Michelle and I approached a man with a cane, sitting on a bench, and we asked him if we could pray for him, but he shook his head and waved us off. As we turned around there was a lady limping towards us, also with a cane. Her name was Whitney, she was in a car accident a year ago, and her back was damaged. She said she was just now learning to walk again. We asked if we could pray for her and she agreed. We placed our hands on her back and simply prayed words like “back be healed in Jesus name”. I then asked her if she was experiencing any heat or tingling, and she said she was (Michelle told me after that she felt Whitney’s back become hot, and it felt like it was vibrating. My hand was right next to hers and I didn’t feel any of that). We then asked her to test out her back by walking, so she took several steps and said it was better, but not totally better. So we prayed again, and when she tested it by walking, she could walk normally, and said it was completely better. Before we could talk to her about Jesus the healer, she walked away from us, got on an elevator, and she was gone. Not everyone knows how to respond to their healing.
A bit later in the evening, as we were praying with another family, the Muslim lady waved Gaylene over to a table where she was sitting with her husband and friend. Turns out Gaylene had known this friend since 2004. We prayed for her husband to find work (he has a PHD and had been a professer in Saudi Arabia, but those credentials are often not recognized for immigrants in Canada.)
As we walked through the food court I noticed a lady with beautiful, braided unique hair. I stopped and commented on her hair. That turned into a wonderful conversation that was God appointed. She was from Guinni and was sitting with her friend Fatima. I noticed Fatima had a lazy eye and asked her if we could pray for her eye. We prayed six times for her eye, and her vision was not 100% but was improved, and her lazy eye had straightened up. They both asked for prayer for relationships and restoration. The girl with the striking hair was Muslim and dating a Christian. We encouraged her to ask Jesus to reveal himself to her, and you could tell her heart was open and prepared.
We also prayed for an aboriginal lady called Amanda. She said she had noticed us earlier and had known that she was to talk to us. She was so broken and hurt by life, and had been strong for so long that it looked like there were no more tears left. We spent time praying for her and hearing her story. She said that the previous week she also met two young girls on the second floor that prayed for her and encouraged her. We told her that we are always at Portage Place on Thursdays. I hope that more of our crew meet her and continue to minister and speak life and hope into her.
Our first encounter was with two women from the Philippines who were sitting
together chatting. I went up, introduced myself and asked them if we could pray for them if they had any needs that we could pray for them. One woman, name Wanda (an older woman), and Cathy (a younger woman). At first, they were a little wary of us but within a few moments, they began to share some areas in their personal lives, that they were struggling with. [This was pretty cool as most times we have not been
able to break through into ministering to most Filipino people–they often seem closed to our praying for them.] We listened fora whilee, and then began to pray for each of their situations. We got some words of knowledge for them as we prayed and encouraged them both. Both of the women had much disappointment in their lives. As we prayed for Cathy, she began to tear up and I sensed that she had an ache inside her that needed healing. As we prayed further, she began to open up and share a bit of her story with us and her heart softened! One of the things that she asked for was peace, and as we prayed we could see the Holy Spirit fall on her and her whole
countenance shifted within minutes. We spoke life over her and prophesied a
bit which really helped to open up her heart to God.
After blessing them we moved on. At another poin,t we were going to walk out to
the back of the mall to see what was going on outside and even walk to Central Park, but on our way, as I said hello to a few women, one stopped and came towards me and it was obvious that she was drinking and had been in a fight of some kind. Her name was Cecilia and her friend, we found out later, was Corinne who was trying to watch out for her. Corinne was Cecilia’s cousin, and very loyal to her. Cecilia asked for some money, but I didn’t want to give her any change because the Holy Spirit told me directly not to–that she would go out and use it to buy more alcohol [This was confirmed later by her sister Vikki.]. But we did offer to buy her food or coffee. Eventually, she knew she wouldn’t be able to get money from me so she asked for a tea. One of our team went off to buy the tea and as she came back we all sat at two tables in the Food Court.
The rest of our evening was spent with them at the table. We asked if we could pray for them and within a short time we find out that they had lost a younger sister to murder, a brother was stillborn, and their oldest brother David was having dialysis on a weekly basis and was quite sick. Cecilia began to cry as she shared this. And her sister Vikki began to share some more of the story with us, and that David was in a coma some time ago, but she prayed for God to heal him and he recovered from the coma and was doing better, although he still had failing kidneys. We must have sat with them for quite some time, prayed for their brother David, and at one point Cecilia got very angry with her younger sister and promptly got up, swore at her, yelling as she walked away. A minute later she came back and began to scream and curse her out again while we sat there. (people can sometimes be quite volatile when alcohol is involved and Cecilia had been drinking quite a bit already–we found out that earlier on she was attacked in the park by two other women who had also been drinking.)
Anyway, Vikki shared some more of the story with us, and we prayed for her sister and the family. And Vikki began to weep loudly as all the pain came pouring out of her heart. We found out that she deeply loved the Lord, but felt condemned and like a failure because she would do well (she was addicted to alcohol), and then would fall off the wagon again and drink. She believed that Jesus wouldn’t welcome her back if she backslid. So we began to minister much truth to her and share with her the mercy and love of God–that He’s the God of second, third, fourth chances, etc…because of
His love and grace. We must have spent about an hour praying over and with her about her life/story and God began to set her free of a bunch demonic junk that was attached to her. At one point, one of the team led her in a prayer to renounce any spiritual ties with her boyfriend that she had just left about a month before because she loved God and wanted to do the right thing.
By the time we were finished praying it was 9:00 p.m. and a guard asked us all to clear out of the Food Court. So we blessed Vikki and walked out of the building with her. We gave her some contact information if she would ever come back to the city again. [She was on her way home back up north. So not sure just what she will do with that.] It became very clear that this young woman (43) longed to serve God, had the heart of servant leader in her community, and had a call on her life to minister to her people! Praying that somehow she is able to be disciplined by other more mature Christians because her hunger was incredible!