“Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:13-14 NIV

Binu found the Lord and was the only one in her family who had faith in God’s healing power. When her father, Prem, a witch doctor in her village, became very ill with kidney failure, her brothers and sisters did everything they could think to heal him. They took him to the finest hospitals, went to witch doctors, fortune tellers, and even sacrificed animals to idols for his health.

They brought Prem back to his home and began preparing for his funeral. Traditional funeral preparations began, relatives and other villagers traveled to be there when he passed.

Without shame, Binu suggested having her pastor come and pray for their father. When Pastor Prakash arrived, he was very tired from three days of prayer and fasting. He arrived to see a crowd of people surrounding her father, who didn’t look like he would survive. He told everyone, “I’m not a doctor, nor a witch doctor. I cannot guarantee his life, but what I can do is pray for him. I’m an intermediator of God, who can heal and give him new life. If something happens to him, then please don’t blame my God and me. If you people allow me, then I will begin to pray for him.” 

Despite the skepticism, they agreed and joined in praying with him. They prayed without ceasing for 24 hours when they heard the man speak and ask for water. He was disoriented and didn’t remember what had happened to him, but he knew he’d been healed by God. Prem told Pastor Prakash, “You came to me as a god and gave me a new life.” But Prakash told him, “I did nothing but just prayed; the true healer is Jesus Christ, and from now on, you must give your life to Him and follow Him.”

Prem has been able to eat, has started to walk again, and he gives God the credit. Since being healed, he has gotten rid of all of his idols, started attending church, and was recently baptized. Pastor Prakash is now discipling Prem and his family. “I’m guiding him in discipleship and making him strong in God’s word and his faith,” Prakash shares. “I will also be expanding small groups in different villages and planting churches as well.”

“They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 37:23 NIV