little better, but had a pain now in her side. We prayed again…
This is the what the normal Christian life is about. It isn’t just going to church on Sunday and having a private relationship with Him. Jesus said to preach the gospel to all nations, to make disciples, to heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out demons and raise the dead. He was always giving of Himself to serve others. It was all because of love. When love enters your heart and transforms you, it should compel you to give it away. People need Jesus. So go be Jesus to this lost and broken world, and tell everyone of His love.
Be encouraged,
Hope
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