Power of Prayer

Well I as I sit down to right this many of you that know me will be like Duh this girl believes in the power of pray she was raised with it in her everyday life. Raised in it and seen it work so much that even when I wasn't following Christ the first thing I did when I found out my mother's life was in danger was to pick up the phone and called my Aunt and Uncle saying "We need Prayer." Those were the first words out of my mouth and later talking to Aunt Rhonda her first thoughts went to my brother who was at the time in the Middle East. Prayer has and will always be part of my life. But seeing it work in others life no matter how close to you they are and experiencing it first hand can be two different experiences. I don't want to say that either one less important then the other because they have both had profound effects on my life, but I just wanted to write about my recent experience. In October I surgery on my Achilles Tendon which left me in crutches for 6 weeks followed by 4 weeks of physical therapy. The first of January the Young adult community at my church had a retreat in Twain Harte, Ca. My friend is pregnant so instead of riding in the vans that go up we decided that we would take our car and ride up together. So as silly as it sounds driving can be quite the workout for a foot that hasn't had much action in months. Since the foot that was operated on was my right foot I was using it to push on the brakes or the gas and while this didn't seem to be a big deal prior to starting out the trip after 3 hours of doing this my foot was a bit aggravated to say the least. Well my friend Jenny gave me some Naproxen and I still found it difficult to sleep that night. The next morning was a fun filled day of hiking, sledding, and skiing/snowboarding. As you can well imagine none of these activities were overly appealing to me, but not wanting to be the party pooper as my Aunt Terri would call me I sucked it up and decided to go take pictures of the gang Sledding. I am so glad I did because what an experience of riding in the van with Katy who assured us that she "Does this everyday" to the watching the Californians way of snow sledding was purely entertaining (see post below). To credit Katy though she does know how to drive a van I will give her that!!! So after a pretty busy day of walking up and down the hill you can imagine how my foot was feeling. For my mother who may be reading this I want you to know that I had spoken to the doctor the week before and he told me that the pain was normal and I would probably have a lot of it for up to about 6 months or more. He had also told me if it didn't go away we could try a cortisone shot. This is something I was trying to avoid at all cost. That night we sat down to watch a video Tony had brought called the "Finger of God." I got to tell you though coming from a Pentecostal background I always find humor in how these types of movies are introduced. I experienced the same thing when attending a prayer meeting for the first time and I thought who this is so mello compared to how I was raised. I know it is out of the norm for the majority of people maybe that is why I find it so comical because it is pretty much normal in the family I was raised in so I guess I am so not part of the norm. I am very PROUD of that now. So during this movie I was in Pain I was trying to put my foot up to elevated it to take away some of the swelling and if Jenny had been in the same room I would have asked her for another Naproxen, but she wasn't she was watching the second part of the movie in another room. As the movie ended my friend Tony asked us to pray and not just pray but be bold and pray with one another. As we were all praying my friend Candice stood up and began to pray and as she prayed she prayed to take away the pain in my foot. She didn't lay hands on me she prayed from across the room. Like I said I am a firm believer in prayer but what happened next surprised even me....THE PAIN WAS GONE FOLKS!!! I didn't believe at first but as I sat there for about five minutes moving it up and down I coudn't sit by and not say anything. This doesn't sound like that big of thing, but before this I couldn't go up to my tip toes it was just too painful for me to do so. As I stood up to share the good news I stood on my tip toes without pain, I fell asleep that night without pain, I drove home then entire 3 hours without pain, today more then 2 weeks later I am WITHOUT PAIN. Praise God! I know what prayer can do I have seen it work in my family and I have had it work in me. I thank my Grandma all the time for her prays as I walked away from God there was one thing I always knew my Grandma Helen was praying that I was coming back to him. My Mom and Dad never let us leave the house for school growing up (even on the mornings we were running late) without taking our hands and praying for us! I am Grateful for that and hope to instill the same qualities in my Children one day.