I told my fellow mission trip teammates that we were going to see limbs grow out on this trip from the moment we stepped off the plane. In a place like Sierra Leone, that’s very possible. Many people lost limbs during the civil war, so I knew we would get a lot of practice. Within the first few days of the trip, I had prayed for a dozen people without legs, believing every time that I would see a new leg appear. With each person, my faith grew more, knowing that God always shows up when people partner their faith with Him. The fun thing about God is that He doesn’t always work in the ways we think He’s going to. I thought He would heal a victim of war, instead, He showed me his heart for the little ones.
In a night meeting, a woman came up to me for prayer for her baby boy. He was about 18 months old and unable to walk. She was weeping at the thought of her baby being ridiculed and begging on the streets because of a disability.
As I took the baby’s legs to see what the problem was, I saw that one of his legs was a good six inches shorter than the other, and the shinbones were bowed out from the knees to the ankles. All my prayers of faith should have given me courage at this point, but I stood there clueless as to what to say to this woman. I felt performance creeping in, so I decided to close my eyes and just rest in His presence.
Once I felt like myself again, I simply said, “God, You love Your kids. You love them so much.” I felt my hands moving, so I opened my eyes to see the shorter leg growing out to match the length of the other leg. I was just as shocked as the mother, who was dancing up and down. I noticed the bones were still bowed, so I grabbed a teammate and said, “Hey, you want to fix this?”
He laughed, and we declared alignment to the boy’s legs and watched them instantly straighten. In a moment, God changed the future of this baby boy. He is the God who makes all things new.
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