MY FAITH HEALING

An Unexpected Miracle

When I was sixteen, I was a member of the Explorer's Club, and we raised funds through hoagie sales to go to Cocoa Beach, Florida for a week. Well, during the last full day that we were there, I ended up beach combing for seashells in a bikini... for most of the day. I woke up the next morning with a screaming sunburn - I was as red as a lobster from head to toe!!! You want to talk about a LONG painful flight home????? When our plane touched down in Pittsburgh, it was snowing. My (then) boyfriend John was there to pick me up in his car. I told him, "Please take me STRAIGHT to the hospital!!! I am hurting so BAD!!!"

At the hospital, they gave me antihistamine shots and sprayed my body with sunburn spray to kill the pain. John then drove me home. The relief from the pain was short-lived. As soon as I got home, I had to get out of those clothes and could wear nothing but a bikini and sit on a sheet on the couch. Every movement, no matter how slight, was painful. The only parts of me that weren't burnt were the parts that the bikini had covered. I was hurting BIG TIME.

The following day, an elderly couple came to our house to look at the Winnebago that my Dad had for sale. My entire family and my boyfriend were in the game room and witnessed what happened next. The man's wife took pity on me and asked me, "Have you ever heard of faith healers? Do You have faith? Do you BELIEVE?" I said to her, "Yes, I'll believe in ANYTHING that will take away this pain!" while the name "Jesus" came to mind as I said that.

The woman then started to pray over me, under her breath, as she was motioning with her hands as if drawing the heat from my body. The next thing that I knew, it was as if a giant fan was turned on inside my body and waves of heat were literally radiating off of me - so much so that John and my Mom, who were seated on the same couch, had to get up and go to the end of the room to get away from the intense heat! (and OH it felt SO GOOD!!!) 

The woman then stopped and said, "I get tired easy these days.... but I will continue to Pray for you off and on." And then she and her husband left. I never did get her name, and they did not buy the motor home. Sure enough, during the rest of the day and during that night, the "fan sensation" would continue... off and on, like she said. The next morning, I woke up totally PAIN FREE and my sunburn was peeling off in huge patches.

I will never forget that as long as I live. That was a TRUE MIRACLE. There is just no other logical explanation of how a person could be healed from such a bad sunburn overnight like that. God was working on me, even back then. Like I said before, my entire family was there to see this happen., but I guess that it really did not make much of an impact on them, except for my brother Buzz. He talked about that with me every now and then.