Every knee shall bow...

When Emma-may Buckler-Watson signed up to an Alpha course she had no idea God was about to transform her life. Chris Rolfe reports

“It was like being on stilts: the slightest knock and I’d be on the floor.” That’s how Emma-may Buckler-Watson describes the way she used to walk.

Emma-may, who attends New Springs Church in Loughborough, was diagnosed with cartilage problems at 21 and spent 30 years with mobility issues – until God did something miraculous.

“When I was first diagnosed the doctors said my cartilage wasn’t bad enough to do anything about. I had to live with it, they told me, so I did,” she says.

As her condition deteriorated, Emma-may had four operations in an attempt to encourage her cartilage to grow.

“By that time I had bone rubbing against bone and was losing height.

“My consultant said he’d never seen joints as tiny as mine and that I shouldn’t really be able to walk.

“I needed new knees but was too young, so I was discharged. I was also told I wouldn’t be able to have children. When I unexpectedly became pregnant I was terrified I’d fall and lose the baby. Thankfully, I have a 33-year-old daughter now so things there were OK.”

Fast-forward to 2022 and Emma-may had reached her 50s, with her condition still debilitating and causing her constant pain.

Attempting to live life despite this, she accepted an invitation from her friend Joy to attend an Alpha course in order to “go back to basics and refresh our faith”.

Never could she have predicted what would happen on the third week.

“A gentleman asked if we could pray for the group for healing,” Emma-may says.

“As we prayed I could actually feel my knee healing – it was very strange!”

Over the next few weeks she put her knee to the test.

“Before, I used to get up and down stairs by pulling myself up or dropping down from one step to the next.

“Every time I walked it was like walking on stilts and the pain was horrible. But after prayer at the Alpha group I began to find I could walk up and down stairs. Now I just get up in the morning and go!”

So transformative was Emma-may’s healing that she began helping Joy run New Springs’ food bank. Sadly, Joy has since passed away, but Emma-may’s healing allowed her to carry on working and preserving Joy’s legacy there.

Life is radically different in other ways too. As I talked to Emma-may she was walking up a hill in Scotland. In April she walked 121 kilometres to raise funds for the British Legion.

“I’d never have been able to do that before, I was in so much pain,” she says.

Emma-may might have attended the Alpha course to give her faith a refresher, but what God did there has taken it to a whole new level, she says.

“God has a job for me and I certainly wouldn’t be able to do it if he hadn’t healed me. What he’s done for me is mind-blowing!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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