A.W. Tozer wrote, “God is love and God is sovereign. His love disposes Him to desire our everlasting welfare, and His sovereignty enables Him to secure it.”
This Week’s Highlights
*Pain in Leg Gone – see Jeremiah
*Team at Hospital Sets Girls Free of Pain – see Pastor Thomas
*Blind Eye Healed – see Kevin
*Didn’t Want Prayer Just a Carol – see Gaylene
*Suicide Patient Receives Words of Life – see Robin & Lorraine
Twenty folks came out to minister this week, and they went to the Forks, Main Street, Health Sciences, Grace Hospital, Winnipeg Public Library, and Portage Place. A friend gave us Christmas cards in envelopes with $5 tucked inside each one.
The lady who was very abusive to me last week came to apologize, and I was able to have a good talk with her.
The highlight of the evening was praying with Jeremiah for a young man who was walking with a cane. See Jeremiah’s report below.
Jeremiah’s Report:
My highlight you ask?
Easy, the part where Al kicks me in the butt, okay, he didn’t ACTUALLY kick me. He challenged me to encounter a lame person. Here’s the story,
Not long after Al prayed for a divine encounter, someone walks down the food court – a young man in his twenties, pants halfway to his knees, you get the picture. He also had a cane and had a very bad limp. Al immediately knew that he was the one God sent. Al then pointed to the man and told me to go and minister to him. Now, he wasn’t exactly the type of person I felt comfortable approaching, (same age group as the guy who punched me last week).
My mind was racing thinking about two things: ONE, how will I approach him? TWO, how will I get him to listen to me?
Meanwhile, he was buying himself a burger and was five cents short. I then took over and paid for his food. I could tell he was confused, WHO DOES THAT? I told him I was here with some friends and we like to bless people and make their day better.
I gestured to his cane and asked what happened, he said he had surgery on his leg recently. At this point Al had come over to join me. The guy’s name was Todd. I asked if he would let me put my hand on his knee for three seconds. He agreed, I prayed and asked him to test it out.
The first time his pain dropped from 10/10 to 7/10, the second time, 6/10.
The third time I put my hand on his knee the pain left altogether! He then walked around without his cane and without his limp and his mouth stretched from one ear to the next.
Al and I were excited, we thought for sure that we were going to lead him to the lord but he was already a Christian! I told him as we were leaving that what just happened was a reminder that God loves him!
I am grateful for a good kickin’ once in a while that pushes me past my comfort zones.
Pastor Thomas’ Report:
Tonight I teamed up with Ryan and went to the Health Sciences Centre. It was there that we met Damian who was out for a walk from the Psychiatric Centre. He said he had pain in his foot and welcomed prayer. He received healing and said the pain level went from 7 to zero. We then ended up going to pray for Darryl, a friend I knew who was dealing with a tumor which damaged his liver and is now awaiting a liver transplant. We spoke healing and hope into his life which brought encouragement and was much appreciated.
After that, we met a girl who asked if we could pray for her uncle Jordan at the Rehab Centre. After praying for a few more people we went to the Rehab centre where we met four women in wheelchairs by the elevator. I asked them who had the most pain and they all pointed to Sally a young woman from Sierra Leone who had been run over by a car twice and left for dead, a story that was in the news. Almost every bone in her body had been broken and she had level 10 pain all over. After we prayed she didn’t have any pain and was freaked out. She also felt a tingling all over her body which further freaked her out. We then prayed for Joanne, a believer from Springs Inner City. She had a wrist in a brace from an accident in October. After praying the pain left completely and she got back all of the feeling and mobility in her fingers. She began to praise the Lord. We then asked Veronica, who was also in a wheelchair if we could pray for her. She began to cry and explained she had Multiple Sclerosis and felt alone as her mom had passed away 3 years earlier. We prayed for healing and broke off hopelessness and despair and losing life over her. She began to smile said that a peace had come upon her unexpectedly. Joanne, her friend shared that she had said to Veronica earlier that day that some people would come to pray for her tonight. We were an answer to her prayer which was amazing. See a picture of Veronica and Joanne above
Kevin’s Report:
We started at Pizzarama on Main Street. Got to pray for an 8-year-old girl born with one good eye and one fuzzy eye. After showing her the disappearing prayer cloth trick, and pronouncing that just as the cloth disappeared so would her blindness – her blindness disappeared and she had perfect vision in both eyes. We then shared that Jesus loved her and did that for her.
Ken and I handed out pizza for a while on the streets then moved over to Portage Place and found a lady with a blind eye. She was missing the lens in her glasses for that eye because she had no need for it. Anna had joined us at Portage Place Mall and I had her pray several times for Juliet (lady with a blind eye) . We didn’t see healing manifest but taught her to use her imagination/heart to see God’s truth about her eye and to think about that picture from time to time. Expecting to hear a good report when seeing her again. We then gave her family a full box of pizza.
Gaylene’s Report:
Iris and I started in the food court where I ran into Sequoia, a young woman I’ve known for years from ministering at the Manitoba Youth Centre. We’ve stayed in close touch and yesterday was her birthday so she and I shared my teen burger and onion rings. She’d just returned from Kamsack, Sask for her great grandmother’s funeral and while she was there her grandmother also died. She was understandably feeling sad and hopeless and had been drinking a bit. Iris gave her a Christmas card with $5 in it and she told us she had found $5 twice recently. Iris explained the meaning of the number five (grace) to her and we prayed for her about grace to quit drinking and encounter Jesus in the midst of her grief this Christmas.
I’m well acquainted with Sequoia’s partner Betsy (Andy and I dealt with her after a terrible beating in Central Park in the spring) and she kept dodging in and out of the food court to try and score pills. However, she did let Iris pray for her.
We headed over to The Main Library and Andy and John joined us. We met with Sheila Bughao, one of the two community crisis workers on staff at the library. She deals with any number of issues from homelessness, mental illness, employment, welfare, CFS etc and shared how stressful and overwhelming it could be some days. Sheila was really interested in our outreach and was happy to receive prayer.
On our way back, we ran into Alexandre, a street musician I’d met before. He’s originally from Martinique and is returning with his family in the New Year. Andy questioned him about his faith, he told us about the voodoo influences on religion in Martinique and how his family there worships idols. Andy shared the gospel with him and he was very skittish, although he did let us pray for him.
We also offered prayer to a man named Ralph but all he wanted was for us to sing a Christmas carol (that was a first for me). Iris obliged and sang Joy to the World to him and he was thrilled. It was the most lovely way to end the evening.
Robin’s & Lorraine’s Report:
Lorraine, Michelle and I visited a young man in Grace Hospital who had attempted suicide. Lorraine and I shared our personal stories of attempted suicide. We were able to speak life into the patient who was open to receive. His two sisters were also open to words of life that Lorraine spoke. Lorraine also provided them with her contact information. Praise God!!! What a time of ministry!!
After a brief time of prayer, I (Lorraine) felt we were to visit room #333. Well as it turned out, there was a patient in #333 who had emphysema. And she was an elderly lady named Ruth who needed our prayers. Incredible! She was sitting outside her room in a chair as if waiting for us. So we ministered to her, shared Jesus with her, and prayed for healing for her lungs and body. Robin noticed that she had this incredible peace all over her. Amazing!