When I cleared my calendar to spend time with my sister after her hip replacement I had no idea what an immeasurable gift we were about to receive. On that trip I discovered that after we talk in faith we may be expected to walk in faith.

My sister, Dorothy is the third oldest child of nine children, an outgoing brunette with a winning smile and great disposition. I arrived a year and a half after her, a blonde mischievous kid, curious about everything and often a pest to my older siblings. Like our mother, Dorothy is a joy to be around. She chooses to look at the sunny side of life. I was looking forward to spending time with her as I drove the four and half hour trip south.

On her first night home we laughed sharing childhood memories. As we talked I noticed that my sister continually rubbed at her injured leg. When I asked her about it, she replied, "Oh Ellie, I'm worried about the circulation." I felt her leg and gasped. The leg was so swollen it felt like I was touching something solid, like a fencepost. Now we were both concerned!

That night as I got ready for bed I knelt to pray for Dorothy, "Please Heavenly Father if there is anything I can do for my sister, please show me."

Earlier I had spotted a 1993 edition of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" in my sister's library and that night I took it to bed to read. I read randomly and as I read through my fourth choice, a story on healing by Mark Victor Hansen, I was overcome with a warm sensation in the chest. I knew I was being told how to help my sister.

The next morning I told Dorothy about Mark Victor's experience in being a part of a miraculous event for a dying teenager. Then I told my sister I was to do the same thing to help her circulation and encourage her leg to heal.

As I spoke to my sister that morning I felt awkward and unsure of her response. I'd never done anything like this before and I was acting on faith yet how on earth was my sister going to receive this? I stuttered and stammered through my explanation telling Dorothy, "I don't have a clue what I'm doing."

She didn't ridicule me, nor look at me as though I'd soon be admitted to a psyche ward for an adjustment. She smiled at me and said, "Let's try Ellie."

I'd never been so grateful for my sister's easygoing attitude as I was at that moment. She trusted me and appeared to have more confidence about where we were going than I did. The room seemed to be filled with a mixture of exhilaration and trepidation. I felt dizzy with anticipation. I was full of hope for things unseen, wanting so much to help my sister but I had no idea what was about to happen.

I rubbed my hands together vigorously for some fifteen seconds then held them one or two inches above my sister's injured leg. Slowly and consciously I moved my hands back and forth just above her leg. Suddenly I opened my mouth in shock, wanting to describe what I suddenly felt yet I was momentarily speechless. Then, with a half laugh, yet in absolute awe, I asked my sister if she could feel anything, for by now a strong, beautiful energy was pulsing back and forth between my hands and her leg. It was magnificent, an experience like no other on earth.

I looked up at my sister, wanting her to feel the same thing, God's hand in this event! "Oh Dorothy, can you feel that? I asked.

At first she indicated that she could feel nothing then within seconds her eyes lit up and with a look of excited surprise she said, "Ellie, it is so powerful, I expect to see sparks!"

Now I felt beyond high, for we both were experiencing the same phenomenon. I continued to keep my hands moving up and down the swollen leg while the incredible, pulsing energy remained constant. When I was done, there was no need to ask if the leg was better. It was.

We didn't speak of this event for months but eventually I asked my sister to describe what she felt that day. In her words: "The whole thing was peaceful, satisfying and fulfilling." Her voice changed as she relived the moments. "Oh Ellie", she said, " It seemed like there was something over top of me. It was very powerful and I experienced such a feeling of love. The pain just seemed to dissolve."

Trusting God, I had asked for a way to help my sister. Blindly and with faith we had gone forward, not knowing where we would be led. We shared something of God that day, an experience that will forever fill us with a sense of awe.

Ellie Braun-Haley Postscript

Today, Dorothy's health is good and she walks well with her new hip. She and I share a beautiful closeness, with one another and with God. There are many things in this world that I cannot explain, yet I know God heard my prayer and was with us that day.

Ellie Braun-Haley shaley@telusplanet.net

Ellie writes short stories as a hobby, using events in her life to draw on. She is the author of four books and has had numerous short stories published, one of which can be read in Chicken Soup for the Soul of America. She says her family and God are her inspiration. She may be reached at shaley@telusplanet.net