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

Healing - fact or fiction?

I can't believe it's actually something like twenty years ago that a reporter from a Sunday broadsheet came to spend a Sunday with the church I was working in. His task was to be present at all the services and write an account of what he saw.

At the evening service we were visited by a wonderful chap who had cone to lead a 'healing service'. During the evening he preached and then called out people who needed healing. The reporter came closer to the platform and his photographer snapped away whilt the preacher prayed for the sick. Up came a blind bloke (only person who sticks in my mind now) and he was asked if there was anything happening. He was told there was a sort of flashing lights going on, and so the chap prayed again and this time the response was that he thought he saw light. Again the chap prayed and by now the photographer was feet away. Upon being asked what was happening the blind person said they could see what looked like a funny face - turned out to be the photographer!

The man was able to read text before the service ended and yet the paper never carried that in their account of a Sunday with us!

Perhaps there was a different agenda?

Pax