The Problems Healing Brings

In 1981 my new wife (Kim) and I worked 3 months in an orphanage in Haiti. I had read an article about a runt of the litter kitten that got special attention and grew to be the best cat of the group, so in Haiti I chose the 1 year old kid who had the least amount of attention - I chose him to bask with attention and prayer. He had an extreme mental disability. He rocked his head back and forth all day, never cried, never laughed and never moved away from his mat rocking his head.

I hugged him, played with him and loved him for 3 months. Once when all the kids were sick at both ends and Noah (the kid I took care of) was dying, we prayed and left him alone in the back so villagers wouldn't know he was dying. All the kids who were sick got medicine, Noah didn't.

The next day Noah was completely healed while the rest of the kids began a slow recovery. From that point on Noah grew a personality. By the end of 3 months there, Noah was laughing, crying and acting like a normal healthy kid, which actually made the man who ran the orphanage angry on one occasion when Noah cried because he needed a bottle. He said in his stress, "I liked you better before."

There were some strange people who ran the orphanage... what can I say?

Years later I saw the same thing happen to a lady who had a year old girl in the hospital for ear infection. The doctors had found the infection and were on the way to do some more tests when I and some friends prayed for the girl and then talked about whatever. During our conversations, the mother was completely distracted by her girl's behavior (the girl was in bed next to us and was more active than she had ever been in her life). We left after about an hour.

In a few days the mother told me that the hospital tests showed that there was nothing wrong with the girl, furthermore the mother said, "I have never seen my girl like this, she was so quiet all her life, but in these last few days she has been all over the place...she is keeping me on my toes constantly." Unlike the guy in Haiti, this mother was happy for her girl, albeit busier and more stressed.

These two healings gave me a good lesson about spiritual health in churches: Although spiritual and mental health can bring great change but also more stress. Some churches just don't like that.