Crippled Man In Chebukaka
During a time of one-on-one prayer and counseling at the Chebukaka crusade, a despondent mother asked that we come to her home to pray for her son who was paralyzed and couldn't come to us. The young man was 21 years old and was paralyzed from the waist down.
We spoke with him and his mother about his condition. His mother told us about the different individuals whom she had paid money to "heal" her son. Some were witch doctors and some proclaimed to be men of God, but all required payment for their services. We told her about IICorinthians 2:17 and that it is the Lord who heals through "prayer offered in faith"
We laid hands on Kirt, the young man, and Michelle prayed mightily for his healing. As we left their home, I gave his mother 2000 shillings for food and as a measure of assurance that we were only there to give and not to take, I told her that we would return within a week with a doctor to check on Kirt. I wanted so much for God to enable him to walk again, but the worldly pragmatic side of me was saying, "Those legs are withered away to skin and bone, and he has no feeling at all from the waist down." I had already seen and personally experienced God's awesome power, yet, I doubted.
Five days later, we returned to Chebukaka with two doctors from the Ministry of Health. Before they even began their examination, Kirt excitedly blurted out that feeling had begun to return to his legs. He didn't have the strength to stand yet, but he could move both feet and had feeling up to his knees. Both doctors talked with him and examined him. They came up with a prognosis as to what may have caused the paralysis, which was different from the one he'd received a year earlier, and was also different than the one he would receive during the hospital exam a week later. Four doctors had three different opinions as to what caused the paralysis but only one of them could explain how the healing came about. That one doctor was a believer in God. -- by Pastor Jim Thompson
Niva Barasa age 5 was diagnosed with cancer of the eyes at age 4. Doctors removed both eyes to prevent the cancer from spreading and replaced them with plastic eyeballs. Niva is totally blind. She lives in a small rural village called Namboani (pronounced: numba one) in Kenya, East Africa.
When she returned home blind her father wouldn’t accept having a blind child in his home, so he forced the mother and child to leave. They went to stay with the grandmother for some time until the mom remarried. The new husband decided that he didn’t want a blind child in his house, so the mother left Niva with the grandmother who is very old and went to live with her new husband. Niva was living with her grandmother in a one room mud hut in Namboani. She would follow a series of ropes tied to branches to reach the tiny grass outhouse. It was a dangerous walk at night because there are many different poisonous snakes and toxic centipedes which come out to hunt at night in this rural area.
Niva is treated as an outcast in this area of the country and as such is shunned by other children. Living in this impoverished region is difficult enough for a person with sight, but for a blind child it is very very hard, dangerous and lonely.
Niva is such a sweet innocent little girl, very shy and polite. Yet, I can only imagine that she must be terrified much of the time, living in total darkness in a brutal land, ostracized and cast out.
There are no government programs or schools for the blind so Niva would have no chance in life without outside help.
There are two schools for the blind in Kenya, one in Nairobi that is run by the Salvation Army and one in Kisumu that is run by the Catholic church. They will accept a child when they have reached 5 years of age. These are boarding schools so Niva lives there with other children like herself.
We took her to a hospital to be checked out to receive a Certificate of Health which is required in order to be accepted at these schools.
These schools are not free, but as of now we have a couple who is sponsoring Niva to attend school at St. Oda’s in Kisumu near Lake Victoria.
Namboani MWCC Church
Pastor Jim with Niva
Niva Barasa
St. Oda’s in Kisumu near Lake Victoria
Braille Computer Class
Pastor Peter with Niva & her best friend
