adapted from a report by Esther Schaeffer, serving with The Alliance in Burkina Faso, West Africa
“Hello, Mrs. Schaeffer,” the young man said, approaching me as I walked into church last Sunday. “Do you remember me?”
I was clueless about who he was, but I responded with a weak smile, not wanting to hurt the young man’s feelings.
“You and your group of women prayed for me at the hospital. Remember me?” he continued, introducing himself as Joe*. “My mother was with me crying. I had been in an accident. My back was broken, and I was paralyzed.”
Joe’s story slowly started coming back to me.
Three years earlier, our prayer team had been walking through the large hospital complex in Bobo-Dioulasso, the city where we serve. Our team visits there often to intercede for the sick.
Paralyzed!
I recalled that that day a visitor had stopped our group to tell us someone wearing clothing with our church logo had headed toward the surgical area. We took this as a leading from the Spirit and made our way quickly to a crowded hallway filled with patients awaiting surgery.
We found a woman in the crowd wearing a pagna (wrap skirt) patterned with the Alliance logo. She was weeping, bent over a young man on a stretcher who was bloodied and unresponsive.
I realized that this grieving woman was one of our widows. The woman explained through her tears that her son, Joe, had been on his bicycle heading to work and had been hit by a car. The doctors had told her that his back was broken—he was completely paralyzed.
Seeing that hospital personnel were coming to take Joe in for surgery, our team quickly circled the stretcher and laid hands on him. We began to pray, believing that the Lord was choosing to heal this young man and give him back to his mother—completely restored.
Fully Healed
When we finished praying, I noticed that Joe’s mother had stopped crying. She looked at us and said, “I know that the Lord Jesus has heard your prayer.”
Fast forward to this day, three years later. Joe described to me how he quickly regained the use of his limbs and had experienced no residual problems from the accident. Jesus had healed him—completely!
“Mrs. Schaeffer, I couldn’t respond to you that day I was on the stretcher, but I heard your group praying for me—from that moment I knew that I would be healed.”
Sharing Our Founder’s Directive
It was said of our Alliance founder, A. B. Simpson, that “kindness and love dictated his attitude toward the sick. He was concerned with the leading of the Spirit and the prayer of faith.”
His directive is our Bobo team’s as well. We show the kindness and love of Christ as we place ourselves among the sick, allowing the Holy Spirit to direct and lead us, believing in the One who never changes (see Hebrews 13:8) to use our prayers—and us—as He wills.
*Name changed
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Jesus Is Still Our Healer (James 5:14–15) is a core belief of The Alliance.