When I first heard about The Animal Healing Project, I have to admit I was scratching my head a bit, and wondering if it might not belong to the more flowery end of the animal advocacy community.  It turns out that's far from the case, and I'm honored to introduce a progressively missional and very much grounded new effort by a good friend.

Tracie Russell was one of the first people who contacted me a few months ago when I went "public" with not one sparrow.  And while Tracie herself seemed about as level-headed as they come, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the effort she was planning on putting together.  I admitted to her that physical healing was not a spiritual gift my own end of the evangelical heritage emphasized, but I was open to learning more from her and how she saw that gift being applicable to animals.  I did wonder how making the leap from the healing of humans to the healing of animals might be perceived by those who call the Pentecostal and Charsimatic communities home.  But then again, any focus on animals is seen as a stretch by a good percentage of Christians, Charismatic and non-Charismatic alike.

It turns out Tracie was drawing from the more conservative end of the Episcopalian community, which incorporates healing prayer into its liturgy.  Naturally sensitive to the suffering of animals, like many of us, Tracie simply wanted to see what would happen if she extended her recognition of God's ability to heal to hurting nonhuman creatures.  She writes:

Prayer at its very core, then, is an expression of love to our Creator on behalf of his creatures, which God hears and answers in kind with a Father’s loving response. ...  Let me say that I’m no authority on prayer.  I’m just a lay person who has seen its great power. ...  I’ve seen prayer work on animals in emergency roadside situations and have spent the better part of ten months praying weekly for inner healing with a cow with slow but steady results.  Praying for animals is effective - that I know for sure.  Whether addressing areas of unmet need in current veterinary medical practice, or soothing the ravages of cruelty cases, a myriad of applications for healing in prayer for animals immediately spring to mind.  I created The Animal Healing Project as a way to step out in faith and act even though I don’t have all the answers, and likely never will.  I know there must be others out there who have seen animal healing miracles as well.  I want to know your stories, please write and share them with me ("About Healing Prayer for Animals").

Tracie refers to her volunteering with Cassie, a rescued cow who escaped from a slaughterhouse and currently resides at Maple Farm Sanctuary in Mendon, Massachusetts (see picture above, which is a screenshot of a homemade video of some of the sanctuary's animals posted on YouTube).  Tracie's work with Cassie was actually featured in a LiveScience article about the benefits of soothing music for hurting and traumatized animals.  Tracie describes her own experience with Cassie movingly, who was incredibly traumatized by her former existence as a food production unit, in "The Cassie Chronicles."  Please stop by and read it if you get the chance, and if you have a few extra minutes she has a very interesting section on veterinary hospice, which includes a link to a true story published in the New England Journal of Medicine about a cat named Oscar, "an extraordinary hospice caregiver to humans."

I'm no expert in healing prayer either.  In fact, I probably underemphasize God's ability to work in that way in my own theology and community experience.  But my guess is healing is God's gift to demonstrate, or not demonstrate, as he sees fit.  We've all seen loved ones continue to suffer or even pass on, human and animal alike, who were prayed over for healing.  But who knows how many times God has answered the same prayer in our own lives and the lives of those close to us.  I give Tracie a lot of credit for making a connection which many of us might have been wary to make: that if God is a God of healing, who cares about animals and our stewardship of them, then he may well choose to heal some of his wounded creatures through our prayer as well as practical care.  Not only does The Animal Healing Project make that connection, but it's making an effort to see that connection through in faith and experience.  I'm grateful to Tracie for that, and have a lot more to learn.