In May, 2000, I lived in Ann Arbor and attended the Vineyard Church. I was fairly new at praying for people, but rather outspoken about my faith. Every month I’d drive to Columbus to visit my mom. She was 77 at the time. My sister, Julie, found out I was gonna visit Mom, and asked me to go to the hospital near Mom’s place to pray for her father-in-law, Henry. (He had a massive blood infection from open heart surgery).

When I arrived at my mom’s retirement center, my mom was busy playing bridge. So I figured that this would be a good time to go to Riverside to pray for Henry. When I told Mom and her 3 friends that I was going to the hospital to pray for Henry, Mom asked if I could visit Harriet, a friend of hers, who was very ill. “Sure” I said. While driving to the hospital, the Holy Spirit filled the car. It was awesome! The Lord let me know he wanted me to lay hands on both of ’em, and lead me to feel both would be healed. I had prayed for a lot of people since coming to the Vineyard in 1997, but never had experienced such assurance that the people would be healed.  Furthermore, I had never met Henry or Harriet, yet I was filled with such boldness and a positive attitude. As I entered the hospital I felt like I was Moses, glowing from head to toe.

Well, I went to Henry’s room first, introduced myself to him, and after a few minutes, asked him if I could pray for him and lay hands on the bandage on his chest. He was very accepting. I laid hands on and prayed for Henry, and then I went to the next floor to visit Harriet. She was on oxygen, wheezing, and could hardly get her breath, and her color was kinda ashen/gray. I pretty much approached her the way I did with Henry. Harriet also agreed to let me pray for her and lay hands on her. She showed me her bruised abdomen and pointed to a huge, hard mass (the size of a grapefruit) in her belly.  So, I laid hands on her belly and prayed for her too. I left the hospital thinking that Henry had a chance, but Harriet looked so bad, and she said her heart was giving out, so I thought maybe God’s way of “healing” Harriet was to take her home with him. 20 minutes later, when I entered my mom’s place, everyone asked how Harriet was. “Holding her own,” was my reply. I didn’t want all those old ladies to hear about another one of their friends dying.

Anyway, about 2 months later, I nonchalantly said to my Mom, “What ever happened to Harriet?” (Henry, by the way, was healed!), thinking that my Mom would say, “Oh, she died”. But here’s what my Mom said: “Oh my gosh, the craziest thing happened. She was so sick before you went to visit her, then, all of a sudden, she just got better, and was out of the hospital that next week, and now she’s runnin’ circles around her husband. I’ve never seen her so spunky!”  “Wow” I said. It was then that I told Mom the full story.

After Mom heard what happened, she took me around the retirement place and had me pray for all her friends. Awesome!!!