“Come to my house and pray for my Mother. She has pain in her back,” Matthew said as Grace Chase and I trailed behind him on the dirt road. I felt like the disciples that I read about in the Gospels, being asked to go to peoples’ houses and pray for family members.
The sky was bright blue and the clouds seemed so close to us since we were in the mountains. I felt like I could just grab a cloud if I wanted to. Dirt caked my shoes, and weeds stood tall on either side of me. It was obvious Matthew walked this road many times since he walked so quickly. I tried to keep up, although out of breath and periodically looking behind me to make sure Grace was still with us.
We walked past children with no shoes and so much dirt on their legs it looked like they could’ve been wearing tan panty hose. Their big blood-shot eyes stared at us like they’d never seen a white person before. And maybe they haven’t. But they smile and wave after they see we’re not so scary.
“Let’s stop here first” Matthew says. We come upon a small hut made of brick and mud and straw. A woman greets us by saying “muli uli,” which means “how are you.” She eagerly welcomes us into her home. Grace Chase shares her story with them and about Jesus being the Light of the world. The woman and her husband both accept Christ, and then we pray healing for the man’s stomach problems and the woman’s abnormal heart rhythm. It brought a tear to my eye, thinking about them not being able to go to a hospital. “You’re all they have” I prayed. “They don’t need to walk 2 hours to a hospital, because You’re able to heal them right now. You’re the ultimate Healer.”
Sure enough, when we were done praying, they both were jumping for joy and praising the Lord…for the man’s stomach pain was gone, and the woman said her heart felt normal again. They could now testify about Jesus’ healing power to everyone they knew. My faith was growing by the minute.
Filled with joy and excitement, we started back down the dirt road headed for Matthew’s house. Another quarter of a mile, we stopped at another house. Sadness and grief could be felt as soon as we walked inside. There were 3 woman and a bunch of children staring up at us, waiting for us to share. I didn’t have planned out what I was going to say, but I felt led to share Psalm 121, and then tell about my friend Jarod passing away when I was in high school. How I was mad at God for his death, how not sharing my feelings with people caused me to get very sick, and how I had lost all hope in God’s love…but with time, God was able to heal me of that anger and to find my hope in Him once again. I hadn’t thought of this part of my story in such a long time, so I knew it was the Holy Spirit who brought it to my mind to share.
It must have been what they needed to hear because they shared about their friend dying, and they were now watching after her 2 children. They were caring for 2 orphans even though they couldn’t afford to feed anymore mouths. We prayed healing for them, for the grief, for their pain, for God to provide enough food for them, and for their physical needs such as stomach pains and appetite problems with the children. Light was brought into a place of sadness and darkness.
They weren’t dancing and praising God when we left…there is still much healing to be done in that house. But the process has begun, and they thanked us for coming and offered smiles to us.
It was now 2:00, and we were supposed to meet the rest of the team at 1:00. But Matthew still urged us to follow him to his house that was on the big mountain. The climb was rough. We crossed streams, had mud in our shoes, and climbed up up up until we reached the house that he said he built with his two hands. His mother greeted us, hunched over from the pain in her back. She told us she was fetching water and was carrying it on top of her head back to the house, when her back gave out. She said it felt broken. She wanted us to continue to climb up the hill to her parents’ house to share the Gospel with them before we prayed for her.
So we continued to climb up the hill until we reached some more huts and about 5 people and a few children waiting to hear our message. Grace shared, and a couple of them accepted Christ. We then asked if anyone wanted us to pray healing for them. One elderly man said he had knee problems…he was walking down the hill and his knee gave out, causing him to fall down the steep mountainside. As we prayed for his knee, I was especially moved and started to cry, thinking of my Pappy and his knee problems. I just imagined him not being able to go to a hospital like the man we were praying for, and my heart was broken for this man’s pain. How awful it would be to have a hurt knee and live on the side of a huge mountain.
Once we were done praying, he moved his knee back and forth, walked around some, and said he could tell much improvement. I asked if we could pray one more time, for complete healing. So we prayed again, and he was now smiling really big and clapping his hands. Praise God for answering our prayers so that he can be a witness of Jesus’ healing power!!
After this miracle, the others started asking for prayer…from shoulder aches, to headaches, to stomach pains…we prayed for all of them, and God healed them all!! Finally, what we originally came to do…pray for Matthew’s mom. We placed our hands on her back and prayed for a long, long time. We even prayed twice until all the pain was gone. And we saw her the next day, on the bottom of the mountain, cooking with her church friends, and then in church singing and dancing and clapping to the songs. Praise the Lord for healing her back!!!
We walked back down the mountain and met the rest of the group, 3 hours late. But the Lord was moving, and sometimes He doesn’t fit our schedule. And that’s okay 🙂
Everyone talks about month 11 being the month that racers “check out” because they want to be at home so much and are constantly thinking about home. But I can’t thank God enough for this specific ministry this month, because we have been so busy doing satisfying work. Ministry is evangelism, preaching, and teaching in several villages and schools. We’ve made a ton of memories, and we’ve only been here a week. This will by far be my most satisfying month, if not my favorite. The most satisfying thing is telling people about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My soul is happy and full. Thank you for your prayers!!! God bless!!!
