Jesus Really Works In Ways That I would
Not Think OF!
Missionary Pat Bates,
I
had been out of work for eight months and many miracles had happened in our
lives during that time, including my mission trip to
I had no money
to go on such a trip, but a wonderful man, who had helped us repeatedly over
the months, asked me if I would like to go.
A friend of his was taking a group there. I was elated and accepted quickly. I had no details about the trip except the
dates, and I wasn’t aware of what kind of group I would be going with (I had
secretly prayed, “God, please let this be a group of spiritually mature
adults”) . . . well, you guessed it, it was a youth
group from Tinker Air Force Base Chapel.
Most
of the kids were not saved and they didn’t want to come on this trip. Their parents thought it would be good for
them. Their Chaplain was gay, and all of
them were from denominational backgrounds . . . which meant I was
different! I spoke in tongues, laid
hands on the sick, expecting them to recover, etc. They weren’t sure I hadn’t come from Mars.
When
we arrived at the church that was to be our base in
One
day after lunch, a few of us were in the Pastor’s kitchen, when the phone
rang. A man from the church answered the
phone . . . he was very serious while listening to the caller. The Pastor had gone on a hospital visit and
was not there. As the man hung up the
phone, he motioned to me and asked me to come with him. He was in a great hurry and had to time to
explain where we were going or why. He
was running and it was very hard for me to keep up with him. We ran three blocks in the dirt and high
grass and I was really out of breath when we stopped. Then my breath was taken away completely as I
saw a woman lying on the ground with tire marks up one side of her body.
It
seems the woman’s father was having a heart attack and she had called her
cousin, who had a taxi, to pick him up and take him to the hospital. She was so distraught over her father’s
condition, she ran outside as the taxi was driving up and it ran over her. She was going into shock, her mother was
screaming that her husband and her daughter were both going to die, and
nobody was doing anything! I looked at
the man who had brought me and we went over to the injured woman. I laid hands on her and began to pray for her
healing while the man asked her about her injuries. The taxi driver was crying because he had run
over his cousin, and his Uncle was having a heart attack, and his Aunt
was hysterical. It was quite a scene to
say the least!!!!
We
called an ambulance and had the woman taken to the hospital; we immediately
began to pray for the mother and she calmed down and received peace in the
midst of the chaos. We assured the taxi
driver it was not his fault and the mother forgave him. During this whole process, we almost forgot
about the father who was having a heart attack.
We went into the house and waited in the living room while the mother
went in the bedroom to prepare her husband for visitors. We watched as she knelt before his bed and
kissed him ever so sweetly, and then she motioned for us to come in. His breathing was very
labored and he was very pale and in serious pain. I began to pray in the Spirit again with my
hand on his chest. I was on one side of
the bed and the man from the church was praying in Spanish on the other. Almost immediately, his breathing became
normal and he sat up and smiled. He said
he was ashamed of his appearance and asked my forgiveness. I laughed and told him he looked wonderful,
and indeed his color was returning.
We went back to see him
and the family three days later.
Miraculously, the daughter had only three broken ribs, a fracture of the
ankle, and severe bruising of the hip area . . . no internal injuries!!! The taxi driver was laughing and happy,
mother and father were loving each other as any other
70 year old couple in love!
My
memories are blessed by the moment I was asked to help because I was
different. Praise God for making me
different!!
A
very remarkable post script to this trip was that all of the kids, excepting
one, accepted Jesus as their Savior on the trip home. We had a captive audience in the vans and we
loved them to Jesus all the way back to
*****
Don’t
try to figure out how God will do things . . . His ways are higher than our
ways AND more amazing!!
Your
Sis, Pat
