Story: Mouth cancer ate her cheek away

Story: mouth cancer ate her cheek away

My wife and I prayed for a young woman in India who had mouth cancer.  She was a tall beautiful young lady in her early twenties, who wrapped her saree over her head to cover the large hole in the right side of her face.

We walked up a dirt path to a mud brick and thatched roof structure, where her father was the pastor.  They were the most handsome and tall family we had met on our journey, but they were also very poor by American standards.

Like all the other poor churches we had visited, they had never met a foreigner in person from another country.  The family stood regally as they tried to hide their nervousness.  Each one had different reasons to be nervous.

I could see the stress in the father’s expression.  Why did God send these people and what was going to happen?

As was true all throughout our trip to India, they couldn’t help but look at us to see what foreigners look like close up.

The young lady turned her head to peak at us, and the wind kicked up.  Her covering over the right side of her face fell down for a moment.  She quickly put it back in place, hoping no one had seen anything.  But, we did see.

It was an immediate sadness that fell over me.  The cancer had eaten away her cheek. We could see her upper and lower teeth even if her mouth was closed.  I instantly thought of how difficult it would be to eat and drink water.

We prayed, but not because we had heard anything from Jesus.  We were overcome by concern for her and prayed with a deep compassion. Nothing happened.

Anytime Jesus speaks, He keeps His word. This is why the prayer of faith in Jesus’ words always accomplishes exactly what Jesus wants to accomplish.

A month after we had returned home from India, our Indian pastor friend called me.  It was our monthly call.  He told me that they had returned to that beautiful family’s church.

With the elders, they prayed again for the young lady with mouth cancer, and she was healed instantly.  Her face was restored completely!

The lady’s immediate family was pastoring the local church, but their extended family members were Hindu.

In our experience, we have noticed that when miracles happened there wasn’t a guarantee that the whole family would turn to Jesus.  Most of the time that never happened,  but this time they said their entire Hindu family and many more in the village converted to Jesus.

The Hindu people from that village were so angry that so many were turning to Jesus, they beat up all the men of that church and burned the church down.

It was at this moment as the story was being told to me, that I realized Jesus didn’t want us to be there when the healing occurred.

Jesus had promised Ileana before she left for India that He would keep her, and baby Noah inside her, safe and healthy on the trip. We were speechless and amazed.