Once again, the Lord has worked in wonderful ways. This Journey has been somewhat "underground", with us having to keep a lower public profile in some locations, due to the political climate. While there is never any danger of our team being directly on harassed, we don't want to make life difficult for our partners once we are gone. As a result, we have needed to assess every village and situation separately. Today, we are in the foothills of the Himalayas. The scenery is stunningly beautiful; at this altitude, the air is clear and cool. As I write this, our team has opened our fourth medical clinic. The atmosphere among those waiting is calm, with people waiting patiently.
We have been in rural villages, city neighborhoods, and beggars' slums. We spent three days in predominantly Muslim communities. We have been among both agricultural workers and families living almost unimaginable poverty. And everywhere, we watched the grace of God at work. After a long drive to a village in another state, we held our first outdoor meeting. As our team went out into the village to invite people to the gathering, two of them encountered a 13 year old girl, named Angeline, who had a terrible limp. She had broken her hip and the operation to fix it was badly botched. As a result, she could not move or bend her leg without great pain. As well, one leg was 2-3 inches shorter than the other. After prayer, she had no pain. She began to laugh and for the rest of the evening, she was telling everyone about her healing. He leg, however, remained short. That night many gave their lives to Jesus with much rejoicing. The next day we went back to conduct a medical clinic. Besides the many who were treated and those who received healing, 12 different families invited our team into their homes and asked for people to come back so they could invite their friends to hear about Jesus. Our Indian team refer to these as "houses of peace"; they are the key ingredient for planting new house churches. Later in the day, some of the team prayed again for Angeline's leg to grow. When we left the village, she was walking on two healthy legs of equal length. After a long drive back to Chandigarh, we went to a large relocation community of about 55,000 people, about 80% of them Muslim. It was getting late, but we wanted to treat as many as possible in our clinic. For two hours, the team did everything as quickly as we knew how. Kelly, our medical director was amazing--as the crowds pressed forward against some of our team (who stood there like a human wall), Kelly quickly diagnosed whether they needed to see a doctor, or if just pain medicine or anti-parasite meds were required. In two hours we saw an incredible 400+ people! Meanwhile, hundreds lined up for prayer. It was a very exciting couple of hours. On Friday, we went to a beggars' community. Several thousand are living in abject poverty, in make-shift tents made of scraps of plastic and wood. The water is filthy (as is everything else). We were ready for the impatience and frustration that we so often encounter among the very poor, which come from a life time of missing out. Instead we encountered gracious, patient people who were eager to assist us however they could. We treated them for many hours. Meanwhile, some of the team had prepared a hot meal for 300 that we served while the clinic progressed. We saw a great deal of healing that day. Someone prayed for a girl whose hand was completely bent, claw-like, underneath her forearm and she could not walk because her leg couldn't lift. After prayer her hand straightened out completely and the Lord totally healed her leg so that she could walk properly. She and the mom were very excited. Meanwhile, many people were being healed. Even more remarkably, every person who was asked, gave his or her life to the Lord. This was a Muslim community. On Saturday we went back for a full day in the large community where we had done the quick clinic two days earlier. We treated many more people. More remarkably, hundreds and hundreds of people (again, mainly Muslims) kept coming to our team and asking for prayer. Once again, the team reported that every single one of them asked Christ into their lives. Until five weeks ago in the Philippines, in all my years of ministry, I had never seen 100% come to the Lord. Now, here it was happening again. There is something new happening now. This is a new season of eager acceptance of the Gospel by everyone who hears it. I have no explanation for this, but it is truly wonderful. Harvest time is upon us.
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