circularthoughts: snakebites and healings...

I received the following report on this past Sunday. It is from one of our national workers in India.

In a remote village, a family has been involved for generations in making mud water containers. They are the only people in the villages around them that do this kind of work so their business is good and they earn a reasonable amount of money to support themselves.

One morning the family was busy in their work when a poisonous snake bit one of the women. She was rushed to the hospital on a motorcycle and on the way the motorcycle had a flat tire. The two men who carried this woman panicked as there was no means of conveyance for next 4 kilometers. The woman was getting unconscious as it had been almost 45 minutes since the snake had bitten her and her left leg was turning blue.

One of our leaders, who lives in the area, was traveling on his bicycle when he passed by this group of people. As narrated by the leader:

When I was going to a nearby village to get some groceries, I saw one woman lying on the ground at the side of the road and two men sitting beside her. I stopped to ask them what had happened and they shared the incident with me. I was full of grief and compassion for them but did not know what to do. I was a bit not sure if I wanted to pray for the woman not knowing if God would heal her. But, gathering my guts I decided to share Jesus with them telling them about the healing power of Jesus. But these men were not interested to listen or pay attention to what I was telling them. All they wanted was to get to the hospital. But the woman was lying there and softly said that she was willing to let Jesus heal her. I started to think what if? What if nothing happens, but there was no way I would back out on a dying woman so I placed my hand on the wound and prayed with lot of fear and doubt, Lord, if you may, heal this woman, in your son's name. Amen!! Amen, by the time I finished the woman had completely gone unconscious. The men were looking at me strangely, wondering what to do with me. But before they could think of anything evil to do with me the unconscious woman started to move and make sounds, and she got off the ground completely in just a few seconds. It was a sign of relief for me that God had touched and healed her. Wasting no time I shared Jesus with them and all three of them were on their knees crying and sobbing. The Spirit had convicted them and I left happy, praising the Lord, promising to never doubt again. I have visited the family twice in the last week and three more family members are on their way to baptism in the coming week!

This is but one of countless stories we are hearing and experiencing in India. God is at work! His Kingdom is coming!