I mentioned in my last blog about how God was working on me in terms of evangelism. Well, He is definitely being persistent in pushing me. Our first week in Rwanda, beginning day 1, consisted of more door-to-door evangelism. When I went out to evangelize this time, I approached each opportunity relying and trusting on the Holy Spirit to show up and give me the words. In my obedience, God rewarded me greatly! Each day, the Holy Spirit showed up and filled my mouth with so much to say. As a result, God not only used me to bring multiple people to Christ, but He also allowed me to be part of His healing for others.
On our very first day of evangelism, I was presented with the opportunity to pray healing over a young woman. She suffered from eye problems that caused her to have constant pain and blurred vision. Before learning of her vision problem, we spoke with the family about accepting Christ. They were familiar with the Gospel but had never made the decision to accept Christ as their Savior. After some discussion, all 3 women came to Christ! It was after that, when we were asking for prayer requests, that we learned about this lady’s vision problem. We prayed over her, and she expressed that while we were praying it felt like someone was physically moving her eye around. Once we were done praying, she said that there was some change and a little less pain. We prayed for her again, instantly, to ask God to remove the pain and fully restore her sight. As we were walking to the next house, she followed us along the path. I noticed her checking her eye sight by covering one eye and then the other. After a few minutes, she quietly said “It’s finished” and then repeated it a few times. She was trying to tell us that she was healed.
Now I know that the Bible says we humans can heal others in the name of Jesus, but considering I’ve never witnessed a tangible healing, I felt uncertain about what had happened that afternoon. I wanted to believe that God allowed me to help heal this woman, but to my shame, I had some doubt. I admitted and apologized to God for feeling this way. The next day I ran into the woman on the other side of her neighborhood, while she was working. She saw me, ran out to me, and embraced me. She wouldn’t let go of me and kept praising Jesus and proclaiming that she was healed. There are not words to express how much joy and enthusiasm I saw and felt in her. God rewarded me in that moment by making certain that I knew without a doubt that she had been healed. This girl will never forget me, and I will never, ever, forget her.
As if God hadn’t already rewarded me so significantly with the healing of this woman, He continued to show me how powerful he is. Over dinner one night, I had an intense migraine come on out of nowhere and instantly grew very nauseas. I put a bite of rice in my mouth and had to leave the table at once. I rarely ever ask for prayer when it comes to my own illnesses or ailments, but when one of my teammates came to check on me, I, without hesitation, asked her to pray for me. She prayed for a couple minutes, and as she was praying, I could feel the pressure lift from my head and the nauseas dissipate. I have a history of migraines, and even with medication, they never go away that quickly. We’re talking about a matter of minutes here, 15 minutes or so. There is no doubt that God heard our prayer and took the pain away.
The healing didn’t stop there, on both accounts of healing others and being healed myself. It’s amazing what God will do when you give him the opportunity. I grew very sick last week, sick to the point where I agreed to go to a medical clinic. I HATE going to the doctor, but the pain I was experiencing had me concerned – and it takes a lot for me to be concerned when it comes to my own health. After drawing some blood and taking a “sample” (if you don’t know of what, then you’re better off not knowing), the diagnosis was that I had multiple parasites residing in my stomach. In the time it took to get the doctor and return home, the discomfort had eased a bit. A couple hours later, however, the pains had returned ten-fold. The pain was so excruciating that I was afraid the hospital was in my near future. I called the girls into the bedroom and asked them to pray for me. These lovely women that I call my team fervently prayed over me for quite awhile. During this time, my fever broke, the pain in my back and legs diminished, and my migraine lessened. No, I wasn’t fully “healed,” but God definitely relieved me of the suffering I had been feeling – and saved me from a trip to the hospital.
Just as a friendly reminder — my last financial deadline for the World Race is March 1st, one week away. Thanks to some generous people last week, I now only need $1,400 to be fully funded. I hate asking for donations, but this is yet another challenge placed on me from God. I know that through some of you, He will provide for me. Please consider supporting me!
