This blog is incredibly overdue, but I need to declare what God has done for me.
In my last few days in the Philippines, I discovered a painful rash in my armpit that seemed to appear overnight. Any time I would move my arm or anything would touch the infected area it was excruciatingly painful. As if someone was trying to rip my skin apart. I went to the local clinic when I decided the pain was too intense not to be treated. The doctor took a look at my armpit, which I had dubbed the “pit of despair,” and told me that I had herpes.
“Excuse me?”
I was horrified that she would suggest such a thing. I would know if I had herpes. But she insisted that what I had was herpes ulstra, a viral infection that was the next stage of the chicken pox. To be sure, she referred me to a dermatologist, who later confirmed that it was herpes ulstra, also known as shingles.
I remember the drive back to the orphanage thinking about how this could happen to me. I’m here in the Philippines trying to serve people and I’m about to go to Thailand to do the same and I get shingles??? Of all things? I had to take multiple forms of medication to treat the viral infection and I had to put cream on the infected area every four hours. Even with the treatment, the doctor said it would take at least a month to heal, and even then I might still experience phantom pain in my armpit long after the wound was gone. As I looked out the window watching the beautiful scenery of Malaybalay fly by, I was reminded that God has a good plan for me despite my circumstances. Was I going to mope and complain that I have shingles, or would I choose to be joyful and thankful that it was caught early, that it was in a discreet place in my armpit, and that it had not spread to my face and torso as shingles often does. I decided to choose gratitude.
I treated my armpit the next two days before we left the Philippines for Thailand. When we arrived at the airport to leave with our squad I couldn’t find my medication. Everything that I needed to treat my shingles was gone.
My brain instantly started racking my options. There wasn’t a pharmacy where we could find more medication where we were and who knows where we would find one when we arrived in Thailand. Even then the prescription that I had was in the bag of medication that I lost so I couldn’t even remember what exact medication I needed. Was it going to get worse now that I couldn’t treat it for the plane ride and who knows how long after?
All this was stressing me out and I was reminded that stress was not of God. So I prayed right there in the airport, ‘God, I need you to heal me.’
We traveled the rest of the way to Thailand and the next morning when I woke up in my hostel, I realized that my armpit barely hurt at all. Before I could barely lift my arm more than a couple inches without excruciating pain and now I could raise it above my shoulder with ease. The scabbing had become a mild pink and was starting to fade.
God had healed my shingles! Without any medication!
I have never heard of a case of shingles that went away in less than a week. But it’s true. God did it. I didn’t get any more medicine because I didn’t need it anymore. My arm was completely repaired the following day.
We often preach a God of miracles. A God of healing. But how often do we really pray believing that that’s true? I confess that I have often doubted that God heals in the same way he did in the Bible. But he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever, and now, having personally witnessed, his healing power, I want to go out into the world with boldness. We have a powerful God on our side and he wants to restore and make whole what is broken. I praise God for the work that He did in my life with my infirmity and what He will continue to do in the lives of the people I pray for.
