“She has the gift of healing so perhaps she can come and pray for you,” suggested a good friend.

Given my conservative evangelical background, I had to check the FB page of the person and saw a sound theology that would make my late Baptist pastor proud so I said yes. Two days later, she was in my room, together with my three friends from church. She introduced herself to me and basically repeated the things I saw on her FB page. She then offered to get things started by requesting for two matching chairs.

She asked me to sit on one chair and rest my legs on the other. She commented how my left leg was shorter than my right which was attested by one friend while the other two remained silent. Actually, it’s not the first time I heard it said of my legs. It’s the third since my battle against bursitis. The first two were from Dorn method practitioners which I dismissed as easily as I removed myself from their client list.

She started praying out loud for my left leg to grow longer. I then felt my leg move just a bit but I thought it was her pulling it. She kept praying. I don’t remember if she had her hands on my left leg but I felt another nudge again. Honestly, I don’t know what was happening. She then declared that both my legs were now of the same length. None of my friends including the only one who noticed the difference earlier said anything. She asked me to stand and like a well-trained dog, I got up and froze.

Since this ordeal started, I would have pain when rising but I did it like I normally did---back when things were really normal for me. Realizing this, I got scared and it showed in my face as she started chuckling. My friends also saw the shock in my face. She told me to bend, squat, stretch, and walk several times. And I did them all with no twinge of pain. Shocked, I tried sitting and there was neither pain nor discomfort even as I tried shifting deliberately looking for positions that would send me reaching for a painkiller. I kept my eye on her all the time while she kept a confident smile on her face. “You don’t need to take painkillers anymore. You can now travel,” she said. “I see gold dusts in your face.”

My shock turned to skepticism. “What do you mean seeing? You’re seeing a vision or is it literal?”

“Literal.” 

“Only you can see it?” my friend interjected.

“We can all see it.” But she was the only one.

I asked, “So what does that mean?” She explained that it was the manifestation of the Spirit. She added that it is not our faith that heals us but “God’s faith.” I swear that’s what she said but I did not pursue it further as she was a guest. She has also turned her attention to another friend who has been having some health issues himself. She prayed for him with no drama but I spoke too soon.

“Would you like to grow taller?” she asked him. He nodded. “Would you also like to become thinner?” She asked him and another friend to stand against a wall, marking the creases in their forearm for comparison. She then asked someone to take a video “this time” because I refused to have my “session” documented. I took out my phone and saw the mark on my friend with health issues moving upward through my phone camera and my eyes. What was going on here? Five minutes later, my friend was walking taller. If I had known what was supposed to transpire, I would have marked my wall. Unlike my experience, I knew the height increase was impossible but I saw how the mark moved but just the mark.

I didn’t know what to make of what has happening but I had another appointment so my guests left. I debated whether to take painkillers but I took myself or to be more precise, the event to task. I said no to meds and headed out. The trip going to my appointment was almost pain-free but going back, the pain came back gradually until things went back to their “abnormal” state.

I relayed what happened to a friend who is used to these things, at least compared to me, a staunch Baptist. She wanted me to get in touch with the person but I said no.

I explained, “For weeks now, I have stopped making the banana (which is what I call the condition) the focal point of my life. I have stopped opening about the topic and only talk of it briefly when asked, to the point some thought that I was already healed especially when they hear me talk more about my activities and see my FB posts.

I have also stopped obsessing whether this will be the day that I will be finally healed. In fact, I don’t believe that I will be healed because I AM already healing. And because the finish line is in the horizon, I have resumed living life pre-banana with a better understanding of the goodness of God and more appreciation of what it means to be satisfied with His presence and take comfort that I am being held by His loving hands.”