School of Theology student Eugene Teh gives an account of the healing miracle God performed on his teammate Lavendran s/o Benjamin on May 3.
By Eugene Teh
Lava (back row, second from right) with his teammates from Team 11. Writer Eugene Teh, in navy blue, is standing in the background. PHOTOS: SOT Team 11.
On the morning of Apr. 25, all of us in Team 11 got a shocking piece of news. One of our teammates, Lava—short for Lavendran—had been injured in a road accident the evening before.
When we visited him in the hospital after school that day, Lava recounted what had happened. He was riding his bicycle to meet a friend, when a taxi driver collided into him at a junction. He found himself flying and flipping over in the air and landing back-first on the windscreen of the taxi. Everything happened so fast, yet he could remember the most minute details in those few seconds.
The doctors told him that he had nine cracks on his spine and that he had torn the ligament on his left leg.
When Lava came back to school on Apr. 30, he was in a wheelchair. By doctor’s orders, he had to be in a wheelchair for at least a month. I tried my best to help him get around, and made the mistake of knocking my knee against his back once, producing a groan from him. *yikes*
And when he had to go up to the stage of the Jurong West auditorium for practice as a backup vocalist, he had to lean on me, limping slowly and painfully up the steps. “After the accident, I couldn’t move at all without being in pain. Even just one touch on my leg or my back hurt,” Lava said.
As I went about the day with him, I wondered how helpless he would be if no one could help him with the most mundane of tasks like going up steps or ascending ramps. In my heart, I was prepared to assist him in moving around for a month, and wondered what other measures I could take to help him.
May 3 was the fateful day I got to witness for myself the miraculous healing power of the Holy Spirit that we’ve so often heard and read about.
On that day, we were to learn about moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For Lava, he came back to school with the expectation that he would be healed “although I just didn’t know when.”
Lava is all smiles as he stands beside his newly discarded wheelchair.
That morning, Pastor Choong Tsih Ming, our teacher for the day, led us in a time of prayer and worship. I knew at the back of my mind that there was a possibility he would pray for Lava’s healing. But as yet, I still had the concept of gradual healing. As we continued in worship, I felt the presence of God thicken and I knew the Holy Spirit was with us. I suddenly felt a strong conviction that Lava was going to be healed that very day. As Pastor Ming laid hands on Lava, he got out of his wheelchair and slowly limped around a little before the pain compelled him to sit down again. But I knew that the miracle had begun.
Pastor Ming remembers: “I was having quiet time before the lesson and a picture of Lava came to my mind and I had this impression that Lava will be healed. When I first prayed for him, I was thinking in my mind that it will be instantaneous, but when it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, I thought perhaps it might be the wrong impression so I had Lava sat down again. However, when I was praying for other people, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that miracles have to be worked. There has to be action in order for the miracle to happen. So I went back to Lava and started praying for him again, telling him to start working the miracle and walking up and down.”
Pastor Ming came back and prayed for Lava a second time, after which he fell under the power of God. When he got up, he moved around more. My conviction burned with every action he made with his left leg, which he could barely move just an hour ago. Soon, Lava was kicking with his left leg, stretching his back and torso.
Then I saw something that made me shout with exultation—Lava begin climbing up the very steps of the stage which he had to lean on me to ascend previously. Instead of the slow torturous limp he had to endure, he was now jogging up and down uninhibited and pain-free!
On Friday, 11 May, Lava went back to his doctor for a check-up. The doctor declared that everything was well. “I’m feeling fine and completely normal now. There is no more pain,” Lava said. He has been totally and completely healed. Hallelujah! Our God is an awesome God!
I’m extremely blessed to be able to experience and witness for myself the signs and wonders that God is still very much doing in our lives today. I believe, now more than ever, that everyone can have the same miraculous experience with God.
