“You Don’t Remember Me, Do You?”

By Mardell LeLaCheur

We drove down the country road and parked under the big tamarind tree, then walked up the small hill to the “church” under the house. It was Spring of 1969 in Trinidad.

Looking up the small hill, I saw a small group walking down to the church. In that group was a very crippled older woman who was being helped to walk to the church service.

We were on a sabbatical from our church in Edmonds, Washington. We had pastored there for ten years when the National Missions Board asked if we would be interested in serving in Trinidad during our sabbatical. They needed someone to fill the role of interim president of Open Bible Institute. I could teach at the institute and work with the missionaries while my husband Dan served as interim president. Being a pastor, Dan also preached every Sunday in almost every church on the island.

On this particular Sunday, Dan preached at the little church under the house and then asked for those needing prayer to come forward. The crippled woman I had seen earlier stumbled up to him, hardly able to speak to say what she wanted. She needed a miracle! Dan felt overwhelming compassion and laid his hands on her with such love and tenderness. He prayed for deliverance from pain and sickness and for Jesus to make her whole.

We talked about this sweet old lady on our way home that Sunday as we remembered the sight of her stumbling back up the hill to her home, wondering if she would ever make it.

Nearing the end of our sabbatical, we tried to visit as many churches as we could to say goodbye, and we found ourselves at the little church again, ready to preach one more time before our departure.

We drove down the country road and parked under the big tamarind tree, then walked up the small hill to the church under the house. We looked up the hill and once again, we saw a small group of people walking down to church.

As we were visiting with those who arrived, out of this group came a vibrant young lady, clapping and jumping up and down. She said to us, “You don’t remember me, do you?” Well, no, we didn’t. With excitement she explained, “You prayed for me several weeks ago. I had been placed under a curse by my husband who hated me going to church. I was so crippled and in pain from the curse that Sunday, but after you prayed for me, I kept believing and in time the curse left me. I was delivered from this evil spirit, and I am whole again.”

I can still see the look on this woman’s beautiful face as she testified to the miraculous deliverance and healing of the Lord. We were so blessed to be able to witness this miracle, as well as others that happened while we were there.

We have seen God’s miraculous power in so many ways: physical healings, mental and emotional healings, and families brought back together in ways only the Lord could manage.  We have learned there is no pattern to the way God performs miracles.

After sixty years of ministry and now that God is allowing me to live so much longer, when I see and hear stories in Open Bible about children to the fourth generation serving the Lord after I saw their great-grandparents give their hearts to the Lord as teenagers, that is God’s greatest miracle in my life.

About the Author

Mardell LeLaCheur has dedicated her life to ministry and leadership within Open Bible Churches. A native of Everett, Washington, she met her husband, C. Daniel LeLaCheur, at Eugene Bible College (now New Hope College) in Oregon. Together, they pastored churches in South Dakota, Washington, and Iowa, where Mardell also served as an adjunct instructor at Open Bible College and co-hosted the “Family Survival” radio and television program. She served for seventeen years as the Director of Women’s Ministry for the Pacific Region as well as the National Office. Mardell treasures her family deeply and honors the legacies of her late husband, daughter Danell Bemis, and son Mark. She is blessed by her surviving daughter Lynne Smith, four grandsons—all in ministry—and ten great-grandchildren.