Marcella is 18 years old. She lives on the outskirts of Kamez, on the road where the Flowers of Life Kindergarten and the Kamez Church of the Nazarene are located in Albania. She frequently participates in the services of the church as she recently accepted Jesus in her life, and part of her family was planning on coming to the District Family Camp August 5 to 10.
But on July 25, she awoke and realized she suddenly couldn’t walk. Her body was paralyzed. She couldn’t move. Her life and immediate plans suddenly changed. The church began praying. The doctors had no explanation as to what was happening. After many analyses, they still do not know why she was paralyzed.
During Family Camp, the 174 people attending the camp prayed and interceded for Marcella. Just four days later, she began to be able to move again. On August 25, just one month after this surprise paralysis, we heard the testimony of a 7-year-old girl during the service in Kamez: “I thank Jesus that he healed Marcella!” When visiting Marcella in her home after the service, we watched her greet us standing on her feet, shaking our hands, lifting her cup to drink with us, and then walking down a set of stairs and to her gate to say goodbye to us as we were leaving. She and her family consider her change a miracle! Her strength is still not 100 percent, but she gives glory, honor, and praise to Jesus for His divine touch on her when doctors still cannot find any explanation as to what happened.
This was not the only miracle during Family Camp! It didn’t take us long to discover that this camp would be different. For the first time, there were actually more non-believers than believers. There were many more young people than usual. But Jesus had great plans. By the end of the week, we lost track of how many people accepted Jesus as their Savior as more people prayed than ever before; and on Friday 20 people were baptized.
Wednesday evening, the Holy Spirit came upon us in a special way. Many people, including many teenagers, were on their knees and faces crying out to God for repentance, for cleansing, for more of Him. This lasted for at least an hour after the official ending of the service. There were several people who actually had left at the end of the service, and then returned and accepted Jesus as their Savior.
On Thursday evening, 67 people signed a covenant before God to be obedient to His call in their lives, and to proclaim His Holy message in whatever way He asks them to proclaim the name of Jesus. On Friday evening, many more came forward to pray that God would fill them with His holy fire and passion, to live for Him and Him alone.
Although there were many more challenges and struggles leading up to camp and during the actual camp this year, we understood by the end why! God had great plans, and the enemy wanted everything he could to stop the plans of God. But on the morning of the first day of camp, the Lord reminded us of His words to Gideon when Midian so impoverished the Israelites, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14). Walking in the strength of the Lord that week, He revealed how powerful He really is! And now Marcella is going in the strength that she has thanks to God’s touch upon her paralyzed body!
