Healing - Fact or fiction 3

Another Kenyan escapade, this time in Nyahururu.

When I was there the place was full of stories of a man who terrorised the town. He ran about in a wild sort of terror by day and by night he would sleep under some corrugated iron sheeting (until the kids came in the morning and threw stones and rocks onto the sheeting to wake him up. Think I'd be mad too if that was me!).

Anyway, one day there was a very strong sense that God was saying that the man had a spirit of amnesia and that we needed to grab him and pray for his healing. So off some of the Christians went and grabbed him and brought him back. When they did he was in a most awful state, he was covered in dirt and his matted hair had things living in it and he was like a wild animal (reminded me of the time a feral cat came in to the house and ran amok ripping things and peeing everywhere - just bigger!).

Beginning to pray for the man resulted in his dropping to the floor, motionless, and me thinking, "Whoops, think we've killed him!". There was a smashing anointing knocking around and a few minutes after the praying finished the bloke suddenly sits up and asks (in Swahili) where he is. When he's told (Nyahururu) he explains that he is a butcher and had come to buy some meat when he was attacked. The panga scars on his chest and the fact that his pick up and money had gone all supported the story and when he realised he'd been in the place for a fair time it all got a bit interesting.

We took him off and stripped his clothes off him and he was hosed down and shaved from head to foot (the local barber, not me thank goodness). He was then given new clothes and was taken back to his home where the family and neighbours went absolutely bonkers (whilst he was overjoyed but sane). They thought he'd either gone off or been killed and had given up hope of seeing him again.

I heard a few years later that there were churches formed through this event and that it had been a pivotal moment in the Christian life of the area.

The more I think of what I have seen and been involved in, the more I begin to wonder why I have let healing slip as much as I have.

And then of course there is John Wimber . . . .

Mungu Akubariki