“Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.” Matthew 9:22
Training camp absolutely rocked my world in many ways. I was challenged in everything I had been raised to believe, including the healing power of God. Before training camp my prayers for healing had always been, “God, please be with (insert name). Health their body of this sickness. Thank You for all that You are going to do. In Jesus name, Amen.” At training camp I watched one night as a lady from CA was healed. She is a dancer, and had injured her foot and torn ligaments and tendons. She was wearing a boot to protect her foot. I watched as she took her boot off and danced for the Lord. I’ll be honest…I was in shock and disbelief. I went to my tent that night and thought what in the heck just happened?!?!
Fast Forward…Month 2: Honduras
Early Wednesday morning, sometime around 3 or 4 am, I woke up because my hands were hurting. Since it was dark and I couldn’t see I just went back to sleep after saying a quick half hearted, “God please make the pain go away” prayer. I woke up again around 6 the pain was still there and they felt like they were on fire. When I looked at my hands this time I could see that my fingers were swollen and red. Throughout the day the pain increased. If I touched my hands it hurt worse, if I ran cold water over there it set them on fire. I mentioned it to a couple of teammates in passing whenever the pain was at its worse. Being outside in the sun made them even redder and more swollen. By the time I went to bed there was a rash going up the inside of my left arm.
I woke up a few times throughout the night, any time I would move my hands they hurt. Thursday morning my fingers and even parts of my hands down to my wrists were covered in blisters, still swollen and red. I was really confused at this point since it seemed to be getting worse not better. One of my teammates, Sarah came up and asked to see my hands because hers had also started breaking out. We tried to figure out when we had worked together, to come up with a diagnosis. The only thing we could figure out was the tilapia pond, but that didn’t really make sense because our feet and legs should have been covered as well.
Before morning devotions the team prayed healing over our hands. As they began to pray the pain in my hands started going away. There was no more burning sensation either. Bryan felt like I should wash my hands. So I went to the sink and washed my hands, and nothing was happening. He asked the team to pray warrior style (all at once, out loud) and as they did I grabbed the bar of soap again. Chunks of soap started falling off the bar onto my hands. I was like what the heck, so I looked at the bar and it was smooth. This really confused me because I could see the chunks of soap in my hands but couldn’t figure out where on the bar they had come from. So I began lathering up with soap. My hands and half way up my arms where the rash had been were completely white (so A LOT of soap!!) As I began rinsing my hands I could see that my index finger on the right hand was no longer swollen, had no blisters, and was no longer red!! So I began rinsing the soap of fast, (as fast as you can with a trickle of water!). The other fingers were still covered in blisters and were red.
I showed the team my hands, and how God had healed my finger so I knew He was going to heal the rest of them as well. As the team began praying over Sarah’s hands I kept rubbing my index finger in amazement and shock. Within 20 minutes my thumb on the right hand was also healed. As we went throughout our day (that story is to come, it will blow your mind!!) I kept rubbing my finger in awe of my Great Physician.
In a way I hope that maybe my index finger and thumb are the only 2 fingers healed from this fungus (I asked our ministry contact what it was) because it will always be a reminder of the day I not only received healing but I gained faith that God really does heal. I admitted to my team, often times I will not pray for healing for me personally or even mention something for others to pray because I look at God and think He has bigger issues to take care of. There is cancer to heal, surgery rooms to be present in, mourning families to comfort, etc.
God, I come before You now in awe of how great and awesome You really are. Thank you Lord for everything you are doing in my life and in my team’s life. For all the ways You are taking us into a more intimate, real relationship with You. I apologize Lord for doubting that what is going on in my life doesn’t matter to you. For trying to help Your “to-do” list and not trusting that You are BIG ENOUGH! Thank you for healing in Honduras!!!
