My First Miracle

By Chuck Delgado, as told to Nyx Martinez

When I first met a couple of volunteers from the Family International some years ago, I invited them into my home when they needed a place to stay, and I let them conduct Bible studies in my living room. I didn’t immediately grasp everything they told me about Jesus, however. I read the inspirational materials they gave me, but I remained skeptical and somewhat distant.

Then something happened that changed all that.

One morning while out for my daily jog, I doubled over from a stabbing pain in my back, which had begun a week before. The pain did not subside, but rather intensified. That night I developed a high fever. I went to the hospital for an examination and explained my symptoms—blood in my urine, pain, fever. The preliminary diagnosis was a serious case of kidney stones. More tests were done, and I was told to come back the next day for the results.

Sick in both body and spirit, I went home to rest. There I told the visiting volunteers about my suffering. They offered to pray with me, but I stubbornly told them, “No, I don’t think I have enough faith.”

They just smiled and said, “Okay, we’ll pray for that, too!”

And so they did. They prayed for my quick and complete recovery from what was ailing me, and for me to be cured from unbelief. They read Scriptures on healing and claimed them as though they were promises God had made directly and specifically to me.

At the end of the day, I found myself reading those verses over and over, and slowly I began to feel at peace. Something new, a tiny seed of faith, was taking root in my heart.

The next morning I felt much better, so I went first to work at my office, and then to the hospital for more tests. The doctor was clearly confused as he kept rereading the test results. Finally he handed them to me and tried to explain what I already knew—the X-ray showed nothing! Even the urine test (I had seen the red discoloration myself in the initial tests) was negative. I was healed!

The second set of tests was almost like a different patient’s examination records, the doctor said. But I knew what had taken place. It could only be called a miracle. I had been jogging for a week with that pain in my back and now it too was gone.

The pain was gone, all the symptoms of kidney stones were gone, and they were replaced with faith. That evening when I read the Bible with Family members, I read it in a different light. It was no longer merely a source of intellectual stimulation but, as Jesus said, it was “spirit and life” (John 6:63). The words that had saved my life led me into a wonderful new one. 

Chuck Delgado and Nyx Martinez are members of the Family International in the Philippines.