Healings in Walker

As a Christian I know that God is able to heal, I know this to be true, as God has healed me. However, I still struggle to actual believe that God will heal when I take a step of faith and pray for someone. So I often argue with myself when I am out to actually talk to people and offer to pray for healing.

On Saturday (19^th May) the team I am leading at the moment were helping some of the local churches in Walker, which is in Newcastle, to run a marquee and football cage in the Walker Festival. The festival is not actually a Christian run event, but the churches in Walker come together to do things in the festival to connect more with the local community.

 Our time was going to finish with worship in the marquee, and so we spent the hour before hand walking round the festival praying. God has been challenging me recently to be offering the blessings of the kingdom to all I meet. So after a bit of time walking round and praying, and noticing lots of people on crutches. I went to find one of the other people we are working with to come and speak to people and offer prayer. I had done my normal arguing, but got to the point where I did not want to argue with myself any more. I do not want to be afraid of blessing others.

 The first lady we spoke to had injured her foot the night before, and was in quite a lot of pain. She said we could pray for her after a bit of hesitation, but she told us nothing had changed when we finished. We were not to be discouraged, and headed for another small group of people, one of whom was using a crutch. This group were very eager for us to pray. Not only the older woman who was using the crutch but others also, they were a family. The older woman suffered from arthritis of the hips, which she needed an operation for, but had been told that due to her epilepsy an operation would be too dangerous. So we prayed for her and the change was immediate. She told us that the severe pain that had been in her hips had gone. She then walked away toward a bench but quickly came back to tell us that she was no longer limping! Her daughter then told us she had bad knee pain, and swollen ankles. So we prayed for her and she told us that she felt really light as we prayed, and that the pain, which she had described as heavy before, was lifted. She wandered off to join her mother and a couple of other members of the family. The woman’s son stayed with us longer and told us about losing his father and how hard he had found it since. He also wanted prayer so we prayed a blessing over him, and the change in him was incredible, when he wandered away he almost floated. He was at a complete lose for words after we prayed, which he had not had any problem with before.

After this we headed back to join the others for the worship that the churches wanted to finish with. It was really encouraging for me to see God do amazing things when I take that tiny step of faith and reach out with the blessings of his kingdom.

Igniting Hope in Cardiff

I have the privilege of leading an outreach as part of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) I am working on with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The team I am leading is going to three different locations over an 8-week period in the UK.

Our first stop has been Cardiff to join in with an event called Ignite Hope 2012. This is a youth conference where young people come to hear teaching and challenge about who God is, what it means to have faith and then to go out and put it into practice all over Cardiff.

We had the pleasure of joining with another team of like size from Colorado in the states and the ignite team to run this event. We spent two days putting the site together, constructing marquees, putting up bouncy castles and the like, setting up staging and cafes etc. The event was then over four days, before we took it all down again.

The actual event was amazing, with over 150 young people wanting to invite Jesus to be their saviour and Lord for the first time. We had the privilege of being a part of the prayer team and getting to sit and talk with a number of these guys about what it means to become and Christian. We have also been able to pray with people for healing and seeing them become well. The outward focus activities was also an amazing chance to be able to talk with people all over Cardiff and not only share what we believe, but also help to clean up areas practically (from litter picking to cleaning graffiti and re-painting)

The presence of God has been very strong during this weekend, especially in the worship. I really enjoy seeing young people come alive and want to reach out to others and bless them, and to be apart of this weekend has really blessed me and challenged me in who I am and what I believe.

An Easter walk

In Harpenden, which is the place where I live and work with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), the churches get together each year on Good Friday and walk through the town together finishing with prayer and worship on the green in the middle of the town.

This year was my first experience of this and it was more fun than I thought it would be. Possibly because there were over 200 of us walking through the town, which was really interesting  when we crossed the roads, we would go across about 50 at a time so we did not cause too much disruption.

It was a really beautiful day for it and I am really glad I went down. Very refreshing to see the church doing something together, with representation from most of the different denominations here in Harpenden.

The SORJ graduate

As a Campus for the University of the Nations (http://uofnkona.edu) we run a number of training courses other than the DTS (Discipleship training school), which is one of the areas I currently work in.

One of these schools, the School of Reconciliation and Justice (SORJ) graduated last week. This is the 4th that has been run here in the last 4 years. The school is focused on bringing God's reconciliation and restoration into all areas of society (http://ywamharpenden.org/training/sorj). The trainees have teaching about biblical world view and what that means in a broken world and how to bring this into every day life. The majority of trainees come from nations that have been torn apart by war with a view to return and help rebuild their nation on biblical foundations.

It is always such a joy and privilege to be apart of hearing their vision and sending them out again from this place to pursue God in what they are doing. Really amazing bunch of people.

Fear!

I was in Coventry a couple of weeks ago with the Discipleship Training School (DTS) that I am currently working on. We joined with a number of other DTS's from around the country for a week of teaching and evangelism alongside the local churches.

One of the days was a teaching on fear. During this time God started to speak to me about obedience and I realised in that moment that fear had robed me of so much of the life I should have! But more than this, it crushes us as people, and I realised that I was sick of living in fear. I actually walked outside during the session as it hit me that hard and started to pray. As I was talking to God I saw a man on crutches walking along the street and felt God tell me I should go and offer to pray for him, so I said to God that if he comes this way at the junction I will. Obviously he did not, and God reminded me about what he had been talking to me about with obedience, so I got up and ran down the street after this man. When I reached him I told him who I was and what we were doing and asked if I could pray for him and his leg. He simply said no turned round and carried on. As I walked back to the building we were using I asked God what that was all about, why had I run down the street to be told no after He had asked me to go. He said this to me "What I am asking of you is obedience, to do what I am asking, to offer the blessings of my kingdom to all you meet, that is your responsibility. Your responsibility is not what the people you meet do with that offer". God is incredible, so gentle and firm, and so full of love, wanting everyone to be offered the chance to know him and be restored.

A Gathering In Coventry

So here at YWAM we like to get together ever so often and we call it a gathering, for the DTS's it is a week of teaching on evangelism and actual reaching out. Over the last couple of years YWAM in England has been focusing these weeks on the cities here in the UK that are involved in hosting Olympics events. So 167 of us gathered in Coventry for a week, including a school from Norway and one from Italy, to hear teaching, reach out and come along side local churches.

I always love these, this being the fourth one I have been involved with. They always challenge me greatly in my faith, and I see God touches so many lives, it is such a blessing to be able to be a part of it.

One of my favorite stories from this week happened on the first day and it sets the bar for what the rest of the week was like. One of the outreaches that was being run alongside one of the churches was something called "Say One For Me". This is where people can come and give a request for prayer and a small team are on hand to be praying. One of the first people who came in had had a stroke about 4 years before which had left him limited in his movement, after the pair who had sat with him had prayed they asked him to try to do something he could not before, and he immediately lifted his right arm and started to move it around. They asked if God had done anything, if there was any improvement, to which he answered that he had been unable to move his arm since the stroke! Absolutely incredible. We got to pray with so many people during the week and see them healed and set free. People who had been using crutches walked away carrying them etc.

There was a number of other things to be involved with, one of my favorites was called "I Am..." which lead to some really interesting and deep conversations about belief and God and purpose and destiny. The churches and the christian union at the university really enjoyed having us around and joining in with things that they already do.

I had the pleasure of talking with a few different people other the time we were in Coventry, people I met on the streets who I was able to meet up with on more than one occasion. Two of them gave their lives to God. Not because I argued them into it, actually we did not talk loads about God. They said it was because I helped them to find value and hope again by giving them time. I feel so blessed being able to talk to people like this, who just want to share life, and to be able to do that with them. When you let God love you and love through you the world really does move.

Intercession

At the start of this month me and a good friend of mine were asked to take on the responsibility for intercession on the YWAM campus I am currently working on. It was a real privileged to be asked to do this as intercession is something I have a real passion for. being able to spend time listening to God about what is on his heart for this time and coming along side his purposes and pray life into them.

I had the pleasure of leading the first session and saw God move in an incredible way.  When praying about it before hand we felt God say that we were to have no agenda, but simply come before him expecting. We were not sure exactly what this meant, but that is what we did, we came to intercession without a list of things to be prayed about, or a country in mind.

It was one of the most powerful times of intercession I have ever been apart of. We spent most of the time as a community breaking apathy over the place before we turned outward to speak life and blessings over the nations. It is amazing what happens when we allow God space to do what he has on his heart to do, and not put a box around him!

I am really looking forward to what God has for this season, and spending time as a community hearing him on that.