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.

Story: a broken foot and faith

The bone was sticking out the side of her foot without puncturing the skin.  She was a teenager in a youth group from a church in California, who was playing with kids in Ensenada, Mexico.

Their youth group volunteered with a Mexican church, and they were at the church property.  As they were running and playing games with the children from the neighborhood, the girl somehow twisted her foot hard enough to break the bone.

Ileana and I got up early that same morning and prayed to start our day.  She looked at me in the shadows of our room.  Jesus just told her in her thoughts, that I was suppose to pray that day for this same youth group.

I responded and said, “Well, if that is Jesus then we will see it happen without me forcing it to happen.  I have too much to do today, and it would be more than a coincidence if somehow we all ended up in the same place today.”

The youth group came back to the property where we all were staying, and asked the first aid doctor and nurse for help.

We had several hundred people from the United States who had come to do a week of volunteer service with the Christian university where I worked.  I was one of the employees in the Mexico outreach program at the university. I happened to be the director on site in Mexico representing the university that week.

Someone came to me and told me a youth group was in the first aid room asking me to come pray for a girl who broke her foot.

I walked into the first aid room and the entire group was there.  I knew immediately that I would end up praying for them.

Right behind me entered my wife.  She gave me that look of “I told you,” and I lowered my head and smiled.

I confessed to the group the truth, that Jesus had warned my wife that morning that I would pray for their entire group, and here we all were at dinner time standing together.

I went ahead and prayed for the group and the girl.  Nothing happened.  I had seen many miracles before, but this time nothing happened.

I told the group I heard nothing from Jesus to believe Jesus would heal the girl.  So, I asked the group if anyone heard a thought while I was praying, that might be from Jesus.

It went quiet for a little while. Their 18 year old translator raised her hand very timidly.  She heard in her mind to pray that the bone would return back into its proper place.

I said, “Great. That might be something we can believe is from Jesus.  The only way to find out is if you are willing to go ahead and pray.”

I told the doctor and nurse next to me to keep their eyes open during the prayer, as we looked directly down at the broken foot.

As soon as the translator began to say the words, the girl’s foot didn’t look the same.  [surprise] The doctor was hyperventilating and couldn’t speak.  The nurse was speechless.

I sent the nurse with the girl and her leaders to the Red Cross in town for an x-ray, and there was no break on the x-ray.  Her foot was sprained and swollen, but the bone that used to stick out was no longer broken.

The 18 year old translator prayed a prayer of belief in what Jesus had whispered to her in her mind, and the girl was healed instantly.

Faith or belief comes from hearing Jesus speak.  I knew it was Jesus who healed the girl’s broken foot!

I know many sick or injured who have been accused of not having faith to believe in their healing.  It’s not nice to point fingers, when those who point didn’t have faith either.

In fact, all of us didn’t have faith, except for the 18 year old translator.  I didn’t have the belief because Jesus didn’t whisper thoughts to me.

Others might have heard thoughts, but didn’t believe they were from Jesus.  And some might have heard thoughts from Jesus, and choose not to be moved to pray.

The 18 year old translator heard the thoughts and responded.  The proof came after she prayed.