For four years, Marie Cribbs’ life was filled with pain. Wheelchair-bound as a result of complications from diabetes, two bouts of breast cancer and psoriatic arthritis, she couldn’t lift her arms or legs and dealt with extreme pain every day.
“She had chemotherapy and whenever the chemo left her system, her arthritis came back in a fury and left every one of her joints inflamed,” explains her husband, Bill, who served as her caregiver during this time. “It made it very hard for her to move, and, because of that, her whole body degenerated, and it was impossible for her to walk.”
That all changed in May when Marie, who had been unable to attend church regularly due to her condition, made a decision to go to a service at Magnolia Church in Port Neches, Texas, where Paul Ai was speaking.
“I’m going to go,” she told Bill. “I feel like something is going to happen.”
Ai, founder of Vision Outreach International, is known as “the Apostle Paul of Vietnam.” A former witch doctor, he came to Christ during the Vietnam War and spent 10 years in communist prisons for his faith. He now plants churches in South Asia from a base in Cambodia.
After a two-hour message on prayer, Ai called up anyone who needed prayer and healing. When Bill rolled Marie past Ai and his wife, Ruth, Marie felt “an intense burning” in her back. The couple then began to pray over her.
“Pastor Paul commanded all my cells and my legs to align with the Holy Spirit,” Marie recalls. “Then Ruth extended her hand to me,” beckoning her to stand up.
“Immediately, I stood up and started walking!” she says.
The Cribbs’ daughter, Lolly, says her mother is “back to walking and jumping and running as if she was a teenager.”
“Now, by the grace of God, I am healed. I will be a walking witness the rest of my life,” Marie says.
Bill says he’s noticed other changes in his wife as well. “She used to wake up in the morning with pain in her face and her brow furrowed. Every night she’s had a visitation by the Holy Spirit in her sleep. She wakes up, and her face is glowing.” —Gina Meeks
