St. John’s Downtown United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas, January 2002
The Lord worked phenomenally at the three services at St. John’s Downtown United Methodist where Pastors Rudy and Juanita lead a very alive congregation. Over two thousand people total attended the three meetings, and each time after I preached the gospel I asked the Lord to confirm it through miraculous healings. I asked believers to lay hands on those with infirmities to minister healing. Several people came forward in the three services to testify of being instantly healed. One sister had a painful problem with her leg affecting her back which was going to require surgery, but the Lord healed her. An elderly gentleman came to the meeting with difficulty walking because of arthritis. But after the Lord healed him, he was running like a youngster in the pew! A sister with a heart defect felt pain shooting through her shoulder and arm, but the pain disappeared. An artist whose livelihood was threatened because of chronic elbow pain testified that the pain was gone. A sister suffering from lupus stood up to tell everyone that her symptoms of weakness in her legs was complete gone! When I invited those who had not accepted Christ to receive him, hundreds responded in the three services.
Indonesia: Jakarta & Bandung, May 28-31, 2002
We were given opportunities to introduce The Elijah Challenge material four times in these two cities, the largest and third-largest in Indonesia, respectively. In Bandung, believers thronged to our workshops held at the Prayer Conference, even though we had not been scheduled to speak before our arrival. After studying from the gospels the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, believers were instructed to minister to the infirm as Jesus did. Various miracles were reported, a few among them: As I ministered to one sister at the front, another sister at the back laid hands on herself in the name of Jesus. The pain she had been suffering from in her lower body vanished. A man who was deaf in one ear because of a torn eardrum came forward. A believer inserted his finger into the man’s ear and commanded it to be opened, as Jesus did in the gospels. Afterwards the man testified that his hearing in the deaf ear was 75% restored. A young woman with a constant headache because of a recent blow to her head was visibly amazed, causing the people to chuckle, when the pain instantly vanished through the laying of hands in Jesus’ name.
At a GAP (formerly Maranatha) Church in Jakarta, a woman in constant arthritic pain in much of her body was brought to the Healing Encounter. Her younger sister laid hands on her after being instructed through the Scriptures. When I inquired how she felt, her face broke down and she began to weep in front of the people. Her pain had disappeared, and she was overcome by the love of the Lord. Other miracles were reported. As I left the building for another meeting, a young man named Isar stopped me to ask for healing. He felt pain in his left ear whenever it was touched. I touched his ear and rebuked the pain in Jesus’ name. His ear was healed. The young man later wrote telling me he wanted to “be like me doing miracles.” (He will if he wants to do them for the sake of the gospel of Christ.) In the Gracia Fellowship elsewhere in Jakarta, a middle-aged man who was hard of hearing came forward. A unknown believer put his fingers into the man’s ears, just as Jesus did as recorded in Mark 7:32-35. The man’s hearing was restored, provoking applause and amazement from the people. A woman, also hard of hearing, was ministered to. When we tested her hearing afterwards, she could even hear and understand words from a distance that I myself could barely make out. The Lord performed other miracles as well through His beloved people at that meeting.
Encourager Church, Houston, Texas, June 2002
Our Healing Encounter at the Encourager Church was marked by miraculous healings as believers, after being trained with the word of God, laid hands on those with infirmities. A sister named Dorothy was experiencing chronic pain in her knees, had difficulty climbing stairs, and could not kneel because of the pain. After a sister from Windsor Village United Methodist Church laid hands on her knees and commanded healing in Jesus’ name, Dorothy was able to climb stairs and kneel without difficulty or pain! Another sister named Nina was nearly deaf in one ear for months. After a young woman named Paula inserted her finger (like Jesus in the gospels) into Nina’s ear and commanded the ear to be opened in Jesus’ name, Nina’s hearing was restored. There were other testimonies of healing as well, although not every infirm person at the meeting was healed.
Received July 2002: “Don’t know if anyone mentioned this to you but after your last seminar at Encourager on the following day, I was having lunch with a large group of people and one of them had an extreme migraine headache. Someone mentioned “Bonnie, you need to pray for him.” But I looked around the table and realized that several people had been in your seminar the day before (including some that are going to Egypt), so I enlisted everyone who had received your teaching to pray for him, thereby putting into practice what they had learned the day before. His headache fled immediately and his whole personality changed from that moment! I know this was an opportunity for them to see how God will use them and it gave them much encouragement.”
“Regarding the gentleman who was freed from that migraine headache, let me also add a couple more interesting details: he was a Musl__m, a relatively new Christian (about 1 year, I think) and his entire family is still living in Lebanon; they are all still Musl__ms. When he sat down to eat, he was just sitting there, head down, with his hands on his head, unable to hardly speak. After we all gathered round him and commanded it (the migraine) to go, his entire persona changed from that moment and he chatted cheerily and quite animatedly throughout the entire lunch, telling all kinds of interesting stories about what the Lord was doing in his life and how he arrived here. When we all parted, he requested prayer for his Musl__m family back home in Lebanon, which we happily assured him of.”
Miami, Florida with Chinese Baptist Believers, July 2002
A Chinese sister named Mee from Malaysia, now living in the Miami area, had suffered from chronic pain in her heels, necessitating a visit to a specialist in New York City. After the teaching from Scripture, she came forward in response to a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit through me. I laid hands on her heels, and the Lord healed her completely; she was able even to walk on her heels with no pain. Marsha, a sister originally from Shanghai, then stood up to minister to another believer who was about to visit her doctor for constant pain in her upper thigh area. After the laying on of hands, Wendy testified that the pain was completely gone. A Causasian Baptist brother, David, had come to the meeting believing that miraculous healing was a fraud because of healing services he had seen on Christian TV. Despite his unbelief he decided to “test” the teaching by asking to be healed of pain in his lower back caused by a herniated disk. Steve, a new Baptist believer originally from Taiwan, laid his hand on David’s lower back to minister healing in Jesus’ name. Afterwards we asked David to test his back, which he did by sitting down and then attempting to get up, a movement that usually brought pain. There was no pain. Angie, a professional singer, was terrorized by asthma which at times would attack her when she ministered in worship at Christian events. As I laid hands on her, she could feel the constriction and mucus in her lungs subside…she could breathe normally in the name of Jesus!
Lake Charles, Lousiana, October 2002
A faithful minister of the gospel, Jeanie Hunter, drove hours last Saturday from Woodville, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana where we had been scheduled to hold a Healing Encounter. She was suffering from various infirmities which made it difficult for her to minister, including a heart that was operating at a small fraction of its capacity and a painful hip condition. But Sister Jeanie, like the woman with the bleeding in Mark 5, had faith that she could be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Pastor August Francis of HIS Church in Lake Charles and I laid hands on her and rebuked the infirmities, commanding her heart and hip to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. This is the testimony we received from her two days later….
“God is so good and I’m so glad to have spent that day with all of you. I really needed it and I’m feeling great. I drove home and did not even get tired. Usually after four or five hours of being up and especially driving for four hours, I would normally have a very sick feeling in my heart area and would have to rest. Not so Saturday. I went to K-Marts, Hobby Lobby and Wal Marts in Beaumont; then drove another hour home and still wasn’t tired. Hallelujah! Your faith in God made this trip well worth while.
By the way my hip has not hurt since you ministered to me yesterday. Before my hip would always hurt so badly from riding I surely couldn’t walk. But I went to three stores and drove home and still felt like moving around. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Truly He is our healer and has taken all our sickness and all our disease. Glory to God!
What an exciting blessing to meet you both. You are surely pressing forward to the mark of your high calling in Jesus and I will make it a point to pray for you often. Reading the information on your website helps me to understand more about the ministry God has called you to accomplish. My heart is burdened for the upcoming crusades but we know our God is well able and willing to bless his people through you. What a remarkable journey to undertake. My heart and my prayers are with you.”
Sister Jeanie Hunter can be reached at [email protected].
Trenton, New Jersey, Winter 2003
The Elijah Challenge held a four-session Healing Encounter for the congregation of Pastor Blamon of Bethel World Outreach Church in Trenton, New Jersey. The believers received the teachings from Scripture with hungry hearts, learning how to minister healing according to principles gleaned from the ministries of the Lord Jesus and His servants Peter and Paul. As they applied what they learned in the sessions, the Lord healed several infirmities through them. A sister ministered to a believer who had had pain up to her hip and down her leg. As the sister spoke with authority to the infirmity commanding it to leave, the pain left completely. Now this congregation is prepared to reach out with the love and power of the name of Jesus Christ to the city of Trenton. They are expecting a harvest of souls. The Lord willing, The Elijah Challenge will minister next year in Liberia, West Africa, the home country of many of the Bethel believers.