This blog is named "...where 2 or 3 are gathered..." This post will honor that rubric, as it describes an unusual experience I had with one or two other people. I worshiped for a moment last evening with someone who was on fire in her own unique way. It made a profound impact and it's fair to say that it qualified as a "church experience."
Tuesday evening, August 25th.
I was walking from my new home over to Reid's Fine Foods. I go over there just to get out of The Vue and walk around. This quarantine and full-time remote work sometimes has me in a challenging state emotionally due to the lack of mobility.
I wander by nature and was scratching my wander-itch last evening. I do that most days.
As I cut through Romare Bearden Park, I noticed a group of people assembled around a table. Jesus Saves stickers. Bibles. Talking to people around them.
Being how I am, I stopped and spoke with them. This group was part of Tent America, a revival group. The Tent America table in Romare Bearden Park was sponsored by local churches and had a small crowd milling around.
Interesting.
Included in the group of people was a woman named Wendy. As I was talking to the leader of the Tent America group, Wendy walked up and smiled at me. Her eyes were lit up. In the really good way. I smiled back and she interrupted our conversation.
In a flood of information, I learned that Wendy had been homeless and ended up in Charlotte from Florida about a year ago. Her children are alienated from her, and her boyfriend has oversight over them now. He lets her children smoke and drink, as did she when she was with them. She was in a car accident years ago that crushed her hand and left her with reduced use of it. She also had a torn labrum from the accident. It prevented her from being able to rotate her shoulder or lift her arm above her head.
I love extroverts, and am one. Wendy gave even me a run for my money on sharing, both in volume and speed. She gushed information and energy at me in a captivating way. I was focusing really hard to keep up with what she was saying.
Then she held her two hands out in front of me. I will fully admit, one hand looked very different from the other. Part of it was a difference in color, but also something about the shape. Both hands were healthy and moved perfectly in synch.
No sign of injury in either.
She could move them equally.
The leader of Tent America watched me as I heard this and smiled in a reassuring way. Wendy was the real deal, is what her smile said.
Then Wendy spun her arm around in a 360-degree fashion. She lifted both of her hands above her head.
Her eyes were on fire and she explained that she had been homeless and was baptized two days ago. She kept saying with wonderment, "I was completely healed. I am well. My body and soul are clean now. I've been completely changed, Byl!"
And on and on.
I held my arms out and she gave me a solid hug. For a long time.
The leader of the Tent America group then explained that they had been baptizing people every evening over by the baseball stadium. The leader explained that they had found Wendy days earlier and had ministered to her in her broken state.
I talked for a while longer and Wendy honestly seemed both stunned and ecstatic at what had happened to her. I eventually moved on and got over to Reid's. I came back to Romare Bearden Park a few hours later and checked in on the scene again. Wendy was dancing to the music (above) and occasionally stopping to tell a new person of the events that had transpired in her life.
I suppose there are only three options.
1) Wendy was a con artist. The people from Tent America and she were mutually conspiring to mislead me and others. Of note is that they never asked me for anything. If con artists, it's not much of a scam to only share information of salvation. I mean, what kind of grifter would that be?
2) Wendy was indeed healed of many things, both inside and out. There's a psychological explanation to what Wendy experienced. It is to be understood in some sort of "mind over matter" phenomenon. The human mind and its manifestations are indeed very strong.
3) Wendy was knocked off her horse (broken body, heart and mind) on the Road to Damascus, by Yeshua, and was brought into an utterly new life (Saul becoming Paul) in an instant.
And here's the thing. One name for Yeshua is "The Great Physician." Healing bodies, minds, hearts and social relationships is documented as one of His manifestations. Would we have too small a faith if we relegated an experience of physical and spiritual redemption to either history or the realm of deception or some psycho-social suggestion?
Are the stories of such a redemption to be understood as only occurring two millennia ago?
I leave it up to the reader. Sit with it. Dig deep. Ask what in your heart and mind makes God "unable" to do a thing. Look at what a layer of cynicism (we all have some) can do in terms of putting God in a smaller box than what He offers.
As I walked around and pondered what Wendy's testimony might or might not mean, I kept my eyes open for things that might speak to me on the subject.
This did:
And this did:
I finally ended up later in the evening at a courtyard of an apartment complex where I have been sitting and praying and thinking on and off for decades. I was still full of the energy that Wendy was pouring out into the world. So much to think about.
My hope is that we can create space for each other's stories of redemption and deliverance. Doing so takes trust and, in fact, some form of innocence, and perhaps even love.
And love, dear reader, is the raw material from which a New Heaven and a New Earth will arise.
Oh, and for the record... I believe Wendy.
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