Joy was told she would be in a wheelchair for life, but the visions she had from God told a different story.
At age 11, Joy McCann had just started high school and was living a normal life. She was newly baptised and on a journey of knowing God more. During that first year of high school she experienced ill health with headaches, fatigue and weakness. Eventually Joy was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. One day Joy woke up in a dark room to see her mum standing over her telling her she had been very unwell in that room for two weeks, and the family were taking care of her. The condition had worsened, and when a specialist doctor flew in to see her, he described it as one of the worst cases he had seen. He told them that Joy would likely never fully recover and could be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
The years which followed were full of pain, discouragement, tears and questions. In bed in the dark due to light sensitivity, being fed and unable to get out of bed without being lifted, Joy really questioned God. But the more she lay there, the more she discovered Jesus in that dark room with her. She started to experience visions of Jesus telling her he would heal her and send her to Africa, and that she would use these experiences and brokenness to identify with and pray for people there. Visions of Africa started to come, with Joy seeing herself dancing with kids, preaching and baptising. Having no idea how any of this would come about, she held the visions, shared with a few people and waited. People around her also brought words of prophecy about the same, one saying that nothing is impossible with God. She received prayer, but the waiting went on for 13 years.
When Joy was 24, her family joined Gateway Vineyard Church in Norwich. The team there started to feel like it was time to press in for her healing, and offered her more prayer ministry. They would lay hands on her, wait, listen to the Holy Spirit and pray over her regularly. Sometimes nothing happened, sometimes symptoms got worse, but sometimes there would be some improvement and what Joy remembers as healing touches from God. In July 2015, Joy received her full healing while sitting in worship. She heard a kind gentle voice telling her to stand up, and when she did, she felt something leave her body. As she walked out the following months, she found no symptoms remaining, the fatigue had gone; her energy was back!
Truly the impossible became possible as in 2016 Joy moved to Mwanza, Tanzania, where she lived and worked for two years. She was part of a Vineyard church plant in Mwanza, in a slum area mainly made up of street boys. God gave her the ability to speak the Swahili language which helped her so much to relate and use her experiences to minister to people. Joy then moved to Kenya where she is still living and working today, in Trinity Vineyard Church Nakuru. In both countries she has seen people receive healing, danced with kids, preached and baptised people, just as she saw in visions. Even when experiences in ministry can seem impossible, she is reminded through her testimony that all things are still possible with God.
