We got off to a bit of a late start as Tom and Alyssa were both away, and Kevin didn’t have his key to the church. Eventually, a key showed-up and we were able to access the church. Sixteen of us arrived at Portage Place, where another 7 people joined us.
Our team’s first encounter was with a lady with a cane who had partial paralysis down her side. Erdman was our leader and he talked to her. She told him she didn’t want prayer, she didn’t believe in prayer as she had tried it once and it didn’t work. We moved on, but the Lord wasn’t finished with this lady yet, as another team engaged her a little later on, and this time she agreed to prayer and was healed.
After that we encountered Kansas and Alex. Alex had given his life to the Lord in the fall through one of our team members, and Kansas had received healing in her legs and no longer wore leg braces. She jokingly teased us about being late as they were waiting for us. When I asked her why she was waiting for us she said because they were hungry. As I was paying for the chicken dinner I bought them, she asked me for $20 so that she could buy Tylenol 3’s for the pain in her legs. I told her I would do better than that, our team would pray for her and Jesus would take the pain away. She didn’t immediately respond to me, but after she put her chicken on the table, she said she was going outside for a smoke. As Alex started eating Kansas left. I found out later that another team encountered her at the back of the mall, they prayed for her and her pain left.
Right after she left I noticed Lani talking to Hung. He is the Asian who is a professional gambler and an alcoholic. He has been advised that he has cirrhosis of the liver and will die soon if he doesn’t quit drinking. Lani gave him a Bible, but he said the print was too small, and he couldn’t read it. We offered to pray for his eyes, but he said needing reading glasses was a normal thing that happened to everyone, and he didn’t need prayer. He then talked about his drinking and said that he had started again, and he told us how hard it was to quit. We offered to pray for his liver and ask the Lord to heal him of his addiction. He wasn’t willing to let us pray. I then talked to him about my own healing from alcoholism, and he appeared interested. He asked me how many AA meetings I attended before I was healed. When I told him that I had never ever attended a meeting he was surprised. He said it wasn’t natural, and I then talked to him about the supernatural. He seemed intrigued but still wasn’t willing to let us pray. I recognized that for some reason he had no confidence in Lani and I. I noticed Kevin nearby, and as he was not engaged in praying for anyone, I went to ask him to join us – maybe Hung would relate better to Kevin.
Just as Kevin and I began to talk, a First Nations man who said his name was Franklin walked up to us and said he wanted Jesus. I was a little frazzled. I had Hung a few feet away waiting for me, and Franklin asking for Jesus. I didn’t know what to do first. Then, Andy, one of our team members stepped-up introduced himself to Franklin, and said, “Did you say you wanted to know Jesus”? (I think Andy has salvation radar, as this isn’t the first time I have seen him show up out of nowhere and lead a person to the Lord.) I found out later that Franklin did receive Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.
Kevin introduced himself to Hung who started to explain why he didn’t need prayer, and Kevin just said to him, “This will only take a minute, God just wants to bless you, take my hand.” Hung reached out, held Kevin’s hand, and Kevin prayed a blessing over him. I am not sure of any immediate healing, but I am sure that Hung’s heart is softening. He agreed to meet us next Thursday night to give us an update.
As soon as Hung left I spotted Rose walking through the mall. Rose is the First Nations grandma who has been having difficulty getting her old age pension, and she has been living under the threat of eviction for not being able to pay her rent. I was excited to see her as she hasn’t been around the last couple of weeks, and I was afraid she may have been evicted. Rose told me she finally received her pension, along with all the back pay, and she had paid all of her back rent. Answered prayer of a different kind, but answered prayer none-the-less – thank you Jesus.
I then spent some time visiting with a couple of mall regulars, Debbie, and David. They are always happy to see us, and they like to visit. They purposefully come on Thursday’s to connect with us.
Here is a story from Gaylene, one of our Thursday night team members. The general geographic area of Portage Place is referred to as the ‘Hood’, and Gaylene has been given the Nic-name by the locals as the ‘Hood Mom’. She is a full-time missionary working and living in the ‘Hood’ with refugees, new Canadians, and anyone who needs help. Her encounter below is a great example of how to bring Jesus’ love to the streets.
This is our experience with Mallory and Melody from Bloodvein. It was such a difficult swirly night although we prayed for my Jamaican (former neighbor) friend Prince right off the bat and that was cool. But Mallory and Melody touched our hearts.
These two girls were cousins and had been kicked out of Mallory’s sister’s house so she could be with her boyfriend. Mallory was quite brokenhearted and wept most of the first 15 mins.
Then Melody who was initially quite composed started to open up. She lives on reserve and doesn’t know her way around Winnipeg. She had given up a baby for adoption when she was quite young and believed a lie that it made her a terrible person…plus she’s been a victim of incest and she has been coping with it all by daily drinking.
She believes in Jesus, reads the Bible but she just finds the life on reserve pulls her away from sobriety. As she told her story she began to weep and that pretty much was the case until we left. Iris and I ministered to her truth: You are NOT a bad person for giving your child up for adoption (I’ve heard that before from girls in lac Brochet). In fact you are forgiven and loved. I got her to speak that aloud (I am forgiven. I am loved) and then Iris started speaking to her about God’s perfect plan for her hurt and pain and got her to say God has a plan for my life.
Sarah joined us near to the end and she had been on Cross lake reserve at Cross Lake over Christmas so the cousins received well from her. The entire exchange with these girls (Mallory was 18, Melody was 24) was extremely touching. Melody’s story in parts is very similar to mine and I realized that I was, in actuality, ministering to my younger self as crazy as that sounds. The Lord told me to pay attention to the things I was speaking over the two cousins….it was truth that I needed to solidify in my own heart. At the end Melody kept saying thank you ladies…no one has ever been so nice to us and then she would look at me and say especially you. On my way home, God told me that was Him speaking and that wrecked me. It just goes to show we are never just ministering to people…they are very often ministering TO US.
January 7th teaching now available at:
Biblical Basis for Praying with Authority by Al Bayne
Saturday, January 14th
Conquering Fear & Managing Risk by Al Bayne
Available soon
Teaching this Saturday night (the 21st) at Zion by Kevin.
Team members with access to Kingdom H2O Facebook page will find equipping talks posted there.