He's the bee's knees

This week, I felt the Spirit prompting me to wait in an area for someone, and then I met a woman who was walking with a limp. When I asked her what had happened to her leg, she explained that she had been a victim in a car accident. She received financial restitution for the accident, but she still had to deal with pain in her knee from the accident. This woman had two children, and she also worked on her feet 12-16 hours a day between her two jobs. I had faith that God wanted to heal her, and now I was starting to feel God's compassion for this woman.

After asking this woman if she had heard of people being healed physically through prayer and sharing that I believed Jesus still did that today, this woman was open to me praying for God to heal her knee. I asked how much pain she was in (on a scale of 0 to 10, zero being no pain), and she said that she was about a 4. We found a place for the woman to sit down, and we prayed for a minute. I asked how she felt, and she politely said better--about a 2. She got up to try walking and looked like she was about to leave to go to her car by herself. I asked the woman where the pain was. She pointed out that it was right under her knee cap. I told her that Jesus always healed people completely, so I put my hand on her knee cap and prayed a sentence or two. The woman looked at me, opened her mouth in surprise, and then smiled. She exclaimed, "Stop messing with me!" She didn't have any more pain!

She was in shock, trying to decide whether to jump up and down or walk off to her car. She didn't jump, but I told her not be afraid to do it. Before leaving, she said, "Let me hug you." She hugged me, and I can still picture the smile that was on her face. As she walked off she said something like, "My co-workers are not going to believe me when I tell them about this."

Too good

A few months ago, I moved across the country to serve in a new church ministry. I was excited that God called me to take part in this, but financial struggle has been one of the hardest things about this new opportunity. I've wondered, "God, if you called me to this then why am I struggling so much? If you called me here then wouldn't you want me to have money to take care of my financial responsibilities, necessities, and even some little things to bless me?" God reassured me that he called me here and that he would provide all that I needed.

I have to praise the Father because he's done exactly that! Recently he blessed me big time by prompting some people to give very large gifts for me to do this ministry; we're talking dropped-jaw, wide-eyed, shake-your-head gifts. He's just so good. Thank you, Jesus.

He cares

My friends Derek and Michelle got married today. When I checked the forecast earlier this week, it showed that it would be cloudy and rainy this whole weekend. As someone who cares about them and as someone who believes God cares about them, I asked God a few times to hold off the rain and let the sun shine on their wedding day.

When I woke up this morning, I saw that the sun was shining behind some clouds (woohoo!), and there was a perfect amount of overcast sunshine for their wedding pictures in the Boston Public Garden. It turned out to be a beautiful day--plenty of light and no rain. God really does care about us, and I'm glad that we can ask him for small, meaningful things.

Long lines can be good

Another overdue testimony involves God healing someone at the Post Office. I went in to mail something and got stuck in a long line that was going nowhere fast. The woman behind me had a medical boot on her foot. I said "hi" to her and asked her what had happened. She said that she had sustained a stress fracture in her foot (I can't remember how), but she didn't take care of her injury right away. She was a nurse and was probably too busy on her feet, taking care of everyone else, to take care of herself.

I asked if she was in pain or had limited mobility. She said that she was in pain and had trouble doing things, like driving. I could feel God's compassion for her and that the Father wanted to heal her. I asked if she had ever heard of people being healed through prayer. It didn't seem familiar to her, so I told her how I first heard about it and some firsthand experiences I'd had with it. Before it was my turn to go up to the counter, I told her I believed Jesus wanted to heal her foot and asked if I could pray for her outside of the post office after we were done. She agreed and met me outside later.

I prayed a fairly simple prayer of faith, and with expectation asked her how she felt. She said that she felt a lot better. I asked her on a scale of zero to ten--zero being no pain, and ten being excruciating pain--what her foot felt like. She replied, "Zero." With my eyes wide, I said something like, "That's awesome!" I told her that Jesus healed her and loved her, and I asked if she had ever heard about Jesus. She said "yes;" she grew up going to a Baptist Church but she didn't think that the faith was for her. She said that she was Bahai. I couldn't believe that she didn't want to get closer to the God who just took her pain away, but there is that story in the Bible where Jesus healed ten lepers but only one of them came back to him.

I gave the woman my email address and told her to give me an update after her next x-ray or doctor's appointment. I haven't heard back from her, but I'm still pumped about God's demonstration of his love and healing power.

I've been slacking

Where's my praise at? I guess I have no one to apologize to but God. Spirit, help me to praise you more--in the blog are not. I just want to do it more.

When the college team from Boston was here a few weeks ago, Jessica, Beccah, and I had a cool encounter while sharing the love of Jesus with ASU students on campus. We met a couple guys who were really friendly and interested in talking with us. They both had Christian church backgrounds and were open to us praying for them.

They shared prayer requests, and we also waited on God for any encouragement he wanted to speak to them. After we were done praying, one of the guys said, "Hey, are you psychic? You prayed the exact thing that I was worried about." I guess we prayed something off of his prayer request that struck a chord with him. We said, "No, we're not psychic. God just knows you."

It's the small things

Sometimes prayer about small things makes a big impression.

Though I'm trying to break this bad habit, I made the mistake of waiting to pack for a conference the night before I left town. As I was packing, I realized that none of my tubes of toothpaste were under 4oz, and there was no way I was going to check a bag at $25 to take my toothpaste with me.

I arrived at the conference the following night and knew that I would not be able to go somewhere to buy toothpaste in the near future. I actually didn't notice any stores on the drive from the airport to the conference center. So, I asked God, Would you please get me some toothpaste? I felt like God said that he would.

Sure enough, I mentioned to my roommate--whom I didn't know before that night--that I couldn't carry on any toothpaste with me, and he generously offered for me to use his toothpaste. Plus, he found a airplane-approved, mini toothpaste tube in his bag to boot.

Thanks, God.

He opens doors

Yesterday, I went to the bank to ask some questions about a student loan. The associate who helped me was really chill and friendly; for that setting, we talked a lot more than was typical. As we were taking care of business, he had to leave his desk and consult with someone else.

While I waited for him to come back, I was thinking, God, I should talk to him about Jesus. I want to, but I don't want to awkwardly force the conversation that way. (After the fact, I realized that talking about the amazing King of the Universe doesn't require a smooth lead-in, but anyways...) Would you please do something that will open up a conversation about Jesus?


The guy comes back, and as we were wrapping things up he looks at me and says, What brought you out here? There was God, answering my prayer. I told him that I moved out here with eight people to start a new church, to which he replied, Bad ass! He asked me what type of church it was, but he lost interest as I told him about it. Right when I started talking about Jesus, he told me I should come back to get his friend's sister's information because she was looking for a "spiritual leader."

Praise God for that answered prayer! Even when I don't see things rightly, he honors the desire to see his name glorified. It makes me believe that he will do something like that again.

A good reason to create a blog

As much as I fought against the idea of creating a blog, praising God was a good reason to do it. I don't praise God enough, so I hope that this blog helps me--and anyone reading--praise him more.

Starting out, most of my posts will probably be personal reasons I have to praise God. With time, I hope that I'll pray more for other people and share praises that have to do with other people's lives, too.

Praise God!
A couple nights ago as I was trying to fall asleep, I was listening to a sermon by Bill Johnson, and in the sermon he said (para-phrasing from my imperfect memory) that if we believe God when he tells us what his will is--even when our knee-jerk reaction is to think that it's impossible--then we get to receive miracles from God by his grace.

I thought, "Wow, that's incredible but so true. Look at salvation: Jesus offers to forgive us of all of our sins if we believe in his sacrificial death & resurrection and declare him as our Lord." Breaking it down -- Salvation through Jesus is God's will. We believe God at his word and exercise our faith. Then we receive the miracle of salvation by his grace. It's incredible but true.

Then, I heard the Spirit say, "I'm going to give you $500 tomorrow." At first, I was shocked--eyes wide and mouth open. Despite my shock, I believed that he could do it and thought, "Ok yeah, that would be awesome." Before I fell asleep, I started to think that I had suggested the idea of God giving me $500 to him rather than the Spirit speaking that idea on his own. I fell asleep, and didn't think about what I had heard until the next day.

The following afternoon, my friend John called me to catch up and see how things were going with me. During the conversation, he asked about my job situation and support-raising. I told him how the process was going and that I was still a long ways from meeting my budget. John then told me that he and his fiancee Kirsten (another friend of mine) wanted to give to the work I was doing and said that they wanted to give me $500.

"No way!!!" I said to John. The encounter with God from the night before popped into my head. "God told me last night that he was going to give me $500 today!" We laughed and talked a little while longer, but inside I was in silent awe at what had happened. Things like this have not happened to me very often, but God is in the business of doing miraculous, loving things.

How is something like this possible? Who could have done it? No one but God.