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Developing Whole Leaders for the whole World

Healing In All Its Forms: ORU Brings Team To Zimbabwe

by Deborah Laker

healing team z 1Seventeen students from Oral Roberts University dedicated one month of their summer vacation to serve the community of Hatcliffe in Zimbabwe through the concept of healing teams. Benjamin Smith, a recent graduate, was one of the Zimbabwe team leaders.

“Healing teams is an original intent for going back to Oral Roberts’s vision for a missions team,” Smith explains. “He really viewed healing in missions in a holistic mindset for getting healing in every single area of a community. So we have teams focusing on the business part of a community; the economic, environmental, and engineering part; medical team; media to cover everything; and theology and discipleship to preach the gospel to everybody. It’s basically a concept to bring healing to every single aspect of a community.”

The goal of the healing teams in Zimbabwe is to launch micro-businesses such as chicken coops and brick-making as a way to improve the livelihoods of the local community. They also work on enhancing the area by establishing a clean water and sanitation system. Throughout the course of establishing these projects, the teams interact with locals on a daily basis and form strong relationships with them.

Smith and his teammates met Norman one afternoon as they were ministering in the village. As Smith conversed with Norman, the Zimbabwean man revealed to him that his wife was ill with schistosomiasis. Before the trip, when Smith was still on-campus, he prayed that God would reveal to him who he would meet. He says he sensed he would encounter an individual with a condition known as schistosomiasis. The disease is caused by a water-borne parasitic infection that prompts excessive abdominal pain.

The team prayed for Norman’s wife to be healed and proceeded to share Christ with Norman, who confessed that he had never given his life to Christ although he knew about Jesus.

“I think this is my time,” Norman said after accepting the team's invitation to be led in the prayer for salvation.

As Smith retells this divine encounter, he emphasizes, “It was really cool to see how the Lord had told me about someone with schistosomiasis and I met someone whose wife had it and he ended up giving his life to the Lord.”

At the end of the mission’s trip, Pastor Kennedy, the team’s contact in Zimbabwe, organized a send-off party and invited the community.

Throughout the gathering, Smith felt the Holy Spirit's presence and witnessed His work through the numerous salvations and healings.

“It was an amazing time to conclude the trip,” Smith reminisces. “God moved not only in that moment, but also over the entire trip; our relationships had basically prepared the way to lead the salvations and healings. It was really awesome!”

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