“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor…you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.” Deuteronomy 15:7
This Week’s Highlights
*”Pray That I Could Sleep At Night” – see below
*Lady No Longer Needs Walker – see Linda
*Broken Arm Healed – see Pastor Chris
*Team Prime Man For Prayer By Next Team – see below & Jeremiah
*”Absolutely Interested In Alpha” – see Gaylene
Twenty Christian Crusaders came out tonight and went to the Quest Inn and to Portage Place.
As team members we were handing out invitations to the upcoming Alpha course. Rita one of the regulars in the mall immediately said, “sign me up”. Also See Gaylene’s report below for another person who signed-up. Security had told Gaylene she couldn’t hand out the invitations in the mall because they were religious material, so we just did it more discreetly.
I was visiting some team members in the food court when Margriet beckoned me to join her in praying for a man named James. He had just been provided with a coffee and bagel from another team (see Jeremiah below). He said he was a Christian and would like prayer, for a better job. He was working as a building cleaner, making minimum wage (11.65 per hour) with no benefit package. When I asked how much he wanted to earn he said $14 or $15 per hour would be great, so we prayed a blessing of a new job for him, and asked him to meet us again next week and provide us with an update.
Sonja then spotted a man sitting alone and said we should approach him. We introduced ourselves and asked how we could pray for him. He immediately answered, “Pray that I could sleep at night”. Doug, another team member then joined us at that point. Matthew explained he struggled with anxiety and depression and it kept him awake. Sonja discerned it was a spiritual problem, and we prayed that he be free from any spirit that was affecting him. We also asked him to meet us again next week and give us an update.
Linda’s Report:
I went to the Quest Inn to join Lucille, Dove, and Tanya where we prayed for a number of people from Oxford House and Norway House. One of the highlights of the evening was in seeing the first lady, be completely healed. She had much pain and was using her walker but after prayer, her countenance changed and she enjoyed walking free from pain without her walker and she received a scarf on top of that! She then got her husband so we could pray for him as well. He had some neck pain and felt definite relief with some persistent prayer.
We then prayed with a lady who brought her mother for an eye appointment and although it seemed an opportunity simply for prayer, it became a time of faith-building with the mutual sharing of testimonies.
We then prayed with another lady who had marital issues and after a time of ministry, she felt joyful and encouraged with strategies in navigating difficult moments with the Lord.
We then went on to pray with a man who had arthritic pain in both knees and was freed from pain.
Finally, we were able to share with another man about Jesus. He was a kind, quiet and humble man, who occasionally attended church up north. We shared the Gospel with him and although he was not ready to pray regarding salvation, he was left equipped with some support materials, a gospel bracelet with beads, (from the Christian Farmer’s Association) and an invitation to the upcoming Alpha program.
At the same time, Lucille prayed and ministered with several others. It was indeed a blessed night at the Quest!
Pastor Chris’ Report:
Headed out with Jeremiah last night. Bought some coffees and hot chocolate and handed them out. First up, a group of 3 teenagers in the food court. Turned out Mikey (a girl) had pain in her ankle (8/10) from a sprain from the previous week. We declared that they had super powers to make pain disappear. I did a short demonstration (sleight of hand, trick making coins disappear), and then I asked her to check her ankle. Pain had slightly gone down. Jeremiah jumped in and shortly thereafter she said she suddenly felt her foot go “numb” and there was no more pain. We checked in with her before we left the mall and she was still pain free. Lucas, who was with her had a torn retna and could not see out of one eye. We prayed for him and did not see any results. I left him with a reminder, that even when we can’t see immediate results, God is still working, and encouraged him to not give up.
Later I met 3 other teens. “Zoey”, a boy, who just broke his hand that day. It was in a sling, stabalized but not casted yet. He had 10/10 pain and said he could not even move his hand. After a short talk about how “super” they really are, I got one of Zoey’s friends to command the pain to leave his friend. Instantly, pain dropped in half and he could move his hand 50%. I prayed, and this time 100% pain free and he could completely open his hand.
This was all great! As well meeting some new faces and in the court and giving hugs, bagels and coffees to perfect strangers.
Jeremiah’s Report:
Last night I partnered with Pastor Chris, from Portage La Prairie, at Portage Place mall and went straight to Tim Hortons to get some coffees to give away, Chris paid for the guy in front of us’s order, which turned into a very nice encounter,
We asked if he had any pain in his neck or back, he told us no. So we chatted about wrestling and how he was just headed off to work. He has been in the country for 17 years now. We told him we are Christian and we like to bless people and pray for them, he said he had nothing for us to pray for. Another team spoke with this guy later on in the evening and did end up praying for him.
I have always known that Chris has cool magic tricks, but every time I see them, I get a good reminder, as when we approached a group of teenagers at a table. Chris showed a few sleight-of-hand tricks and that got their attention! We made all sorts of things disappear, including the pain in the one girl’s ankle. We told them that Jesus was the one doing the healing.
We prayed a few times for the other teen’s eye, that had a detached retina. We didn’t see any improvement (that I know of) but we told them to keep checking on it.
sometimes these things take a little while.
Chris and I separated sometime in the evening, I spoke with Lucas, a regular at the mall, and Chris went on and healed someone’s broken arm (see above report)
It’s always a great time at street ministry!
Gaylene’s Report:
I teamed up with Danika, John and Lani at Portage Place. We did quite a bit of prayer walking last night, for the mall, for revival and for soft hearts. We also asked the Lord to bring participants to our Alpha program and as we did, He brought to mind a young woman I met at the Manitoba Youth Centre years ago and stayed in touch with so I messaged her.
In centre court, we met and prayed for a young man named Phoenix with bright pink hair and some unique fashion. Quite an engaging guy, but he looked haggard and after chatting a bit, he admitted he was heavily addicted to weed and molly. I asked if he wanted to quit and he said he did so I prayed for him. And right afterwards he looked up and quite literally bolted outside.
We noticed Audrey at the entrance of the food court. Her arm was bandaged against her chest and she explained she was recovering from surgery and was happy to get prayer. While we were praying for Audrey’s complete healing, her brother interrupted us. Turns out he was being protective and didn’t realize what were doing, but was fine when we told him we were praying.
We walked to the library lobby and Lani and I both felt drawn a woman with a very rambunctious two year old son. When we asked if we could pray for her, she was barely able to focus because her kid was running all over the place. When I told her God had highlighted her, she leaned over and told me that was really nice to hear because she was leaving an abusive relationship and her original videotaped statement for the court had gone missing. I explained to her that our God is Righteous Judge and prayed for justice in her case. You just never know why the Lord highlights people…
As we dispersed for the night, the young woman I’d messaged earlier replied and was absolutely interested in Alpha. And she added this, which speaks to the power of Alpha and how it transforms lives: “I know someone who took the course and I was invited for dinner it was amazing to see how people were so happy completing the program.”
So please keep praying for our Alpha program which starts Monday, February 24 at 6:30, at 376 Notre Dame, and runs for nine weeks. God is FAITHFUL and He will bring all the participants He wants there.