Clove Oil

I and four other members of our team prayed for an elderly man with cancer this morning.

His daughter is an occasional visitor at church and her father lives with her and her son. He is in his 80's and is very weak. He hasn't been able to eat solid food or leave the house for several months and he can barely make the journey from his bedroom to the living room.

The whole family are Muslims.

I decided to use a liturgical prayer for the sick that has been translated into Turkish. It's the kind of prayer ceremony that would be used by Anglican or Catholic churches in America.

The ceremony also involves using annointing oil as part of the prayer so we bought some on the way. I was originally thinking I would have to use regular sunflower oil, but then we found a spice shop that sells dozens of different kinds of scented oils for medicinal purposes. We found a little bottle of clove oil that worked perfectly. It came in a nice little bottle and it smells great.

When we got to the house we were first ushered into the living room by the daughter. We exchanged greetings and chatted for a few minutes while we were introduced to the woman's 22 year-old son and had some iced tea.

Eventually we crowded into the man's bedroom and sat around the bed as he propped himself up as much as he could. His daughter sat next to him, teary-eyed as we prayed. I read through the prayer and the other adults followed me in the "call and response" sections. The prayer focuses on Jesus as savior and healer. It asks God for peace and forgiveness, and also includes a prayer for those caring for the sick.

At one point the ceremony includes an opportunity to confess and repent from sins. I explained this to him and he began chanting a Muslim incantation of repentance. It's just two words: tovbe estafrullah. He must have said it about 20 times, "tovbe estafrullah, tovbe estafrullah..."

I'm not sure how much of my gospel explanation he understood or how much of the prayer he really participated in, but I'm sure that his desire for forgiveness is real. His daughter kept quietly whispering amen throughout the prayer.

I rubbed some oil on his forehead and we prayed spontaneously for a few minutes.
When we were done the man thanked us and laid down again and closed his eyes. We went back to the living room and talked for a few more minutes.

I was happy with how the prayer went. It includes enough ceremony for our Muslim neighbors to feel as if something spiritually significant is taking place and the content is all about Jesus.

On Sunday I have been invited to pray for another woman with cancer. She is a professing believer, but I'm not quite sure exactly where she is in relation to Jesus. I'm planning on using the same ceremony. And the clove oil.

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