2012 Ministry Trip
Mirrlees and I were joined by my friend Andy Bell and our purpose was to encourage the churches we are working with to believe God for healing in the community rather than just praying for people at church. The impact far exceeded our expectations.
The first news that greeted me concerned my visit last year when I prayed for a number of people in the community. When my friend Jallah followed up our prayers a week after I left he found that all the people received what we had asked. Two notable healings were a woman with malaria who was fully recovered the next day and a 2 year old boy called Gift who had never been able to stand up or walk. He was walking within one week! This was a huge encouragement.
However, Jallah’s brother William had been seriously ill for three weeks despite much prayer and the hospitals had been unable to diagnose the problem. Before I preached on the first Sunday morning he was healed along with two others. This provided great encouragement and motivation for the church. They were used to praying for the sick but not with the faith and confidence to see regular and immediate healing.
The common model of prayer for healing in Liberia involves much shouting and commanding and cajoling to have faith. We had determined to model our ministry on Jesus and follow His example as best we could. We kept our prayers short and simple and after praying once asked if the symptoms had completely gone, praying again if necessary until we saw full recovery or felt we had prayed enough and believed that full recovery would follow, as Mark said in his gospel.
Over the course of the next two weeks we prayed for nearly 100 people who were sick, mostly on the streets but also in 4 churches we visited. About half had symptoms we would check. Of those 7 out of every 8 people received instant and full relief of their symptoms(52 people). There were many with minor ailments like headaches and migraines, stomach aches, back aches etc. All of these received immediate and full relief. But we also saw immediate healing of arthritis, stroke-paralysis, long-term illnesses, typhoid, malaria, hepatitis, herpes and parasites.
The most dramatic healings were for paralysis, lameness, eyesight and hearing. The churches had not experienced this level of healing before and many committed themselves to maintain this outreach into the community proclaiming the Kingdom of God and healing the sick.
Laurence lives with his father Paul Fire, mother Finda and various siblings in a mud and tin house in a mangrove swamp (see last picture). Two years ago, whilst staying with his aunt he had a dream that he was being swallowed by a black snake up to his waist. The next morning he was paralysed from the waist down. Since then his aunt has never visited and Laurence has been unable to stand or walk without the use of a walking frame, and then with very great difficulty. After we broke the power of witchcraft and prayed for him Andy & I got hold of an arm each and tried to get him to his feet. His legs shook like jelly and it took a great effort to haul him up. He was unable to take a step and we sat him back down. The next day Laurence and his parent excitedly reported noticeable improvement. Six days later Mirrlees and I visited again. I simply told him to stand up and without any aid he promptly stood up! His parents cried out in astonishment and Laurence had a look of mixed bemusement and joy. Laurence is now walking and back at school.
Six people with walking difficulties caused by arthritis, strokes, a dislocated hip and a broken leg all received significant or complete improvement. Two people with very poor eyesight (unable to recognise people or read) received excellent eyesight. One lady who could only hear when shouted at, after prayer could hear quiet speech in a noisy room. Damawa, severely afflicted with herpes, was completely healed.
Whilst there we made two half-hour national radio broadcasts speaking about the gospel and the wonderful things Jesus had been doing. Mirrlees met someone on the plane from Ghana who had heard the first broadcast and the last person I prayed for, Nathaniel, had heard the second. Hearing about the wonderful things Jesus was doing, he sent his wife to find me because she had such terrible nightmares she could not sleep in her house and she also miscarried at seven months in every pregnancy. She came to the house early one morning and had to wait for me to get up! I prayed for her and she went home happy. She was so radiant with joy and completely at peace since then that she insisted her husband visit me too. Nathaniel came to find me on the day we left and again had to wait whilst I returned from visiting someone. He suffered from long-term chest and stomach pains – a condition we encountered frequently. He received full relief from his symptoms and went home rejoicing in Jesus.
In addition to praying for the sick we also prayed for a variety of other needs and prayed blessings upon all we ministered to. Samson asked for prayer to get a job selling fuel. Two days later I came across him selling fuel at the road side. He was so excited and insisted I prayed for him again. On the way to the airport to pick up Andy the car clutch was slipping badly and we didn’t know if we would make it. God “healed” the clutch and also the speedometer, which had not worked for years! We also had some setbacks. The car broke down on the way back from the airport after meeting Mirrlees and we had to be rescued, and eight people we prayed for had no immediate improvement. However we are confident that at least some of those, along with many who did not have symptoms will in due course report their healing.
There were also many suffering from frequent night-mares and a community leader, Helena, who had suffered a nervous breakdown. Helena is now fully recovered and those we have been able to check on are free from their night-mares.
