A personal testimony of hope and healing

In 2022 I was faced with a challenge – I realised that if I didn’t do something drastic, my already challenged mobility would deteriorate and I would be back in a wheel chair soon. So I started training – I motivated myself by telling myself that I would get my Open Water Scuba Diving certification before the end of 2022. (I buried my dream to dive when I was paralysed by Guillain Barré Syndrome – a viral infection of my nervous system – on 24 December 2002).

In 2022 I put everything aside and focussed only on fitness and strength. I lost weight. The idea of passing the SCUBA course seemed daunting, but on 22 December 2022 I was certified as a SSI Open Water SCUBA Diver! My husband, Sasha, insisted that we go to Mauritius, so that I could do it in warm water. I tell you this, because when the Lord’s Glory was revealed to me in November 2024, it started on Blue Bay beach in Mauritius.

Since 2022 I returned to Mahebourg, an old fishing village in the south east of Mauritius, several times. My dive stays kept me there in a rented flat and diving with my grocery money for three months at a time. I got my Padi Advanced Open Water SCUBA Diver Certification and was hoping to get into Coral conservation and restoration. I was diving as an assisted diver – I could not stand in full gear or get in and out of the boat or water by myself.

You see – I was paralysed from below my lungs downward in 2002. I was discharged in a wheel chair, learnt to walk again but a left sided weakness and a very weak left leg and balance issues was the mobility issues that I lived with since. My lack of mobility and other health issues forced me over a period of a couple of years to make extensive lifestyle changes. I was an attorney practising in the specialised field of Personal Injury matters! (You do realise that God has a better sense of humour than mine!) I had to let go of dreams, my career and lifestyle. I ended up leaving my hip and happening sea view flat in Blouberg, Cape Town, South Africa and moved to Robertson, 2 hour’s drive inland, to be able to continue to work and earn a living.

So, I was leaving Robertson to spend three months at a time on a tropical island, living in Mahebourg on a strained budget, exploring underwater as well as socialising in French and testifying to all who asked about my walking stick – that my life was a miracle. I should have been dead. I could have still been in a wheelchair, but hey – look at me! I was walking the streets and at 30m under water I turned into a mermaid!

In October 2024, shortly after my arrival, I developed a severe nerve pain in my weak left leg. So debilitating that I walked with great difficulty using my walking stick on my left side and being assisted on my right. It took 2 people to assist me in and out of the dive boat. I continued diving – underwater is my happy-safe zone (where everything cries HOLY and I was normal once the weightlessness of my underwater sanctuary kicked in). I bought a small electric scooter to get around, as I could not walk as before (top speed 32km/h)!

It is important to mention here that although 2022/2023 were physically more active years than I’ve had in 22 years, what happened in November 2024 was not in any way a result of my effort during the mentioned period. Let me explain – When I returned from Mahebourg in May 2024, I had an emotional meltdown. I was stuck indoors in the coldest winter I have ever experienced, not exercising, self-soothing with food (mostly cheese cake from our local bakery) and sitting in front of the fire drinking red wine. Have you ever reached a place in yourself where you refuse to continue being the YOU, you’ve been. Where you realise that if you do not figure out how to change the way you think and react – your life would become too painful to live? Anyone been there?

I started seeing a therapist weekly and spent the whole winter at my desk reading books on emotional healing and trauma recovery. I also started reading books on spiritual healing – Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge being the most life changing book I’ve ever read. It is a good place to be – so very much at the end of yourself that you know that no plan you formulate could change the way you feel or where your life is heading. So finally I was ready to experience a more intimate connection with my Lord Jesus Christ and that was the X-Factor in what happened physically in November 2024.

By the time I returned to Mahebourg, flying wheel chair assisted, as usual (as I could not stand in the lines at passport control) and I walked into my usual flat, where the housekeeping staff was family by now – I weighed 8kgs more and was more unfit than I’ve ever been in Mauritius. Then the pain started and my mobility deteriorated further – as mentioned before.

On 17 November 2024 – I was at my English speaking church, Redeemer South, in Blue Bay. After the service I decided to go for a swim, to gain strength to brave getting into the bus for my trip back to Mahebourg. I was in so much pain that I could barely walk. As I approached the trees lining the beach, I heard someone preaching over a mike. It was in French, but slow enough for me to follow. As I got closer the presence of the Holy Spirit became tangible and I realised that I had to stay there. I needed His presence more than most days.

 Someone put a plastic chair behind me so that I could get off my feet. I had walked into a baptismal service of a church located two bus rides away. As the sermon ended a group of ladies approached me to welcome me. I was chattering about my miracle – walking with my stick after my initial paralysis – and telling them of my husband’s arrival in a week’s time. They asked if they could pray for me.

Now I have to explain my state of mind at the time (Sorry – I have a legal brain). When I was in ICU on 24 December 2002, before the final diagnosis of GBS, but paralysed, Pastor Francois Engelbrecht came to pray for my healing. Just after his prayer, I could move my right big toe 1 cm, perhaps less. The paralysis did not proceed to my lungs and heart and I was soon moved out of ICU. I was discharged in a wheelchair a month later and had to learn to walk again and have been mobilising with a walking stick since then.

That day in ICU I believed that I was healed. Completely healed – as the Lord does not do work only halfway. However, I also believed that the full physical manifestation of this healing would show in His time and for His purpose. I never went forward when there were altar calls for prayer, as I believed I was already healed. I did not realise I would wait 22 years though for it to show. I continued living as best I could, less patient at times and developing further challenges as time passed. But I did not lose my faith as God gave me two anchors to keep me in His “harbour” and His grace – which I was sometimes less aware of as I battled storms.

God loves us – as wonderfully imperfect as we are. Notwithstanding the times we choose crazy stuff or act impulsively or say the wrong things. He loves us just as we are and meets us right where we’re at. Sometimes He meets us in the midst of a personal cyclone!

“God gives us a promise when we need to be sustained by it,

Encouraged by it or cling to it like a life-preserver in a stormy sea.”

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

1. Three years and six months before my paralysis, on 12/06/1999 – (bear with me, this is relevant as it shows my state of mind during the 22 years of mobility struggles and also on 17 November 2024)  while praying during a private Bible study on Habakkuk 3:17-18 and asking God how I was supposed to understand this scripture in the light of 1 John 5:15, God spoke to me audibly in Afrikaans, my mother tongue, saying:

“Dit beteken nie die vyeboom het nooit gebot nie.

Dit beteken nie die beeskrale was altyd leeg nie”

(It does not mean that the fig tree never blossomed.

It does not mean that the cattle stalls were always empty)

He spoke to me in this way because of who I was at the time, knowing I would not hear Him in a different way and knowing my journey through the next 25+ years. He knew I needed to hear His voice or I would lose my faith.

2. During December 2002, while recovering from Guillain-Barré Syndrome in Hospital, I was given Isaiah 40:10 and it resonated with me ever since. I have it engraved on my bangle and you should be mobility challenged to understand “UPHOLD” the way I did and do.

“Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will UPHOLD you with my

righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 40:10

Let’s go back to the beach – On the morning of 17 November 2024, while the ladies prayed for my healing I was in a new frame of mind. I did not approach them for prayer, they came to me. I was in debilitating pain and desperate for relief. So while they laid hands on me and prayed, I started speaking to God, weeping:

“Oh Lord, I am in so much pain! I know that my walking stick opens doors for me to testify of Your miracles in my life. If that is Your plan for me, I will continue to walk with it and testify. BUT if it is at all possible that my healing manifesting now, can fall into Your purpose and plan for these women praying for me, for this church and for this community that I have come to love so very much – then I am ready to receive my healing now. I know You have already healed me and I know You can have it manifest now, as You can do anything. If You decide to heal me now, I give you my eyes, ears, mouth, brain, hands and feet. I give You my all. I will go where you send me and speak where You want me to and write what you want me to. Please Lord. Please Lord! But If You need me to continue walking with my stick, it’s ok.”

After the prayer, Mila said to me that the Lord wants me to walk on two legs, not three. Laughingly she exclaimed that when my husband arrived in a week, he would see me – on two legs!

The rest of the day was filled with an invite to lunch with the congregation under the trees. I went for my swim, while Brigitte helped me in and out of the water – and I did feel better. The pain was less. I could join in a hat game that is played while seated and passing on a hat – similar to musical chairs. Great fun! I asked the ladies to write their names and numbers in a little note book that I carry with me. They also wrote the details of the pastor.

I’m afraid I need to back track a little again – (to show my state of mind at the time). A month earlier, my husband finished a painting that he called Sun Ring. It includes a girl with one leg covered in a floral stocking and holding a golden hula hoop. I posted it on his Facebook Art page while in Mahebourg. Not long after my Sun Ring posting, I was on google looking for the scripture about Hagar and the God who sees. I found a song on YouTube called: The God who sees – performed by Nicole Mullen. She sings …

“But God says:

 I will be a ring of fire around her

And I will be the glory in her midst

And the power of my presence

Will bring her to her knees

And I will lift her up again

For I’m the God who sees

I’m the God who sees”

 The lyrics resonated with me and the melody – sad, emotional and uplifting – grabbed me. The morning of 17 November 2024, while in Redeemer South Church, I was reminded of the lyrics in a way that the Lord could use for someone else.

That evening, back in my flat, after my eventful day on the beach, I opened my little note book to add the ladies to my cell and connect with them. And there it was. The pastor of the church on the beach was Pastor Jerome Curpen of WALL OF FIRE CHURCH … I googled “wall of fire” and Zechariah 2:5 came up.

“For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst”

Need I say more? I was happy to join them again the next day.

On the morning of 18 November 2024 I was escorted, by brother Sylvio to church (he was the one who put the chair behind me, so that I could sit down during the beach service and also escourted me safely to my flat as he stayed close by). We travelled two bus rides away from Mahebourg, to attend the Wall of Fire church in the town Eau-Coulée. (By the way “Eau Coulée” is French for “Flowing Water”!) Sylvio had his hands full, getting me in and out of the busses. We made it in good time and all my new friends were surprised to welcome me back. As the sermon started Pastor Jerome welcomed me and invited me to tell them why I joined them on the Baptismal Sunday.

In retrospect this pointer to my state of mind that morning is hilarious. The invite was unexpected and my French isn’t great, so after mentioning that I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit so strongly that I just had to stop, I continued. Yes, I told THEM – ME telling THEM ! – that they knew the name of Jesus is alive, that God was right there with us and could do the impossible and wanted to do something for … you, you and you (me pointing). Little did I know what God had planned for ME!

My prayer Lady, Mila – whose shoulder was drenched by my tears and who proclaimed that I would walk on two legs, not three – came to me after the sermon by the visiting Pastor Casimir Gaïtan, from the Island of Roderigues. She took my hand and asked me to escort her to the front of the church for more prayer. I knew that God was in control and I needed to allow Him to do what He wanted to do and in a way I may not have expected. I don’t have a history of going forward like that and I had difficulty understanding Pastor Casimir’s French, but I did not want to offend anyone, so I went forward with Mila and received more prayer. A festive lunch followed where I had the opportunity to share more about myself with Pastor Jerome and the others. I started to feel a sense of family and loved the interaction in my terrible French – which seemed to be non-existent and left me quite lost when I became tired. Usually at midday!

The next morning, as I got off my scooter at Preskil, to visit my dive centre, I realised something had changed. I was pain free and I felt a difference in my hips and spine. My balance felt good. I decided not to take my walking stick from my backpack when I walked to the dive centre. From that moment onwards – I proclaimed that I received prayer and that I was healed and did not need my stick anymore. It was not that simple though.

Although I begged for it and received prayer and knew it was absolutely possible to be completely healed – it did have the physical side of literally stepping into it, giving steps over sand, downhill, uphill, walking 2 km’s the very next day. Proclaiming my healing to my Bible study group in Blue Bay, while knowing that I had my first staircase to climb right there! I told everyone at the dive centre of my healing, knowing the proof would be on my next dive, as I would have to step into the boat with everyone watching! The glory of God was at stake – did He or did He not have a miracle healing manifest in my life? How much would I trust Him? The audience was waiting and I was scared!

In the following week I was to experience a life changing miracle. I noted down a time line of events and what I was praying, thinking, discussing with God and the physical changes that was so surreal that I had a hard time coming to terms with what was happening – my rational investigative, legal mind tried to play it down. Telling myself that it was wishful thinking and that I was imagining things.

 However, as the week progressed I started noting down movements I was able to make that were impossible since 2002. I had friends make videos of me walking without my walking stick, pain free and climbing stairs. I was watching and re-watching these – noticing that my walking gait was normal and that it correlated with the sense of a different alignment in my back and pelvic area.  I was very aware of a new sense of balance. That I didn’t have to concentrate on each step I took. I could walk and talk on my cell or walk and look at the view.

I started sharing video footage on social media – speechless but talking! I returned to my new found family in Christ, Wall of Fire Church, to testify about the changes, arriving on two legs, not three. I was at the receiving end of a miracle healing! I could not keep quiet. More than two decades of sadness, frustration, hardships, exhaustion, anger and perseverance in faith was released in my surreal tearful testimony. Was it me, testifying in French and drying my nose and eyes on my scarf? Was it real or would I fall down and break a leg again? Or would I wake up soon?

After my testimony Pastor Jerome Curpen, of the Wall of Fire Church, anointed my knees, hips, spine, neck and head with oil, while Mila was praying with him. It is quite impossible to describe what I was feeling at the time. I was told that Pastor Casimir said that something “big” was going to happen in this church before yearend and it seemed that my new family in Christ thought that my healing was that “big thing”. The impact it made on us all was momentous – THE GLORY OF GOD WAS IN OUR MIDST!

 “Where fear and faith meets, miracles happen.” – I read that somewhere. Amen Amen Amen! (I never used to say Amen more than once, but since the celebration of my transformation, one “Amen” does not seem to express the glory of “it being so” sufficiently.) The week of my transformation was one where my fear and faith met many moments in each hour of the day. It felt like walking on water!

My history of broken bones and other injuries as a result of loss of balance or my weak left leg disappearing under me, without any warning, was very real and so was my fear of falling. How far was I going to take this new found sense of balance, this new mobility? How far would I push it, push myself in trusting God? Did I truly believe that God could let the impossible manifest? Did He?

I will not go into this thought process in detail now, but suffice it to say that where fear and faith meet and action is taken, the impossible happens – because the Glory of God Almighty is in our midst.

My husband was in awe and I flew home unassisted. Walking the airport and standing in the passport control lines, trusting for more proof of His greatness. I still do every day – and you do realise that this is not about me. It’s not about me receiving healing. It’s got nothing to do with me. It’s all about God showing His Glory in our midst – in His time and for His purpose.

Usually we don’t recognise Him, or notice the anchors He gives us, or trust Him for the impossible. At the risk of being repetitive – The Glory of GOD ALLMIGHTY is in our midst! Do you recognise His power and do you trust Him?

“I love you Lord, for your mercy never fails me

All my days I’ve been held in your hand

From the moment that wake up

Until I lay my head

O, I will sing of the goodness of God

‘Cause all my life you have been faithful

And all my life, You have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

Oh, I will sing of the

Goodness of God!”

Jenn Johnson & Bethel Music

~*~

To God the Glory – Amen

Lynette Gerber-Lochenkov

March 2025