The Ticket Agent

This story was written in 2012, during our trip to Australia to teach on healing.

As I sat at the gate, waiting to board, I carefully wound the elastic bandage around my lower leg, starting just above the toes, working my way toward the knee. Having suffered swollen feet from the 15-hour flight to Brisbane two weeks earlier, we stopped at a pharmacy and picked up a few elastic bandages. Just before boarding, we wrapped our feet and lower legs figuring it might prevent swelling on the return flight.

My wife and I chatted on the plane, reflecting back on the miracles God had done, and marveled at how He’d connected us to so many wonderful people in a just two weeks.

We arrived in LA and had almost 6 hours to catch our connecting flight to Phoenix. We negotiated the maze going from one building to another in search of our gate. On the way, we stopped to talk with a ticketing agent. I chose her because she was wearing an immobilizer on her forearm. Oddly enough, she was strategically positioned where I could talk with her for a few minutes and lay hands on her.

“Hi there. Can I ask you a question?”

“You certainly may!”

“What happened to your arm?”

I knew this would be an unexpected question for her. She’s an agent at one of the busiest airports in the world. She expects strangers to ask about arrivals, departures and gate locations. She blushed and began laughing when I hit her with the unexpected question.

She said she had a shoulder injury. She didn’t say why she had an immobilizer on her forearm and I didn’t ask. I knew she’d need to help more customers and I only had a few minutes, so I asked if she wanted to be healed. She asked what I had in mind. I told her I wanted to pray with her. She was delighted.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and commanded spirits of pain and infirmity to leave then commanded the shoulder and arm to be healed. I asked if she felt anything. She reported a tingling sensation going through her arm. I told her God was healing her.

It was obvious that she knew Jesus. But I told her He loved her and that’s why she was being healed. We asked where we could find our gate and she directed us to it, with a  grateful smile.

This meeting took about three minutes from beginning to end.

In just three minutes, a complete stranger felt the power and love of God touch her.

I’d say it was time well spent.