Christ The Only Saviour And Healer

Sunday July 8 was a special day in the life of Baale of Fadina in Akinyele Local Government of Oyo State, Nigeria.  He was beaming with smiles as the Immanuel College Chapel Mission Team arrived at his palace, hugging each and everyone of us. Two months earlier the team had held an outreach at the same venue.  As he came out of his residence for the event he was walking with difficulty and had to depend on a walking stick.

The Immanuel College Mission Team leader immediately spotted him and asked him to come forward to be prayed for.  He laid hands on the affected leg and instructed him not to use the walking stick anymore as he would no longer need it.   That was on Sunday April 8.  In early May the Baale reached our Village Assistants at Oyo Ile village saying he had been healed and would wish to give testimony to that effect.

So, on Thursday July 8 our mission team headed for Fadina Village, again to hear the Baale in person, and to encourage those who are still waiting for their own miracle.

During the outreach that followed, the Baale spoke like someone who is back from hell-on-earth.  His left leg had practically incapacitated him for 10 years.  For most of the period he was bed-ridden.  He had been taken to hospitals and without much success.  Traditional healers had exploited him, making demands that he readily met. Yet his condition had grown worse.

Until Christ intervened on April 19, when he and his family hosted us.  As he testified he and members of our mission team sang songs of victory.  This Baale is a new man.  In his words, in the course of his illness, he was, at one point, praying for death. But now he is enjoying life. All glory to Jesus – His and our redeemer and healer.

The Chief is not the first success story in the 100 villages in which we operate.  There have been many in the 18 years we have been preaching Christ in Olorunda and its environs. But not everyone comes out publicly to acknowledge the power of prayer, indeed the power of God to overrule physical and mental illness, barrenness and poverty in their lives.

I must add that the primary focus of our village endeavour is not the miraculous, important as that may be.  We teach salvation without which nobody will reach heaven.  We preach against idolatry, sin and sinful habits because they are the expressway, leading to hell.

Prior to his healing the Baale was carrying a big scar just above the left knee, the point of impact when he went down some ten years ago. The scar has now disappeared. For years the old depended on others to carry him to toilet and back. Now he moves around unaided and even cuts the bush around his house and beyond! He travels to the city when he wants to.

We, the Immanuel College Mission Team, Ibadan, Nigeria are not miracle workers.

Jesus does the job.