Oh my how time flies on the World Race! I just finished my fourth month in Uganda…and I can’t believe it! It feels like we just started the World Race! I feel like I just got off the plane from L.A. to the Philippines! But here we are….here I am…four months later and already being changed a lot! God has done some amazing things in me…still have a lot to go, but I think I’m starting to realize that when I’m telling people that there is nothing that God can’t handle (and especially heal), I need to believe that myself!
Most of my recent blogs have been more about my personal growth and what God has been teaching me and not so much about what I really have been doing or witnessing. I’ve been in Uganda for a month and yet I have not really spoken about what I have witness God do in other people’s lives….so here is one miraculous thing that we were able to witness of God’s grace….HE HEALED A BLIND MAN!
Our last few days in Lira, Uganda were spent helping out with a youth conference, as well as visiting the hospital. Hospital ministry is something I realized that I am in love with. I discovered my love for it when I was in Kajabe, Kenya and some of us went to the hospital there to pray for the patients. As soon as I entered the hospital, my spirit came alive! I don’t really know how to explain it, other than the fact that I was extremely excited about being there and couldn’t wait to pray over people and to listen to there stories and to see the sick healed and to share the Gospel. I became fully alive! I felt the presence of God…and He allowed me to feel compassion for these people…to get another chance at feeling a little bit about how He feels for His children. So, when we finally made arrangements to go to the hospital in Lira for the last few days there, I became so excited! I couldn’t wait to see God’s hand at work! Our first day there, we prayed for many of the children that were camped outside with there parents….many of them (so young) suffered from Malaria. There was one little girl I remember praying for with Katie that was just lying there in her bed, and her father was holding her hand. She couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. She was in there because she was anemic (not sure about the spelling of that…sorry)…she had an IV of blood pumped into her. I’m not sure what else was wrong with her, but there she was, and there she had been for a couple of days already…and she was so weak looking! So, with the compassion of Jesus, we prayed over her! Katie had some smiley face stickers, so she plopped one on the little girl’s hand and we walked away.
We continued to pray for the people that were around the hospital…all kind of going our separate ways…wherever God was leading us! Eventually I kind of ended up on my own praying for children and women and whoever God placed in my way….knowing that God will heal those people! I eventually caught up with my other teammates who were speaking and praying over this one girl named Jennifer. I decided to pray over her with them and just placed my hand out towards her and instantly began to feel my hand start to tingle and then became very warm like it was on fire….I don’t really know how to explain the feeling, but I knew it was the spirit working through me. Then Cindy said that she felt like we were supposed to lay our hands on her and pray in the spirit…so we did! I don’t really know how to sugar coat this without some of you questioning what I’m about to say…so, here it is! This little girl had a demon in her! I’m quite serious, too! There was a sense of mockery from her every time we asked her to speak the name of Jesus. We finished praying for her knowing that there was still a demon holding on to her…guess it wasn’t quite time to deliver her from that one!
We were about ready to go when we were asked to pray for someone’s brother…so we made our way into the men’s ward…and prayed for the brother. He was burning up….I mean completely burning up. We laid hands on him and started praying. Now, I know this next thing is going to sound crazy too….but here we go….everytime I prayed for God to cool his body down, that one spot that I had my hand on became cooler…I’m completely serious! It would just simply become colder than the rest of his body….and then it would go back to the same heat….so, I just kept repeating that over and over again, and could just keep feeling it get cooler everytime I said it. I mean, how amazing is God?! He is completely awesome! So…I walked away knowing that God loves that man so much…and that He wants him to be healed! That is when we met Maxwell. Maxwell is a police officer who had been in the hospital for a month and has been bedridden. There was no clear reason (b/c the doctors could not figure it out) why Maxwell was in the hospital…they did not know what he was suffering from. All we knew is that his muscles were deteriorating and that he had not opened his eyes in a month. So, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. All of us at some point specifically prayed for his eyes to open so that he could see his wife again and so that God’s glory can be revealed! I don’t know how long we prayed, but we all had complete faith in God! Maxwell’s eyes did not open after we prayed, but we promised his wife that we would be back to pray with them again. I did not make it the next day, but a few of the others did…and they prayed for Maxwell again, and for his eyes to open, and for God’s glory to be revealed. His eyes did not open that day. The last day of ministry in Lira, and our last day at the hospital. We all wen straight to Maxwell’s bed to pray for him…there, we prayed again for his eyes to open so that he can see his wife (who had been so strong and had stood by his bedside this whole time with so much hope) and also, so that God’s glory can be revealed. We prayed for a good while and walked away. Maxwell’s eyes did not open. We walked around the hospital some more…all of us going our own ways and praying for the patients. When we were getting ready to go…Lindsay and I see Katie running towards us with a huge smile on her face…and then she yells out, “His eyes are open! Maxwell’s eyes are open! Jesus healed Him!”…something like that…and Lindsay and I were so excited! Apparently, Katie and Braedon stayed in the men’s ward to pray over some of the men there when after about 15 minutes or so, Maxwell’s wife called them over with complete excitement and there was Maxwell with his eyes opened and a huge smile on his face! Jesus healed a blind man! He had not opened his eyes in a little over a month…and there he was with his eyes wide open! The compassion of Christ poured out onto this man that He loved so much…he gave him the gift of sight! God is Good…and there is nothing that He cannot do!
