Hi, I am Mike Howe and I would like to share my testimony by taking you through a short journey that has brought me healing and the greater blessing of being closer to God.

I have had problems with my lower back for 30 years. In 2017 I severely injured my back causing excruciating pain in my lower back and right leg. I was unable to function, any movement or position resulted in debilitating pain. I contacted a Neurosurgeon and was able to get an appointment a week later. I was admitted to hospital for an emergency operation. A disc had ruptured in my lower back pinching nerves causing the disability and pain. Iwas informed that if I did not have the operation that the chance of permanent paralysis was imminent. The operation was a partial success. I could walk and function again after a six-week recovery period however the pain in my lower back and leg persisted.

I accepted my fate but as time went by the pain intensified. In the beginning of 2022, I went to see an orthopaedic surgeon. The prognosis was not good. I would have to undergo surgery again. The doctor was not optimistic and gave the operation a 50:50 chance of success. At that stage I was not willing to take the risk of being a paraplegic. In November 2022 the pain had intensified so much that I made an appointment with another neurosurgeon for a second opinion hoping against hope that the odds would be better. I had resigned myself to the situation that I would have to risk the operation and was planning for the hospital stay.

As per habit Francis and attended church on Sunday. On this particular Sunday in November 2022 during worship a call was made for those who needed prayer and healing to step forward and intercessors would pray over them. During the praise and worship, I was transferring my weight from one leg to the other to alleviate the pain and discomfort. I was praying for relief of pain and for the healing of my back. I started to feel a peace and calm wash over me, a warm tingling feeling descended upon me. I had never experienced this before, but I knew from that moment on that I would be healed.

I noticed many people were moving towards the front of the church for prayer. I took a leap of faith and found myself in front of an intercessor. I remember her holding my hands and praying over me for healing. Once again, a calm and total peace came over me. I remember as sense of euphoria and the music fading. After the prayer I returned to my seat still feeling the glow of the holy spirit. A slight discomfort in my back remained, but the intense pain was no more.

The next day my wife enquired how I was feeling, and I could demonstrate to her by touching my toes and stretching that I felt no pain and was more supple than I have ever been in present memory. Since that day I have not felt any pain in my back or leg.

I share this with you in obedience so that you can be witness to the great work and healing God has blessed my life with. God’s miracles are in abundance and very real. I pray that this will encourage you to take a leap of faith.

I have had pain in my right knee for a very long time. I would battle to walk and could not do so for long periods of time. I started to walk with a walking stick to assist when going to work or doing errands.

This morning when the Intercessory Team invited whoever needed prayer up to the front, my son took me forward for prayer specifically for my business and for my knee. After the service I could truly testify that I was able to stretch my knee and leg and lift it like I could not do before for a long time.

So about 18 months ago I was in a very bad mental space. I was very angry at home and at work. I was frustrated and looking for ways out of my situation and had some dark thoughts during that time. The attack on my faith was well and truly underway. I felt that God didn’t have time for me so I didn’t have time for Him. I kept looking for other employment. I applied for probably 100 plus jobs of which I had 0 interviews. This broke me badly. I had a very bad work relationship with my manager up to the point where I was going to physically attack him the next time we had an argument.

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2022 – I was sitting next to Happy Bean before the first service, my Wife was inside the main hall praying as she is an intercessor. I was sitting as far away from people as I could, browsing my Facebook, checking the football scores and latest news updates. This was my routine every Sunday as coming to church was just a formality. The services never really spoke to me but praise and worship almost always made me emotional. While sitting, a random church elder (also an intercessor) and his family came past me and sat at the opposite end of the foyer. He sat for about 2 mins and got up, came up to me and just told me, “Die Here het dit in my hart gele om vir jou te se moet nie moed verloor nie. Glo net in my”. I was speechless but mostly because I didn’t know him at all. After the service I actually forgot about it. A few months later I got baptised. I was sitting in front of my computer one night contemplating how I could change my life. While sitting in thought I had a vision of Santjie baptising me at her house. Although I have known them for almost 15 years it was still a bit of a shock to me as I hadn’t seen them in at least 2 years. At my baptism my Mother also decided that she wants to be baptised – It was an amazing day.

During the last 18 months tithing was a big problem for us as my budget was seriously tight. Just before my baptism, Inare came to me seriously depressed and frustrated at her job.  We both had bad job situations and knowing that she wanted to spend more time with our kids I told her to resign. It was one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make. After moving the kids to a new school and my baptism, Jesselyn came to me and Inare and asked to be baptised in the fountain. This was honestly the best thing ever to happen to me after marrying my Wife and getting baptised. During the baptism class we sat with Oom Arthur in the chapel. We were chatting, discussing baptism and there was another church elder off to the side praying. I didn’t pay him much attention until he came over to interrupt us. I didn’t know him at all. He sat next to me, looked me dead in the eye and said that God gave him a word for me, just me, he said that God told him to just keep the faith in Him, His plans are in motion. I again was speechless. Uncle Arthur said he was the church prophet. That night I told Inare and we decided to put all our needs in His hands. When my salary came in we paid our tithe first, 10% of what we earn – we paid this knowing full well that our budget was around 10k short every month. I cancelled a few policies and unneeded expenses but every month our needs were met. Our tithe went from R500 a month to well over 3k. Without hesitation we paid it faithfully. I still didn’t have much luck with work at that point and again I was starting to spiral down.

One day after a rough day at work I prayed for something to change. Now just a bit of background, I don’t pray as much as I should or even read the bible. We do bible study with the kids now and then if I’m home but as for myself, my time with God is the hour I spend in my bakkie to work and back with my praise and worship. Anyway, so I prayed but this time it felt different somehow. I didn’t know why but I decided to check out the career pages and I applied for 3 or 4 positions and then saw on my emails that an old work colleague is celebrating a 2 year milestone at a different company. I went onto LinkedIn and had a look. Then I googled the company and read up on them. No vacancies but for some reason the info email stood out. This is the email address that you can use to enquire about the info of the company. I decided to send me CV to this email. A shot in the dark. I sent the Email and forgot about it. Two weeks later I get a call while I’m at Toyota getting my then company vehicle serviced – our company had just retrenched 1 third of our department – my phone rings, and me being an intellectual, I wait for Truecaller to tell me who this is. Milton Debono, CEO, looks suspicious but let me answer. I answered, very rudely I might add, and he explained that he was the CEO of the company I had sent my CV to on the info email. I was shocked. He asked if I was in the job market and wanted to see me.

A few weeks later, on a Saturday, he saw me at his office. We sat for 45 minutes discussing my work history and experience and a few other things. It felt positive but for 6 or 7 weeks I didn’t hear anything. One Thursday afternoon just before I stopped at my house he phoned me and told me that he has a job for me if I want it, and that they would send me the offer within 24 hours. I sat there with tears in my eyes, my heart pumping so hard it felt like my chest was gonna burst. I prayed again and thanked God and asked him to show me if this is what He wants. I immediately felt a calm fall over me like never before. That Friday afternoon I received the offer, I showed my Wife and it took me all of 5 minutes to resign at my old job. I worked my notice and finished on the 2nd of January this year (2023) and started my new job the 9th. Even though the first few weeks I was away from home, I spend most weeks at my house now as our clients are in this area. I love my new job, the people are seriously great. The work is great and my salary is almost doubled. We started tithing with almost nothing and until we trusted God fully it started to grow. He has grown our financial situation to such a degree that I no longer worry about it. Also I am getting other job offers now on a weekly basis.