September 19, 2003

Hurricane Isabel was supposed to blow through Ottawa today, but instead of the promised rain we only have high winds tossing the tree tops. It's sunny outside and warm enough for shirtsleeves.

Around noon today, my chiropractor friend, Jim, and I met at the home of one of his clients for prayer. Roma was a little late as her daughter had taken her grocery shopping. They pulled up shortly after we arrived and we helped carry several plastic bags containing milk, meat and other food into her town house.

Inside, hardwood floors gleamed and original oil paintings by her father and other relatives hung on the walls, which were painted or papered in colors ranging from pale yellow-beige to a bright blue, picking up the colors in the paintings. Vibrant-looking with shiny dark eyes, and a wide smile, Roma's slender body seems to be full of movement and energy. She has beautiful black hair that fans out from the sides of her face in soft curls.

Roma has epilepsy. She's tried a number of different drugs to control seizures. Chiropractic care and prayer had helped mitigate the seizures quite a bit, but she has had a recent setback. She's trying a new medication at the advice of her neurologist. She found the symptoms of the previous drug hard to take.

As is often the case with anyone facing illness, she's getting a lot of competing and often contradictory advice. It's anxiety producing to not know what the best course to take is, whether to follow through on a doctor's orders in taking drugs that make one dizzy, or mentally confused, and produce personality changes, or to refuse treatment or try other means. I personally try to avoid giving advice on what course to take because I believe that God will show each one of us, moment by moment, the direction He wants us to take, and sometimes it means availing ourselves of the care of medical doctors, sometimes it's by seeking prayer or through seeing someone who specializes in nutrition or alternative healing. I believe that once we pray to ask God to remove the confusion and anxiety, we'll see that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. We'll be able to make our decisions with peace.

We are promised wisdom if we ask for it and we're promised peace. These are two things I've seen God deliver time and time again when we ask for it. I don't always see healings, in fact most of the time I've prayed for physical healing, I don't see some dramatic physical change. I nearly always though, see a spiritual change, a spiritual change that reflects itself in the body and often results in at least an alleviation of symptoms.

Roma recently lost her job because of her disability, well shy of the amount of time necessary for her to accumulate a pension that would look after her retirement. So, in addition to physical concerns, she has financial concerns and anxiety about what she should do with her time.

I got the sense that she has a call on her life. She wants to fight for those who are being forced off their jobs because they are disabled, when she believes that if some accommodations were made, people like herself could continue to work, at least part time, and do a good job.

She also said there are some 17,000 people in the Ottawa area alone have epilepsy, but suffer in silence, often afraid to let people know they have this disorder because it's so misunderstood. She shared with us some dismay that those who are not visibly incapacitated by epilepsy often don't get the same kind of attention as those who are so disabled they need a full time caregiver. I could hear the passion in her voice as she spoke about the need these people have for support and encouragement.

When we have a call on our lives, we often face external and internal opposition that can create anxiety and uncertainty. Sometimes it is easy to personalize the forces that array against us, especially if they seem to be coming from people who fight us or try to block us.

After we chatted a bit and drank some tea, we first prayed that the Holy Spirit would tear down any strongholds of doubt or unbelief in any of us, as well as tear down self-will. Then we prayed specifically for healing of her brain and nervous system, for wisdom and peace through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, for freedom from anxiety and for the ability to discern that we war not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. In other words, that she be strengthened in her ability to let the Lord fight the battles she has found herself in, to let Him move in the vanguard, while she abides and rests in Him. We also prayed that she would be equipped for the ministry that God has for her.

Roma attends a Pentecostal Church in my neighbourhood and has a deep faith and love for Jesus Christ. Jim and I had a wonderful time praying with her.

She's given me permission to write about this on the blog. If the Holy Spirit moves you please pray for her healing, then please do.

In related news, last Friday, Jim and I went to pray for the 38-year old woman with severe Multiple Sclerosis (MS). (September 12th entry).

Jim has spoken with the woman’s mother who has noticed a big improvement in her daughter's condition. She has been able to speak a little, her eyes seem to be focusing, and she is able to open her hands, which she had mostly kept in tight fists. We're going to go down there next Friday, and this time I think Fr. Carl from the cathedral will meet us there and anoint her with oil. The healing rite in the Book of Common Prayer is wonderful, based on the passages in James about calling on the elders of the church and the prayers of faith saving the sick.

This morning, I went to sung Mattins at the cathedral, then, as is our custom, we went to a small cafe where we move the tables together to accommodate our small group of six to eight every Friday. Fr. Carl has the new priests and the ordinand do little dissertations on assigned topics, so this morning Scott talked about fasting and Fr. David talked about fundamentalism.

The wind blows the curtains toward me and some dried leaves rattle across the concrete patio. The sun has disappeared.

Yesterday, while on a bike ride, leaves crunched under my wheels as I passed under sumac that's starting to turn red, and maples that are turning yellow with the occasional patch of red against green. The beaver pond was full of Canada geese. Feathers were strewn along the gravel boat ramp and I had to ring my bell to get dozens of geese to move off the bike path. They waddled away slowly, some hissing a little with open black beaks. No fear of humans.

I'm off to do weight training.