Prayer Works 4

MISSIONARY'S BACK HEALED

"As a missionary, you experience many things, including many miracles which happen to other people. Mostly, though, other people are healed - but this time it was me! I can hardly believe it, but God healed me of great suffering!", writes Dr. Johan Combrinck from Pretoria, South Africa. He is the director of AFNET, a network based on the DAWN strategy. "In November 1997, I seriously injured my back. I simply lifted a coffee table in the AFNET office, then my back clicked and that was it! To start with, I could feel nothing in my right hip and leg.

The orthopedic surgeon prescribed rest in bed, at Christmas of all times. However, it just became worse. With time, the pain became so bad that I could not sit, lie down or move; I was completely immobile. X-rays showed serious damage to one of my vertebrae, and an NMR test revealed a slipped disc. One piece of cartilage was pressing against the nerve, and another part had even fallen into the spinal column, where it was also pressing against the nerve. As the neurosurgeon saw that, he said that it was 'enough to cause pain and increasing immobility. The only solution is an operation' which could last up to 8 hours. The operation was scheduled for February 9. I had no medical insurance, because it is too expensive for me as a missionary. The operation was way beyond anything we could afford, so I repeatedly delayed it out of fear of bankruptcy. The doctors, though, told me that the only alternative would be confinement to a wheelchair. That worked - I asked many people to pray for me, all over the world.

A few days before the operation, I was due to visit the neurosurgeon for a preparatory examination. As you can understand, I slept badly the night before. But as I got up that morning, I felt no pain for the first time in 3 months. I couldn't understand it, and it was 'clear' to me that it could only be a temporary reprieve. Then the neurosurgeon examined me: the more tests he performed, the less he found. His surprise slowly gave way to total astonishment, then he gave his diagnosis: 'For some medically unexplainable reason, you are healed. A natural reversal of your pathological state is impossible. The only explanation for what you have experienced is a miracle,' he said, reaching for the telephone to cancel the preparations for my operation. For the orthopedic surgeon who also examined me, it was also the first case of a spontaneous healing without possible explanation - a miracle, as he also said. Today, I can walk and move without pain. God has completely healed me. I have thanked him in tears countless times. I am speechless."

http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/1998/dawn9809.html#SAfrica