“Well, in our church, God has been performing wonderful miracles of healing,” the saintly woman continued.

“You don’t say,” Stan interjected skeptically, as thoughts of opportunistic, money-grubbing, so-called “faith healers” flitted across his mind.

Mary didn’t seem to notice Stan’s cynicism, but instead kept right on extolling the virtues of the church. “Oh, yes, but it’s not what you might think, “ the woman replied, unwittingly pulling the rug out from under Stan’s skeptical attitude. “We don’t have any big-name preachers coming to the church for special healing services—although I’ve heard of some people who have been healed at those kinds of services.”

“No professional faith healers?” Stan asked.

The woman smiled. “No, not in our church. As a matter of fact, our pastor warned us that nobody should attempt to take credit for what God is doing. The healings have been taking place quite naturally, or should I say supernaturally?” Mary winked at Stan.

“It’s just been ordinary people like you and me, praying for people who need a touch from God. Like those folks over there.” Mary nodded toward a group of about ten or twelve people at the front of the main sanctuary, and Stan and Christine followed her gaze. It looked as though the people were praying together quietly.

“We believe that we are seeing a time of supernatural healing being restored to the church,” Mary explained. “It’s simply been mothers and fathers praying for their children and grandchildren, neighbors praying for neighbors. We pray for each other so often, nobody notices who is praying for whom; we just see the results as God answers prayer.”

“Do you mean that people actually feel better after somebody prays for them?” Stan probed.

“Oh, they don’t just feel better. They are better! We’ve had folks who have been healed of cancer, heart disease, kidney failure; one fellow was even healed of AIDS. Take Melody, there,” Mary said as she motioned toward an approaching young woman.

Stan guessed to be in her late thirties. “Melody was diagnosed with an incurable case of colitis. The doctors said she’d have to live with it. Well, as you can see, she is living quite well, but she no longer has the colitis, do you, Melody?” The young woman hugged Mary as she passed by and said, “No, I don’t, Mary, and the doctors have been baffled.”

“God is doing remarkable things,” Mary continued, “and it seems that He is willing to do even more, as long as we don’t try to rob the glory that belongs only to Him. The more difficult things have gotten in the world, the more we are seeing God work wonders, supernaturally.” Mary guided her guests out of the sanctuary and toward a wide, long corridor, as she spoke.

“Hmm, I’ll bet people are pushing and shoving, trying to be first in line to get healed, huh?” asked Stan.

“Not exactly, as a matter of fact, it seems that the people in our church have a renewed love and concern for each other. It didn’t happen overnight. When all the natural disasters started—you don’t need me to tell you how terrified everyone was over those news reports that an asteroid was soon to collide with earth—we were suddenly thrust together, and many of us were forced by our circumstances to live in close proximity to each other. At first, some people were constantly getting into arguments over who gets how much food, and who gets to stay at the church, and all sorts of other things. We just weren’t really accustomed to functioning the way the body of Christ is described in the New Testament. I’m embarrassed to tell you this …”—the woman looked sheepishly at the floor—“but we had never done it before.”

“Done what?” Christine asked.

“We had never actually lived as a Christian community. We attended church services, and most of us were quite content with that—until the time of real tribulation began.”

“Are you saying that for all these years your congregation wasn’t really a church?” Stan asked in amazement, surprised at the woman’s candor.

“I’m afraid that’s so,” Mary replied. “But please don’t be too hard on us. We honestly thought that we were doing God’s work.” She motioned toward the classrooms on each side of the corridor as they walked. “And many people were helped by the church. We weren’t a bunch of pagans or anything like that. We just had never truly considered how a genuine New Testament church should function. We had never had to take care of one another before. Oh, sure, we always had our benevolent funds to help people whose homes had burned down or had been damaged in a storm. We helped lots of people who suffered with some debilitating disease that had hospitalized them or impaired their ability to take care of themselves. But most of us considered ourselves to be self-sufficient. We didn’t need each other. We didn’t need anybody … or so we thought.