Years ago I was running operations for a charity that worked with poor people around the globe. We’d send teams to run medical clinics, heal the sick and share the gospel. And then I’d coordinate working with the local leaders afterward, supporting them in whatever way we could. This is what took me to India, where we were setting up destitute widows with sewing businesses. Something was going wrong with the finances, and the founder, Steve, took me there to look into it.

After a few days of meetings, Steve insisted we needed some fresh air. As we started walking through the village, we saw all the people who were too sick or weak to work in the fields with everyone else. These people recognized Steve and a crowd formed around him and our translator. I watched with amazement what seemed like a scene out of the gospels. Dozens of poor people in sandals, emerging from their sickbeds into the heat of the day, walking through the filth of those streets, pressing in to receive healing. And lots of rejoicing.

As the crowd grew to 20 or 30, it became clear to some people they wouldn’t be able to get close to Steve. They spotted me, another foreigner! Foreigners bring healing? Who knows what they thought, but soon a small crowd was forming around me. They presented me with a young boy who looked very sick. Being part of a charismatic church, I had seen some healings: sore backs and necks. but I was not prepared for this.

I ran through my options. “I’m not the guy who heals, he’s over there” – that didn’t seem theologically correct. “God is the one who heals; you can just pray to him yourself” – that was better, but it didn’t matter, because I had no translator. I was stuck with only one option. I put my hand on the kid’s head and muttered, somewhat hopelessly, out loud, : “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God”. It seems the kid was healed, because then they pushed the next one toward me. And the next one. The crowd grew. Someone left to come back carrying their grandpa in their arms. The news was getting out.

How did this happen? Did I get an impartation of Steve’s healing gift just by being around him? It seems so, because it’s lasted all these years since. I don’t understand it, but it’s really wonderful.