{Note – Many of you are receiving this report for the first time. I have been writing these weekly reports since May 5th when I first joined the Zion Outreach Ministry. The reports include information on events and miracles I have experienced while engaged with people at Portage Place, or on the streets. From time to time I have included the information provided to me by other team members. Each of the previous 33 reports are available if anyone wants to read them – just e-mail me your request. Initially, they were sent to my family members, a few close friends, and to others that were involved in the ministry who requested them. Starting now they will be sent to all people involved in the street ministry, as long as I have their e-mail address. I would also like to include information provided to me by other team members each week, so please feel free to e-mail me a report of your experiences (it can be brief). It is hoped these reports will be a source of encouragement to each team member. And of course – if you don’t want to receive them just send me an e-mail and I will take your name off this list.}
There was a total of 50 people who came out to minister last night. Twenty of them were students from Saskatchewan’s Eston Bible College. Because of the large number of people, it was decided to send some teams to Polo Park.
Portage Place was very busy and I heard reports of three salvations, and many miraculous healings from different team members. Thomas, who had gone to Polo Park, told me on the way home that Polo Park was a very different experience than Portage Place. He said he got a lesson in dealing with rejection. He added unlike Portage Place where people are very open to prayer, they had to approach a lot of people before they would find someone willing to engage.
Our team’s first encounter was with a man named John, and his 2 friends Christie and Judy. My wife had knitted 2 scarves for me to give away, and I asked them if one of them was interested in a scarf. John immediately took one, and Christie took the other. Judy was disappointed, so I told her to meet me next week and I would bring her one. I then asked if anyone needed prayer. The girls wanted prayer for their aging mother, and then for themselves. After praying a blessing for each of them we turned our attention to John. He uses a walker because he has trouble with his hip, and he is waiting for surgery. We have prayed for him before and have not seen any results. Again, after prayer, he did not experience any healing. I bought him a drink and gave him some change for bus fare, gave him a hug and told him that Jesus loved him. He said he knew that.
We then prayed for a lady named Leona who had level 10 pain in her back and legs. As we prayed for her I could feel a lot of heat emanating from her back. I had other team members touch her back to confirm. I asked Leona what she was experiencing, and she said a lot of heat in my back. I asked her what the pain was doing, and she said it was much less, maybe a 3. I then prayed, “3, 2, 1, 0, all pain go now!” She said all the pain was gone. Another team member then prayed for her legs, and again she said all the pain left. I then asked her if she knew who took her pain away, and she said with a big smile, “Jesus”.
Wounded by a knife – healed from anger
The next person we prayed for was Michael, he was a security guard, who had been stabbed several times. He had exposed stitches on his wounds,all over both of his swollen cheeks, and on his ears, neck, and arms. His face was a mess. As I talked to him, I asked him about how the trauma of the experience had affected him. He said he couldn’t talk about it, because any time he would try to talk about it anger would rise-up in him. I discerned a spirit of anger, so I prayed and released him from it. I then told him he was now free to talk about his experience without being bothered by anger, and that it would be good for his emotional health to talk through that experience with someone. He agreed and thanked me. We then prayed that he would experience faster than normal healing of his wounds. After that, he asked if we would pray for the young man who stabbed him, that he might be set free from whatever caused him to attack him. Jesus then revealed to me that He loved the wounded man’s heart. I told Michael, “Jesus really loves your heart”. I then asked him, “are you a Christian”? He confirmed he was, and we then prayed for the young man who stabbed him.
Our team then went different directions. I joined Susie and John who were talking to Hung. He is a professional gambler, and an alcoholic, who is dying from cirrhosis of the liver. I have talked with him many times before. This time he was more open and willing to let me pray for him. I prayed that the power of addiction would be broken and that his liver would be completely restored – like new. I then instructed him on how to walk in his new found freedom. He listened but was doubtful that he was healed or that his addiction was gone. I assured him that he was healed and that as soon as he discovered that he was, he should say, “Thank you Jesus”. He agreed to meet me again next week.
Baptism in Center Court
This next encounter may come across as a little radical to some of us.
It was now 9 and I went to debrief with other team members who were starting to gather near Center Court. While there, Gaylene hurried over and was looking for Pastor Tom, who had just left. She said there was a young woman who wanted to be baptized, and she wondered what to do. I said get a bottle of water and baptize her. She didn’t seem sure, so I bought a bottle of water and said take me to her. Hilary was sitting on a planter under the clock, near the piano. I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she eagerly agreed. Gaylene then said, “Not yet, I want to gather everyone for this”. So she ran around the mall finding all the team members she could. I think there was about 30 of us – plus a small group of curious mall people who gathered to watch. Gaylene then asked Lucas, the homeless, piano playing evangelist to play some worship music. The church as most of us have never experienced. I then explained to Hilary that I was going to pour water on her head, but not the whole bottle, just enough so that she would know she was baptized. Again she agreed. I then asked Erdman to bend Hilary backward into the planter and I poured about a third of the bottle of water on her forehead. When Erdman lifted her up she was beaming. There was applause and several team members congratulated her, and embraced her.
Now, I am not even sure what I said, or if I said the right words as I baptized her, but it was clear that she knew she had experienced baptism.
For anyone that may be troubled that this wasn’t done in a church, or that it wasn’t a full immersion baptism here is my rationale for baptizing on the spot with a bottle of water. First of all when someone asks to be baptized, then who am I to refuse them. I don’t think the method is more important than the act, and I think there is some urgency to be considered. Secondly, a couple of months ago a First Nations man asked if we would baptize him, and I wish we had. Instead, we told him to come to Zion church and told him how to get there, but he never did, and we haven’t seen him again. I view that as a missed opportunity and wish I had baptized him right on the spot, with a bottle of water.
This report is a little longer than usual, and below is a report from Jeanette Kimball who had joined us last week.
The report below is from a friend of mine who lives in Thompson. She was in Winnipeg for meetings and came out to join us last Thursday evening.
Al – After reviewing notes I made after joining the team at Portage Place Mall, here is my report. I have heard about this ministry for several months and wanted to see firsthand, the work you’ve been a part of.
The evening of January 26th, 2017 began with around twenty-five people meeting at Zion church where we spent time prayerfully preparing while worship music played. Kevin Penner, who I understand invests in healing work full time, provided a short talk about his approach to healing and played a video recorded earlier in the day, showing a young woman who received healing in her blind eye. We then divided into teams. Al arranged for me to team up with Kevin and there were around eight of us in his group. On the way to Portage Place, Kevin shared a bit about his approach to healing and told us of some experiences he had. He also brought food to hand out where it was needed. At the mall, we met up with several others and I guessed the number to be close to forty. After talking with a few members of the team, it became clear the group is made up of sincere, caring, and inclusive people. Denominational affiliation did not appear to be on anyone’s radar. I had the opportunity to talk with several of the young people involved and observe their energy and conviction of God’s ability to heal. I felt pretty comfortable with everyone and excited to see what would happen.
Right away, we stopped at a table in the food court where a young man and two young women were seated. Kevin asked if he could show them something cool. They seemed shy but agreed. He then asked if anyone had an eye problem that needed healing. Johnny indicated that his right eye ‘wasn’t good’ and Kevin asked if he could pray for healing. After Johnny removed his glasses and Kevin prayed for healing, Johnny covered his good eye and said that he could see better out of the eye that had been healed than his good eye. So Kevin said, “well, let’s pray for that eye then.” Johnny then looked around, his face showed surprise and he quietly giggled at what had just happened. He picked up his glasses, wondering what to do with them. The other two women at the table said they didn’t need healing. Kevin asked if he could buy them something from Tim Horton’s, and he then had a chance to talk more one on one with Johnny and his fiancé. Afterward, he shared that Johnny told him he was actually legally blind in his eye before being healed and shared contact information with Kevin so they could keep in touch.
During the time Kevin was talking with Johnny, a woman approached us to share that she had received healing in her eye after prayer on another day. She pointed to a sign and excitedly proclaimed, “Before my eye was healed, that sign was blurry and I couldn’t make out the words but now everything is sharp and I can see. God healed me.” Her face was glowing and her eyes looked clear and beautiful.
A fellow seated at a table asked one of the team and me for prayer for visual problems due to diabetes. The other person asked me whether we should wait for Kevin because he ‘knows what he’s doing’, but was busy at the time, buying food for some people. I said that I didn’t believe Kevin has any ‘special powers’ and God does the healing, so we decided to go ahead. We listened to the man and then prayed. Right away, he said there wasn’t any change in his eyesight and he prays every day for healing. Just then, Kevin came by and he prayed but again, the fellow noted there wasn’t any change. Though I wish the man had been healed, it reinforced my view that there is no magic in any particular person. God heals and is no respecter of persons. Kevin demonstrated this throughout the evening by asking me and others to lay hands on people and pray for their healing. This was a wonderful way of mentoring and engaging people and showing us it’s not a complex thing.
There was a lull with my group so, wanting to maximize my experience, I wandered over to Al’s team where they were praying for a woman with back pain. Al whispered to me that she had been in a lot of pain but had just had her back healed. Her young son asked for prayer for his bruised knee and said it felt better.
Kevin introduced us to an elderly man who they had prayed for on other occasions. He had an arm that was said to previously hang motionless by his side but he began swinging his arm back and forth to show us the movement he has gained. Kevin asked us to lay hands on him and speak healing to his arm. He swung it again and was beaming with happiness with the progress his arm is making.
Later, Johnny and his fiancé came walking by. We noticed she was limping and asked if she would like healing. Her small toe had been hurt earlier in the day. I laid hands on her toe, prayed and she said her pain had gone from a seven to a zero.
An elderly woman came by and testified that she had prayer before and demonstrated that she can now bounce and bend her knees, something she had been unable to do before. She began to speak about the emotional pain in her life; her daughter treating her badly, grandchildren being apprehended and how her heartfelt physically broken since her husband died. She also becomes homeless at times and sleeps in the park. After listening to her story, Kevin’s wife wrapped loving arms around her and prayed. This woman has stuck in my mind and I continue to pray for God’s blessing, peace, and presence to light her heart. Healing continues over time and distance, right?
There was a young woman with an angry face who kept walking by us and looked to be under the influence of some substance. It was strange how she would walk straight towards us and then veer off at the last second. Kevin believes the girl was attracted to our ‘light’ but was being kept away by demonic influence. He shared a few of his experiences with people being freed and healed from the control of demons. In the past, I have also witnessed instances of people being healed and released from spiritual oppression. While most of the healing I observed with my group on Thursday was physical and often involved the eyes, this group must also deal with a lot of emotional/psychological healing. I guess I’ll have to come back another time to confirm this.
I asked Kevin what was with all the eyes we encountered that needed healing. Though I can’t recall his exact words, he was open about the fact that he still wears glasses and continues to seek healing. I liked that Kevin doesn’t come across as someone who has to have all the answers and seemed accepting of mystery. My observation of this group is that they offer themselves freely to share the love and healing of God, primarily to the same people Jesus moved among, the poor and downtrodden. I simply stopped counting the number of people who stopped to tell us about the healing they experienced after being prayed for. Their faces had a joyful glow, just like the team, come to think of it. God is good.
Jeanette Kimball