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Marco saw two incredible things within the span of three months. One was absolutely horrible. The other was completely miraculous.

The horrible thing happened as Marco was riding his bicycle home from a day of teaching. Up ahead, he saw another bicycling teacher peddle into an intersection — only to be hit by an oncoming pickup truck. The impact threw the teacher into the air before collapsing him onto the pavement. The pickup truck never stopped. The teacher wasn’t moving.

Marco ran to the injured man’s side. It was Iván, a third grade teacher at Marco’s school. As Iván recovered from the shock of the collision, he screamed out in pain. Marco quickly called for an ambulance. At the hospital, the prognosis was grim. Iván had three broken ribs; his stomach, kidneys and lungs had suffered internal injuries; and his back was broken in three places. Iván was paralyzed. After a week of tests in the intensive care unit, the doctors confirmed that Iván would be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life — a life that wouldn’t last much longer — and they sent him home.

Iván couldn’t get up to move. He couldn’t eat on his own. He couldn’t even lift his finger. But he could talk. So Marco brought friends to visit Iván on a regular basis. They were all workers with Every Home for Christ, and they prayed for God to touch Iván’s body and heal him. Though Iván wasn’t a believer, he was touched by the love shown to him by our workers. Sometimes, even his own family didn’t visit him, but these strangers who loved the Lord did. They told him about the Gospel, and they prayed for him. Though Iván didn’t believe in these prayers himself, they always helped him feel a little better. One night, three months after the accident, our EHC brothers and sisters filled Iván’s home for a special time of prayer.

They prayed with great fervour, and as they prayed, Iván began to feel something. He felt God touch his head and then the touch flowed through him to his ribs, his stomach, his kidneys, his lungs and his spine. Iván felt so good and overwhelmed with peace that he fell into a deep sleep.

Hours later, Iván awoke and remembered our workers’ prayer. To his amazement, he was able to move his finger. Then he moved his hand, his arms and his legs. He sat up and removed the medical equipment attached to him. He felt completely normal. Iván stood and walked into the kitchen to find his mother, who was caring for him.
Amazed, she rushed into his arms, crying with joy. Then she made Iván a big plate of food. He was hungry.

When Iván returned to the hospital, the doctors were astonished. They ran tests, and though Iván’s medical records showed that he had only a few months left to live, the doctors declared his body completely healed. They couldn’t explain it — but Iván knew that God had healed him.
Iván went to our workers to thank them for their consistent prayers and visits, and he gave his life to Jesus. Afterward, he finally married his son’s mother. He also went back to work and joined a local church. Today, Iván leads a Christ Group in an indigenous community, where he helps others to encounter this God who sent people to love him, who healed him and who saved him from his sins.

“I am a very happy man,” Iván says. “And I have committed to evangelise home to home with Every Home for Christ Nicaragua. We need to fulfill the Great Commission.” Iván went from a man teetering on the verge of death to a pioneer missionary sharing the God of life. And it’s all because a group of EHC workers chose to befriend a stranger, pray for him in his time of need and love him with the extreme love of Jesus.