Monday January 30

This photo was taken on outreach. It is of my friend Rosa and a woman living in Avian Park, a colored community in Worcester. Even though it's a very low quality photo, I just had to post it here because of the amazing story behind it!!

 Rosa and I needed to gather the Avian Park children for dinner so we set out walking up and down the streets (running with sewage, litter, mangy dogs, tin shacks…you get the picture) when this blind man outside a house starting yelling like crazy. We just ignored him, thinking he was drunk. Then Falla (our missionary friend) went over to talk to him. This man was yelling for help, for us to call an ambulance because his wife was very sick, maybe even dying. Falla went into the house to see the wife and make sure she wasn’t just drunk (alcoholism runs rampant here). He came out of the house and told us to go in with the woman while he searched for someone with a cell phone to call an ambulance.
Okay, here’s the thing. I was very nervous in this neighborhood and didn’t feel safe going into this house. There were lots of drunk men outside it, no electricity so very dark, and just all around dodgy. Earlier that day in class, our lecturer encouraged us to walk in Faith not Fear. So I asked God for courage and protection, took a deep breath and went into the house with Rosa….
Boy, am I glad I did.
Immediately I saw the woman on the bed, curled up completely crippled. Rosa thought she was already dead because she was barely breathing. A neighbor was there too to explain a little, so we lifted her shirt and saw her back was completely askew… honestly I’ve never seen anything like it and don’t know how to medically explain it but she had very thin skin so you could see all her bones and muscles. She was very bony, with an odd growth that made her spine look crooked. We laid our hands on her and started to pray. The woman winced in pain at the very light touch to her skin… in such excruciating pain she could not even speak. We asked God to comfort her in her pain, to give her peace, to take away the disease and heal her, to give her new life in Him.
As we were praying, Rosa felt under her hand the skin move and soften, muscles contract and release. She couldn’t articulate exactly, but said it felt like bones moving beneath her hand. Suddenly the woman started crying in Afrikaans. I didn’t know what she was saying but I knew they were tears of joy. I looked down at her back and saw it was smooth, God had healed her! She immediately sat up and began walking, crying out “Praise God, I have no more pain!!” again and again.
The healed woman cried that she didn’t use to believe but now knows there is a God and He is alive! She said she will thank Him everyday for as long as she lives.
It was such a neat testimony because as we hugged her and walked out of the house together many neighbors had gathered outside the house because they knew we were there praying. Good news travels fast, and for the rest of the evening the neighborhood was filled with joy because of the miracle.
It was INCREDIBLE!! God is so good!
I never in a million years thought I would be a part of God healing someone like that … I’m still speechless. It was such an encouraging and humbling experience. :)