We spent the afternoon doing a treasure hunt, a scavenger hunt of sorts where we asked God for clues and things to look for. He gave them to us and we set out looking for them.
An open field.
A man with a beard.
Yellow.
A sign with lights.
Guitars.
There was a wealth of things to try to find and having done scavenger hunts like this before, I knew that it was unlikely we would find them in one place. Typically there are clues to direct us in one direction or another, and a few clusters of things to hone us in on one spot.
These kinds of exercises help us refine our ears and our eyes to hear and see what God’s doing. I love these kinds of excursions on mission trips because it’s a chance to partner with what God’s doing around us, to join in on the fun and adventure of heaven.
We walked around for about 20 minutes before we found Glenn. He was sitting outside of a storefront where a gentleman was playing the guitar. Precariously positioned in his wheelchair, he sat there ignored by the crowd of Tennessee basketball fans. Literally, a sea of people passed him without even glancing down and giving this man with one leg a single look.
He was invisible.
Fortunately, God saw him… and being tuned into His voice and eyes we saw Glenn, too. Jeremy, one of the guys in the group, struck up a conversation with Glenn. He was homeless, wanted coffee (which one of the girls went and bought for him) and was just out enjoying the fresh air. He couldn’t go far by himself and found it difficult to get to the mission for a bed. Because of all of the hills, he couldn’t push himself up there in his wheelchair and not many people are willing to go hear a guy whose sweatpants are stained with urine and whose body reeks of odor.
Glenn lost his leg to a staph infection many years ago. Someone stabbed him and after the infection they had to amputate it. He’d been plastered to the wheelchair and rendered invisible since.
“Is there anything you need prayer for,” Jeremy asked Glenn.
“Well, I have a lot of pain in my legs. And I suppose whatever else comes to mind.”
That’s when I looked at Glenn and told him I wanted to pray a crazy prayer. I asked him if he would let me pray for his leg to grow back. The group was in shock (as was I that I would even say such a thing) and Glenn looked up at me with a smile and, like I said before, eager expectation.
“Why I guess so!” he shouted.
We laid hands on him and prayed. I spoke straight to his legs for the pain to be removed and his leg to grow. We blessed him and prayed for other things and said, “amen.”
“How does that feel Glenn? Tell me what happened.”
“Well, the pain’s completely gone from my legs. As soon as you laid hands on me, it went away,” he said.
“How about your leg? Did you feel it grow out any?”
“YES! I felt it stick out a little.”
I was in shock but excited at the same time! I shared a testimony with him from the World Race where one of my squad mates prayed for a guy and his leg grew out. Glenn got really giddy and I swear I saw his leg shoot out more – maybe by an inch or so.
We proceeded to say our goodbyes. I told Glenn as we left, “I’m believing with you that when you wake up tomorrow, you’re going to have a whole leg on your right side.”
“I sure hope so! Then I could get a job,” he said.
Sometimes faith enables us to pray crazy prayers. We should be doing more stuff like this, asking God what He wants us to do and then doing it, being bold and stepping out and believing that He’s bigger than homeless outcasts and amputated legs.
