Jesus Loves to Heal the Broken – Ukraine 2025
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]In my previous article (A Prophetic Warning at the Moldovan Border) I shared about how God both warned the Overseas Missions team about the Moldovan border crossing and also walked us through everything we needed to resolve the matter in real-time. But that was just the process to arrive in Ukraine. Once we were there, the real work began. And when I say “work”, it wasn’t physically challenging for most on the team, nor was it fast-paced such that it would be hard for someone to keep up. It was really more about steadily and persistently being involved on a daily basis, and as we did that, Jesus healed people every day. And why did He do this? Because Jesus loves to heal the broken.
A favorite passage of mine is Isaiah 42. The entire passage is a prophecy speaking of Jesus, but I want to highlight a few specific verses, Isaiah 42:3, 6b-7, which says:
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. . .
. . . I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
I love thinking of Jesus’s personality in this context. He is so gentle and kind to the hurting and broken that he won’t further injure those who are already injured, and those who are nearing the end of their ability to cope, or even the end of their life, He will never push them further or finish the job. He is a light to all mankind, heals those with any physical malady, brings freedom to those in captivity, and to those in any form of darkness, whether physical, soul, or spiritual, He sets them free. And this is exactly what the OM team saw Him do again and again each day in Ukraine.
Most weekdays our team would join a local church in Izmael on their weekly soup-rounds with refugees. Each weekday the local church we partnered with would visit a location with a large (7 gallons or larger) pot of soup. They would go to the same park each Monday, a particular shopping mall square on Tuesdays, etc. Our team would help them dish out the soup, share a short message (under 5 minutes) about Jesus and His love and good plans for them, serve soup, and while everyone was eating, we would go around with our translators and pray for people. Sometimes they needed physical healing, and almost everyone needed Heaven’s touch in their emotions.
As you can imagine, with a war going on in the country, with daily drone strikes somewhere in the nation (and oftentimes somewhere in their state), and with family members and friends having been conscripted for the war, many were grieving and lived in a lot of fear. And yet Jesus showed up time and time again with His healing touch. Sorrow would turn to joy, pain and debility into relief and ability, and more. One day we might pray for someone with a cane and Jesus would heal them on the spot—and a few days later when we saw them next, they were still not using a cane. One woman who was deaf began to start hearing. She could only hear vague sound, but it was more than nothing—and we would continue to pray for her hearing each time we saw her for Jesus to complete the job. Quite regularly people would have pain leave their bodies instantly, regain range of motion in their joints, and while not everything got healed instantly, I don’t think anyone we prayed for left without some kind of change when Heaven touched their bodies.
As I mentioned above, Jesus didn’t just come to fix physical problems, but to heal those whose hearts are hurting and broken. And there were many in Ukraine needing His love to heal their hearts. Whether grieving widows, parents in fear for their adult sons at war, or whatever other situation, Jesus touched hearts as well. Sometimes we would just hug someone while they cried, but even then, they would feel loved and know they weren’t alone. And as we prayed for people, it was common to see tears turn into smiles of joy. The Bible tells us that the peace of God bypasses our conscious understanding and goes straight to the depths of our soul (Philippians 4:7), and that in God’s presence there is joy. As we prayed for these beloved ones, the Holy Spirit would come and release His presence, bringing peace and joy with Him and filling everyone who needed it.
One day we drove from Izmael to Odessa (about a 3-hour drive) early in the morning and spent the day there. A few of the team were able to join a military chaplain who was filled with the joy of the Lord and pray for soldiers in the hospital, and each of the men they prayed for received a touch from heaven. One man who had an amputated limb that was in constant pain didn’t believe that anything was going to happen when they prayed—and as they told us the story, he was quite shocked when the pain instantly left at the name of Jesus. That evening we held a healing meeting in a local church and the team called out many words of knowledge and God healed many. At first the people there were unsure of what we were doing (even after we explained it) because they had never experienced the gifts of the Spirit or the power of God like we were demonstrating. But the more we called out different injuries God wanted to heal and the more people got healed, the more people began raising their hands when their problems were called out and were open to receiving prayer. One healing in particular that stood out to me came when we called out “blindness”. Multiple men and women who wore very thick glasses raised their hands, and while I don’t remember what happened to everyone, I remember one elderly gentleman who no longer needed his glasses because his vision had been restored!
These kinds of healings were a daily thing for our team, and I am thankful for that. If I reflect a bit on what we experienced in Ukraine, however, I think it is important to recognize that Jesus is the same in the United States as He is in every other nation. The truth is that if we were in the USA and ministering to people one could easily see similar results. What really is at play is that when we step out in faith to release the Kingdom, God backs us. And if He will back us in Ukraine, as He has done in India, Guatemala, Peru, Thailand, and in other nations that Overseas Missions has visited, He will do the same here as well. Often I think we hear these stories of what God does “overseas” and categorize it as a “missions thing”. I enjoy going on mission trips and seeing God touch people with His power and love all around the world, but it can be easy to forget to apply that same miracle-working power to those around us when we are no longer “on a mission”. In reality, the “as you go” commission wasn’t just about intentional mission trips, it was about “as you go” to the grocery store, to the post office, and everywhere else we go in daily life. If anything, these trips are an opportunity to love the poor and the broken, but also to get equipped to release the Kingdom everywhere we go!
If these stories are inspiring and encouraging to you and you want to find out about future trips, I encourage you to head over to the Overseas Missions website and keep an eye out for future trips. Currently OM tends to run trips 3-4 times a year, and it is a great opportunity to challenge yourself, grow your faith, and see God move in healing and miracles. And if you don’t feel led to go on a trip but want to help sponsor someone else to go or support the missions work of Overseas Missions, you can contact them to see how you can sow into the ministry as well.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
A Prophetic Warning at the Moldovan Border – Ukraine 2025
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Some of you have been following my journey on social media over the past few months as I raised funds for a mission trip with Overseas Missions to minister in Ukraine this past September. Our initial plan was to help train a local church in how to operate in spiritual gifts, to visit and minister to refugees, and whatever other doors Holy Spirit opened up to us. Our actual trip differed some from the original plan, as it always does, but I believe we accomplished much that God wanted us to and that we deposited things in that nation that will bear lasting fruit. However, to begin doing any of that, we first had to actually get to Ukraine. Because of the Russia-Ukraine war, no one can fly directly into the country, so our team had to meet up in Bucharest, Romania, rent two vans, and drive there. So, we loaded up the vans, as one of the two drivers I accidentally forgot a team member at the hotel (it was only for a few minutes and I never made it out of the parking lot so it’s not as bad as it could have been), we loaded up the vans with all of the team members, and set out for Ukraine.
The drive through Romania was 3-4 hours long, and we were heading to a ferry that would take us across the Danube River and to the Ukranian border. I forget the reason, but at one point Tyler, the leader and other driver, had me re-route our directions to avoid the ferry. We had gotten split up, which didn’t really matter because we were going to the same place anyway, and in the end his van ended up at the ferry anyway. My van, however, did not. Not knowing they ended up on a different route at that point, I followed wherever the GPS took me, which landed me at the border of Romania and Moldova. For a brief geography lesson, Moldova is completely surrounded by Romania on the west and south and by Ukraine on the north, east, and south. Going through Moldova is one method of going to Ukraine. Except we were going to Izmail, a city south of Moldova that is reachable by crossing into Ukraine directly. None of which I knew at the time. All I knew is that I was at the border of the wrong nation, and where I had stopped, it was too late to turn around. Oops.
I forget if I called Tyler or if we messaged because I can’t find the message thread, but when he found out our van was at the border of Moldova his advice was basically “stay safe.” Because what I didn’t know at the time was that in the weeks leading up to the trip, God had given a dream to a friend who wasn’t able to join us. In that dream, God expressly instructed us to avoid the Moldovan border. And because our initial route avoided Moldova entirely (in keeping with the divine instructions) and I had re-mapped a new route, Tyler forgot about it . . . right until I told him that we were at their border. So now I’m not only at a border of a nation I didn’t intend to be at, but I discover after the fact that God had given us explicit instructions not to go that way. Double oops.
Now, this may sound like a horrible turn of events, but I actually found it pretty funny at the time, and I still do. It is just so incredibly human of us to have God give us knowledge and instruction that surpasses human wisdom and yet for us to just bumble along and mess it all up anyway. And because God is good and He loves us, He makes a way for us anyway. So in spite of finding out that I had bungled things up quite nicely, I wasn’t worried. In fact, right when I pulled up to the Moldovan border, God gave me a prophetic word in the form of the license plate in front of me to tell me what His plan was. I forget the whole plate, and the letters didn’t matter, but the plate had exactly three numbers, and they were 333. Usually when I see three 3’s it is in reference to Jeremiah 33:3 which says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” In other words, even though I didn’t know the details of the situation up-front, God was reassuring me that He was going to tell me whatever I needed to know with wisdom that surpassed my existing knowledge. And with that, I proceeded to drive forward into the border crossing.
Other than passports, one of the first things the border crossing guard asked me for was an International Drivers License (IDL)—which I did not have. And had I been paying better attention the language of the Holy Spirit leading up to the trip I would have had one because my mom had actually mentioned it to me days before we left the USA. But Tyler had done a bunch of research online and the general consensus was that no one ever asked for one, so he didn’t bother mentioning it or suggesting I get one. Which again was funny because it was one of the first things they asked for at the border crossing I wasn’t supposed to be at.
Once the man found out that neither I nor anyone else in the van had one, he became rather agitated. He kept saying things like “we are going to have to find you another driver.” At which point in time I made the comment “If we don’t have the right license, I can simply turn around and not enter your nation, and that will solve that problem.” Realistically, I could just backtrack, take the ferry the other van was going to use, and skip Moldova. He didn’t like that answer because he replied, “Then you would still be driving in Romania without one.” I didn’t understand why he said that at first, but the second time we replayed a similar conversation I realized what was going on. European border crossings are a bit different than North American ones. In North America the nation you are leaving generally doesn’t care that you are leaving. The only nation who cares is the one you are attempting to enter. This is not how Europe works, or at least the part of Europe we were in. I wasn’t talking to a Moldovan. I was talking to a Romanian border guard, who was getting more upset every time I suggested we turn around and keep driving through Romania without an IDL. Oops again.
He ended up leaving us and checking on some cars behind us, at which point he instructed the driver of one of those cars to come up to our van and show me his IDL paperwork, which that man kindly did, and briefly explained a little to me about international driving laws and agreements between the US and other nations in that regard. Shortly thereafter this Romanian border guard returned to the van, made some comment to me about me being in the military, that I had better have the correct paperwork on my return trip, then let us pass through. Now we were heading to the Moldovan part of the border crossing to actually enter Moldova. (I later discovered that the IDL is a powerful tool of bureaucracy that has exactly zero value for driving ability and it simply mimics a small portion of your license of your existing nation in multiple languages. It can be acquired in under ten minutes online. And as they’re basically just copying your existing license info from your home nation as the template for it, it is pointless. A lot of drama over nothing.)
That segment of the check-through was slightly easier because they didn’t ask me for an IDL, and while they didn’t speaking English, both the Moldovan border guard and I spoke Spanish, so we were able to talk with our mutual second-language to get us through the checkpoint. During that time I also spoke to the man who had come up to the van earlier. His name was John and and as we talked I found out he was in a position of significant responsibility over a US military garrison somewhere in Germany (It took me over a week to realize that a combination of John being present and me having my passport photo be of me in a camouflage shirt must have given that border guard the impression that I was military, because nothing about the passengers or contents of our van screamed “military”). John was visiting Ukraine because his wife is Ukrainian and they had not been back in the country for a while. He also explained that this border crossing was the worst one to use to enter Ukraine and that they always avoid it—but that they had to go this way because this was the only border anywhere close to where they were going that had a veterinarian there. Because they had brought their dog with them on that trip they needed a vet to review their dog’s paperwork to have him be permitted through. And this is where some of that wisdom-beyond-knowledge that God was going to provide us came in. Before we left that checkpoint, John asked me if we had a “vignette”. Having no idea what he was talking about, I said as much. He explained that it was basically a toll or road tax that we were required to pay, and that Moldova would expect us to have it at the next border crossing. Which at that moment, I discovered the next border crossing was only one kilometer away. Yes, we were crossing at the very bottom tip of Moldova and were going to spend a single kilometer of distance in this nation. On the other end of that short road was another Moldovan border crossing and then a Ukrainian one where we would get to do this process all over again. Fortunately, because God placed John in our path, first so the Romanian would believe I was military, and second so we could buy this “vignette” (a 4-euro-equivalent road tax) before arriving at the next border, we were not held up extra at the border as a result.
I stopped at the gas station John recommended, bought the vignette, and then we went to the next border crossing just down the street. Everyone in line was stopped at that one for almost two hours because a group of Orthodox and/or Hasidic Jews who were making some kind of pilgrimage had a bunch of drugs with them and it held up the line, but that gave me more time to talk to John and see if there was anything else we needed to know so we could cross borders without further hassle. There wasn’t. We did not see John or his wife again and made it through the rest of the border crossings without much additional hassle, but his presence at the first border and the insight he gave us into the whole vignette-acquiring process took care of the major issues we were facing at that border crossing, and eventually we were driving into Ukraine and heading to the Green Hall Hotel in Izmail where we stayed for the following week.
There are multiple potential takeaways from this story, such as “heed prophetic warnings,” but the one that stuck with me was to simply trust God to make a way when we need a path opened before us. He told me up-front with the license plate message that He was going to tell me things I didn’t know, so I didn’t really see a reason to get into fear over the border crossing. Was I at perfect peace the entire time? No. But was I amused and generally enjoying the adventure? Yes. Even while we were in the middle of it all, I recognized those were the kind of events that make for a good story and a great memory. I decided to have fun with it all and just see what unfolded before us. And as I did so, God came through with everything He said He was going to provide for us.
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Living out the “As We Go” Mission
My checked bag had gotten misplaced on the trip home from Peru, somewhere in-between Iquitos and Los Angeles—so when I arrived in Austin I filed a claim for lost luggage, then went home. The next evening I got a message telling me that not only had it arrived in Austin just a short time ago, but that someone was driving the almost-hour to my house to deliver it to me!
I live on a highway in the country, but during the night it is very hard to find—partly because you can’t even see my house from the road and partly because the speed limit is 60mph so unless you know where to stop, you’re probably going to miss it in the dark. Knowing this, and wanting to actually get my luggage back, I drove to the end of the lane, parked just inside the gate, then walked to the road so the delivery driver could see me.
I had gotten a series of texts that included a literal GPS tracker so I could reload the page and see in real-time where the driver was. Technology is a bit over-the-top these days, to be honest, but in this case it made things a little easier. Traffic was minimal at 10-something at night so I saw the driver slow-roll past my lane and then put his hazards on and stop. He was clearly trying to figure out where to turn, but he spun around, saw me, and pulled in. According to the app the driver’s name was Wasiu, and he was a pleasant man, who greeted me by saying “God bless you” for making it easier for him to find the place. We briefly spoke as he returned my bag from the airline, and then I began to walk back to the gate to get in my van and drive back to the house.
As he was about to pull away and my back was turned to him, the Holy Spirit spoke a word to my heart so I quickly turned around and ran to Wasiu’s car to stop him before he drove off. What I said to him was a single sentence, a very simple message the Holy Spirit had dropped into my spirit moments before. All I said was:
“God wants you to know He has heard your prayers and He is going to answer them.”
He had started to drive off but he stopped the car, parked it, and got out, then shook my hand, thanking me profusely for telling him that. I have no idea what he had been praying for and I didn’t ask, but it was clearly very important to him and the prophetic word landed where it needed to.
Sometimes I think we expect that ministry needs to look super-special in some way. In fact, that moment of delivering a timely word was as much “ministry” as the almost 2-week Peru Overseas Missions trip I had just arrived home from the day prior. We can clearly point to mission trips and church services and outreach events as “ministry” but the fact is that “ministry” doesn’t always have to look spooky or special. Sometimes it looks like sharing a timely word to your lost-baggage delivery driver at 10:00 at night as he is about to leave. The “as we go” command of Mark 16:15 really is about “as we go.” I’m not saying we can’t have times of intentional ministry because those are important too, but we must make sure that our ministry times aren’t only the times we specifically set aside to do it. “As we go” is a lifestyle choice, and everyone can (and should) do it. We are Sons and Daughters wherever we go, and Kingdom authority is present within us everywhere we are, which means that “as we go”, so goes the Kingdom. Our job is to help “your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but it won’t happen by accident—so let’s go!
Taking Homeless Drug Addicts to Dinner
One of the things I love about going on mission trips with Overseas Missions is that we just don’t do what is expected of us. Most short term mission trips seem to involve preaching at churches, building something for people, and/or feeding the poor. All of these are good and have their place, but they’re sort of the norm. Instead, while there are definitely some specific plans, there is also a lot of freedom with OM for us to be ourselves and just do what we feel led to do. This means that in Peru one of the guys paid for over 1,700 ice cream cones over two days to give free ice cream to the people of Belen. It was unplanned, but when he talked about it on social media, a bunch of his rich not-saved-yet friends decided they want to do that in the future when they go traveling overseas as well—which they do yearly. Expanding the Kingdom can look like church meetings and salvations, but sometimes it looks like we don’t expect it to. Which is why we took a bunch of drug addicts and homeless men and women to dinner.
When the plan was first shared with the locals, we invited a number of people who our local contact there would regularly minister to in a drug hole—a place where the locals would come and buy and use drugs, eventually passing out, having their stuff stolen, and all kinds of other unseemly acts while under the influence. Normally the later the night got the more of this would occur. After finishing up with a medical clinic, we began making the invitations and walking to the restaurant, a good twelve blocks from where we had done the clinic. While at first there were about 15 people going with us, by the time we arrived that turned into about 30 people. And keep in mind, this wasn’t the kind of thing that is easy to budget for—not because Overseas Missions lacks the ability to plan, but because God is into radical generosity and if Jesus didn’t turn away 5,000 men (not including women and children) after he preached to them, we’re not going to turn away a few extra people at a restaurant, even if we aren’t sure we have the money for it (and when all was said and done, a number of generous people saw about it on social media and paid for the whole meal).
One of the things that made this such a big deal is that some of these people have never eaten in a restaurant like this. And keep in mind we aren’t talking some kind of 20-star American restaurant that charges $1000 a plate. We’re talking about the kinds of places you and I might eat at with our family or friends without really even batting an eye at the price. As a kid I used to think that Red Lobster and Olive Garden were these majorly upscale establishments and when I got older I realized they’re literally just normal restaurants. Well, imagine visiting the Peruvian equivalent of a normal American restaurant, but this time you’re a homeless drug addict with no money and you’ve never eaten at one before. For some of our guests, this was a big deal—and that was our goal.
You see, one of the things about carrying the labels that we give people, even some of the ones I’m using in this article—“homeless” and “drug addict”—is that in our minds it devalues people so we offer them less respect and mentally we remove value from them. By inviting these men and women to be our guests, we are giving people honor who receive none. Just being seen walking with us and the restaurant being unable to turn them away because they are with us gives them a huge boost in confidence and respect. And that was a big part of our goal. We wanted these men and women to understand that they, as sons and daughters of the King, have value and are worthy of dignity, honor, and respect.
So, as we sat down to the meal, we told them exactly that. We ate in “family-style” dining where we have large plates of food we serve off of instead of individually-ordered meals, and we explained that we were doing this because each one of us, whether American or Peruvian, is a son or daughter of God. That regardless of whether someone decides they want to know God more after this meal or if they simply want to enjoy a free meal that they can know that we are celebrating them and honoring them as God’s children. And that as the one worldwide family of the One True God that we are eating the way families do. Finally, we thanked them for honoring us with their presence by joining us, then we prayed over the food, and we all ate together.
One of the really cool things I got to personally observe is the way the culture of the Kingdom spreads little by little. Jesus once explained to the disciples that they were to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod because yeast is the sort of thing that once it gets into bread begins to spread throughout the entire loaf without someone even always recognizing it. Well, our Father’s Kingdom is much the same, and where His Kingdom begins to be made manifest, it spreads. One example of this I saw during the meal is that the man next to me had his face continually down to his plate and he was practically inhaling his food. The guy was clearly quite hungry and was committed to eating, which was cool because we wanted them to be well-fed. The man sitting across from me noticed his water glass was empty, so he took it upon himself to fill my neighbor’s water glass. This sounds like such a little thing but we have to keep in mind that these men and women are used to a certain level of “every man for himself.” When they are able to feel secure, knowing there is more than enough, they become free to serve one another freely, and this was simple evidence of that.
Sometimes we are looking for the big flashy miracles and the massive meetings where we can show our friends that thousands of people said a prayer to follow Jesus. But big and flashy isn’t always what God is after. Jesus sometimes went out of his way to offend people so those who were just waiting for flashy stuff to happen and weren’t serious would stop following him. Spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom sometimes looks like big meetings and flashy miracles. But sometimes it looks like taking a homeless addict to dinner—one who very well may be high as a kite while he’s eating. But that’s okay. Because Jesus didn’t come to those who have no need of Him, but to those who were desperately in need of His goodness, kindness, and love. And we, the Body of Christ, are His hands and feet.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:31-40)
Training a Son of Our Father To Heal the Sick
One of the things we did in Peru 2023 with Overseas Missions was hold medical clinics, which, being a nurse, I play a role in. The clinic process usually involves seeing patients, assessing their needs, giving medications where possible, then sending the problem list (written on a piece of paper with their name) to the prayer team to pray for the problems. The results are pretty fantastic—almost everyone who goes through the clinic and gets prayer gets healed. Because we are in a non-English-speaking country, however, that means we have to use translators because most of the team doesn’t speak the local language which, on this trip, was Spanish. Our leader made some arrangements with locals he is in relationship with, and one of the translators, Jonathan, was the son of a local Iquitos pastor.
He did a fabulous job translating for us the entire time we were in Peru. And although Jonathan was a pastor’s son, he wasn’t accustomed to praying for the sick (to be fair, I am the son of an Episcopal priest and I wasn’t raised to pray for the sick either). So, while most of what the nurses in the clinic did was identify and treat physical problems and send people to the prayer team, I had a few times I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to have us pray—so mostly I had Jonathan do it. He was uncomfortable at first (he told me, but it was pretty obvious even if he hadn’t said anything), but he did great and was willing to push himself out of his comfort zone. It probably helped a bit that for everyone he prayed for, their pain gradually left as well, so he could see the results of his prayers in real-time.
Now, when it comes to praying for the sick, I have a bit of a mental algorithm I go through in my head while talking to the Holy Spirit and just trying to be generally aware to spiritually discern what God is saying and doing, so I made sure to tell Jonathan my process, and I’ll share that here as well.
First, when it comes to heal the sick I begin with a prayer of command. Something simple like, “All pain, leave now in the name of Jesus.” You see, in Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus told his disciples that He had received all authority in heaven and earth, then delegated the disciples to go and exercise that authority on His behalf. So, when praying for the sick the first thing I do is engage my authority and release power to heal, and expect it to be done in faith. Then, where possible, I have the person test it out and see if they can tell a difference.
After praying, one of three things will happen: it will get better, get worse, or stay the same (or they may not be able to tell, so in that case I assume it has remained the same).
- If it gets worse, it’s a demon, so then I cast out demons.
- If it gets better but not all-better then God is actively healing them in that moment and I pray again.
- If it stays the same then I pray again because even Jesus prayed twice (Mark 8:22-25).
- And if it gets all-better then they’re healed. Give them a hug and let them know God loves them.
The rest of the prayer session tends to continue in a similar manner, with me praying then identifying what is happening, then adjusting from there. If we hit blockages where nothing is happening after praying multiple times or if they have been gradually getting healed and it stops, then I cast out demons. Once I have done that if it still plateaus, then I am talking to the Holy Spirit to see if there are emotional issues or curses or something else that are interfering with what we are praying, deal with that issue, then ideally go back to my prayer process again until they are fully healed.
Since Jonathan eventually plans to be a doctor anyway, I taught him this algorithm to him since it’s largely based on how I problem-solve as a nurse anyway, and figured it would be a good fit for him. Then, as we prayed for people, I coached him through the process, asking him what he saw, what he thought we should do next, etc. Finally, in keeping with the prayer of power and authority, I continued to remind him that he is a son of the Most High God and that Sons of the Kingdom don’t ask for creation to obey us—we command it to.
We practiced this healing prayer process both during the clinics infrequently with patients and also at a few healing prayer services we did while in Iquitos. While praying together, Jonathan and I saw God heal blindness, deafness, and a number of other less-problematic conditions, but the last patient we saw on the last clinic day was a pretty special circumstance that beat out all of those.
On the final day of the clinic, we spoke to a young woman who’s main complaint was knee pain. Seeing that she was the last patient, I had Jonathan pray for her, and the pain left instantly. After praying for her knee and giving her antiparasitics for her family, vitamins, and some other medications, I observed that her ankle looked really strange, something she hadn’t mentioned anything about. It looked at first glance like she had broken it sometime in the past and it had healed very poorly, as it was swollen and misshapen. Upon asking her, it turned out that she had an ankle tumor. I mean, I would have led with that, but people can be funny.
Now, while I inspected her ankle I noticed something that was impossible to miss because of how glaringly obvious it was. This young woman’s ankle and the tumor on it were absolutely covered in gold dust! We had seen other patients in the clinics and everyone whose skin we inspected for a skin problem had supernatural gold dust on their skin problem, but on this woman’s ankle it was thicker and just more somehow. I showed Jonathan and then showed the woman—and explained it was a miracle from heaven (milagro de cielo) and a sign that God wanted to heal her body. With that, we began to pray.
As you can probably guess, I had Jonathan pray for her. I began by having her rate her pain and move her ankle so we could observe how much range of motion she had (another way to evaluate change when healing the sick). Jonathan liked to pray long, flowery prayers with a bunch of “Father Gods” thrown in there so I told him to pray a super short prayer this time. I had him say “Pain, leave in the name of Jesus.” He prayed, and some of the pain left. After praying she said it felt like something was “grabbing her ankle,” so I had him command “Demon get out and all swelling go in the name of Jesus.” He did, the demon left, the rest of the pain went, and as we continued to take turns praying over the next few minutes, the swelling visibly reduced to about half the size! Her pain was gone, and her range of motion in the ankle had improved significantly.
We had to close up right after this as it was getting dark, or I would have continued to pray more because God was actively healing this woman’s body and removing the tumor and its effects! And while I preferred to continue praying, I could also trust that God would continue the work that He had started to begin with. After all, covering her tumor in gold dust wasn’t my idea—it was His. This precious woman was crying by the time we were done because she could tell that God was touching her body. It was so beautiful to see her moved by God’s gift to her, and I simply extended my faith in trust that God would finish the work over the next few days.
That miracle was pretty awesome, but almost as awesome to me was helping train up another Son of our Father to heal the sick and destroy works of darkness. After all, if in a week’s time Jonathan saw the sick healed, blindness and deafness healed, and he even saw a tumor shrink at his prayer of command, what else is possible when partnering as a Son with our Heavenly Father? Nothing is impossible with God!
Healing the Bora Chief
During my time in Peru with Overseas Missions, we spent a day on a tributary of the Amazon. We saw some cool animals (sloths, crocodiles, weird turtles, macaques, and more), swam in the river, and toward the end of the day we stopped by a village of the mostly-indigenous Bora people. Their chief, Walter, was quite the clever businessman, and their actual village was a 4-minute walk away, but they had created a model-village close to the river for tourists. It was late in the day so many of the villagers had left for home already, but because our local Peruvian contact knows the chief, they arranged for some of the villagers to remain behind to welcome us. What happened next was awesome.
First, Walter and his tribe welcomed us with a number of traditional dances of the Bora people, and afterward they showed us some of their tribal wares. The items were pretty cool, as they included jewelry made of porcupine quills, artwork, and more. I didn’t look at the artwork much though because we brought some gifts for the tribe, which I briefly explained to Chief Walter—we brought medicine.
One of the things that made this trip so fun was that so much of what we did was counter-culture to how life normally goes. Usually, Chief Walter does a presentation with his tribe and they are in a service-role to the tourists as a form of income. And while our team was honored to receive similar treatment (even better than usual if you consider they stayed late in order for us to see them), it is uncommon for the tourists to bring gifts for the tribe. We provided pain medications, vitamins for the children and pregnant women, and other medications that are both generally useful and not readily available in the jungle.
Because Walter and the tribe were largely believers already we didn’t preach to them, but we did make sure to pray for anyone with pain and injuries before we left. An elderly man came up for prayer who had lost much of the sensation and mobility in his arms after carrying a heavy load through the jungle. He fell and was injured and afterward he could no longer move or feel properly. While from a medical perspective I suspect he had some level of nerve impingement in his upper back, the fact is that this negatively impacted his quality of life. Until Jesus showed up, that is. One of our team, Shawn, prayed for him and he regained all range of motion and sensation and all the pain in his body left!
Then, my buddy Troy and I prayed for Chief Walter who had some kind of injury to his foot. Considering the 40-minute walk twice a day along with the multiples of dances they performed barefoot, I suspect he had plantar fasciitis or similar—but regardless of the condition, it meant that simply doing daily life was painful, much less his job as the village leader. Well we prayed and the pain left! Now, when healing the sick and injured it can be easy to pray, not test anything, and leave feeling like we have added a notch to our belt and witnessed God heal someone, but I’m not a fan of leaving things untested if there is a way to try it out. We began by having the Chief stomp his feet, which he was able to do without pain, so we took it to max-level. I asked him to jump up and down on it to really make sure he was healed. And He was, because Jesus still heals!!
Often, manifesting the Kingdom is as straightforward as being more engaged than people normally are, and other times it looks like gifts of medicine. In this case it looked like both of those and healing prayer—but however we release the Kingdom, the key is for us to just step out and do it! Faith looks like risk, but when we step out and risk something we create opportunities for God to show up and show off His immeasurable goodness and love.
A Night with the King
During the 2023 Peru Mission Trip with Overseas Missions, one of the things we did was hire prostitutes. Now, it sounds terrible when I say it that way, but the REASON we hired them was so we could have their undivided attention to throw them a party. You see, our team leader reasoned that since Jesus was known for hanging out with prostitutes and sinners and yet never engaging in any of their activities, we should do the same, and facilitate these women having a night with King Jesus.
Prior to even leaving the USA for Peru we had already known this was part of the plan, so some of us brought party supplies with us, including a kit to make a big purple-and-gold balloon arch. Some of the local women bought party supplies at a store, then we spoke to Sylvia, the manager of our hotel, to borrow a large meeting-hall, which we subsequently decorated with all kinds of party supplies. The women didn’t typically go to one of the main city plazas until around or 9 pm, so it was going to be a late night, but we pre-planned for that as well.
Once we were ready for the party, complete with cake and a range of other snacks, we had to figure out which members of the group were going to locate the women who we would be sharing God’s love with. In the end we all decided to go, so we hailed a bunch of motorcars (which are the local equivalent of taxis) to find women and escort them back to the hotel.
Now, we had a secret weapon with us. One of the local women has, for the past 13 years, gone and ministered to the women (and some cross-dressing men) in the plaza, so she was able to point out who we should speak to. But get this. What sounds like a group of people making plans on God’s behalf took a supernatural turn—something we only found out hours later—but when we arrived in the plaza, even before we had approached anyone, a few of the prostitutes were standing together and they felt a wind go across them and a sense of peace settle upon them. After we hired the 4 women, they decided to take a separate motorcar to the hotel, and one of them told the others “our services won’t be used tonight.” The others didn’t believe her at the time—but God had gone before us to prepare their hearts to receive from Him that night.
It reminds me of when Abraham sent a servant out to go find a bride for Isaac and the servant wasn’t sure how to just “find” some random woman. Genesis 24:39-40, spoken by the servant of Abraham as he tells the story to Rebekah’s family is as follows:
“Then I asked my master, ‘What if the woman won’t come back with me?’
“He [Abraham] replied, ‘I have walked faithfully with the Lord. He will send his angel with you. He will give you success on your journey. So you will be able to get a wife for my son.”
In the same way that an angel went before Abraham’s servant so the man could find a wife for Abraham’s son, God sent an angel before us so that these women could have an encounter with their bridegroom, King Jesus.
The women were definitely not expecting a party, and took some time to warm up to us, but eventually they were smiling and having a good time. We served them cake, chatted briefly, then as they warmed up to us our leader asked if they minded if we shared some things with them that God was telling us about them (ie. prophesy to them). They agreed, so we began to prophesy God’s plans and purposes for their lives and share wisdom and insight about who God had created them to become. The more we talked the more it was apparent these women weren’t even selling their bodies because someone was forcing them or because they were young and foolish. Almost all of these women had families at home that they were trying to feed. In one case, the woman had stopped the lifestyle and was washing clothes for around 50 soles a day (about $13), but it was backbreaking work and her father had grown very sick and she needed the money to take care of him. Since she had a means where she could make double her daily income in an hour, it was easy to understand how she went back into prostitution. These women lived hard lives and were trying to make ends meet, not live some kind of glamorous lifestyle of the rich and famous. They just didn’t want their families to starve and be homeless. As such, the theoretical worth of their bodies could be reduced to $15-30USD an hour. It’s really sad, if you think about it even for a moment.
During the time we prophesied over them, our leader realized that the Holy Spirit was speaking in a particular and unique manner. You see, earlier in the day when the women had gone to buy party supplies, they bought some roses as well, but only had enough to buy two at first. Somehow they got the money for four, and brought four roses back to the hotel. Well, we didn’t know until that night that we would end up with four women, but God did. Furthermore, one of the women’s names was Rosa, which means “rose” in Spanish. This was yet another way that God encountered both these women and us, preparing the way before all of us for the night.
We prayed for them, hugged them, and spent time letting these precious women know how valuable they are, now much God loves them, and that He has prepared a way for them. One of the other local women with us shared her story of how God brought her out of a lifestyle of prostitution and she encouraged them that God had prepared a way for them to leave the lifestyle and still care for all of their needs as well. All in all it was a powerful night, and the women left with double their normal rate (we wanted to show them double-honor and not just pay “as good as” the men who use and abuse them), the rest of the cake, a bunch of snacks, roses, and hearts full of God’s love for them.
One final detail was that right after we left the plaza and everyone was headed back to the hotel for the party it began to downpour. This wasn’t a light sprinkle of rain, and no one would have remained out in the plaza anyway. If we hadn’t gone when we did there would have been no one to minister to that night, and those women wouldn’t have made any money either. Not only that, but right as we finished the party was when the rain stopped. God literally took care of all of the details for us because He is far more interested in touching these women than we are. The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God. This doesn’t mean that He has petty squabbles over things, but that He will stop at absolutely nothing to restore His daughters and sons to Him and for Jesus to have his full reward—that is the WHOLE Bride presented to Himself without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. He is committed to completing His work that He has begun in all of us, and this was very evident in how He revealed Himself to these precious women that night.
