In July 2022, I received a phone call. I knew instantly who it was because his number was in my phone—it was one of my patients, who called himself a “spiritual healer.” He said that he needed to send me one of his clients.
B’s ROUTINE
I know some people might not understand what is meant by a “spiritual healer,” so let me be clearer. A “spiritual healer” is a person some people visit for a “read-up.” If you want a “read-up” about yourself, you’d go in person; if you want a “read-up” about somebody else, you’d take a string of their hair, or a piece of their clothing, or something that they wore on their body, and the “reader-man” (in this case) would be able to use this item, or look at you and tell you things about yourself that he couldn’t have known otherwise.
What I am sharing is what this reader man, whom I have treated, has shared with me about his profession. He further explained how, after reading up his patients and diagnosing who was responsible for their problem or what was responsible, he would give them a bath to wash away “the crosses.”
So, everybody that goes to him has to remove all clothing and get a bath in a special bath-pan filled with water and different salts and oils: “oil of this” and “oil of that” that would drive away all “crosses” (that is, problems) from their lives.
After the bath, he anoints you with oil, and you know those special oils people talk about: “oil of him can’t leave me,” “oil of him have to come back,” “oil of never going to be broke,” etcetera.
So, there are all these oils and vials that are labelled, and he would prepare a special mixture with them to anoint you from head to toe. Whether you’re a man or a woman, you have to go through that process, and when he’s finished anointing you… this healer… we’re going to call him “B.” B would then burn some incense; this way, whatever he anointed off of you, if it was still close by, the incense would drive it a little further away from you. He would burn his different things, and the spirits would leave you.
But, just in case the spirit was very strong and he saw that you had a little more money, he would offer you further protection by giving you a special ring that you would wear that would make sure that even when the incense wears off, something was there to keep you safe.
It was this healer, B, who called me and said he had a patient that he couldn’t help, so he wanted to send him to me.
ELEVEN YEARS WITH A BAD FOOT
Lord, have mercy.
The same day B told me about this patient that he is requesting me to help because he can’t, the gentleman turns up…without an appointment.
Let’s call him G. G says, “Doc, I have a problem,” and he related to me this issue, which he thought was caused by X. Without saying why, he explained that X didn’t like him, so he had given him “a bad foot,” which had made him go to see B to solve the problem.
He said, “Doc, I have struggled with this bad foot for 11 years. For 11 years I’ve been in pain. For 11 years, my foot has been draining and smelling. For 11 years, my foot has been changing colour. For 11 years, I’ve been dressing this foot. I went to doctors in Portmore, and I went to doctors in Kingston. I went to doctors in Spanish Town, and I still had the problem.” That’s when he turned to B, the spiritual healer, who sent him to me.
When I examined Mr. G, I discovered he had a large ulcer on the inside of his right foot, his leg to be precise. It was about the size of my palm by this time and had stretched from the front to the back of his foot. When he removed the dressing, it did not smell very good. There was dead flesh, and you can imagine in your mind what it must have been like, but it wasn’t anything new to me, so I proceeded to ask him a few questions, including what kind of work he did…
Our conversation revealed that he had a job that required hours of continuous standing, which had caused him to have poor circulation. Having listened, I explained to him what I was going to do. I took a swab of the wound and sent it to be tested for what bacteria was causing the infection that was obviously there. I removed what dead flesh I could, but because of the pain, I had to leave some.
A NATURAL REMEDY
I decided to draw for my natural remedy. I told him to return the following day with some grated green papaya.
Folks, listen. We dressed his foot with green papaya daily. I also prescribed for him a compression stocking —the tightest one I could get, and he had to wear that over the dressing to help his circulation.
When the swab results came back, he got antibiotics, and of course, I changed up his diet and told him to rest the foot a little more.
And praise God—in eight weeks, the foot was completely healed!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
The moral of this story is that G had blamed X for his problem. He thought X was responsible, and so he was trying to do everything to get rid of his X problem, but he made the wrong calculation. Because he had the wrong information, his focus was wrong, and this caused him to struggle for 11 years.
Have you been struggling with a problem for 5, 10, 15, 20 years because you are blaming the wrong person or the wrong thing? How many of you have diseases that you are attributing to the wrong cause? Blaming your neighbour or your husband or your wife when it’s something else that’s causing a problem?
There’s a wise saying that goes like this: “Before you start climbing the ladder, make sure it’s leaning up against the right building.”
So many of us reach the top of the ladder only to realise that what we sought is on the building next door. So, stop blaming others for your problems. Mr. G’s problem was caused by his job and his poor lifestyle habits, and not by X.
Today, I shared with you another benefit of the papaya fruit. But I caution you: remember, it is Christ Who heals us; He not only heals us physically, but He heals us spiritually. I am reminding us that we must not give credit to even the very food that we eat by believing that it is the food that has made us healthy, but we must give credit to God. We give the praise ultimately to God in every area of our lives. Amen.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies…” Psalm 103:1-4
Dr. Orlando Thomas is a certified functional medicine physician. On Sabbath, July 14, 2024, he celebrated exactly 30 years since becoming an Adventist.