Note: The following is a chapter in the recently pubished book, What Prayer Can Do: A collection of articles written by Ada Nicholson Brownell, published by The Pentecostal Evangel.
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GOD INSTANTLY RESTORED MY FATHER’S SIGHT
By Lorraine
Golightly as told to Ada Brownell
I became
a believer in divine healing because I saw my father receive his sight when he
was prayed for in a revival meeting.
The
accident that caused Daddy’s blindness happened in 1950. I was 9 years old.
Daddy
(John Feliciano) was doing construction work in Honolulu, Hawaii, where we
lived, when dynamite exploded in his face. One eyeball was completely
destroyed; the other was damaged considerably. The blast was so severe that
doctors said Daddy should have been dead. Tiny pebbles embedded in his skin all
over his body.
“Daddy
probably will never see again,” Mom told us when she got home from the
hospital.
I was
panic-stricken.
“There’s
still hope,” said Aunt Virginia, who had come home with Mom. “Jesus can heal
your daddy.”
We didn’t
know what to think of that. Daddy liked Aunt Virginia, but wouldn’t even let
her talk about her religion in our house. When Daddy saw people from her church
in street meetings, he’d always yell at them, “You crazy holy rollers!”
Daddy
went to church, however, and believed in God. He just didn’t like Aunt
Virginia’s kind of religion.
When he
came home from the hospital, he had no hope of a miracle. His eyes were in
bandages, and he was very depressed.
“I’ve got
seven children to support!” he’d say several times a day. “How can a blind man
feed seven children? I might as well be dead!’
It was
true that he couldn’t support us. Soon we had to live on welfare.
Surgeons
hoped surgery would give Daddy sight in his remaining eye, but the operations
were unsuccessful. After the last operation, the eye doctor told him there was
nothing more they could do for him. There was no hope he ever would see again.
Because
of his youth (Daddy was 31 when he was injured) he immediately was trained in a
school for the blind. He learned braille and how to use a seeing-eye dog. He
even learned how to feel money so he could tell denominations apart.
Yet he
remained depressed and saw no reason for living.
“I’ll
never be able to see my family again,” Daddy groaned one day. “I can’t take
being blind. Killing myself is the only way out.”
Mom tried
to talk him out of his despondency, but without success. He actually intended
to commit suicide.
Finally,
Mom called Aunt Virginia and asked her to come over and talk to my father.
As soon
as Aunt Virginia got inside she began talking to Daddy about the Lord and told
him what Jesus could do.
“We’re
going to have a revival, and the evangelist will pray for the sick,” Aunt
Virginia continued. “Will you come?”
“I guess
I can try,” Daddy answered, “but I don’t believe it will do any good.”
When the
revival started, my aunt and uncle, Dad and Mom, and all of us seven children
went to the Pentecostal church. After the lady evangelist preached, it was time
for prayer for the sick. Mom took Daddy by the arm and led him to the healing
line.
The
meeting was in a large church and people were getting healed and praising the
Lord. Daddy couldn’t see what was happening around him, but he could hear, and
he was scared. He began shaking.
One woman
who was healed of deafness gave a big shout when her ears opened. Daddy was
more frightened than ever.
Then it
was his turn.
“Do you
believe in Jesus?” the evangelist asked Daddy.
“Yes.”
She began
praying that Daddy would receive his sight. Nothing happened.
“Do you
really believe?” she asked my father again.
“Yes.”
She put
her hand on Daddy’s eye and prayed again. Suddenly he began to shout, “I can
see! I can see!”
“What do
you see?” the evangelist asked.
“I can
see shadows,” he cried. “Thank God.”
“The Lord
isn’t through yet,” the lady minister told him. “Now believe! Believe!” She
began praying for Daddy again.
“Come
here,” the evangelist told us children, and we went to the front. I was scared
and crying as she lined us all in front of my father.
We
discovered the shadows had disappeared, and Daddy could see clearly. One by one
we went to him and let him look at us. As he called each child—Margaret,
Priscilla, Lorraine (me), Elenore, Johnny, Gordon, and the baby Diane, who was
3 years old, he hugged and kissed us and we cried together.
My sister
Margaret and I accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior that night. Mom and Dad
did too. One by one the rest of the children gave their lives to the Lord, and
all of us are still serving God.
After he
was healed, Daddy was supposed to go back to the doctor, so he kept his
appointment. The physicians didn’t believe it when he told them he could see.
They were amazed when they took tests and discovered he recovered his sight.
“God did
it,” Daddy said.
Daddy had
served God faithfully for 19 years when he went to be with the Lord.
I’m glad
God’s healing power is available to us today. Doctors thought my sister had a
brain tumor, but after she was prayed for, they could find nothing.
I had an annoying, persistent ear problem
accompanied by dizziness and ringing in my ears, which doctors couldn’t seem to
help and over which I couldn’t get victory. Then I remembered how God instantly
healed Daddy of blindness, and knew the Lord is the same “yesterday, today, and
forever.” Immediately the ear problem disappeared.
Now I can
say with the Psalmist, ‘Come and hear, all of you who reverence the Lord, and I
will tell you what He did for me: for I cried to Him for help, with praises
ready on my tongue. He would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins.
But He listened! He heard my prayer! He paid attention to it! Blessed be God
who didn’t turn away when I was praying and didn’t refuse me His kindness and
love” (Psalm 66:16-20 Living Bible paraphrase).
The Pentecostal Evangel, October 16, 1977
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