Little Faith, Big Healing

“Be healed in the name of Jesus,” I murmured. And then, her stomach shrank under my hand.

When our translator, Vitoria, asked for my help to pray for a young woman who worked at our hotel, I (Megan) was tired.

Exhaustion and adrenaline are close friends when we are out on mission trips. Each one likes to nip at our heels as we walk through each event and ministry opportunity.

Our strength is surely in the Lord as we push through to follow His voice.

Both the exhaustion and the adrenaline were silenced as we sat with Tainá.

She was brave as she told us her story, the life she lived, and the rejection and abuse that she survived as a child. She told us of her child and the kindness of her husband and the desire she had for more children, and most of all, to heal.

It wasn’t just emotional pain and trauma; it was physical. Tainá described a pain that radiated from her stomach and back and some days, into her hip and leg. The majority of her pain sounded like it had to do with her womb.

And mind you, her job at the hotel wasn’t gentle on her body.

But the hopeful gleam in her dark eyes shone brighter than any pain. Her faith was sweet and curled around us as we spoke.

Through Vitoria, the opportunity to encourage her came as we counseled her before walking through healing.

We moved into praying for healing, and as I knelt before her, I laid my hand over hers on her stomach.

The first time we prayed, Tainá’s eyes opened partway through in shock. We asked her how she felt and she let us know the pain went from a 10/10, to a 5/10.

The second prayer dropped the pain to a 3.

I laid my hand over her stomach one more time. “Tainá, you are safe, you don’t have to hold onto the pain or protect yourself anymore. Be healed in the name of Jesus,” I murmured.

And then, heat filled my hand and I felt like I couldn’t breathe from the power surrounding me. Not mine—completely from Jesus.

Her stomach shrank under my hand, losing the swelling and inflammation that had been there before.

Tainá pressed her fingers into her stomach and then stood up. “It’s gone,” She cried, “It’s all gone!”

No matter how many healings I see, I’m always shocked and in awe when it happens. The way it feels and the look on people’s faces when an infirmity leaves. There is nothing like it—who could do such a thing but our God?

A little faith changed her whole life. What could it do for the churches back home?