Baby Raised from the Dead

Here is a testimony from Abby, a 14-year-old girl from North Carolina, who was in Guatemala recently on a missionary trip. I thought you might find this interesting and encouraging. . . .

My name is Abby.  I am 14 years old.  I live in western North Carolina.  During the summer of 2008, I went on a ministry trip to Guatemala.  During part of the trip, we divided up into small ministry teams (5 to 7 people) and visited different villages in the San Pedro La Laguna area.  We traveled from village to village telling the Indian people about Jesus.  On one particular day, we were visiting in the home of young woman.  She lived in a small village of about 14 or 15 houses.  We were trying to lead the young lady to Christ, but it was not going very well.  After awhile, we decided to move on.  Before leaving, we asked the woman if we could pray with her about anything in her life.  She told us that just the day before, she had given birth to a stillborn baby and that we could pray with her about that. 

In Guatemalan culture there is great shame and condemnation on mothers who give birth to deformed or stillborn children.  We prayed a simple prayer that everything would go well with the funeral and burial of the baby and that the mother would be spared the shame and condemnation associated with having given birth to a stillborn child.  As we were praying this simple prayer, my friend and fellow ministry team member, Julia (age 17), told me that we needed to pray over the baby's body.  I thought she was crazy to suggest this and that it was not a good idea.  Julia was persistent.  She said again that we really needed to pray over the baby's body.   She told me to ask the mother if she still had the baby's body.  When I asked, the mother told us the baby's body was wrapped up in a burial cloth in the backroom.  I asked her if we could pray over the body.  The mother hesitantly said, yes.  We went into the backroom and saw the baby's body wrapped up in a bundle on the bed.  Julia poked her head out of the back room and asked if she could unwrap the baby's head.  The mother said, yes, if we wrapped it back correctly when we were done.  Julia picked up the body and unwrapped the head.  The baby's head was tiny and pale.  The baby was stillborn and had been dead outside the womb for 27 hours.  Her skin had turned shades of purple.  Our entire ministry team, five of us, began crying and praying over this baby.  We prayed for thirty to forty minutes.  At the end of that time, Julia screamed out to God, telling him that she believed with all of her heart that this baby could be raised from the dead.  After Julia screamed out, everyone was silent.  We were quietly interceding and praying.  Within a few minutes, the baby started moving.  Then the baby coughed and began crying.  The mother came rushing into the room.  She was screaming, what is going?  No one could answer her. We were just staring at the baby, who had come back to life.  The mother asked us again, what is going on?  She began crying as she saw that her baby was alive.  She ran out of the house and banged on every door in the village, telling all of the people that God is real because her baby was alive.  Within about thirty minutes, the baby's skin tone and movements had become completely normal.

The other villagers came to the house to see this amazing miracle.  They asked us which of the Indian gods we had prayed to for such a miracle to happen.  We told them we had prayed to the biggest God ever and we began to explain to them about Jesus.  Soon, we realized we would not have time to minister salvation to each person individually.  So, we gathered all the villagers together, turned on our little sound system and explained the way of salvation.  Everyone in the village, 80 to 90 people, prayed to receive Jesus.  Each of them was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues.  Many would fall to the ground as the power of the Holy Spirit came on them.

Five days later, we returned to the village to check in on the mother and the baby.  The village had prepared a big dinner in honor of our team.  We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship together.  The baby, whom they named Julia, was perfectly healthy and had gained weight.  Even after five days, the mother was still shaking from the impact of God on her life through the resurrection of her child.  Two days after our follow-up visit, the mother brought baby Julia to church.  The mother was still shaking from the power of God on her life following this astounding miracle.

Abby