January 27, 2011 | Mission Trip Stories

Kenya Mission Trip: How God Heals

Have you ever wondered if God is still in the business of healing
people?

In North America, we don’t often hear much said about healing
(what with our advanced medical technology and such). However, this kind of
question can come across as absurd to those living in the developing world, where faith upon a God who heals is sometimes a matter of survival.

For those living in countries suffering from endemic poverty, such as Kenya, the possibility of God healing someone is not only a reality, but a necessity. When Kelsey Moss was in Kenya this summer on a college mission trip with AIM’s Real Life program, she saw a man with epilepsy stand up and walk. This incident helped her better understand not only that God heals, but how God wants to heal us, from the inside out. Here is her story:

Tony lives in
the slums. He lives in the house next to one of our Kenyan friends. He has
something wrong with him medically [that] they think is epilepsy.

He has really bad tremors all the time and he has
not been able to walk for as long as he can remember. Our mission was to
pray over him and ask God to heal him. We began to beg God for healing over Tony in his house in the slums of Africa.

As we prayed someone felt like we needed a bucket of water to wash his feet before he would
be able to walk again. So we got water and continued to pray while others washed his feet.

He leaned over to me and told me that he was ready to try to
stand. I told he group he was ready and we moved the bucket of water to clear a space for him.

Then Tony
felt an immense amount pain in this left leg. We then began to pray over his left leg and
then his right leg. I told him before he
would be able to be healed he needed to believe. He needed to tell God with his
own voice that he believed in Him and then ask God to heal him. So he did.

It
was so sweet to hear his voice praising God. Then he stood. I told him
to lift his arms and praise
God because he was being healed. At this point we were still holding him
up because he was still experiencing tremors. But he wanted to take a
step anyway.
With our team holding him up he walked across the room and back to his
chair.
He was so tried.

Tony said he wanted to try to stand on his own. He placed
his hands on the side of his chair but then the tremors would start again and his hands
would slip off the sides. Again we started praying, I knew God would heal him. My wise friend
Julie suggested that he take a break from trying to walk as the entire experiencing was
draining all of his energy. We told him God would heal him and let him walk in His timing. So we
just prayed and praised God together for a while.

Another friend of mine, Taylor had been talking to
Tony’s sister because she felt that there might be an idol in the home.
After talking with her she found out that as a child Tony’s parents had
taken him to a
witch doctor to try to heal him. So he needed to repent for that and truly
believe that God is the only one who would heal him. He did confess all this,
and I could tell he truly did believe.

As we were getting ready to leave, he
gained enough strength by God alone to raise himself out of his chair for a
second before he fell back into his chair. Tony was not completely healed that day but he was
encouraged. He got up. He Stood! He walked!

The next day, we came to find out that Tony that next morning
got out of his chair and walked by himself to the door of his house before he
fell over. He got back up walked to the house next door using the other houses
to prop himself up. God is so good; he hears our prayers and our cries for
healing.

Continue to pray that Tony would be healed completely and
that he would stay encouraged in the Lord. What an amazing witness Tony will be
when he walks the streets of his slum without having to lean on the other
houses. I can’t wait to hear the stories of those who come to know Christ
because Tony walks.