Salvation through Illness

August 17 2013 / ShareHim in Botswana, Jul. 19 - Aug. 3 '13 #605
by Carlos Solano


Campaign Site Narrative from Matlapana, Maun in Botswana. The speaker assigned to this site was Carlos Solano.

After four months of her daughter being sick with acute diarrhea, she did not know what to do or where to turn. Since the birth of her daughter four months before, Lana (to protect her real name) had visited numerous doctors and exhausted all of her resources into finding a solution and a cure for her little baby. Lana was now at the end of her rope. On Saturday, July 20, 2013, as she went about town in Matlapana, Maun, she discovered the news about the evangelistic meetings that had just started the night before in her little Botswana village. So Lana decided to go to the meetings that night and take her daughter to ask for prayer.

After setting the projector and starting the program, I walked around the sandy lot where our meetings were being held. It was Saturday evening, and we were getting ready to start our third meeting of the series. I greeted people in their language, and big bright smiles splashed the faces of the old and the young. Then, my translator pulled me aside and informed me of a young lady that had brought her daughter for us to pray for her. I consented and we made our way to the little praying corner where two ladies church members were already sitting holding the baby and talking to Lana. After greetings, Lana explained to us the situation with her baby, and asked if we could pray for her daughter to get well. I did not know what to do, except to pray and leave it in God's hands.

I offered a quick prayer in English and then the two ladies prayed for the baby in Tswana. During the prayers, since I could not understand the language, I could not help it but for my mind to wonder. So I thought and asked God, "Why is this little girl sick? What is the message you want to communicate?" It was during those prayers, as I asked God for solutions, that I felt impressed to talk to Lana and to tell her God's will for her life. As the prayers came to an end I knew I needed to say something. With the help of my translator, I started telling to Lana what God had impressed in my ear. I did not know where the words were coming from.

I told her: "Your daughter will be fine. She will get well soon. God brought you here because He wants to make a connection with you. He wants to talk to you. There is nothing wrong with your daughter, but God is knocking at your heart and He wants you to open the door for Him. He wants to come into your life and offer you salvation."

As I finished the words, I could already see some tears streaming down on Lana's face. I did not know what I had just said, but Lana could understand what the words meant in her life. She thanked us for the prayers and went to sit in one of the plastic chairs with the rest of the audience.

For the following nights, Lana kept coming to the meetings but did not approach us with any questions. Then, three days after the prayers, she stood up at the meetings, wanting to tell the audience her testimony. As she spoke, she told the story of her daughter's illness and her decision to come to the meetings. She mentioned the prayers offered in her behalf and how God had talked to her. I could see her excitement as she narrated that after just a couple of days her daughter was no longer sick and everything else God had done in her life. She expressed that she had found God's family in the church and that she wanted to promise that she would come to the meetings every night and continue learning God's truths.

As promised, Lana faithfully came each night to the meetings and a week later, as the first appeal for baptism was offered, she stood up and came to the front wanting to be baptized. Each night she was there with her daughter and each night she opened up more to the church family. On the last Sabbath, with a big smile on her face, she was the first candidate from Matlapana to be baptized. God had called her. He used us to reach out to her. Lana opened her heart to God and He brought salvation to her life. It was salvation through illness.
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