Jesus Healed Ivan. 

Thursday was what we call an “Off Day.” It simply means that we didn’t have any scheduled ministry and we could spend the day exploring the town or, if we wanted, we could just rest. Up until our “Off Day” we had been working long hours with the children’s ministry in the slum, the ‘old men’s home’, cleaning, or having our team times and feedback sessions. Not to mention that we stayed out til 11pm playing soccer with the kids from church the night before… We were all starting to feel tired and we were really looking forward to the rest.

We started the day with a late breakfast and then we took a bus to a beach that was an hour or so away. We had ceviche for lunch — it was my first time trying it and it was very interesting! It was, basically, a cold bowl of fish soup… I couldn’t finish it! From there we took a tuk-tuk to the top of a hill that overlooked the beach town and let the kids paraglide! If you don’t know already, I’m a bit scared of heights so paragliding isn’t really my thing. The kids had a blast, though! 

From there we went back down the hill to the beach to relax and play in the water for a little while. After an hour or so, a man named Ivan walked over to where we were set up and sat down with us. He talked mostly with Bailea, one of our hosts who is fluent in Spanish. For nearly half-an-hour he sat and talked to her, motioning frequently to the sunset, giving a thumbs up, and gesturing with his hands something like “This is beautiful!”  He started asking if I would take photos of him and the sunset, so I would take a photo and show it to him, then he’d smile and make the same grand “This is beautiful” motion.

Once we were ready to leave the beach he offered to help us find some showers we could use. Honestly, it came across a bit sketchy at first so we were all a little hesitant… but we agreed, “it couldn’t hurt to just see what he’s talking about, right?” So we walked a few blocks with him to some small wooden shower stalls in-between two shack type houses. He informed us that it was $.75 to use the showers and we almost decided to walk away since we’d be home in an hour and could shower there, but for whatever reason, we decided to stay and rinse off.  

While the team was rising off, I asked Bailea if she would help me talk to him about Jesus and she said she’d translate for me. So we walked over to Ivan and started talking.

W: “Ivan, do you know Jesus?”

Ivan: “I’ve read about Him in the Bible, and I believe the Bible is true, but I don’t “know” Jesus. 

W: “Well, would you like to know Him? Would you like to invite Him out of the book and into your heart?”

Ivan: “Yes, I think I would” … he smiled and shrugged in a “Why not?” kind of manner, then asked if he could sit down.

W: “Is it alright if we pray for you then, you can repeat the prayer out loud yourself, if you’d like.”

Ivan: “Yes”

We prayed a prayer of repentance and thanksgiving and invited Jesus to come into his heart. Once we finished he began telling us a story of how he almost drowned in the ocean once, but felt someone save him. He said that he believed it was God. He smiled and talked and kept telling us how happy he was to have us to talk to for a little while. That lasted maybe 5 minutes and then, at the leading of the Spirit, I asked:

W: “Is there anything in particular that you need prayer for? Maybe for your family or your health?”

Ivan: “I was in a car accident a few years ago and it hurts to walk. I have to sleep with a wet towel on my knee because it hurts so much.” He pointed to his right knee and showed us the difference in the way his two knees looked. His right knee was sunken in the front but looked swollen on the sides.

W: “I believe that Jesus can bring healing, that He has the power to perform miracles, and that He wants to heal you so you will know that He is Lord. Is it ok if we pray for your knee to be healed?”

Ivan: “Yes.”

So I asked Gossamer, a girl on the team I’m leading, if she would like to come pray over his knee. Gossamer and I prayed together and Bailea translated. Once we finished praying I looked at Ivan and, in English (which Ivan doesn’t understand) asked him to test his knee for me.

Ivan immediately started kicking his right leg out… over and over and over he extended it with no pain. He looked at me, tears in his eyes, smiling and speechless. He jumped up and started doing squats! A family in one of the shacks by the shower came out and watched, their eyes full of awe. We had all just seen a miracle. 

Ivan started joking about how he didn’t need to take a bus back to town, he could just RUN! 

I told him that it was Jesus who healed him, that Jesus wanted Ivan to know Him, that Jesus wanted Ivan to make Him Lord. Ivan kept telling Bailea that we healed him and she kept telling Him that we had nothing to do with it. That we were simply conduits for the Power of Christ. 

Ivan said, “I didn’t know why I wanted to sit with you on the beach, but now I know why I had to meet you.”

He wanted others to hear his testimony, so I recorded it, and you can see it for yourself! God is a miracle worker!  

This is what some of my team had to say about it:

Ellie: The team was in the ocean swimming around and just having fun when we looked back and saw a man talking to one of our hosts, Bailea. We swam a bit longer then we came and sat with Bailea for a while. We talked to the man and he was nice. He wanted us to stay for the sunset, which he said was beautiful. Although that would’ve been cool, we didn’t have enough time. So we asked him where the showers were and he took us. After the team showered we found out that the man had a hurt knee. We asked him if he wanted prayer and he said yes. So we laid hands on him and prayed, and when we finished, God had worked a miracle! That man had been healed! His face was full of wonder and joy and he said that he felt he could run to Puerto Viejo, the next town over. God is truly good.  

Derek: As we were going to take showers after leaving the beach, a man whom we had met on the beach started talking to us about his life. Later, after we had finished taking showers, he shared with us that his knee had been hurting him. For a long time we asked if we could pray for him and for God to heal his knee, which he agreed to, and, as we finished praying, he looked to us with a look of pure elation in his eyes as he tested his knee out and found it good as new! 

Gossamer: God works in wonderful ways. For my teams’ off day, we went to a little beach town to go paragliding and then go to the beach. At the beach this old man came over to us wanting to talk, he said some things about the sunset and how he loved to swim. There didn’t seem to be a point why he was talking to us. My team just went with it. After we were done swimming, the old man showed us where the showers were, and when I was done showering, I came out to find Wayne and the old guy talking. I went over to see what it was all about. Then Wayne asked me to pray for the man’s knee, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I usually am very nervous about praying for healing, but I wasn’t then. I started praying and felt a tingly feeling. At that moment I knew God had healed him. The man looked at us then started swinging his knee around. He said it was like brand new and started kicking the air around him. Then it hit me, I had just witnessed a miracle. God has a funny way of sending the coolest gifts at the most unexpected times. My favorite part about all of this is that God let me know He had healed him even before I started praying.