Special to United Methodist Insight | Sept. 24, 2025
Have you or someone you know been healed in some dramatic way that was unsettling to the medical community or for your family and friends?
Sometimes the blindness to the healing God has made possible is subtle, more what is not said than what is said. Verna Windrem tells how she was healed as the result of a dream and what did not happen after she told her doctor and others about her healing.
Verna Windream
Courtesy Photo
Verna, the daughter of a United Church pastor, grew up in the village of Omemee Ontario, Canada, where she married Earle Windrem, a farmer from the Cavan area. In 1987 she became a diaconal minister, and served three rural churches in Cold Springs Charge near Cobourg, Ontario. In 1993 she transferred to Warsaw, Ontario, and served four country churches for 12 years.
God’s call to ministry came late in life for Verna.
“I am a grandmother who went back to school in 1983. I was commissioned in 1987 as a Diaconal Minister in the United Church of Canada. This designation is part of the Order of Ministry in our denomination and the job I was received into was as the sole minister to a three-point charge.
“Healing ministry has always interested me, but I had little time to investigate it. It was like a rollercoaster took off in our lives while I was still in studies. My husband was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After that the disease would return again and again, causing much suffering through both the illness and the treatments of radiation and chemotherapy. Mind you, there was lots of prayer that went up for him, and again and again, he returned to health!
“In 1993, the cancer returned again. We were preparing to move to another pastorate and, as he wasn't well, it fell to me to do most of the packing. Books! How could I have stacked up so many? Box after box was marked and I carried them to the basement out of the way.
“After the move, everything needed doing again, in reverse. Along with this hard work came the challenge of a new job in a four-point charge. There was much to be done. In the process, my back became very painful. Hoping for help, I went to a chiropractor who told me to expect healing to take a long, long time. I prayed. Nothing changed.
“One night I had a dream. All I remember was that the setting seemed to be at a prayer meeting where people were praying for one another. A man and a woman stepped up behind me as I sat in a chair. They laid their hands on my shoulders and began to pray. I felt as if a bolt of lightning was going through me, powerful but not painful. It zapped my spine and I woke knowing my back was healed. It was that fast!
“Now, 11 years later, I am retired and we have moved back to our farm home. My husband and I have toted those same books; we have worked on renovating the house and moved gardens. I give thanks to God, that I am well, and so is my husband!
“I have not shared this event in my life often, but when I do, people seldom make a comment. I did tell our family doctor and he didn't comment either. After all, perhaps it was only a dream. But God and I know better!”
Verna and Earle retired on their farm near Cavan, Ontario where they live with a lovely little schnoodle named Millie.
Read the story of the man born blind whose healing is described in the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel. The religious authorities were disturbed at Jesus and the man’s parents didn’t know what to think. The healed man, who had been blind all of his life simply said, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see’ (John 9:8-25).
Please send me your unsettling healing stories.
John Sumwalt
John Sumwalt is a retired United Methodist pastor and the author of “How to Preach the Miracles,”