Healing

Weekly we hold an outreach to the local garbage dump. For as far as the eye can see is garbage and...Well people. Life here is rough. Many children drop out of school to help support their families by scavenging through the fresh trash and selling anything of value or recyclable items to junk dealers for a few cents. Often times wading through trash up to their knees. Many of them do it in shorts and flip-flops, this is a health concern we have. We often pray for children and adults that have major infections on their feet and legs.

One particular day during our outreach we had a small group of visitors with us from the US. Fired up for Jesus we went looking for someone to pray for. We came upon a young family sitting on the edge of their small bamboo shanty pieced together with items they have found in the dump. The mother was holding a small child in her arms, we approached her and introduced ourselves and asked if we could pray for her and her family. She began to tell us earlier that day, the children were playing when one of the bigger children picked up her son and swung him around. When they stopped her son clasped on the ground. His body limp she rushed him to a local “healer”. The man massaged the child’s neck making it worse, nothing more he could do he sent them away. They had just arrived home minutes before we arrived. Her voice was helpless and the child lay limp in her arms not even able to hold his head up. I fought hard to keep my emotions together as we began to pray for the child. We prayed nearly 30 minutes expecting to see a miracle but saw nothing. We shared with the mother the salvation message and before leaving we gave her a verse of scripture to pray over her child. That evening we struggled to understand God and why He didn’t heal him.

A few days later, we returned to check up on the child only to find him still laying helpless on the floor of their shanty. Earlier God had spoken to us about his sovereignty and that it was his will to heal him. The mother was working in the dump and the father was home so we shared with him the gospel message and he accepted Christ then we prayed for the child again. We didn’t see immediate healing but we knew that God had done something. We left with rejoicing in our hearts that it was God who heals and it is he who chooses how and when. A week ago we returned to the dump to find this little boy running and playing as if nothing had ever happened. I asked the woman what happened and she explained after we came back and prayed with her husband and son that the next few days her son began to gain strength day after day. Now he has not problems with his neck or back. PRAISE GOD!!!


I have realized that it is not me who heals…and that in Gods sovereignty he did not heal the child the first time we prayed because he had more in store for that family! Today not only is the son healed But an entire family has been saved from the pit of hell!!!