Just two weeks ago I witnessed a miracle. I was visiting two young people who were pastoring in an area of our country where the Christian Church has never really had much success. They were graduates of our Bible school last year and had pioneered 11 churches so.far. God was using them in a very dynamic way. So, I thought I''d go there and encourage them and spend some time with them.
When I first arranged for the visit, I said, ''''No meetings-I want to spend time with you guys." The two young people agreed that they would do exactly that; but when I got there, they said they had organized two evening meetings and two morning meetings for me. The evening sessions were healing meetings and the morning sessions were Bible studies for the young people in a small Bible school that they had started.
After the first evening, there were a lot of miracles that the Lord did-we saw some powerful things happen and the· Lord used a lot of young people to cast out demons and to pray for the sick. I saw many people getting healed. At the end of the meeting, these two young men came and told me that they visited a deaf and blind institute and told the director that their pastor (me!) was coming and could pray for all the deaf and blind children, and they would all be healed! -
And so they were really excited, and they thought I would be very happy too. Inst~ad, I thought, there goes my afternoon nap. And-no pressure-but, all must get healed! So I said to myself, all right, lets do it. These two young guys are really inspired, I thought why shouldn''t I be inspired too?
\\''hen I got there, I realized that this deaf and blind institute was also a Buddhist temple so I quickly hid my Bible. I thought I''d go with these two young people and stroke the little children''s heads and say "Lord Jesus, heal them, have mercy on-them" and then I''d walk away. I thought, I''ll do it very tactfully so no one will get hurt, no one will get upset, and the two boys will be happy as well.
When I got inside, their workers met me and said, "Well, our boss said you were coming to do something, so here is the hall." They put the mats on the floor, got all the children and said, "Do your thing."
I thought, "Boy, what am I going to do now?" And my two young people, standing next to me, were saying, ''''Pastor, go for it! Go for it! Go for it!" One of them said, "I''ll check the deaf, and I''ll bring them ~p for testimonies." They were so expectant that something would happen; but I had no faith at all.
I gave these children the Gospel very quickly-in five minutes-and spoke faith into their hearts even though I didn''t have any. I just spoke about the Lord and what He could do for them. I made the altar call strict and clear enough that no one would be able to misunderstand.
I questioned there would be any response; however, to my surprise all the kids stood up saying they wanted to receive Jesus!
There was a lady who was translating my message into sign-language for the deaf children, so I told the lady that I was sure she did not translate it properly. I explained the whole thing again and again I gave the altar call and everyone still wanted to receive Jesus. "What do I do now?" I thought to myself.
"Okay," I said, "Fine. If you want to join the Kingdom, fine." They gave thefr hearts to the Lord and then I said, "I''m going to pray for miracles, but for you to receive a miracle,;YOU must become a Christian."
. You don''t go to a place run by a Buddhist temple and tell the people that they must become Christians and yet I had done it. I thought, I. have no excuse now. So, I led them to the Lord. The two young men were so thrilled. They were really happy and knew that miracles were going to happen. And they stood by me and said, "Pastor, this is great, this is great! Pray for them and we''re going to test them." I told them not to test them inside, but to take them outside instead.
I started to pray for the little children who were less then 10-years-old and were blind and deaf. I just started to pray, but I didn''t have the faith to test them out. I wanted to get through the prayer line as quickly as I possibly could. I just wanted to get out of there before the Buddhist priest turned up. So I began praying through the line with real quick little prayers when, in the middle of a prayer, this young fellow comes running in from outside, panting from running, and yelling, "Pastor! Pastor!" I thought, I''m finished! The Buddhist priest has come and now we will have problems! Instead, he said, ''''No Pastor, that''s not the problem. Children are getting healed! Children are getting healed! Keep praying, Pastor!"
I asked him, "What''s happening?" He exclaimed, ''''They are beginning to see and they are beginning to hear." At the end of praying for everybody, all the children began to see and hear! The one who was translating got a little upset and she said, ''''No! Miracles don''t happen!"
There were about five or six parents of these children who had come to visit the kids. They came up and said, "Miracles do happen-we know our children and God healed them." I don''t know what happened to the director-he had said that if one of these children got healed he would give his life to Jesus.
These are the things the Lord is doing in Sri Lanka. Continue to pray for Rev. Keegel and his family, as his life has been threatened because of his work for the Gospel. He has also requested prayer for his fell ow Foursquare pastors as they minister in difficult situations in the midst of an ongoing civil war.