A true story, part III

When my father arrived, he called up Ps. Noom from Rivers of Life Church to come visit my grandmother in the hospital. Ps. Noom is a very regular fellow who our family first knew as an unbelieving college student in Seattle about 10 years ago. He and his wife are really humble people who decided to start a church the year before even though they did not have formal ministry training. Neither of them consider the ministry as a career, but keep secular jobs while devoting themselves to God's work. Despite these praises, Ps. Noom is actually a very unassuming man--one of the last people you would have picked to be a bearer of the gospel in a very un-Christian culture. At the time when he visited my grandmother, there were about 10 people in his church, about half were his own relatives.

Anyway, Ps. Noom prayed for my grandmother and her health improved so markedly and so soon afterwards that my aunts believed in God. This is a very salient point: Christianity should be more visceral than cerebral. It reminds me of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5:

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

For my aunts, it wasn't a matter of being convinced by any human reasoning, but simply seeing God was more powerful than idols. The miracle also affected the entire family, so that now several of my cousins are also believers. They have a Bible study at their house every week and have committed to the growing church, which now numbers about 50 people.

For me, this experience really opened my eyes to see Jesus' ministry afresh. Jesus and the apostles in the book of Acts often saw the conversion of entire families after a miracle healing. This is certainly God's will for today as well. That's why I believe people can argue about healing, prophesy, and speaking in tongues until they are blue in the face, but are really just cutting off their nose to spite their face if they deny God's power ...

... which brings me to the next part in my true story, the testimony of my cousin.

To be continued.