A few weeks ago, our team was in one of our churches, attending the Sunday service with 100-120 believers. They had gathered on the roof of a rented house in the village where our missionary L* is ministering. L* is from a tribal community, and he came to know the Lord 8 years ago after having received deliverance from a demonic spirit. Just five years ago, he joined our 40-day training school for house church leaders and then took the leadership of the house church in his home. Slowly the house church has grown and since they do not have suitable accommodations, they split and started another house church in another village. This has gone on for some time, and now through multiplication he leads nine house churches in different villages around his home village. We have baptized more than 240 people in these house churches in the last 4 years. That Sunday a few weeks ago, two or three house churches had come together for a worship service on the roof of L*’s house.
Power of the Testimony
During worship that day, there was a time of fresh testimonies, as L* asked, as usual, whether there were any testimonies today. Three people stood and testified of what God has done in and through their lives.
One woman, D*, around 50, became a born-again Christian 5 years ago, having come from a Hindu background. She testified that her six-month-old grandson was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and was in the ICU for a week. He was in critical condition and having trouble breathing, so she was sitting outside the ICU fervently praying for her grandson.
Divine Appointment
While sitting in the waiting room she had a friendly conversation with a pregnant woman and her husband. They were in their late thirties, and D* found them sitting quietly and weeping. She felt a deep compassion in her heart for them, and went and sat with them and comforted them. As they talked, the couple told her that they had been married for 16 years and, until now, had never been able to have any children. When she finally did become pregnant, doctors discovered the pregnancy had many complications. Things were so serious they told her it would be better for her to have an abortion, for her safety, rather than carry the baby to full term. She and her husband disagreed with the doctors. They had waited so long, and they wanted to have the baby. When D* met them, the woman was at her due date. The doctor informed her husband he would do everything possible, but he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to save both the mother and the child. He told the husband to be prepared, and to pick the one whose life he wanted saved. Both husband and wife were shattered. Both sets of their parents were against their decision to keep the baby, so no one gave them any support.
Comfort of the Holy Spirit
D* comforted the couple and shared with them that she believes in Jesus, who answers prayer, and asked them whether she could pray for the mother and the child she was carrying. With their permission, and in tears, she prayed for her there in the hospital waiting room. She rebuked the curse put on the couple and blessed the mother and child in Jesus’ name. As soon as she finished praying, the lady began to feel uncomfortable and started bleeding. The doctor came and they rushed her directly into the operating room. In surgery they took the baby out, but it was motionless and the doctor declared the baby dead.
After some time, the nurse brought the dead baby out to show it to the father in the waiting room. D* was standing beside the emotionally overwhelmed father, and when he refused to look at the baby, D* took the baby in her arms. She laid her hand on the baby and began to pray in tongues quietly. A few moments later D* felt something moving in her arms! Suddenly, the baby started to cry. The nurses heard the noise, and took the baby back inside to the doctor. After an hour the nurse returned, saying the baby was perfectly fine.
The hospital staff and the doctors were wondering what happened. Finally the father of the child, who witnessed everything, told them it was D* who first prayed for the mother and child. He said “She took our dead baby, put her hands on it, and prayed in a strange language, and it was during her prayer that our baby moved and started to cry.”
As D* shared her testimony in church that Sunday, she paused and asked the father of the baby to stand up. He had come with her to the worship service. He stood there, speechless and in tears, and with folded hands he expressed his gratitude for what the Lord had done.
(Continue to the next testimony here…)