Praying For The Sick

Part of our time there was spent going into the more traditional villages surrounding Teluk Dalam and praying for sick people. Sometimes we went and it felt a bit weird, like they were more interested in meeting some white people (they call us boulehs (bu-lay) which translated is a reference to our long arm hair, apparently!!) than actually seeing God move in any major way. Sometimes they weren’t interested in God at all, and wanted us to answer questions or sing for us (yep, singing is big out here!).

There was one family in particular, who we visited on the first week. The father had been paralysed for three years – we couldn’t ever work out what exactly caused it but he had lost the use of his legs and with that any hope of supporting his family. They had been to visit the witchdoctor (sadly for a “Christian” island, they still put an amazing amount of faith in the traditional tribal medicines) and the treatment he had administered had burnt a huge scar on this mans right leg, that started in the shape of an S. We prayed for him and God spoke to a couple of us about persistence and we decided to visit him every week to pray for his healing. At the beginning we were all hopeful we would see him walk, and even though that didn’t happen, each time we visited we saw small steps of improvement which were so exciting. First he started getting feelings and pain back into his legs, then they were worried that someone was cursing them, so we prayed for protection over the family and later that week he saw an angel in his house!! About half way through he managed to sit up on his own for the first time and by the time we left he could wiggle toes on his right foot!!!

I felt a peace that this was going to be a gradual healing which we probably wouldn’t witness the end of. I think God wanted it that way so He would get the glory in that village, not us – which is completely absolutely fine with me!! The first time we prayed God told me that the sins had been forgiven and the healing was done, so I have ever confidence that his health will continue to get better and better until he can walk again and support his family.

The most amazing thing was seeing how encouraged and supported the family felt by our commitment to them, and feeling how much closer to God they were by the end of our trip. It’s funny how we have our ideas and agendas about what we want to see happen, and how often God has completely different plans!!