“When God measures a person, he puts the tape round the heart, not the head”. – Nicky Gumble
This Week’s Highlights:
*Blindness Healed – see Pastor Lorraine
*Testimony Results in Renewal of Faith – see Gaylene
*Hospital Visit Results in Multi-Encounters – see Andy
*Out of Body Experience Amazes Family – see Lani
Only 9 of us ministered this week. Teams went to Health Sciences and Portage Place. Monica and I prayed for a few people, but I was struck by one ladies negative response to my offer to help her. She has been homeless, and spending nights at Salvation Army, but recently Social Services had found her a small apartment. So she had to move, and the change was creating stress for her, plus she had not yet received her monthly welfare cheque and that was adding to her stress. My wife had prepared a nice hamper of food bathroom and kitchen supplies for her, and I approached her to tell her about it. She went into a tirade of abusive language, told me to leave her alone, that she didn’t want any of my garbage (without having even heard what I had for her) and she dropped the eff-bomb. I was totally taken by surprise at her response, but realized that the stress in her life was the reason for her strong response. This is someone Team Members have known, helped, and prayed with for over 2 years. I am praying for the stress in her life to minimize, and hopefully she will be more reasonable in the future.
Lorraine’s Report:
Kevin, Les, and I went to Portage Place.
We met a couple just outside the Food Court with poor vision. The woman’s right eye was not very good as we asked her to focus on a sign not too far away. Her good eye was clear, but the poor eye could not see the sign well—it was blurry. The gentleman’s eyes were not able to see anything very well. Kevin did his disappearing hanky trick and boldly proclaimed that once he was done, they would get their sight back and have clear vision. The man’s eyes improved almost immediately! The woman’s right eye was better, but not 100%. I prayed for the woman three more times. After the third time, her right eye was just as good as her left eye and she asked how we had done that and we got to share about the Lord Jesus. They were both believers.
Later, we met a man that Les connected with who was the person that his word of knowledge was for (left leg, foot pain). His name was Leonard. Les prayed for him and all his pain left!
Later we met a gentleman called Noel that Kevin had prayed for in the summer. He was going blind at that time, with serious vision problems. He found/saw Kevin and told him that after a few days he got all his vision back again and he’s been clear-visioned ever since! Praise God!! [Here is a link to a video interview with Noel –
We also met a young woman named Leah. She had been in a fight and had stitches on the side of her nose and big bruises around her face from being kicked in the face. Leah had 5/10 pain at the time. Kevin again did his sleight of hand trick with the handkerchief and when the piece of fabric disappeared all her pain left her body! We blessed her and gave her some food and a new hat for the cold. Later, we spent some time in the Food Court area giving food away to people at the tables.
Gaylene’s Report:
I showed up a little later than usual and I was on my own, but I joined Al at the food court. John, a new Christian, was sitting with him and he excitedly reported he’d gone to The Wave Church on Sunday (which is one of the churches we recommended to him) and he also attended their men’s group on Wednesday. He felt like he found a church home, which is such good news.
I had to go to the library so I invited John to walk with me through the skywalk and we discussed some of his future plans.
On the way, we sat and chatted with Sammy from Wasagaming. He was dealing with the breakup of his marriage and was coping by using alcohol. I talked to him about how alcohol as a depressant wasn’t going to help his stress. He was a Christian so we prayed with him in Jesus’ name for restoration in his family and for sobriety. A gentle soul, he was grateful for the prayer.
We also ran into two young men – Julian and Tony – and offered to pray for them. Initially Julian said no because he thought he was going to hell, but once John shared part of his testimony he visibly opened up. He agreed to let us pray and said he felt God’s presence and he did know Jesus in the past. Tony, on the other hand, was very antsy and refused prayer. We invited them to come to see us again next Thursday.
Once we were back in the food court I met Charlie who requested prayer because he was homeless. Les and Al joined me to pray for him and we noticed his hand was clenched, which turns out to be the after-effects of having been shot in the arm. We each prayed for his hand to return to normal…which didn’t immediately happen, but I’m believing he will experience improvement, if not full healing.
Andy’s Report:
Our team consisted of Tom, Josh, and myself. We left Zion Church to visit a specific person at the HSC hospital. Upon arriving we had found out the person had been discharged. But since we were there many opportunities came, as we met and prayed for many people. We met Randy whom we prayed for emotional health. We met Alanzo who was skeptical of prayer at first. We lingered with him for quite a while until he decided to let us pray for him. Tom had a word of knowledge about back pain and after prayer, he stood up and was thankful. Tom was led to a hospital room and after putting on gowns, gloves, masks, and glasses met Elma and her family. She had trouble breathing and no diagnosis from the doctors. After prayer, her breathing got better. Her granddaughter, daughter and friend were there. Seth was a Christian and I prayed for a deeper walk with God and encouraged him to go back to church at his hometown. We found out that Elma’s granddaughter went to Springs Kids Club and I had probably taught her. She had given her life to Jesus shortly after Kids Club. We prayed for Elma’s daughter as well. I met Brian who I had prayed for months previously. He was released after that but the skin graft had accidentally been knocked off and was back at the hospital. We prayed for a complete recovery and new skin on his leg. Met Lana who was visiting her fiancé and we prayed for the muscle in his leg. Another lady in a wheelchair felt amazingly better after we prayed. On the main floor of the Hospital, we met another team of people praying for the sick. Danny, from ‘I Am Second’ had a team of 8 people and they prayed for us. A very encouraging time of personal prayer and fellowship ensued.
Lani’s Report: (this is from last week)
Last Thursday was so good and intense I thought it too great not to share.
Gaylene and I met John a young part Jewish man who was recently saved from violence and drug running, we sat and prayed with him breaking off a somberness and releasing Gods joy on him, Gaylene explained Jesus doesn’t want or need us to beat ourselves up for what He’s already paid for. He was very blessed and shared a wonderful story of an out of body experience when he was near death in a hospital after a car accident. In his experience he saw a beautiful woman, I believe in heaven, who rode on a blue butterfly and who gave him a ring with multiple coloured stones on it. He was able to hear everything going on as they operated on him including the surgeon’s name, and he even saw his Dads choice of a chocolate bar for a snack while the operation was going on. After the surgery, he was given a family heirloom which was the very same ring he was given in heaven which he showed us. His family was amazed at how he could know all these details. I have no doubt this was from the Lord. Extraordinary young man and story!
We then met Yaya-Sierre Leonean, a young man who was walking by and Gaylene asked him how he was and if he needed prayer for anything. He sheepishly said yes after a pause and she called him over. After a bit of small talk about where he was from etc he reluctantly let us pray, he said he was a Christian and He prayed already but gently Gaylene continued to encourage that we all need prayer! So we prayed for a blessing on him and his career, he came from a Muslim family and is wanting his parents to know Jesus, so we encouraged him that they are His promise from God to come to know Him, and they are also His seed. We also got a word from the Lord that he has an oratory gift. Great encounter!
We then saw a man, Max, with curly long black hair we struck up a conversation by the water fountain, he seemed an eccentric intellectual. We discovered he was from Dubai a commercial pilot who said he was a follower of Abraham, not a Muslim, Jewish or Christian, but he studied these religions extensively, and came from a predominately Muslim background and said he didn’t ascribe to any of their beliefs. He was working on a thesis, he has been all over the world, but never Winnipeg. Crazy encounter. Gaylene asked him, “Why come to Winnipeg?” He said God spoke to him to come to a place of two rivers with muddy waters and he, though very learned in Astrophysics, is on a journey of discovering what he believes. He was very opinionated and intense about religion etc, we tried to reiterate we are not pushing anything really, not a systemic, oppressive religion or anything just a relationship with the Holy Spirit of God who is relational above all else. So please remember Max in your prayers. Oh God, encounter this man and let him encounter You!!!