Mother Teresa said, “I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.”
Pictured above are 19 of the 24 students who just graduated from a Kingdom H2O 10 week course on street ministry. Included with them, on the far left is Pastor Thomas Campbell the lead pastor of Zion Apostolic Church, and in the center (light blue) Associate Pastor and the course’s co-ordinator and primary teacher Lorraine Peladeau.
Some of the Kingdom building topics are: Our Identity in Christ; Our Authority as Believers; The Ministry of the Holy Spirit; Prophecy; Hearing the Voice of God; How to Share Your Faith; Words of Knowledge; Discernment of Spirits; Fear, Risk and Faith. The next course is planned for January 2020.
This Week’s Highlights
*Hand Slowly Healing – see below
*Quest Inn ‘Hot Spot’ For Healing – see Pastor Thomas
*Sikh Thankful For Prayer – see Brian & Jeremiah
*Desperate Alcoholic Says Yes To Jesus – see Gaylene
Twenty-four Street Soldiers came out this Thursday and teams went to Health Sciences, Quest Inn, Polo Park, City Place, and Portage Place.
I spent most of my time, table hoping, in the Portage Place Food Court visiting and praying with some of the regulars – Simon, Art, Kansas, Sharon, Don, Edna, Debbie, Rita, Joseph, and No Name. Each of them are on social assistance or disability of some type and are examples of the poor in our city. Some of them were excited because they had received their $170 carbon tax rebate from the federal government (even though none of them own a car or buy gasoline), for the poor this is a major windfall.
Simon, whose hand and arm had been damaged in a sawmill accident several years ago, asked me to pray for him again because he is starting to get feeling in his shoulder, elbow and fingers. As recently as a few months ago his hand was a purple-grey kind of colour, but now was natural looking. I also noticed the color in his fingernails was looking more healthy, and his fingers which had been very stiff were now more pliable. I invited other team members to join me and as we prayed his hand began to visibly pulsate, and he said he felt twitching going up and down his arm. As healing experiences go, this has been a very slow one, but we are continuing to believe for a complete healing. At some point he will become aware that his healing will result in the loss of his disability income, and his challenge will be to trust God for another source of income. We will be there for him.
Pastor Thomas’ Report:
Tonight I went out with Claire, Anna, and Kelly who joined us for the very first time. We began by going to Jeff’s house, a man who almost died a week before of a swollen pancreas. He is on heavy drugs and wanted to recommit his life back to the Lord. We took communion together and prayed for healing and restoration. We then went to the Quest Inn where we met Denyse from Cross Lake who had pain in her legs and numbness in her side from a stabbing years ago. After prayer the pain in her feet left and she began to cry saying she felt so much better. She also asked us to pray for her 23 year old daughter Beverly who had a blood disorder. She was very impacted and ministered to. We also prayed for Margaret from Cross Lake who had problems with blurry vision so we prayed for her eyes and the clarity began to come. She began to weep as the Lord touched her eyes. We also prayed for Thomas who because of an operation in his arm could no longer make a fist. After prayer the muscles and nerves were restored and he was shocked that he could give me a firm handshake. We then met Elaine from Easterville who had an enlarged heart and was going for tests the next day. After I prayed for her she began to open up, I sensed the Lord wanted to minister to deeper heart issues and as I talked to her she shared that she had tried to commit suicide three weeks ago by taking pills. She said she may have died and felt peace when suddenly she felt a jarring pain in her body and came back and that it wasn’t her time. She shared that she was a 60’s scoop survivor and just found her family in her 30’s. She was not ready to forgive the government but was open to let me pray for her pain and loss from the past.
Brian & Jeremiah’s Report:
Josh, Jeremiah, Sheyenne and I went to Polo Park and the first group we started with was of young people wandering around. One girl had some sort of cartilage problem, holes drilled in it for some reason, and she had chronic pain. When putting our hand by her knee she said she felt a cool breeze like a fan blowing around her knee. I usually interpret the breeze as a change that’s happening in someone’s life and when doing a small word of knowledge she mentioned that morning she received a phone call about being transferred over seas for some sort of program she’s in! Her friends tried to pull her away saying they had to go; we weren’t sure what the rush was, but we didn’t have time to really explain what we were doing. As they were walking away we simply said “we’re Christians praying for people. God did this cuz he loves you.” They actually looked quite surprised not expecting that at all!
Another pair we approached just before leaving was of a young man in a wheel chair. They were of the Sikh religion and the one in the chair was incredibly thankful that we would have the courage to come pray for him like that. We invited him to church and he seemed quite open to it.
Jeremiah Adds:
We ventured out to Polo Park Mall, (Where I have never done street ministry before! Our team encountered five groups of people, Out of those, I person was healed immediately.
The best part of the evening was at a table with two Sikhs. The one guy, named Mark was in a wheelchair because of a car accident about a year ago. He was very intrigued by us and wanted to know if we had a book or something where he could learn more about what we were doing. Brian gave his email address and told Mark about the church he went to.
A great evening, as always. I love doing this!
Gaylene’s Report:
Andy, Sergiu and I teamed up and headed up to the skywalk at Portage Place.
We ran into Travis, who was a bit drunk and quite morose. He said he needed help getting sober but he was speaking very self defeating talk about the prospect of that. As a former alcoholic, I often hear the excuses so I called him on them and explained how God will clean him up when we give Him our yes. He emphatically said yes. In the middle of the encounter, Teetee, an Ethiopian girl I’ve known for years, inserted herself into our prayer. Andy and Sergiu took over and further prayed with Travis about his anger from being adopted.
Turns out Teetee,a professing Christian, was desperate for prayer about her daughter, who CFS removed from her home and gave to her ex and his new partner. She’s considering going to Calgary to clear her head, but knowing the stresses and her community in Alberta I’m not sure that’s the best choice. We prayed for God to break into her custody situation, for the CFS workers’ hearts to change and for Him to close (or open) doors regarding relocation.
At the library lobby, Sergiu and I noticed that one of the security guards was in a full leg cast and asked if we could pray for him. Mohamed, a Muslim from Sudan, seemed interested in prayer for his ACL tear injury but was very reticent because he was working.
We then bumped into Natasha, a preteen aboriginal girl who was dealing with betrayal from her boyfriend, who was also accused of rape. I prayed for her about the heartbreak she was enduring and Sergiu got a word of knowledge about her anger. He prayed with her about laying down the anger she was carrying and extending forgiveness.
At that same time Andy met Laura, who had almost the exact same issues as Travis. He chatted with and listened to her for some time and prayed with her, for which she was really grateful.
We decided to walk back to Portage Place outside and Sergiu ran into an former schoolmate named Curt and prayed with him.
Back at the mall at the end of the night, Lani and I sat beside a young man named Mike from Ste Eustache. He was in a rehab house for his lifelong struggle with alcohol and crack even though he was raised a Christian. He told us his story which involved both his common law wife and young child dying (he has a 13 year old son staying with relatives). He’s doing well in rehab and attending a church, but just that morning was starting to worry about temptation around the anniversaries of their deaths. Lani and I prayed with him and then I walked with him to Central Park and heard more of his story. He was quite in awe that the Lord sent us to pray with him and seemed interested in joining us at the mall or park in the future. I urged him to stay in touch and drop in anytime to see us on Thursday nights.