Thank God for the Healing

After the annual Santa Parade in Henderson, Auckland on Nov 24, 2012, the Cerna couple (Elmer and Maylaine), who chaired the Katilingbang Bisaya sa New Zealand project committee, dropped by our house to assess our association’s participation and just chat the afternoon away. Our conversation led us to discussing about healing, as they had witnessed just two weeks earlier a miraculous event.

Roderick Catuday, a Filipino who had become a media personality in Auckland, due to his highly publicised difficult journey towards permanent residency when he fell seriously ill years ago. Initially, the government refused to give him assistance, but with the support of the community and other well-meaning Kiwis, he obtained the crucial medication that healed him.

According to Elmer, Roderick became involved in Christian communities by giving testimonies. On the first week on November 2012, without warning, he was rushed to the hospital, and doctors said that he only had two hours to live. Friends and supporters went to work in the social network asking to pray for healing.  When the two hours expired, Roderick astounded the medical staff as he had regained consciousness and became well.

Roderick narrated his ordeal in a later testimony. He said that in his helplessness, all he could do was pray. Half of his body had become numb and his vital organs, as the doctors predicted, started to fail. While unconscious, he saw in a dream a hand reaching out to him from heaven. When the hand touched him, he could feel warmness move from his body towards his head. He transcended from weakness to strength. Today, Roderick stays in his home, very much alive, very much thankful to the Lord.

Surely faith healed Roderick, as it did Fr Mario and Gingin, a close family friend, who both went through scary health ordeals in the past few months. Not only did they personally ask God for wellness, their family, friends and even strangers likewise sought God’s kindness. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  (Hebrews 10:23-25)

There are still many others who need healing, and it is for us to give aid, moral support, and more importantly spiritual assistance through our prayers. I am sure that God listens to us, His people. “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14) Roderick, Fr Mario and Gingin are living testimonies.