| Thge Power of Prayer
Patricia Mitchell, who has worked with the mentally and physically disabled for 37 years, shares an amazing story of healing and transformation
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Back in 1974 I was working in a huge home run by the Daughters of Charity for the severely disabled. A beautiful little blonde-haired girl came into care called Finonula. She was only four years old and she looked like a little angel. She had an IQ of 45 and suffered from epilepsy. The poor little girl would go into convulsions up to 20 or 30 times a day. It broke my heart and I spoke to Sr Briege McKenna about her and asked her to come and pray for her. She said she would pray, but that I should lay hands on her myself and pray for her healing, as the Lord had given me such a concern for her. So every night I would take her into my arms and pray for her. I became friendly with the mother too. She was very anxious about her daughter’s disability but through sharing with her and praying with her, the mother became interested in Charismatic Renewal and I think was able to really trust God about her daughter’s future. Gradually Finonula’s convulsions ceased and amazingly her IQ went up from the 40’s to 68, which meant that our centre was no longer suitable for her and she needed something more appropriate for her development. I lost touch with her, but heard that she was doing really well. Her epilepsy completely ceased and she learnt to play the guitar. A couple of years ago, I ran into her mother in town. The family had always worried about her future and had prepared themselves to look after her full time, but she told me that in fact Finonula was going off to stay with her sister for while to help her with the new baby she was having. The last thing I heard, only recently, was that Finonula was married with three lovely children. I was delighted. When you pray for someone you never know what God’s going to do.
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