Hello ICC Family!
Friday evening Laurel and I left at about 8 PM to drive to South Florida. We were supposed to fly! Let’s just say that didn’t work out… I don’t know if it was the weather, the airline, the plane, or something else. I just know that after 5 hours of waiting for any little piece of information, we joined the long line of people asking for a refund so we could get out of the airport. Everyone was very cordial and helpful, though. There were no tired and emotional passengers making a scene, so that was good - even the ones trying to get down to Florida to catch their cruise the next day.
We were going to Florida to visit our daughter, Sara. She is starting her third year in college in nursing school, and we had never been able to visit during the school year and see the campus, meet her friends, and get a feel for her life down there. We loved doing all of that over our weekend together. We also were able to go to her church with her on Sunday which was a blessing. Friday evening there was a white coat ceremony to mark the official start of her and her classmates entering into formal nursing training. We heard from the dean of the nursing college and the university president (who also happens to be a medical doctor). A current nursing senior and a recent graduate also spoke to encourage the nursing students to work hard over the next couple of years to reach their goals.
Living in several different countries for periods of time, I have seen all kinds of medical conditions and approaches. In China, there were hospitals that were fine, but others that were horrific. It’s a long story, but some day Laurel will have to tell you about how one of the hospitals there did a blood draw from our little girls’ necks! Laurel still has nightmares about that. Thai hospitals were usually really good. Most Americans don’t believe us, but the hospital that Sara was born in was much nicer than any that I have been to in the U.S. These hospitals all practiced western medicine, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other approaches as well. Sara was healed once by a physical therapist that practiced skull manipulation. I remember one time a short-term team of missionaries from Hong Kong came and they had an acupuncture ministry. They were able to interact with more people and share the gospel more times than any other team I ever heard of. Good conditions or poor, western medicine or more non-traditional, when it comes to medical care there is one thing that is similar everywhere… people that are hurting and sick want to be healed. Regardless of who they go to or what methods are used, healing is the goal. I am proud that my daughter is going into this profession that is so universal and so important.
Which is why it is so unfortunate that healing is a topic that I think the church gets wrong more often than it gets right. We take it very seriously when we are desperate, but we need to nail down what the Bible says on this topic before we are in the difficult situations. Why does the Bible say we should ask the elders to pray for healing? Does God promise healing if we have enough faith? If God does heal, is it always through medicine or does He still heal miraculously?… These questions and many more trip us up and affect our faith and our prayers. Because this is so important, we are going to be starting a sermon series this Sunday on the topic of healing. We will be looking at what the Bible says about healing when it comes to Jesus and miracles, and prayer and faith, and death and heaven. We will slowly be developing a lens through which we can be confident that our thinking and our prayers are biblical. This is a series and a topic that I would highly encourage you to invite friends and family to come and learn about, because it is absolutely relevant to each one of us, and potentially life-changing! So please don’t miss the next couple of months, starting with this Sunday as we look at Jesus the healer.
Blessings to you all. And know that I am praying for you!
Pastor Aaron
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