Healing

"As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!'  When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' 'Yes, Lord,' they replied.  Then he touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you'; and their sight was restored." -Matthew 9:27-30

I just returned from a trip to Mamelodi, South Africa.  I went down there with a group from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I was assigned to be a part of a medical team for the duration of the trip.  Mamelodi is a township outside of the city of Pretoria, created during Apartheid, and almost 100% black.  The makeshift city (full of squatters and people of abject poverty living alongside middle class families) has a staggering HIV/AIDS positive population.  We set up medical tents out in the lower class neighborhoods and invited all who needed it to come and receive the medical treatment that we could provide.  There was about 15-20 people on the medical team, including a handful of nurses and three doctors.  I have no prior medical experience.  My job was to work in the Triage tent, effectively being the first person to come in contact with those seeking care.  I had to figure out whether or not they needed to see a doctor, and if not then I had to let our "pharmacy" know what they needed to help alleviate some of the illnesses they came in with.  Every day 300+ people would show up to receive care, and the doctors/nurses could only personally see so many of them.  I got rather good at diagnosing the common cold, heat rash, women's health issues (don't ask), and arthritis in the elderly.  I prayed that the Lord would give me eyes to see into what was ailing them and to speak directly into whatever it was.  Many of the people simply needed someone to talk to.  Many of them were also beyond help, dying of AIDS, and in the advanced stages of cancer.  I personally witnessed dozens upon dozens of people get tested positive for HIV and have to be confronted of the new reality of their life.  I saw dozens of babies, many less than a year old, come in with lesions all over their bodies, already living near death with AIDS. 

All this to say, it hit me that we were "doing" relatively little:  Maybe a diagnosis here, some ibuprofen there, and a lesson on menopause to some wholly uneducated women all around.  For the most part, we had none of their prior medical histories, incomplete testing, and referrals that would probably never end up in a real doctor's office.  People were dying.  They needed a miracle.  The Lord showed up.  I saw it with my own eyes and was a witness to His healing.  These people had more faith that God would heal them more completely than a doctor could any day.  Many would come up to us, not believing in Jesus, and ask us to pray for them anyways.  I felt like I was living in the Book of Acts in the Bible.  I saw people walk that couldn't before.  I saw people see who couldn't before.  I saw people hear the name of Jesus for the first time in their lives.  

We live in a country that has been blessed (and it is a blessing) with wonderful health care, and the most gifted doctors in the world.  We can easily forget that many in the world don't have that.  We can easily forget that in those situations, prayer is powerful.  Prayer is essential.  Who is praying?  We know that in the Bible, Jesus would simply heal people on account of their faith.  i.e. they just believed that he could do it.