"The pain has gone from a 10 to a 3"

A week of Autumn sun today as we headed out to pray for and bless the community. Here's some of our stories.

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We had some cool encounters and met lots of people with pain in their legs this morning...

We prayed for a friendly young guy with a big knee cast on crutches. After saying a quick prayer he said: "Yeh that's about 30% better", but without any sense of astonishment or even a smile! He was so chilled. He let us pray again and he said "the pain has gone from a 10 to a 3" with equal amounts of nonchalance, and then said "thanks so much I've got to go now!" One of our most casual responses to God healing someone. 

We then prayed for a couple on their way to the NHS clinic. The man had a crutch and we approached him and said he had upper leg and hip pain. He was happy for us to pray and said it got a little better after a couple of prayers. They were really blessed to be prayed for.

We prayed for a lady with her child who had leg pain and a chap who's mum had foot pain and we also were able to bless him. We also bumped into a guy with a foot cast we'd prayed for in the past but hadn't been healed yet. He was clearly disappointed to still have the cast on and was happy for us to pray for him again.

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We dropped in on someone we know and his friend came along and we got to pray for their family and new work. We invited them both to Alpha and then one of them was trying to encourage the other to come.

There was a new chap from the council caretakers team who was really blessed to be prayed for. We tried to pray for a lady who said she was too busy and then as we did another chap asked what we were looking for and we said we wanted someone to chat to and pray for! It turned out he was burying his wife that day so we got to pray for his day. 

"It's completely gone!"

Another week out in the community offering prayer to those we meet. Here's how it went:

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We had a full morning and got to pray for lots of people out in the community. In particular, it was great to pray for joy and happiness for a group of men hanging in the park. 

We also saw two ladies who looked like they were off to work and then one of them introduced us to their sister who was just nearby. One lady had said no to the offer of prayer initially but then when we asked if anyone had any pain she said she had a headache and let us pray for her. She was really touched and seemed to think it was feeling better. Then a moment later as we'd walked away she turned round and shouted 'It's completely gone, it really has!' which was super encouraging. 

We got to pray for another gentleman who had a bad knee and said he felt it was healed. Then there was another lady who we'd seen earlier when she was walking the other way and had declined prayer. But we offered again when she came back and were able to pray for her leg. It didn't get better immediately but she was really touched and asked about how she could join us in the week. So God was doing something in her!

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We had a lot of friendly people saying they didn't want prayer. And then two different people were really up for prayer. One was a lady with not much English. She kept asking "where do you want to pray for me?" and we kept saying "Here", "here", "like right here now" as praying out in the park was unusual for her (as it is to many at first) and we were able to bless her day.  

The second lady also was blessed and both felt like quite low key encounters in some ways. As I was praying it can sometimes feel intense but this morning I didn't feel any pressure and it felt the right dynamic between me and God (possibly because I was more tired today), but it was good to remember that it's God who does the stuff.

Building relationships

Thankfully the rain held off until after we'd been out into the community to pray on Wednesday morning. Here are a few stories from our time out...

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We had a nice chat with a man and his son from Yorkshire who were playing Pokémon Go in York Gardens, though they said ‘no thank you’ to prayer. Then we bumped into a woman we know from events like GLB who had just been to the doctors with an ongoing stomach problem. She was up for us praying for her, which was great as it felt like something that has become normal for us was something that could now be normal for her too.

We chatted to one of the guys we see regularly in York Gardens and prayed for him, and then met a young guy whose family go to church and we prayed a blessing over his day. After that we met a woman who we’d met once before and although she hadn’t wanted prayer that time, this time she was open to us praying for her and her kids. Finally we talked to one of the women who works for L&G, who was super receptive to prayer, so that felt very easy.

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We went to Haven Lodge to drop off some flyers for Living Life and talked to the lady on reception there. We then went to Falcon Road and had quite a lot of no’s from different people, but then met a woman outside Providence who seemed very surprised but also touched to be asked if we could pray for her, so we prayed for her family.

Then we bumped into another older lady who said we’d prayed for her before. She didn’t want prayer this time, but said she’d think about coming to Living Life. Finally we met this girl who we were nervous to approach as she looked quite scary, but she was actually really open. She’d just moved here from Turkey yesterday to study, and was really up for being prayed for for her first year at Uni.
 

Just the two of us...

Today was just two of us out and about, it was a seriously quiet day out there, too damp to sit on a bench and wait for prayer for most people. 

"We did meet a man who had burnt his foot with a pan of water and were able to offer to pray for him.  Another lady walking her dog told us her brother used to be church warden at St Peter's and her sister the Sunday school teacher so we told her about the new building and invited her to visit soon. She was also concerned about all that's happening in the world and for the safety of her family so we prayed for her.   Another man was pleased for a blessing on his day and we had some other friendly chats with people on the way." 

On Thursday there were also only two of us so we went out again, we just can't get enough!

"We met a guy outside Louie's shop who we hadn't met before and got chatting about his assisted powered bike! Had a good chat about health, carpentry, change and the state of the World today.  He was happy for us to pray for him and said "that was nice" afterwards despite being resistant to start with. 

Another lady asked us to pray for her teenage daughter as she becomes independent. 

We were also able to pray for a vulnerable adult we're getting to know, give him some practical help and praying for healing. 

Nicely topped off by a quick visit to the regeneration office for a quick chat about some advent plans brewing." 

"I can feel it, I can feel it in my heart"

It was nicely dry this week as we went out to pray for our community. Here are some stories:

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We headed to the park and had some really good encounters. After praying for a lady we spoke to a man we knew who shared lots of sad stories and challenges he faced and he really appreciated prayer. We managed to encourage a lady who'd been off alcohol for a long time and she was seeking to quit smoking, so we prayed for that. After praying she said "I can feel it, I can feel it in my heart." So she was really impacted.

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We met a lady who asked us to pray for her getting a new job, and then met a local man who had some very challenging family situations. He was really encouraged and touched by the prayer. We spoke to a man who asked us to pray following a recent bereavement and also he also had arthritis in his left knee. After praying we asked him to test it by walking a little and he said it felt a bit better and so we prayed again and he said it had improved! We reminded him it was not us but Jesus who heals and that the doctors saying it will never get better doesn't have to be the final word on it.

'We're praying in the rain'

On Wednesday morning nine of us (including two under 5s) went out into the rain to find people to pray for. Here's some stories:

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A day earlier I'd had a sense of someone sitting on a bench in a particular area of the estate the we should pray for. Even though it was really raining we went there anyway and found someone sitting on that bench in the rain - the chances of that! The first thing he said to us was 'what are you doing here?' and we said 'what are you doing here? We're from the church and we're here to tell you God loves you and he's got good things for you'. He was someone with a number of struggles and lots of sadness and we were able to encourage him and pray for him. He seemed really moved.  

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We started to chatting to a customer in one of the local shops and he used to go to St Peter's many years ago, and started naming lots of people he used to know, who are still part of our church family. He was really grateful to be prayed for. 

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We had a gentle chat with a man out in the rain and we were able to talk with him about the journey of faith. We also prayed for a water engineer - we kept bumping into him as we were walking around and he was really up for prayer. Our awkward attempts to say hello didn't put him off!

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We were able to pray for some musicians waiting to go into a band practice room and a taxi lady who made short horror movies in her spare time! She even invited us to Dublin to see her film!

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We bumped into a lady who had been to the St Peter's cookery club once and she wanted prayer for peace for family life. She was so hungry for prayer. And then we approached a man who was a photographer who asked us to pray for the rain to stop! So we prayed that nature would compliment his creative expression....

Praying at God Loves Battersea

On Saturday we had our annual summer community festival which we call 'God Loves Battersea'. It was a great opportunity to bless and connect with many folks in our community and we were also offering prayer to our guests. Here are some stories:

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We prayed for several people this afternoon, all who were really open. For me today it was about listening prayerfully to people and hearing what's going on in their lives. As we listened to them we were also listening to God to see if he was popping anything into our thoughts to bless them. It felt that we were really able to speak life and encouragement into the lives of our guests.  Everyone we asked wanted prayer. It was interesting that a lot of people we spoke to had had negative experiences of the church and it was good for them to be able to see a different side of church through the event. 

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It was really good to chat and pray with lots of our guests at GLB. I got to pray a blessing for a couple of were expecting a child and they seemed really touched. 

There was a woman who was in a lot of arthritic pain. She let me pray a quick prayer of healing for her and she said she felt the pain reduce. She let me pray one more time and the pain dramatically reduced again! Incredible to see the power of Jesus at work out and about in Battersea!  

Boldness in prayer training

On Tuesday evening we had a prayer training evening, seeking to grow in becoming bolder to pray for others in non church environments. We looked at Jesus being our model for living a supernatural lifestyle and then went out on the streets offering prayer to folks we met. The buzz in the room when everyone came back with amazing stories was amazing!  We’re excited about the journey God is taking us on and hopefully some of these stories will inspire you:

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Approaching people with the idea of loving them really shifted things for me. I went out with someone who’d not done it before and she was really encouraged to go out and to realise it wasn’t difficult to approach people. 

We were walking along and got scared by a dead pigeon as did another lady (!) who started walking along and we got chatting to her and she let us pray for her and she’s already planning to come to GLB (our community event this Saturday), which is good. We also talked to some guy who was coming out of AJ’s shop about faith – he wasn’t up for prayer but we had a really good chat.

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We  went up to a guy – I felt a pain in my back, which sometimes is an indication that the person in front of me has a back problem – we went up and spoke to him for a while and it turned out that he did have a back problem. He didn’t really want us to pray for him but he opened up and spoke about some quite heartbreaking experiences he’d had. We came across another young man who was really open to prayer – the lady I was with was more confident in talking to him and approaching him – just a real natural.

We approached an Asda delivery man who was a Muslim. After an exchange she said “We just want to stand with you and if it’s ok we want to pray with you. We believe that Jesus is the son of God and we want to pray to him, to Jesus for you” to which the guy said yes! So we prayed for him, we prayed a blessing over his life, and for a new job that he was looking for.

We then went a our local barber shop. We prayed for healing for the barber who had pain in his left foot for a number of months and I spoke to a guy who after a chat accepted prayer. Afterwards he said ‘does your church do baptisms? And after saying we did he replied ‘yeah, I’m going to come check your church out’. And then I turned round to see Louis hopping on his left foot essentially, saying ‘my foot is completely better - I can’t believe it, the pain is completely gone!’ So yeah, it was quite an amazing time.

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We went out (with someone who was out for the first time our prayer backup standing at a distance) and offered to pray for a couple chatting animatedly in York Gardens. The man was very open to prayer and let us pray for his left blind eye and for fresh hope. He wasn’t healed immediately but was really blessed and thankful. The lady was not as open as him and wanted to share a lot of her painful life story. We listened for a while and then we had a prophetic sense of the name ‘Jonathan’ and whether that meant anything to her. She was quite shocked, and freaked out a bit, and said that her husband’s name was John and her son was Johnny.  We explained that God often reveals things like this to let people know that He loves them and knows them intimately. She was much more open to prayer after this and let us pray for the pain she was having and breakthrough in tough situations.