A Life Changing Healing…

A LIFE CHANGING HEALING TESTIMONY
Of A WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLEEDING and HER BABY.
A Woman Called Jackie: A story of healing and its ripple effects.
By
Donna Authers,
Author of
“A Sacred Walk: Dispelling the Fear of Death and Caring for the Dying.”
Jackie walked into our church fellowship hall in Ridgefield, CT on an evening long ago to attend The Alpha Course. As one of the leaders, I greeted her at the door. She was lovely with an air of confidence, an easy smile; and there was an immediate connection between us. We sat together during the welcome dinner and I listened with great interest when she explained why she came. “I’m Jewish,” she said, “but married to a Christian. We have three children ages 3, 6 and 8 (a little boy and 2 girls) and we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukah. The girls have begun asking me questions about Jesus, and my husband is never around when that happens. I don’t know how to answer them and I know very little about Christianity. After seeing the article about Alpha in the paper, I decided to come.”
The article described it as a basic course on Christianity where believers and non-believers alike could come and ask questions about God and the Christian faith. The first evening’s discussion was titled, Christianity: Is it boring, irrelevant or untrue? As our dinner conversation unfolded, I learned that Jackie came from a strict Jewish family who sent her to Hebrew school when she was young. She knew the Torah, had read the prophets, and observed all the Jewish holidays. Her family was not thrilled with her marriage to a Gentile, even though he did not practice his religion except on holidays. However, they grew to love and respect him and they adored their beautiful grandchildren.
Jackie faithfully attended the Alpha course each week with supper, a video lecture, and small group discussions afterwards. For reasons unknown to us at the time, Jackie insisted on sitting next to me and, if the seat was occupied, she politely asked the person to move so we could continue our weekly dinner chats. God had opened her heart enough for her to enroll in this 12-week course, and I was privileged to witness how he continued to open her eyes and ears not only in class, but through his Word.
It was clear that the Holy Spirit was personally tutoring her because she began reading the New Testament every day, with understanding. Her husband said she was obsessed with it, even locking herself in the bathroom to read in private. Her children left notes in the Bible saying, “Mommy, we miss you.” Since she knew the Torah (Old Testament), she came to dinner prepared with a new question or observation such as: “What was wrong with those people (meaning the Jews)! He didn’t do anything wrong (meaning Jesus).”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’ve been reading the Bible and comparing what Jesus said to what I learned in Hebrew school.”
“Why are you reading the Bible? This isn’t a Bible study.”
“I wanted to verify what I have been hearing in class to know the truth for myself.”
Another week she asked, “That Lamb of God – it’s Jesus, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
With the glee of a child, she replied, “I knew it!”
That’s how it went week after week. After discussing the question “Does God heal today?” Jackie indignantly said, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you knew a healer.” Obviously a mutual friend had told her of my friendship with Nigel Mumford who has the gift of healing. At that time he was the Director of the Oratory of the Little Way in Connecticut. “I need to see him. It’s for my son, so please take me there.”
The next day I called and made an appointment to bring Jackie and her 3-year-old son to see him. He had hurt his leg when he jumped at The Little Gym. Doctors later advised that it was a result of an unknown birth defect. They had tried everything to get his leg to heal. The latest was to put his leg in a cast, but the prognosis was not good and there was fear about this child losing the use of his leg. After introducing Jackie and her son to Nigel, she asked me to stay while she explained the situation. But before we went into the chapel for prayer, Nigel looked at Jackie and said, “How can I pray for you?”
“I didn’t come for me; I came for my son,” Jackie replied.
“Yes, I know, but as we spoke I had the feeling that there was something else bothering you personally.”
Jackie then revealed that she had been bleeding non-stop for weeks and when she finally went to the doctor, it was discovered that she had multiple cysts on her ovaries. He suggested she may have to have surgery. Because she and her husband wanted to have another child, Jackie said she needed time to think about it. When Nigel had a clear picture of the healing Jackie wanted for herself, he brought the three of us into the chapel where he first laid hands on the little boy and then prayed for her.
On the ride home, Jackie was quiet and commented on how peaceful she felt and how much she was looking forward to taking her son to the doctor the next day to remove the cast from his leg. She exclaimed it was already a miracle that her son sat quietly during the entire time we were at the Oratory – even when Nigel prayed for him! The next day, to the doctor’s amazement and Jackie’s joy, she learned her son’s leg was completely healed, confirmed by x-rays and the child’s ability to run around like any normal little boy (and he has since grown into a fine, healthy young adult).
The following week, Jackie returned to the gynecologist to confirm what she already knew. She, too, was completely healed. When she called to tell me, Jackie said as soon as Nigel touched her the week before, she knew something happened. Her bleeding had stopped, but she didn’t want to say anything until the doctor confirmed she had healthy, clear, normal reproductive organs. It was if she heard Jesus say to her, “I do these things so that you know who I am.”
Needless to say, Jackie never missed a night with her Alpha friends each week, and she continued with her questions. After her healing, though, they took on a different tone after her personal experience with Jesus. Jackie was worried about what her parents would say if she told them that she now believed the Messiah has already come. Two weeks later, she came to me once more saying, “I finally figured it out. This is not about my parents; it’s about me and God!”
Not long after the class ended and a new year was about to begin, Jackie called and said. “I just spent 2 -1/2 hours with your priest and I’m being baptized on January 7th (2001). Will you be my godmother?” What joy! All good news, but the enemy was not very happy. He tried to rob Jackie of her peace by heaping her with guilt upon guilt and heightening her fears of telling her parents about her new-found faith. The emotional pain morphed into physical pain that would not go away. It lasted for days and became so severe that it felt as if someone had stabbed her in the stomach. One day as Jackie lay doubled over on the floor, she cried out in agony saying, “Lord if you are real and you truly want me, please remove this sword in my stomach.” Within seconds the pain was gone, never to return again!
Throughout the next two years, Jackie became an active member of our small group Bible study and was “on fire” for the Lord. Her children were baptized and because of her testimony, her brother and his wife were also baptized. During that time, Jackie and her husband had another son, and as the years went by, she continued her in-depth study of Scripture,became a group leader herself, and eventually felt called to ministry. Jackie continues to be “on fire” for the Lord. While she respects and is grateful for her Jewish roots (Jesus was a Jew), she is a true evangelist and presently is an ordained minister and elder in her church.
As a result of Jackie’s persistent prayers, God in his mercy healed her mother of lymphatic lymphoma which led her to believe in Jesus before she eventually passed away. She still prays for her father whose heart has softened after seeing the transformation in his family which all started with The Alpha Course and the healing prayers of Nigel Mumford.