Bedell Got a Clean Bill of HEALTH After Prayer
HARRIET BEDELL was a successful Episcopal missionary to Native Americans for many years.
In 1905 Bedell felt called to missions. She wanted to go overseas, but her family insisted she work nearer to home. She compromised by agreeing to work among Native Americans in the United States. After preparing herself through study and local outreach, she accepted a post in Oklahoma. There her great love, practical mind, and hard work slowly yielded fruit.
But in 1911 Harriet Bedell became weak, fatigued, and lost weight. On a visit to Oklahoma City, she consulted a physician, Dr. Will. The doctor suspected tuberculosis. An expert in the disease, he examined her and told her so. A skin test confirmed his diagnosis. A deaconess friend took her to Denver for sunshine, cool temperatures, and fresh air.
In Denver, Bedell attended St. Mark’s Church and became friends with the rector. He invited her to a healing service on 13 August, 1911. She found the quiet healing service that followed Communion deeply spiritual and left “with a feeling of great exaltation.”
Soon afterward a local doctor retested her and found no evidence of tuberculosis. Upon her return to Oklahoma, Dr. Will reexamined her and found she was indeed free of the infection. She returned to work that fall.
Later she would work in Alaska, where she risked her life in a frigid winter trek to save a life. She went to the Lord after years of work among Native Americans in Florida.
Her deep faith and the many decisions that followed from it are told in William and Ellen Hartley’s A Woman Set Apart.
—Dan Graves
----- ----- -----
CH 142 Touching the Hem of His Garment focuses on divine healing from the early church until recent times.
