If you are someone who is on the fence about serving in medical missions, you might find yourself wondering, “do these mission trips really make a difference?” Or, perhaps, you think that there is nothing you can offer that other volunteers can also provide.

So in today’s blog post, I want to encourage you that when people, like yourself, step out in faith and go when God calls: miracles can and do happen. Here are just 5 examples of miraculous healing.

1. Francis Chan Was A Doubter

Francis Chan would be the first to tell you that he didn’t always believe that miracles were possible. Even as a noted leader in the Christian world, he found it hard to believe that miracles can still happen in this day and age. However, this all changed when he began ministering to people in Myanmar. He saw firsthand that God can and does show up:

Chan testified following that miraculous healing event: “Every person I touched was healed. OK, this is craziness to me. I have never experienced this in 52 years.”

He added, “I’m talking like a little boy and a little girl who were deaf. We laid hands, she starts crying and smiling.

“These are not Christians who have even heard about Jesus, and she’s freaking out. We lay hands on her little brother, we lay hands on him, and he starts hearing for the first time.”

Christianity Today

2. A Whispered Prayer Led To A Changed Life

A volunteer with Youth With A Missions wrote about their experience serving in Manila, Philippines. While they had witnessed miracles with others, they had never experienced that firsthand. They desired a gift of healing as they sought to provide medical care to the communities they served, but they hadn’t yet experienced that.

Until, that is, they met with a woman who complained of chronic and debilitating back pain that had lasted over a year. This person was desperate for relief. That was when this volunteer felt the conviction from the Holy Spirit to pray. And so they did. They asked the woman to lay down and they began to pray. Suddenly, the woman burst into tears:

My eyes widened in shock, and I quickly looked at the translator for help. “What’s wrong?” I asked nervously. 

The translator asked the woman, but she answered me with a smile, “Nothing!” Confused, I pressed further, “Then why is she crying? What’s happening?” I instantly thought I must have offended her, or maybe she was so hopeless that she was just weeping out of sadness. Or worse, perhaps I had offended her and disappointed her in what she thought she could get out of coming to this clinic. The translator shared a few more words with the woman and then said with a huge grin, “She’s crying because she’s happy. She says all of her pain is completely gone!” 

Modern Day

3. Miracles in Mozambique

Heidi Baker moved to Mozambique with her husband, Rolland, in 1995 as missionaries. They learned how to trust in God daily to meet their basic needs and the needs of the people they served. A man had once prophesied that one day she would be given the gift of healing. That prophesy appeared to come true:

After she returned to the mission field in Mozambique she began praying for the blind but not getting good results. Until about a year later, when a blind beggar lady came to church. Heidi was thrilled to pray for her because she wasn’t going to give up on the word that she had received from the Lord. As she prayed for the lady, her eyes began to turn from white to gray and then to brown. The next day she prayed for another woman who was blind since the age of eight. This lady received her sight too. On the third day, Heidi prayed for yet another woman who was blind from birth and she received her sight. All three of these women were named Mama Aida. In Mozambique, Heidi’s name is also Mama Aida.

Christian Broadcasting Network

The Pastor Who Believed

This story doesn’t take place abroad, but it does showcase God’s healing power in His children. Having lived with a severe case of asthma for over 40 years, that frequently left him hospitalized, a Washington DC area pastor decided that it was time to place his health in the hands of God.

He invited his congregation to pray for his healing, and he did indeed receive the miracle he so desperately longed for:

“I believe that God can move that mountain in your life,” the pastor exhorted his congregants. “Talk to God about your mountain, and you’ve gotta talk to your mountain about your God—who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. Advance to your destiny that God has for you.”

Christianity Today

Healing in Guinea

At Mission Partners For Christ, we have our own stories of God’s miraculous healing during our medical mission trips! On our last trip to Guinea, we saw God move in amazing ways to not only open doors previously closed to sharing the gospel but also to heal:

 I think this was my favorite day! We were asked to serve in front of a Mosque and not openly share the gospel. Our team did a Jericho walk around the property prior to the start of the medical outreach. As God lead me, I prayed with people and Pastor Wilmont also met with people. One woman I prayed for was 35 and unable to hear for the last 5 years. God restored her hearing. She was praising God and high fiving me! 

Stories of Answered Prayer in Guinea Pt. 2

Be Part of God’s Work in the Mission Field

I hope these stories have encouraged you that God is extremely active in the mission field, and that you can be part of what He is doing in Africa.

Our next trip is to Togo, which is in West Africa. We will be there November 4-13 and we will be serving with an underserved community who has been unreached with the gospel. Will you join us?

Get more information and sign up here.