It was the beginning of a new semester and every campus ministry is going all out to make sure students get plugged in. Since meeting rooms on campus couldn’t be scheduled until classes began, Immersion Church needed a meeting space that was close to campus. Our friend, a local television personality, offered his television studio for the first couple of Sundays. This was a huge blessing – one we will never forget. Our friend unlocked the studio for us early one Sunday morning. As we were setting up the sound equipment, he began to tell me that he hurt his leg in a skateboarding accident. When I first met our friend, he was showing me photos of himself skateboarding. In person, he always looked very professional. In the photos, he was wearing a helmet, shorts and knee pads. It didn’t seem feasible and I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg. It wasn’t until later, I saw a video featuring him skateboarding. Mind blown. Now, his leg was injured and he expressed his fear that he may never be able to skateboard again.
I asked if I could pray for his leg to be healed. We prayed and continued setting up the sound equipment. This meeting, along with the others held in the studio, were phenomenal. Our friend Staci ministered one Sunday and, at the end of another, a student was born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The following week, he unlocked the studio and began telling me that he skateboarded that week and pulled some big tricks. “It’s really kind of a miracle,” I remember him saying. His leg was healed! Sometimes, we can blame the pain on our fun. But Jesus wants us to have fun and do things we enjoy. We don’t have to earn the healing, strive for the healing, or beg and plead. There’s so much more we want to do to pay our friend back for his kindness in helping us launch another year of ministry at Appalachian State. I believe one day we will. Generosity like he had shown us is rare and made a lasting impression. Had he not opened his studio for our use, I may not have had the chance to pray for his leg and maybe skateboarding would have become a thing of the past – nothing more than a fond memory. But God…
Jonathan Fawcett
