Healing school remains a strong recommendation!
Ans and Albert from the Netherlands came to our last healing school in Belgium. They sent us an email about how they experienced our school:
“We loved coming to the healing school. It built up our faith—not only in terms of healing, but also deepened our relationship with the Father! Especially the first lesson brought us into such an atmosphere of love and acceptance that we enjoyed it for days afterward. You are very hospitable, not just with words but with your whole heart—and in these sessions, with your whole house!
Hugo’s stories about how he ministers healing on behalf of the Father encouraged us greatly and set us into ‘action.’ We’ve become much more bold.
The lesson on the gifts of the Spirit was a refresher for us as well! We all came to faith in a church where people don’t believe in the gifts of the Spirit. We noticed that some remnants of fear toward the works of the Spirit were still being cleared out. Even though we’ve been away from that church for years, there were still things hidden in corners of our hearts.
It’s wonderful that you fully believe in healing. That was a constant encouragement for us, especially since the people around us don’t always share that belief.
The examples that were given continue to speak to us, and when we go back through our notes, we’re once again enthusiastic about the fact that we can pursue the things the Father is pursuing!
For us, it was a well-rounded school. We took action in confessing sins and forgiving people. We’re engaging in proclamation—we were already doing that, but now with more determination! We’re reaching out for restoration in relationships. Through it all, we were encouraged to deepen our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The teaching is definitely not one-sided; it helps us stay balanced!”
When we asked Katrien what she thought of the school, she told us the following:
“The school is very engaging. I liked that it’s spread out over a few months, with each time focusing on specific themes. So if you can’t make it one time, you can still keep up!
For me, it’s enlightening to get to know the Bible this way. I haven’t been a Christian for very long and I also want to be healed of some ailments myself. These testimonies and guidelines are really helpful. I’m also learning to keep at it, even when it doesn’t all seem to be working just yet, and to keep reading the Bible—especially during difficult times.
You’re truly immersed in God’s Word here. I also enjoyed the small group. It’s almost like personal mentoring. The people who teach this are fully dedicated to it, and you can really sense that. I recommend this school to everyone!”
Recovery from severe burnout
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” (2 Cor. 4:5)
I served for over 30 years in various leadership roles in the church of Jesus. Then, due to a series of circumstances, I completely broke down mentally. I unexpectedly and unwillingly fell into a burnout that would drag on for years.
I was relieved of my full-time role as a pastor. I was forced to withdraw from various engagements in Christian Flanders. I didn’t preach anywhere for over a year, even though I had done so for many years across the region. I felt discarded by both God and people. Civil society declared me unfit for work.
After a brief round with the provincial medical board and a couple of surgeries—among others, on my back—I was no longer called in by the occupational doctor. That was it.
It’s hard to explain how completely exhausted I was. It’s hard to describe how even the slightest stressful situation caused me overwhelming anxiety. Just the thought of being in a large group, like at a gathering day, made me feel suffocated. As a result, I could only function on a very low level. Even during family celebrations, I sometimes had to retreat.
A few pastors who still “believed” in me eventually invited me again to, for example, preach on Sundays. I accepted. I didn’t want to be completely cut off from the land of the living. Trying to do something meaningful became like a straw to cling to. I did it under the motto: “We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,” as the apostle Paul wrote. When I came home afterward, I often felt “knocked out,” but still thankful that I had been able to do something.
While going through this drawn-out death experience, a few seeds of life remained deep within me. More than ever, I had to admit that I didn’t understand much of God’s logic. I did everything I could not to lose my faith: it was a life-or-death struggle. Literally cast down, I opened myself again and again to God, whom I know to be love. Now and then, I was able to feel that love, even though I made little mental progress. No one could take those small sparks of hope and joy from me. I knew that a turning point would come in my life after years of this.
I got in touch with a small group of Christians from the Netherlands with whom I met regularly. That gave me courage, but the stress problem and constant exhaustion had become part of my life.
Online, I found information about healing weeks, and that spoke to me. I wanted to learn more about divine healing, and I read Bible verses and excerpts from books about it.
I wanted to attend a healing conference. But the idea of having to sit for long hours to follow intensive programs made my heart sink. I knew I couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t within my mental and physical capacity, even though I longed for it.
Then one day, I got a message. “God’s Embassy” was organizing a shortened version of their healing week. My heart leapt, because maybe that would be something I could survive. Since I was somewhat familiar with several of the team members from “God’s Embassy,” I knew I’d feel safe there. My wife wanted to join me as well, which gave me extra support, but I still hesitated to sign up. I thought: this will still be too heavy, too much.
Then I decided to call the organizer, Hugo. I told him I wanted to come, but that sitting in a chair for hours probably wouldn’t be possible for me. Hugo responded with something like this: “If you feel too tired, you’re welcome to lie down; bring a pillow and a mattress or something similar. While you’re lying down, you’ll still be able to hear the teaching.” I felt welcomed, and together with my wife, I signed up for the shortened healing week from Wednesday, January 21 to Friday, January 23, 2015, at La Foresta in Vaalbeek.
I actually spent some sessions lying down on the carpet of the meeting room, but it helped me absorb the words spoken from God’s Word even better. Once again, I was touched by God’s love, and it was as if He said: “From this day on, I will raise you up.”
Looking back now, almost two years later, I know that attending that conference was a turning point in my life. I can now say that my fatigue problem has largely gone away. I can testify that the Lord has lifted me up mentally and is making me battle-ready again. Not all my health issues are solved, but I live in active hope and expectation.
I am thankful to the Lord, but also to the brothers and sisters of the “God’s Embassy” team, who—together with other Christians—played an important role in this.
I’m motivated to write down this testimony with a purpose: in the hope and prayer that people stuck in a hopeless burnout won’t give up on the love of God. May the Lord bless you.
Ignace, December 26, 2016
What a healing conference can mean
We’ll let Susan from the Netherlands speak for herself:
“This past March, I attended your healing conference in Vaalbeek together with my mother. I just wanted to let you know how I’m doing.
I’m so thankful that I was there with my mother.
God brought us closer together, and the Word of God is now alive in us. He gave us strength,
trust, and we learned what God’s will is. God made me spiritually strong. The Word of God is truth. My body has become stronger so that I can enjoy my family again and share God’s Word with them. The love I’m able to give them makes me so happy!
I can’t describe how thankful I am to now know that God is always with me and with my family.
My loving Father loves us.
I will continue to persevere in my faith and know that healing is God’s will.
I want to ask if you would pray for me and my family.
Thank you for your loving prayer and for your hospitality to us.
We had a truly blessed three days.”
How great Thou art!
After our healing conference in Vaalbeek this March, we received the following message from Dora:
“It had long been my desire to one day attend a Father Heart School or a conference from God’s Embassy. But just as strong were the doubts about whether that could ever become reality:
Would I even dare? Unfamiliar places and people always stir up fear in me, often enough to make me stay home.
Would I be able to take time off from work?
Would my family agree to it?
God knows our desires. Even before we think them, our hope often becomes reality, and He has a guiding hand in so many things we cannot see.
One evening after work, I got on the bus home at the Leuven station. Bus line 2 is the busiest in Leuven. The buses are small and often overcrowded—getting a seat is rare. That evening, I suddenly saw Annie sitting there, and to my surprise, the seat next to her was still free. Soon, our conversation turned to the healing conference in March in Vaalbeek. She hadn’t talked to her family yet and hadn’t decided whether to go, but she suggested that—if she did go—we could possibly go together.
I didn’t see Annie again after that.
In church this year, there’s been a lot of talk about boldness, including a powerful testimony about how you sometimes need to ‘step out of your comfort zone.’ Through that, God showed me that if I truly wanted to attend the conference, I needed to take responsibility myself:
Daring to email Annie, for example, to ask whether she was planning to go. I got an enthusiastic reply the very next day: we could share a room if I wanted, and even though she was suffering from a serious hernia and was in a lot of pain (read her testimony in our previous Good News!), she would do everything she could to be there and receive healing.
We could pray together.
I adjusted my work schedule and requested time off—which worked out!
At home, I explained that I needed a break from the daily busyness to consciously seek stillness. It helped that the event was in Vaalbeek—familiar ground for them, since the kids used to go to music camp there. I could share that I wanted to thank God for the healing I received five years ago. It was this very month, five years ago, that I had surgery for breast cancer, and Jesus reached out to help me climb an impossible mountain (chemo, radiation, hormone therapy) during a time of deep depression and doubt in my life.
Just being present at the conference was already a huge victory for me!
But there was more. It was powerful to start with Psalm 103, because on the very first evening, God asked me why—if I had come to thank Him—my mind during the worship was still so focused on all my problems.
That morning, before work, I had gone to the doctor due to a flare-up of arthritis in my hand, which had kept me from sleeping for several nights because of the pain. The medication I take is causing early-stage osteoporosis. I was also deeply concerned about my seriously ill mother…
All my bits and pieces—I placed them in the prayer box the next morning and let them go before God. They’re all things I cannot solve myself.
At this conference, I learned so much about believing in supernatural power—about how Jesus has already accomplished everything and carried away all our sickness and worries. That opens up space and vision, certainty and security, and answers the deep questions at the core of our existence.
There were also great things that happened through prayer at the conference (like the complete healing of Annie’s back pain), but personally, I waited a long time for that one word from God for me. There was prayer for healing from breast cancer and from depression, and yet I remained frozen in place by that inexplicable fear.
I struggle to surrender to that supernatural world, even though I’ve already learned to receive and hold on to so much. Is it pride?
That night, I desperately needed Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—He will watch over your life;
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
On the last day, God gave me a beautiful image: when Antoine (one of the participants) stood in front of us, I saw my father standing there, saying to me, “Let’s praise and exalt God together.”
In that moment, I experienced deep forgiveness and peace.
It was like a dream I can draw strength from—a dream that speaks of the infinite Love of our God.
Thank You, Father, that I was allowed to be there!”
Severe hernia disappears at healing conference
Annie shares her story with us:
“Since the beginning of this year, I regularly had pain in my leg.
I thought it was due to menopause, which I was fully going through… so I adapted. I tried to spread out the household tasks and not do everything in one day. But that didn’t help at all—on the contrary, the pain got worse, and daily chores became a heavier and heavier burden.
By early February, I often had to stop what I was doing and rest. And by ‘rest,’ I mean lying completely flat in bed for hours. It became a time to spend more with my heavenly Papa through prayer and reading my Bible… But things couldn’t go on like this, so I decided to see a doctor. I had to get X-rays and was given a high dose of painkillers.
My condition worsened to the point where I screamed in pain and couldn’t move at all. My husband and our son had to do everything around the house. I couldn’t even wash myself. The slightest movement was too much… I couldn’t leave my bedroom anymore—not even to go to the bathroom!
During all that time, people in our church were praying for me.
We called the doctor again, and she had me taken to the emergency room by ambulance. A CT scan and other tests revealed a herniated disc between my last vertebra and my tailbone. I had no feeling left in my thigh and foot. According to the doctor, it could take up to a year to fully recover, and I would likely be left with permanent numbness.
Meanwhile, a healing conference at our church was coming up, and I thought: “I need to be there!” I signed up and was really looking forward to it.
During the first session, I had to lie down, even though I was taking strong painkillers every three hours. I still had a lot of pain and couldn’t sleep at all the first night.
The next morning at breakfast, Ann came up to me and asked how I was doing. I told her the whole story, and she immediately offered to pray. She and Dora, my friend and roommate, laid hands on me and we prayed together in unity.
I said to God: “I haven’t come here to lie down for three days—I’ve come to receive healing and to go home completely restored. You are a God of miracles, and I know it is Your will for me to be healed.”
During worship that morning, we danced, and I decided—pain or not—I was going to dance too. After that, I sat down, and I immediately felt it: it was going well. For the first time in a long time, I sat through an entire morning—and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
We were taught to proclaim healing scriptures out loud and to name the symptoms and command them to leave in Jesus’ name, which I actively did. I kept feeling better! That night, for the first time in ages, I slept without pain.
When I got home, my husband and son looked at me, surprised and curious… “What happened there?”
With great joy in my heart, I told them that God had intervened in a miraculous way!
But I still had one question: Should I taper off the medication or stop immediately?
I asked God, and instantly a thought flashed through my mind: “Do you trust Me or not?”
Yes, Lord, I trust You! So I immediately stopped all medication—I had been taking 9 pills a day!
The pain is gone, and I can function normally again!
The Lord has healed me, and I am incredibly grateful. If any symptoms try to return, I will command them to go in Jesus’ name! I’m holding on tight to this healing!
I’m also very thankful to our amazing team, who received me with such care and gave me, through this healing conference, the opportunity to come closer to God and to learn how to walk in divine healing in the right way!”
Breakthrough in health after healing school
On March 19, we received an email from Lieneke from the Netherlands. She attended all parts of our Healing School and Father Heart School. We’ll let Lieneke share in her own words:
“It’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me. We last saw each other in July 2010 at the Father Heart School. I’ve often talked about you and tried to encourage others the way you always encouraged me. One of the things I testified about was that whenever I was near you, my headaches and exhaustion would always go away!!!
From the very beginning (almost 7 years ago), I knew that your way of handling God’s Word is simply the truth. Still, I turned out to be a very slow learner, because those headaches always kept coming back…
After the first few lessons in 2005, I gave an enthusiastic testimony in our church about God’s healing power, which is available to everyone at all times. Unfortunately, I received a lot of negative reactions because a woman had just passed away from cancer. It was all way too sensitive. Sadly, that made me inactive in the church for years. I didn’t dare to step out in faith or pray for healing anymore. So healing gradually became a “far-from-my-bed” kind of story—and the result was that my headaches kept getting worse.
In January 2012, I went to the GP—yet again. After all those years, he was finally able to tell me what was wrong. He had recently read an article about the causes of an open ductus Botalli. With this condition, there’s a connection between the aorta (the main artery) and the pulmonary artery. This connection exists in the fetus but normally closes in the first few days after birth… but in my case, it didn’t close. As a young girl, I often had pneumonia because oxygen-rich blood kept flowing into my lungs. Thankfully, the defect was discovered, and I had surgery when I was three. Now my doctor explained that this condition was caused by faulty blood sensors. He told me that all my adult complaints were due to this and that I needed to see a neurologist, who would prescribe the right medication. Without pills, he said, my symptoms would never go away.
The beautiful thing is that at the very moment the doctor said that, I regained faith in healing from our heavenly Father!
That appointment with the neurologist never happened. When I got home, my husband and I spoke to those sensors in Jesus’ name—and I knew I was healed!!!
Now, a few months later… I feel reborn and healthy. Very occasionally, I still get a headache, but I know it no longer belongs to me. I’m learning more and more to walk in authority and not to let my health be stolen again.
What really helps me is regularly watching and listening to sermons by Andrew Wommack, as well as testimonies from people who have been healed. It makes me excited about the Bible all over again.
I want to shout my story—and more importantly, God’s story—from the rooftops and speak healing over others. I’m deeply thankful for what God is doing and has already done in my life. I’m thankful for my loving husband who’s willing to take steps of faith with me, and for my friend Els, who prays with me every week.
To all four of you (Hugo, Inger, Ann, and Nadine), I want to say one more heartfelt thank you for all your patience with this slow learner. You are, and always will be, an amazing example to me!!!”
