Vicksburg, Miss., USA

When former executive director Dr. Peter Boelens spoke at a meeting of Luke Society ministry directors last year, he told them, "I didn't retire. I was promoted. I'm like you now in that I'm developing a local ministry."

Indeed, Peter and his wife, Eleanor, started the Luke Society's newest domestic ministry in Vicksburg, Miss., after stepping down as executive director. As Shalom Ministry has taken shape, the couple has spent an increasing amount of time focusing on healing prayer.

"We've seen God move in many awesome ways through His people in countries around the world," Peter said. "What we weren't prepared for, however, was that He would act in the same ways here in the United States."

But as they've spent time talking and praying with individuals about their spiritual, emotional and physical hurts, they've seen God bring healing in wondrous ways.

"An important part of healing prayer," said Eleanor, "often takes place when untold secrets are revealed in a loving, non-judgmental atmosphere. Our prayers lead them into the presence of Jesus who does the healing."

When George came to Shalom for a session of healing prayer, he didn't think that issues from his childhood were particularly relevant to his spiritual walk.

"The most beneficial thing about the healing prayer," he said, "is it allows me to say things that I've wanted to say but didn't. ... Nicely and politely they would force me to talk about issues, mainly from my childhood, that I can now see are the problem."

Peter and Eleanor would pray on a specific issue until George was comfortable to move on. George said that in his private prayers, he would never have been able to pray for someone he hated but was able to do so after verbalizing issues he had buried.

For Becky , the concept of prayer was fine, but she had trouble praying for healing. In 1993, after seeing eight doctors in two years about abdominal pain and swelling, fever, and exhaustion, she was diagnosed with endometriosis and chronic fatigue syndrome. Since then she's had three surgeries and is currently on 11 medications. She and her husband calculated that half their income in the last year has gone toward medicines not covered by insurance because her illness is classified as a pre-existing condition.

For the first three or four years, Becky prayed very specifically for healing. When God didn't answer, she began praying for strength instead, assuming that God didn't want her healed.

"When I heard about the healing prayer ministry," she said, "I was tired and in pain. I thought, 'Prayer is a great thing, but it's not going to make me better. There is no cure, and I don't think that God wants me healed.'"

Becky is a registered nurse, specializing in hospice care. She had an especially hard time thinking about healing prayer after seeing many patients, some of them very godly individuals, pray for healing only to watch God let them die. But despite all of her doubts she has begun to experience healing in her own life.

"The first time that I had healing prayer, the Boelenses prayed for me, and within 20 or 30 minutes, all of my abdominal pain was gone. I can't describe it. It slowly went away, and it stayed away for about two hours. That doesn't sound like a big deal, probably, to most people, but for me, being in pain every minute of every day, that was huge."

She's gone back to pray with Peter and Eleanor several times since then, and her situation has greatly improved. Just being encouraged to pray for healing has given her a new hope. They also encouraged her to take more time to rest and to spend more time reading the Bible. She talks about the verses intertwining faith and healing throughout Scripture and the difference in her life.

"I have no pain other than about four or five hours each day," she said. "Yes, I still have pain, but for me that healing is the most incredible gift I could imagine."

One of the most dramatic changes Peter and Eleanor have seen is in the life of Sabrina, who carried deep emotional scars of abuse. Abandoned by her biological mother, Sabrina went through h a number of foster homes before being adopted at the age of 10. Her dream of having a mother was quickly shattered when she discovered that her adoptive mother was physically and verbally abusive. She was molested for the first time before she was four, and has been molested and raped several times since. Now a married woman, she came to Shalom scared, angry, nervous and sick.

"I wish people could see the inside of me," she testified five months after 10 one-and-a-half hour prayer sessions. "It's like a cleanness. There used to be a frightened little girl inside, scared and full of fear. I'm just a completely different person. I'm free. I'm healed, and I'm happy."

She had been convinced by society that her existence was a mistake, but at Shalom she came to realize that even though she had been angry at God all her life, He had never left her, and that He loves her.

"It was hardest to forgive my biological and adoptive mothers," Sabrina said. "I had a lot of anger. When we prayed forgiveness for them, and then I forgave myself for not liking them, there was this relief that came over me. It was like a weight lifted straight out of my gut, and then this overflowing compassion to be able to pray blessings on them from the heart -- pray actual blessings upon people I had hated."

"The most important thing about these prayer sessions," she said, "I don't know if everybody needs it, but I know everybody needs the peace that I've received. Everybody needs this closeness with God. Everybody needs this cleansing."

If you would like to learn more about this ministry, an informational video on healing prayer is available by writing or calling Dr. Peter Boelens at 1121 Grove St., Vicksburg, MS 39180, 601-636-9121.