Meet the Woman with the Issue of Blood

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

John 11:4

The afternoon I was scheduled to meet Shavinder was a sweltering one. The internet line was unstable, and I had to lodge myself at one corner of the balcony to receive a tolerable connection on a humid afternoon. I dialled her number, expecting the exchange to be 30 minutes – max, but what I didn’t know was that I’d be taken on a one-and-a-half-hour faith rocket to the sky.

It was barely past the first quarter of 1998 when Shavinder knew death was knocking at her door. Why wouldn’t she? In her mid-teens, it seemed like everyone had given up on her living through the year. Shamans, traditional healers, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Shamans declared that the “spirit” working against her was too strong. Hospitals refused to admit her because her case seemed like a lost cause with no medically identified cause. One of the doctors told her mother, “If she dies, she dies.”

Shavinder was the woman with the issue of blood.

“No, we won’t do a blood transfusion for her; it is a waste. If we do it, it will just come out anyway,” she recalled the words spoken by the specialist mere minutes before she was wheeled out of the hospital. Shavinder’s mother went in with a morsel of hope but left with none.

What was left was to prepare for the worst – and that was what her parents did. The only one who still held on to the possibility of a miracle was her aunt, Rina. 

Shavinder had always been a little fragile. When she entered primary school, she was sidelined by teachers and other students for being weak. Physical Education classes were the worst. Her classmates made it obvious that she was not wanted in their team because it was a “sure loss.” This made her despise going to school. However, things went downhill quickly when she started menstruating at 12 – her blood flow never ceased. Naturally, she became weaker. She missed her classes often, sometimes due to lethargy other times because it was too traumatic to face anyone outside her family. 

Her aunt, the only Christian in her Sikh-staunched family, introduced her to Jesus. She was curious, and during her quiet time, she would converse with Him. She would challenge Him, asking, “If you are the true God, then surely you would come and save me – or just take me back to Your home.”

However, her condition worsened from the day she started calling out to Jesus. She could sense evil spirits in a room gradually growing stronger. These dark beings began whispering hopelessness into her ear. 

Every day, she would be taunted. The evil spirits would say, “You will not live much longer” and “You are going to die.” Knowing this, Rina and her husband continued to pray fervently. One day, Shavinder was given the opportunity to attend church – her dad had allowed her to attend one of the services with Rina. During that visit, she was gifted a small Bible, which she kept in her pocket. She regarded it as a form of “protection” when she felt the evil spirits lurking at the corners of her room. Her aunt also introduced her to a number of worship songs, which she listened to as she called out to Jesus in prayer when she felt the evil spirits gaining strength around her.

Instead of getting better, her condition continued to worsen. 

Her grandmother passed away in February 1998, and church members from Rina’s church came over to pay their last respects. A Punjabi lady Shavinder briefly met in church the one time she visited recognised her and proceeded to ask her mom about her. 

“My name is Sharon. I’ve seen this girl before, with Rina,” she said, signalling toward Shavinder.

“Yes, she went to church with my sister-in-law,” Shavinder’s mom replied.

“May I know what is wrong with her?”

Shavinder’s mom then went on to tell her about the sickness that crippled Shavinder, sapping all the vitality and health that she had. The lady was shocked to hear of it and asked why this was not made known when Shavinder visited the church.

“Oh, Rina is probably scared to tell people about my daughter because we are very staunched Sikhs, though my husband is more open-minded,” she replied.

“Well, since you have exhausted all avenues and have given up, can I pray for her? Maybe Jesus can do something,” Sharon asked.

“Carry on.”

Shavinder was taken to one of the rooms in her late grandmother’s house, and Sharon laid hands on her and prayed. It was approximately 6 p.m. then. After praying, she told Shavinder that she would experience vomiting or purging at around 8 p.m.

At 8 p.m. on the dot, she started purging. This shocked her family members, especially her mother. After that episode, she checked the sanitary napkin she had worn from the time she was prayed for up until the purging – there was no sign of bleeding.

Her miracle had begun.

That night, she fell into a feverish spell, and though her bleeding had stopped, she was weaker than ever. The following day, her temperature skyrocketed to a high fever. Her mother told her that she needed to get to the phone booth to call Sharon. There were no mobile phones at that time and no landline in her home. However, she refused to let her mother leave the sight because she was afraid that evil spirits would come to taunt her again – and, this time, take her life. Her siblings were off to school then, and her dad was at work. If her mom were to leave the house, she would be all alone.

“You have to let me go call that lady,” her mother told Shavinder, “she told me to call her if anything happens to you. Your aunt always tells you to call Jesus when you are afraid. Why don’t you try doing that while I am gone?”

Exhausted, Shavinder allowed her mom to go. She readied herself for the worst while lying on the living room sofa. She stared at the grill door of her flat unit, the sunlight streaming in. At one point, the light seemed to grow brighter, but it didn’t hurt her eyes – no, it wasn’t the sunlight, it was a man robed in white.

Instantly, she knew it was Jesus.

She felt a gravitational pull towards Him, and her shoulders lifted off the sofa, slowly pulling her back off the cushion like a magnet to her Maker.

“I was reaching out to him, and all around me, I could hear what sounded like tongues, though I didn’t know what it was then. He drew closer as I slowly lifted toward a sitting position. Once I could sit upright, He disappeared – but I could walk! I jumped up to my feet, and I started walking.”

At that exact moment, Shavinder’s mother was hurrying back home. She managed to call Sharon and interceded for Shavinder through the phone, declaring healing on her body.

She was shocked when she looked at Shavinder and walked around in the living room.

“Mommy, I saw Jesus,” Shavinder cried.

“I know, I know, I can see it – your face!” her mother replied.

There was no doubt that Shavinder was in the presence of Jesus because her face was radiant with the glory of the Lord. 

“Now, I would say that it could be like what happened at the transfiguration,” Shavinder chuckled.

Overjoyed, her mother went to tell the good news to Shavinder’s family members who lived nearby. Shavinder, on the other hand, was walking around her unit, from the living room to the kitchen and back to the living room, praising the Lord.

When her relatives arrived and saw her full of life and walking, they were shocked at the miracle. There was great rejoicing in her home –the day Shavinder gave her life to Jesus. Because of this healing, there was a breakthrough in the gospel among the Sikh community. The day Shavinder saw the unknown disease leave her body completely was also when her mother and several other relatives accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. 

The next day, in excitement, Shavinder attended a prayer meeting at the church Rina had brought her to the first time. During the prayer, Rina told Shavinder to open her mouth to praise God. To her surprise, the minute she opened her mouth, there was an inflowing and outflowing of the Holy Spirit – she started to speak in tongues!

“It was not like a one-syllable word; it was like sentences of words I do not know, overflowing from me.”

Sharon, who was also at the prayer meeting, later told her that this healing she experienced happened before, and it is written in the Bible. This knowledge surprised her, and she started gaining interest in the Word – and despite being illiterate due to the years she had missed school, the Lord was gracious and brought someone to read the Bible to her. Today, she continues to tell her testimony to whoever has time to hear, turning many to Christ.

At the end of the call, I felt the joy of the Lord fill my heart. In instances where we, as Christians, sometimes allow ourselves to think miracles that happened when Jesus walked the earth do not happen anymore, I am reminded of Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” 

He still conducts miracles today, and just as John 14:12 tells us, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”