Salvation on the Streets!

Check out this super-exciting testimony from one of the teams who went out Treasure Hunting* yesterday (clues from Treasure Maps are in bold):

“Several clues led us to Oxford Road, near MMU/All Saints Park. One of the clues was a shop with a white background and green writing. We found such a shop on a corner by some bollards. I saw a man with a leather coat on, we went to talk to him. His name was Dave, he said that he didn’t have anything he wanted prayer for. We talked to him a bit and he said that he used to believe in God, but because of things that had gone wrong in his life he had pushed God out of the way. We prayed for him, that God would reveal himself to him. After we prayed for him once, he opened up to us about his best friend who had died. We prayed for him again, that he would know God’s peace. Thought there wasn’t any big miracle there and then, I could see something click in his mind as we talked about God and he was clearly affected by our encounter with him.

During this time, Lucy spotted a girl in a white coat, who had on red glasses because of a stigmatism in her right eye. She also had hurt her left shoulder that very day – all the things on Lucy’s list!

We then saw a man with a yellow bag. We talked to him, and although he said that he didn’t believe in God he still let us pray for him. He said his friend Nathaniel had died (we had grief as a clue) and that he needed a guitarist for his band. We prayed for him and sent him on his way!

While we were talking to yellow bag man, Joel struck up a conversation with a homeless guy called Gary. When we started talking to him, he told us that he had hurt his left shin in a bike crash. We prayed for him and he said that the pain had gone down to 50% of what it was, we prayed again and the pain went down to 30%. We prayed again and he said that it had gone! We then prayed that God’s presence would fill him. He said he felt really happy, that he did believe in God, but he’d never experienced anything like that before. We asked if he’d like to experience God on a daily basis and he replied in the affirmative. So we prayed ‘the prayer’ and he gave his life to Christ!!! How exiting!!

Gary said that he still felt pain in his knee, so we prayed for him again and he said the pain left. Whilst I was praying, Lucy had a word of knowledge in which she saw a picture of God highlighted the word grief on her treasure map with an image of a woman standing next to it. When we asked if there was anything else he wanted prayer for, Gary began talking about his wife, Lynsey, who had died of breast cancer – something Lucy also had on her list. By this point we were just blown away.

Golibé.”

How awesome is that?! Praise God!! He’s doing some pretty exciting stuff in our city at the moment. If you want in on a piece of the action get yourself along to Treasure Hunting next wednesday afternoon!

*if you’re not sure what Treasure Hunting is read this old post.

Lift off!

So we had the Student Alpha launch night last night… it was great! Loads of people came, the entertainment was awesome and hopefully many people left with the intention of coming back next week for the start of the real thing. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed/invited/helped/well-wished – please continue to do so for the duration of the course, we really need all your support. And just so you know – week 1 kicks of Wednesday 21st October, 7.30pm at Jabez Clegg. Free food and everything!

Another thing that’s really beginning to “take off” (i’m sorry.) are the student treasure hunts that we’ve been doing for the past few weeks. We were out again yesterday afternoon and it’s really exciting to see everyone’s confidence growing a bit more. But it’s not actually about us, it’s about seeing people encounter the love of God, which is why the most encouragement always comes from the people we get to chat and pray with. Once more we uncovered some more of God’s treasure (whether they knew they were or not!) and it was awesome to be able to pray with a number of people – the appointments that God sets up are just mind-blowing sometimes. Right now we’re still fighting with our natural urge to run away from most encounters that start up as soon as we can, but gradually we’re learning to have more faith and stick around a bit longer to see what God’s up to!! I guess the key is recognising that this isn’t just an event we do on Wednesday afternoons, but a lifestyle that we’re trying to develop – one in which we are open to what God is doing and then going and getting involved, whatever the context. So it’s definintely a journey we’re all on… and an exciting one at that!

If you haven’t been out on a Wednesday yet you should come do it… this week in fact. It’s just so exciting to see God stuff happen out in the real world. It’s awesome to pray with our family in the church, but it’s absolutely wicked cool to pray for some random* on the street who might not even heard of Jesus before – that’s the whole living it out part, right? Even if you think it’s all completely nuts and you couldn’t think of anywhere else you’d like to spend your afternoon less, just come and give it a try – God’ll surprise you. (And we’ll walk you through everything, explain all the “american” buzz words etc etc). Just do it!

* random to you, not random to God.

Hunting for Treasure!

This past Wednesday we started the first of hopefully many ‘Campus Treasure Hunts’. The general premise is quite simple: we ask God for clues, go out and hunt for the ‘treasure’, then seek pray for and bless whoever we find.

Despite the trepidation and spiritual attack that seemed prevalent among most of the guys planning to come, it is a testimony in itself that ten people showed up to give this thing a go. We hung out for a bit, then spent some time worshipping and ministering to each – toppi ng ourselves up with the Holy Spirit where we had leaked. Following this we spent a short time filling out the gaps in our ‘treasure maps’ with clues in the following categories: Location, Name, Appearance, Prayer, Unusual, Smell, Number, Sounnd. Then we split up into two groups and between ourselves decided where we should start the search.

Fast forward a couple of hours to when we reunited after the hunt, and the nervousness of the early afternoon had been replaced with a joy and excitement – both about what had happened while we were out and also in anticipation about how God would use this into the future. We didn’t see anyone saved on the street, but we had the opportunity to pray with and prophesy over a number of people who might never have encountered Jesus otherwise. To whet your appetite here are a few quick examples of what went on:

“Having left the house to head for uni we decided to first check out the bus stop* outside our starting point due to the clues that other people had: yew tree, tree, corner of wilbraham road. As soon as we turned the corner we saw a lady with a walking stick who had short, curly hair, gold glasses and a blue jacket. So we quickly parked up and had to literally chase after her (in a non-threatening way, of course!) before she got home. The two guys who had most of the clues approached her and asked if they could pray for anything for her. She agreed and even commented that she was suffering from back pain. So then and there the guys prayed for her and blessed her. She attends a 7^th Day Adventist church and so was even keen to find out where we were from. It was so encouraging to have such an accurate find after just 30 seconds of looking – this treasure hunting is easy!!! Or so we thought… ”

“One of our groups was sat on the steps by the library when a guy with a yellow top walked past. They went and asked if his name was Tom. It was actually Dan but his friend who was standing next to his was called Tom. So the team chatted with him (Dan) and he shared that he was generally worried and was struggling with some relationship issues. He agreed to let the team pray for him. While they were praying it became obvious that he was having a real encounter with the Holy Spirit – every time something was prayed that hit the mark (e.g. exam stress) he visibly responded. He left feeling encouraged and blessed – awesome.”

“Having approached and struck out on one tall man who was wearing both blue and green, we saw another tall guy with a bright blue jacket and a beard across the street holding a sign for a club night. We approached him and asked if his name was Steve or Paul. He said no but, unpurturbed, we proceeded to ask if he was feeling well today or if he had any pain anywhere. He said that he was fine but his friend piped up and told us that he did have a headache so we asked if we could pray for him. His immediate response was “no” to which I replied it was no problem. He then instantly changed his mind and decided it would actually be ok. So I prayed a simple prayer for Jesus to heal him of his headache. Unfortunately I suddenly came over all self-conscious, not knowing where to look when praying – people don’t close their eyes like in church!! – and so ended up wrapping things up quickly and moving on. Next time we’ll do some more follow-up, but it was still ace to be able to bless him.”

Who knows what God did in those people? If He actually healed those who were sick? But what we do know is that we created a space in which He could move. In terms of stats, we found twelve “treasures” and got to pray with seven of them. We’re still complete novices at this and probably missed a number of significant opportunities on account of our inexperience/desire to avoid potentially awkward situations. But if was so encouraging to see a group of people stepping out and taking a risk and we know that if we continue to do so, God will use us in greater ways than we can possibly imagine.

Fancy a piece of the action? We’ll be heading out every Wednesday afternoon. Speak to Ralph for more info!

And if you want to know the story behind “Treasure Hunts” you’d be well worth checking this book out (or if you’re in a rush, just read Acts 9):

*Clues from Treasure Maps are in bold