Santa Maria Times Article

Prayer Power

This article originally appeared in the March 12, 2001 edition of the Santa Maria Times.

Story by Britt Fekete, Times Staff Writer
Photos by Scott de Freitas-Draper, Times
Copyright © 2001 Santa Maria Times. Used by permission.

Healing Rooms of the Santa Maria Valley drawing people from all over

Michael Steen has hands laid on him at the Healing Rooms of the Santa Maria Valley as people pray for his crushed foot and nervous system.

The day he received prayer, Dale Horenberger's pain went away.

It was the first time he went to the Healing Rooms of the Santa Maria Valley, seeking prayer for a knee he had punctured by kneeling on a nail during work.

Now he returns every week.

"I've been coming here since it opened," said Horenberger, who travels from Los Alamos to the Healing Rooms in Santa Maria.

Since his visits, he said it has also helped heal one of two blown discs in his neck.

"God is my physician," he said. "In the Bible, it says He is the Great Physician."

But prayer has begun to heal more than Horenberger's physical ailments. It has also touched his spirit.

"It's making me strong, teaching me forgiveness and loving people that I really can't stand," he said.

Horenberger isn't alone.

Since the Healing Rooms opened seven months ago, thousands of people from all over the state and out of state have come seeking prayer for what ails them.

And everyone is welcome.

Creating such a place where any child or adult, regardless of their background or religion, could come and receive prayer has been the desire of directors Rick and Lori Taylor for some time.

Visiting the Healing Rooms of Spokane, Washington, inspired them to provide something like that for people along the Central Coast [of California].

But, they said, they didn't know where to begin.

So they prayed.

About seven weeks later, they set to work. There are other healing rooms sprinkled around the nation -- when they started they were number eight.

Now they have people from 10 different Christian churches from Santa Ynez to Paso Robles who have come together to pray for others.

"We all come for one purpose," Rick said. "To pray for the sick."

There are multiple teams of three people, either two men and one woman or vice versa, each praying for one person at a time.

The process works similar to that of a doctor's office. People who come for prayer enter the reception area and give their name. One of the team members goes into the reception room and gets a person's chart and takes it into their prayer room to pray over it for about a minute. The person is then led to a waiting room, known as the "soaking room," a quiet room for people to soak up the presence of God. The person is then briefly interviewed about why they have come, and then the prayer begins in one of the four or five rooms available.

Explaining the process, Vineyard Senior Pastor Steve Dastic said the person sits in a chair and the team members place their hands on them, anoint them with oil, and pray. Dastic said they pray for each person for about 30 minutes.

The hands of Kent Taylor envelop his wife's hand as he receives prayer.

"We've always prayed for the sick in our church services, but the difference here is now we're giving it more time," Dastic said, noting the importance of each person receiving quality prayer and having a good experience.

To ensure that, all team members must go through training. A pastor's recommendation is also needed before a person can become a team member, Lori said. The teams are also monitored.

"We want to make it a safe place. We stress confidentiality," Lori said.

They minister out of love.

"This is not faith healing. This is divine healing," Rick said. "It has nothing to do with us. It's all about God. It's not our faith that does it, it's just we're asking God, 'Come touch this person.'"

Dastic stressed they are not New Age.

Sometimes it is emotional healing the person seeks.

"God wants to heal the whole man -- body, soul and spirit," Rick said, noting that often a physical ailment is attached to an emotional healing that needs to take place.

Much of the pain Linda Scrivano carries with her is emotional.

Tuesday was the first time she visited the Healing Rooms.

As she sat in the "soaking room," waiting for her turn for prayer, she seemed apprehensive about the next step, not knowing what to expect.

At 39 years old, she said turning to God for help was a change for her.

"I do fear the way I'm living," she said, noting her addiction to drugs.

She has seen God work in other people's lives, and hopes He will help her facilitate change in her own life.

It is also a sort of reunion with her parents, she said, both of whom pray at the Healing Rooms.

Her close friend, Janet Huffman, 42, came not only to support Scrivano, but also to seek prayer for herself.

"I just wanted to come see what it was all about," Huffman said, noting that she believes in God. "I know that God is loving and kind."

She said she hopes God will not only help ease her back pain but also help everything in her life come together.

"Her pain, my pain, your pain," Huffman said.

For Arroyo Grande resident Karen Gebauer, 48, the Healing Rooms are a safe place to come. She goes to Vineyard Church, and has come to the Healing Rooms about eight times. Prayer helps her live with multiple sclerosis. Diagnosed about 10 years ago, she said she has gone through many years of doctors telling her she was on the downslide. But with three sons to raise, she wants to stay strong for them and herself.

Through prayer, Gebauer said she has felt the warmth of God watching over her.

"It has restored my hope and takes away the fear of what's going to happen with me," she said. "He's going to heal this."

Joanne Taylor has been coming to the ministry for six months from Santa Ynez. A member of the Old Mission in Santa Ynez, she says Catholics believe in miracles, too.

The Taylors and Dastic continue to bear witness to the power of prayer.

"Jesus said, 'When two or three people come together in my name, there I am myself.' I believe there is more power in the team dynamic," Rick said.

Many times, they said, that power is miraculous. On the wall in the reception area hang descriptions of the healings.

They spoke of one woman they prayed for who had breast cancer.

"We cursed cancer, we commanded it to die in Jesus' name," Rick said. "She goes to the doctor the next day for surgery to remove the cancer, and when they opened her up, there was no cancer. She still had the lump in her breast, but when they biopsied it, there was no cancer."

They also spoke of another woman who had a lump as well who came in and was afraid it was cancer, so they prayer for her.

"She went to the doctor the next day and the lump was gone. Why God sometimes just takes the cancer and leaves the lump and other times just takes the lump, I don't know," Lori said.

But they stress that even if they are healed, people are always encouraged to go to their doctor and have it confirmed. Lori said they never tell them to stop taking medicine or do something against what their doctor says.

Horenberger said he will continue to come back until he is completely healed.

"He will heal me of all my infirmaries."

"It's one thing to talk about the Kingdom of God and it's another thing to minister the Kingdom of God, and Jesus did both, and he told us to do both," Rick said.

While some get healed the first time they come for prayer, others like Horenberger and Gebauer return again.