Healing of Severe Injuries

Knowing God is all helps heal some severely injured indigenous people in South America.

By Rachel Crandell, Town and Country, MO

Categories: Health

I have lived with indigenous people several times over the years, Maya Indians in Belize and the Embera in Panama. Living in a jungle village is wonderful! There is so much to learn from another culture, and so many new experiences awaited me. I have written a children's book about the traditional things Maya people still do by hand today. It is called Hands of the Maya. I am now working on taking the photographs for another book, Hands of the Emberá. Now that we are friends, the Emberá have asked me to record their stories which are only known through oral tradition. Not until recently has their language been written down. Now they want their stories recorded, translated and published. I go to the Darien jungle of Panama near Colombia to tape record the old story tellers. On my last three visits there, I have been asked to help others by praying. Each time healing resulted. One was a young child who had fallen in the fire and severely burned his leg and was unable to walk or even eat for several days before I arrived. One was a man with an infected eye, and the other was an individual with a deep machete cut in the hand. In each instance, I have been certain that God is all powerful. Nothing is too hard for Him. In Isaiah, we read, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22). I almost felt like I was at the end of the earth. There is no road, no phone, no electricity, no running water except for the river, and yet God was right there in the jungle, everywhere, saving these individuals from suffering. There was no need for anyone "else" or anything "else." God was all we needed to know -- "there is none else." Yielding everything to God helps get ourselves out of the way and enables healing to take place. All were healed in a matter of a couple of days through trust in God. My gratitude in seeing God at work is huge and makes me very humble.