and the lame shall walk

So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor."

I just wanted to share with you a testimony of one of our carpenters, Josh. He and I were talking yesterday before my interview and I asked him a few questions about his job and how he got here... And he shared with me his testimony...

Josh grew up around here and then moved to Florida as a teenager. He went to Liberty University in Virginia and moved up to Massachusetts as a commercial fisherman. On a visit to the northwest with his mother (on his way to Alaska), they were in a head on car collision. Josh's mother was put in a nursing home and has been there since and Josh was pronounced paralized from the waste down. He moved around in a wheel chair and got into doing drugs - due to all the pain. While in the Tacoma area, an old friend from back in high school, invited Josh to Newsong (our church). He didn't attend for about 6 months, feeling uncomfortable in the wheel chair and out of place. Finally he went and the moment he rolled into church he felt the Lord telling him he would be healed and restored and would be a testimony to himself and the church. During the service, Josh laid on the floor, crying out to the Lord knowing he needed prayer. So after the service he received prayer from a team of people... It was only two days later and Josh noticed his pinky toe was moving! Unbeleivable. The doctors all said, he may be able to walk again, but not for 4 or 5 years and always with arm crutches. Well the days went by and slowly he regained more sensation in his toes and feet. In fact his sciatic which was once dead had "risen from the dead" and his compacted leg with lots of rods was healed. Within two months he was off of normal crutches and walking - fully healed! Not only was he able to walk, the Lord restored his passion for singing and ability to sing and play guitar. The accident left Josh unable to read or sing or read music. And over the past four years he has regained those abilities. Further, Aaron - the worship leader for Newsong - heard from the Lord to ask Josh to sing. Aaron had never heard Josh sing before and when Josh began he couldn't sing. But it is all coming back to him now - and he leads worship today! Oh another thing! He ended up marrying that girl who brought him to church that day - now they have a three month old girl, Grace... Can I get an AMEN?

And yes, I have heard this guy sing - just while working on our house. The home in which I live is evidence of a miracle! Josh is such an amazing carpenter and has been fully healed and freed -