The God Who Heals

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, May 2.

By Gina Wahlen

Mother didn’t know what to do. Little 3-year-old Asha suffered from epileptic attacks on the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania. When an epileptic attack happened, Asha’s arms and legs twitched and jerked. Then after a while, the twitching and jerking stopped, and she returned to normal.

Mother didn’t understand that Asha was suffering from a medical disorder. So, she went to a medicine man for help. The medicine man said Asha was possessed by bad spirits and told Mother to paint the little girl’s eyebrows with wanja, a black dye. He said the dye would protect her from evil and the attacks would stop.

But the twitching and the jerking continued.

Mother went to another medicine man who told her to tie a black cloth around Asha’s left wrist. He told Mother to put dry leaves in the cloth to protect the girl from evil. Then, he said, the attacks would stop.

But the twitching and the jerking continued.

Mother went to yet another medicine man. He said Mother should pick Asha up and hold her upside-down over the toilet. Mother didn’t have a flush toilet. Her toilet was an outhouse.

“Spirits don’t like the smell of the toilet,” the medicine man said. “So, if your daughter smells the toilet, the spirits will be disgusted and leave. Then the attacks will stop.”

But the twitching and the jerking continued.

Then Mother heard about a Seventh-day Adventist clinic. She was not a Christian, and she didn’t want to go to Christians to ask for help. But none of the medicine men had been able to do anything.

Mother and Asha arrived at the clinic on a hot day. The little girl was wearing a black head covering and a long dress covered with flowers. Her eyebrows were colored with black dye, and she had a black cloth filled with dried leaves tied on her wrist.

As the doctor examined the girl, she began to twitch and jerk. She was sitting on her mother’s lap when the attack started.

Mom was scared.

She thrust the girl into the doctor’s hands and cried out, “Doctor!”

Leaving Asha in the doctor’s office, she ran into the street, shouting, “My child is possessed by a spirit!”

The doctor placed the girl on an examination table. He called over three nurses to pray.

“God,” he said, “You are the Great Physician. Amen.”

Then he gave the girl an injection.

Asha stopped twitching. She stopped jerking. She relaxed and returned to normal.

The doctor went out to find her mother.

Mother came back to the clinic. She was glad to see that Asha was fine.

“There is a God who heals,” the doctor told her. “The black cloth on her wrist and the black dye on her eyebrows do not help. Trust in the God who heals.”

Mother nodded her head and smiled happily.

She felt hope for the first time.

The doctor handed some medicine to Mother and instructed her to give it to the girl if she had another attack.

Asha never had another attack.

About a dozen patients were waiting to see the doctor when Mother screamed that her girl was possessed. They fled the clinic but returned the next day to ask if the girl was alive.

“The child is fine,” a nurse replied. “She received medicine and has recovered. She is at home.”

Word spread across the island, and many people came to the clinic because of the healing of the little girl. The miracle was a big advertisement for the clinic. God had done something that the medicine men could not do. People saw that the Adventist clinic was special because it was the place where God heals.

One of the mission projects for this quarter is the Zanzibar Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary, which is featured in today’s story. Your offering will help improve the clinic so many more children and adults can come to the place where God heals. Thank you for giving generously to this important project.