We went to Asia in the dry season.  Cold once the sun went down, and delightfully sunny and warm during the day, and because it is the dry season, there wasn’t a cloud in sight.  Layering was the key to being comfortable temperature wise, but one morning we woke to an overcast sky.  The sun hid itself behind the clouds and we layered up for the day.

Our teams were spread out through different villages doing different types of work.  Some were hoisting joists for a building, others were playing with local kids.  The team I was on hosted a medical clinic in a nearby village.  The ministry we partner with in this region has a hospital.  They believe in promoting the health of the community spiritually, but also physically and emotionally.  The hospital in town regularly sends a team of nurses and doctors out into the villages to set up a pop-up type clinic for the day.

We rode in our van, following an ambulance full of medical personnel and supplies, for about an hour to a small farming village.  The team set up and plugged us into places where we could be of help.  We were taking names, setting up the line, taking blood pressure for those of us who knew how, and working in the “pharmacy” filling orders for medicine.  Wherever they needed us we went.  Many on our team had some professional training, from dental hygiene to a nurse practitioner.  First responders to x ray technicians, so they were in the examining area. Then there were those, like me, without any medical background.  We played with kids to keep them occupied, or hung out in the prayer room which was set up to pray for those who were sick.

Being as I am not a fan of medical things, I was working in the spiritual realm…the prayer room.  Once each person had finished with the doctors, they brought their sheet with their ailment written on it to the prayer room.  We gathered around, introduced ourselves, chatted for a moment, and asked if we could pray.  Some said no, but most said yes, please.

It was a beautiful thing.  It was one of those times I felt a part of something outside of myself, a bigger thing.  Even the language barrier was no barrier.  Smiles and nods said all we needed to say. Differences in beliefs, languages, or life styles didn’t matter in those moments. Gathering around, laying hands on the sick, and praying from our hearts for healing to take place was sacred. This little room was a holy place.

We had many who came.  Little children with runny noses.  Moms with abdominal pain.  Hunched over grandmas who could barely walk.  Grandpas who were having difficulty breathing.  The line went on and on.  As we listened to stories, we heard of the dry season and the toll it had taken on the land and the people.  Unusually dry.  Crops hadn’t done well.  Families were hungry.  The water was scarce.  This caused many of the ailments we were seeing, constipation, respiratory issues, more aches and pains due to more time in the fields.

The people there are precious.  They are small and weathered and beautiful.  One woman came with leg pain.  Arthritis as far as we could tell. She agreed to prayer and she was overflowing with such joy, even in her pain, that while we prayed the room was filled with it.  When we were finished she thanked us and left.

A while later she came bursting back into the room, her smile lighting up the overcast day like the sun.  She was talking fast, in a language we did not know.  We didn’t have an interpreter, but we didn’t need one.  She was dancing around moving her legs and pointing towards heaven.  She showed us how she could move her legs without pain.  She was laughing. The woman had been healed.  She hugged each of us and shook our hands.  She left radiant.

It was such a heavenly moment.  So unassuming.  So simple.  No big production.  Just joy. Healing.  I love it when God shows up like that. We don’t know if any others received healing that day. We may never know. We certainly prayed for it.  But as we were wrapping up our time there, the rain came.  It fell in buckets.  The land filled up with water.  The fields soaked it in. The animals (the cutest baby goats you have ever seen) frolicked in it. It was a healing rain and in it we thanked God for his faithfulness to make himself known. His heart of love once again evident all around us.