#46 – Family Friend from the Past Encounter
Zion Outreach Ministry – Thursday, April 27th by Al Bayne
There were about 35 people who showed-up at Zion for worship before going to the streets, and another 3 joined us at Portage Place. Ed had 60 cinnamon buns, and his team went to Main Street to hand them out (see Diana’s Report below for details).
Mel’s Report:
Mel, Caleb and Tyler were a team. The first person we encountered was a drunk First Nations man who was asking for $2. He said he had $5 and needed two more so he could buy a beer. We wouldn’t give him any money but offered to pray for him. He finally agreed to prayer, but then demanded the money (he wanted to trade letting us pray for money). When we still wouldn’t give him any money, he became verbally abusive and told each of us to ‘eff off’. Welcome to Portage Place Mall where not every encounter results in a blessing.
So the second guy we ministered to was Bruce. He had a very painful toe. The toenail had been ripped off. We prayed, he tested it, and it felt much better. We also prayed for a brain injury which had greatly affected his balance. No real manifestation of healing but Caleb spent extra time praying with him. I got called over buy a man named Louie. He said he could hardly see due to blurred and double vision. He was very inebriated (which may have contributed to the vision problem). I prayed for him, then called Tyler over. He prayed once without results then felt led to command the vision to clear up which it did instantly! Louie then proceeded to hug and kiss us. The next guy used to play for the OCN blizzards and had just been beaten up. I let him use my phone to call his brother. We then prayed for his one eye which was swollen almost shut. After we prayed most of the swelling was gone and his eye was 80% better!
Al’s Report:
I was with Erdman and Adina. While Adina and I prayed to heal for a lady’s painful knee, Erdman made contact with a 50-year-old lady named Elizabeth who was in a wheelchair. When we joined him, he introduced us and we began to talk. During the conversation, she mentioned she was from a dairy farm in St. Pierre (where I live). I looked at her again and asked her, “Are you Lizzie Bastianson”? She confirmed she was. Lizzie went to school with my kids, and 33 years ago she was involved in a car accident that resulted in her being a paraplegic. I haven’t seen her for years, and I recognized this was a meeting orchestrated by God. We had a great time visiting, and when I asked her if she had any pain we could pray about, she said with a grin I have level 4.832 pain in my right knee. We had a big laugh about her number, and I told her I was going to consider it a 5. After a couple of prayers, the pain level dropped to zero. We also prayed about the trauma she went through as a teen in the accident, and we prayed for a complete healing of her neck, back, and legs (we didn’t notice any immediate change in her overall condition). She talked about how she knew God was with her during her accident, and I asked her if she would like to invite Jesus into her life. She said she already had, several times, (because she just wanted to be sure). She then asked us if we could pray that her joy would be increased because she felt it was slipping. We prayed, helped her get dressed for her journey home, and invited her to meet us again on a Thursday night. During the whole time, I was asking Jesus what He wanted us to do, but I didn’t receive any direction, so I assumed He just wanted us to demonstrate His love for her.
Pastor Tom’s Report:
My team included Iris, Michelle, and Mary Elizabeth. We went to Portage Place and spoke with a few familiar people who wanted us to pray for them including Donna and Lars who was drunk and talked non stop which brought so much confusion. Iris engaged them while an aboriginal man named Joseph opened up and asked for prayer to release the past and forgive. He did so and accepted Jesus into his heart and then all the pain left his left arm and right leg. We talked to and prayed for about a dozen people and saw others get healed including a couple from Pine Falls. A highlight was a woman named Joy and her friend Nathan, she was upset about having lost a set of twins she was pregnant with a year earlier. She had been jumped and assaulted. Now she is pregnant again with twins with her boyfriend Nathan and is due in Mid June. We ministered to them both at length then they asked me if I would marry them on July 22nd. I agreed that I likely would.
Iris’s Report:
Confusion and salvation: I partnered up with Tom, Michele, and Mary Elizabeth. As we were walking through the food court, a lady and I noticed each other at the same time, and we tried to remember where we had met before. Her name is Linda and she was sitting with a group of other family members. My group wandered off at this point, and I stayed behind to chat with this group and asked if they wanted prayer. All of a sudden I was surrounded by about 3 other people, plus Linda, and they were all talking at me, one of them pretended to interview me like a reporter of my opinion of aboriginal and white man religions. Linda’s son, John, also popped his head in and said that no one would pray for him, as he had murdered two people. Right next to him, another man said, can you pray for me, I have anger, hurt and bitterness in my heart.
I felt like this was a God encounter, but had a hard time figuring out which one of them was the encounter. Tom said afterward it was as if there was a spirit of confusion. I agree. I was glad Tom was free from his other conversation and could come help. He pulled the man aside who had wanted prayer for bitterness, anger and hatred, and we sat down with him at another table to give him some privacy from the group. Immediately, another man we had not seen before sat next to me, and the two women came and started chatting. No privacy to be had here. Eventually, Tom discretely went to another table to chat with the man, and I stayed behind to chat with the other group. This was a challenge and heartbreaking to hear the stories and the sense of injustice and to have it all heightened with alcohol. Tom led this man to the Lord at the next table, and the change in his eyes and the peace on his face was unmistakable. I think that’s what the whole group gathering was about, and the enemy was trying his best to bring in distraction and confusion.
Sudanese Muslims asking questions: Towards the end of the evening, Lorraine pulled me away from Tom’s group as we were praying with an aboriginal couple that was expecting twins, saying Gaylene was in a conversation with three Sudanese Muslims who had theological questions and needed someone who could speak a bit of Arabic. I went over and sat with them, and they started intensely asking me questions about the differences of Christianity and Islam, how I see Islam, what the bible says about another prophet coming or if Jesus was the last prophet. I had a hard time understanding as Sudanese Arabic is a different dialect than Syrian, but we managed between their broken English, my choppy and almost non-existent Sudanese Arabic, and using the internet on cell phones and Gaylene’s tablet. We encouraged/challenged them to read the Gospels, asked them if they had had dreams of Jesus. They were so hungry to understand and know more of Jesus and of the differences between the faiths. As they left to go to their time of prayer in the mosque, I had the sense that they were on the way to the Kingdom with their questions. I pray that as they continue to search and read, they will encounter other believers that will have the wisdom, courage, and language ability to spend time with them, listen and answer their questions. Gaylene pointed out a website showing 1000’s of Muslims coming to Jesus. I encouraged them to listen to Nabeel Qureshi (link to his story here: http://www1.cbn.com/why-nabeel-qureshi-questioned-his-muslim-faith).
Diana’s Report:
My group consisted of Ed, Jeremiah, Misty and myself. We headed to Main street where we handed out cinnamon buns and had several encounters with people and were able to pray for a few as well. We met a man named Glen who kept praising us for being out there on the streets and he came back again just to talk to us and share that he is a gay man but he knows that there is a higher power and he believes. We were able to speak words of love to him and he was visibly emotional and couldn’t stop thanking us for being there. Another man named Derek came by with his young son and as we were loading him up with cinnamon buns for his family, he dropped a few on the ground, as I was leaning down to retrieve them I noticed that he had a cast on his leg so I asked what happened. He had his leg crushed in an auto accident and there was also infection. His pain was a level 10. We asked if we could pray and he readily agreed. After we spoke healing into that leg we asked how it felt. He said it felt really light and it was really heavy feeling before and when I asked about the pain, he said it was gone. Then he said “you guys are freaking me out, that’s amazing!”. And he proceeded to shake his leg around. At this point his young son said “is Jesus real?” and Jeremiah (14) said, “Yes, Jesus is real, and he just healed your dad’s leg”. What an awesome encounter. As Derek was walking away he said, “I don’t know why I came this way, my bus stop is the other way”. Definitely a divine appointment.
Lorraine’s Report:
I had Jackie on my team. We went to Portage Place and met my aboriginal friend Geraldine, she was sitting on her walker in the Food Court by herself. Geraldine was very, very discouraged and sad, looking. It turned out that she had ‘fallen off the wagon’ and was quite distraught and angry with herself for her behavior and when she saw me she began to cry immediately as I hugged her for a very long time and she wept in my arms. I kissed her on the head and was very grieved at her countenance. But God had a divine appointment for her! We spent quite a bit of time praying for her, hearing her heart, encouraging her and trying to instill hope again. She was like a sponge taking in all the love and you could tell that she had recently been through the ‘wringer’.
She still had no place to sleep on a regular basis and I arranged some cab fare for her to get to a mission. We continued to pray and minister to her and eventually, she agreed to let us get her some juice. She was extremely thirsty, worn out, and not in the best health as her legs had swollen quite badly. She still had her sense of humor, but it was tempered quite a bit by her sense of hopelessness that she’d never beat her addiction and get off the street. We spoke healing to her heart, for the swelling of her legs, and we broke off any demonic attack (she said she heard words of condemnation in her head). Although we did not see a noticeable shift at that time, her countenance did completely change. She sensed the Lord’s peace inside of herself. You could see peace all over her face!
Team member Diana came to our table and sat with us. We had prayed for her wrist at Zion and she was still experiencing pain, so I asked her if she wanted us to pray again. As she shared how she was feeling suddenly Geraldine and her aunt Josie started to pray for her wrist and lay their hands on her! Absolutely amazing prayers they prayed. I was actually incredibly surprised and blessed by their willingness to do that for Diana. Wow!! I think these women are going to be doing this in the future—I think they are called to minister to their own people on the street and we were so surprised at their willingness to step up and pray without being asked. Unfortunately, Diana’s wrist did not show any marked improvement, but she was moved that these two women who had so much need themselves would do this for her.
Coming Sept 29th – Oct 1st – Zion presents – Azusa Winnipeg Conference
Guest Speakers: Steve and Ruth Moore from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry
Details and Registration: www.azusawinnipeg.com
Kingdom H20 Equipping & Healing Nights (7 PM at Zion)
Saturday, April 29 – Erin Mohr – Worship as Lifestyle
Saturday, May 6 – Lorraine Peladeau – Shifting the Spiritual Atmosphere
Saturday, May 13 – Daniel Fewster – Luke 10:20
Saturday, May 20 – Thomas Campbell
Saturday, May 27 – Kevin Penner
Saturday, June 3 – Al Bayne
Saturday,June 10 – Erin Mohr
Saturday,June 17 – Lorraine Peladeau
Saturday,June 24 – Kevin Penner
Saturday, July 1 – ?