I’m 22 years old, from Sudan, born on the border of Kenya under a tree and raised up in a refugee camp full of a lot of people from many different countries. My family was from a Catholic background.

When I was 9 years old I came to Australia with my big brother. As a teenager, I got mixed up with the wrong boys who thought life was about fast cars, parties, girls and drugs. I was doing these things until Friday 13 March 2009 when I got into a car with a friend who was drunk and high on drugs. He lost control of the car and I woke up from a coma 6 months later and found I was in hospital, paralysed and only able to move my head. After 11 months in hospital I was able to use my right hand only but my left side was paralysed and my arm and leg folded up and immovable due to my brain injury. I needed a hoist to transfer from bed to wheelchair and 24-hour care.

I moved from hospital to a care house. One weekend I asked a man to help me with my wheelchair, which was stuck, and he told me how I could be saved by the power of God. I told him the doctor said I was paralysed for life. He said there are scriptures in the Bible that said I could be healed. I said I wanted to come to a meeting.

At the meeting I felt really welcome. Afterwards I asked the man why I wasn’t he healed. He said I needed to repent and be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit. On 18 April 2010 I was baptised. I felt my old life and all the bad things washed away and buried.

At home in the care house I asked the Lord to heal me. Then I spoke in tongues and I prayed for forgiveness and for God’s healing power to heal me. I told the brother that I had received the Holy Spirit, but I was not healed. He told me to pray for at least ten minutes a day, which I did for three days. My hand, which was paralysed, started to straighten by itself. My left leg also started to work, and I walked down the hall to show the carer. I did not use the wheelchair from that day onwards and I was able to care for myself better. After another three months in the care home the doctors let me go home, and they said they had never seen this happen before. When I first left hospital and went to the care home they said I would not survive more than two years. I was able to resume my school studies then go to University, and now I work as a counsellor with young people.