Another Testimony by Michelle Bass

Praying for people has always been out of my comfort zone.  I don’t know why that has been the case for me, but until my trip to Brazil I just wasn’t excited about that being the primary thing I would be doing on the trip.  I learned real quick when I made the decision to go that a lot of praying was going to be going on…more than what I felt comfortable with.  Now, before you may be tempted to criticize or judge me let me clarify…I didn’t have a problem praying…I just didn’t want to really pray for someone I didn’t know out loud.  Sounds silly, but I bet someone who reads this feels uncomfortable doing that too.  Isn’t that funny how the Lord puts us in positions where our comfort levels are challenged in order for us to become more like Him.  That’s what this journey is all about, right?  Becoming more like him?  If we are comfortable and we are just living life as normal -without being stretched- I’m not really sure the change we really want occurs.  We live life as usual…missing opportunities to be used for Him.
            Several days into the trip we were at a church and I had gotten past the I-am-too-scared-to-pray-for-someone-point…a young couple came up to me and they were holding a sick child.  Lucas, my interpreter asked them what they needed prayer for.  The mother proceeded to ask for me to pray because the baby was burning up with a fever due to a virus.  So, guess what I did?  I started praying and Lucas interpreted.  When someone asks you for prayer, you pray.  You don’t worry about what someone thinks or anything…you pray.   I had already seen the Lord move, so I was obedient and began to pray for healing.  I continued to pray and touch the baby to see what the Lord was doing.  The dad in the meantime was standing there…standing quietly.  My friend Abby who was in our group came up and asked if the mom needed prayer for anything.  She had something wrong with her hands so as she handed the baby to the father and Abby began to pray for the mother’s hands…I continued to pray and touch the baby and could actually tell the baby’s fever was subsiding.  I’m not totally sure that the dad was fond of me touching the baby’s forehead, but I did!  Not long after, I saw the dad strangely poke around on the sixteen month olds stomach, which I thought, was very odd.  The dad said something to his wife and Lucas interpreted…while we were praying for healing of a fever and virus, the Lord (without anyone mentioning a thing) decided to heal a hernia that the baby had dealt with since birth!   No one mentioned it!   We didn’t pray for that specifically, but God healed it!   It was gone and He also touched the mom’s hands as well.  Abby and I were just being available and obedient.
   You know what that tells me?  God is bigger than the box we put Him in.  He does things for His glory. We don’t heal.  He heals.  We pray!  God choses to move and heal, as He desires and He just wants our willingness and obedience…He does the rest.  We have to realize that fear of making a mistake, not sounding right or whatever it is that fear keeps us from doing is a tactic of the enemy.  He wants us to live in fear, keep our mouths shut and live life as usual.   Life as usual isn’t going to cut it anymore…my prayer for my family and for whoever reads this…is that more of Christ will flood our lives and that we would not let fear or anything else keep us from fulfilling Christ’s destiny for our lives.  Wow.  What if I had not prayed?  What if I had let fear keep me from going on the trip because I was afraid of what people would think?  I would still be in the same position I was in before…worried about what people thought and not really praying.  I’m thankful God isn’t in a box.  I’m thankful He set me free of fear…and those He sets free are free indeed.
In Jesus Service
Michelle Bass