For most of my adult life, triggered by glandular fever when I was 12 years old, I have suffered with M.E. It is a truly bewildering and holistic illness which seems to affect people in different ways. For me, there were better times and worse times over the years. There were periods when I could do very little, but I was fortunate that for quite a lot of the time, even though it was a struggle, I could get on with life with some semblance of normality.
That was until just about 6 years ago, in the Spring of 2007. At the time I was working as a Curate (a trainee Vicar in the Church of England) alongside my husband, John. Gradually I became aware that I was teetering on the edge of an abyss with my health. Then I was struck down by viral meningitis and completely flattened. For a long time, I could do nothing at all and was stuck in bed. At last there were some signs of recovery beginning, but then everything went downhill again. As time went by, it became clear that the viral meningitis had triggered a far more severe version of M.E. and that is what I was left with.
My world shrank to the four corners of my bed for what felt like an age. However, the time came when I was able to get out of bed on most days, but I could manage very little else. I was in constant pain and had no energy. It felt like I literally had no energy in my body, no power going to the muscles. I was unable to walk anywhere and had to surrender to being pushed around in a wheelchair. Sometimes I couldn’t even lift a glass of water to my lips.
I needed to spend most of my time on my own, in one room, in one chair, in a controlled environment as I found it very difficult to cope with noise and light. My concentration was limited and there were times when the weakness slurred my speech so much that no one could understand me. I could only see people for a very short time and needed days to recover from visitors. It was a necessary isolation, but it was often lonely nevertheless. Time with my family even had to be limited.
Two of our children were teenagers and the third was in his last year at primary school. They were amazing at adapting to what was happening and getting used to looking after Mum, rather than the other way around – Pushing my wheelchair, attending to my physical needs, modulating their behaviour in my presence so as not to overwhelm me. It was humbling for me and heart-mangling.
My husband, John, had to adapt to becoming my Carer, which he did with such love and grace, but I know it was very costly for him. At the same time, I had to adapt to being so very dependent and all the implications of that.
This continued for more than 5 years and it was a dark and difficult and painful time. But the Bible talks at one point about ‘treasures in the darkness’ and, through this time of darkness, God brought me some immensely valuable treasure, the most valuable of which was a revelation of his love which is transforming my life.
I have always struggled to receive love, particularly God’s love, but, as the illness took hold and stripped me bare in so many ways, somehow I was able to let God strip away layer after layer of guilt and shame and self-deception and self-protection until, at last, I was standing naked and empty before him. I could have felt exposed and terrified, but there I found God’s total acceptance and love in a way I had never known before, and I felt safe and secure for the first time in my life. In a way, it was the deepest healing that I needed and is now an ongoing process of believing and receiving.
However, there is always more than we can possibly imagine with God and he had not finished with me yet, which brings me to last summer. Even though we were always looking and hoping for sign that my M.E. was getting better, we were having to face the fact that I was actually getting worse. We have a caravan and were planning to go away as a family to Pembrokeshire for our summer holiday. We very nearly decided to give it a miss because we thought I simply would not be able to cope.
As it turns out, I am rather glad we did go for it because one day John took me for a drive in a beautiful valley. It was the need for a disabled toilet that led us to a remote car park and, as we turned into it, I noticed a sign at the bottom of a driveway – a sign that read ‘Ffald-y-Brenin’. We suddenly realised that it was vaguely familiar, although it took us a good few minutes to pin it down. It is a Christian Retreat Centre in Wales where a wonderful outpouring of God’s life and blessing I happening. We knew very little about that at the time. All we remembered was that a friend of ours had recently read the book ‘The Grace Outpouring’ all about it and had mentioned Ffald-y-Brenin to us with some excitement. We had absolutely no idea that we were anywhere near it and yet here it was and here we were. We could not write it off as a coincidence, it seemed to have the hallmark of God stamped on it far too clearly for that. We knew we needed to do something so, before the end of our holiday, we went to spend a day there.
When John phoned to check whether we could go there and to check accessibility because of my being in the wheelchair because of M.E., he was dumbfounded by the response, “Oh, we’ve had so many people healed from M.E. here!” It was not what we were expecting, or even what we had been looking for, but, as we prepared to go, I was aware of anticipation building in me, almost despite me.
This is what I wrote in my journal that morning before we set off:
Thursday 2nd August – 8am
… “Here I sit in our caravan bed with the sound of the kettle heating slowly for early morning tea, wondering what today will hold.
Will I meet the risen Jesus?
Will there be healing?
I am afraid to hope, in case of the deadening disappointment that might follow. And yet hope is rising and trembling…
Maybe it is time – God’s time – for me…
What do I really want?
I want to meet the risen Jesus,
To believe and not doubt
To be really healed from M.E.
Could it possibly be my time, my day? God’s time, God’s day for me?”
We left the children in the caravan and, as we drove to Ffald-y-Brenin, I had a growing sense that I was somehow going to meet Jesus in a particular way. It was not easy to get there in the wheelchair over very uneven ground but we made it. We had a while on our own in their prayer room and the peace of the presence of God there settled into us in a wonderful way. Then, after a while a couple came to pray with us – Roy and Daphne.
We talked a very little, then Roy looked at me directly and said, “Rachel, this is your time, this is your day!” ‘My time, my day!’ It echoed so exactly what I’d written earlier in the morning it took my breath away and faith rose up in me.
We started to pray and honestly it was like Jesus was standing there, reaching out his hand to me and saying, “Rachel, get up and walk!” One moment I was sitting in my wheelchair hardly able to move – exhausted and in pain – the next it felt like energy surged up from the soles of my feet, up through my body and lifted me out of the wheelchair. I stood. I walked a few steps. And then I started jumping and leaping around. I just couldn’t help it. I was vaguely aware of John with tears rolling down his cheeks as I cavorted around.
As we prayed some more, together we had a clear sense that all the roots of M.E. in my life going back 32 years and beyond had been completely pulled out. So comprehensive. Such freedom! One moment I was very ill. The next moment I was well – because of Jesus. That was on the 2nd August and I’m still well now – going from strength to strength!
The first thing I did was make John and me a cup of tea – so ordinary and so wonderful! As Midday Prayers at Ffald-y-Brenin approached, we folded down my redundant wheelchair and put it on the table in the middle of the Prayer Room – resting on the Bible and with the Cross on the top.
I suspect that image and all that it means will stay with me for ever – the Word of God, the Cross, pain giving way to healing and freedom and life in all its fullness because of Jesus and the truth that ‘by his wounds, we are healed.’ Alleluia! I guess it goes without saying that Midday Prayers exploded with joy and celebration!
Returning to the caravan and showing our children what had happened was the most marvellous thing. Shocked, bemused, then overjoyed pretty much sums up their reaction. That evening we went for a walk together, played Trivial Pursuit, shared a bottle of wine and fish and chips and laughed so much.
The next day we headed home and everything felt like a revelation. I never thought I would find motorway service stations a thing of wonder. But it was amazing to stop on our journey home, to jump out of the car, to walk side by side with my daughter into the ordinary ladies toilets. Mad, no doubt, but I remember sitting on the toilet saying, “Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus!”
Sharing the good news with family and friends and dentists and hairdressers and doctors has been fantastic. So many people have been overjoyed and filled with hope. My GP is amazed and delighted and has been so supportive. Her jaw hit the floor when I walked into her surgery for the first time. When she heard what had happened she said, “It’s like a real Bible miracle!” I’m inclined to agree!
For us, it has been transforming, joyful, shocking and bewildering at times. The world is huge and busy and full of people for me after living in virtual isolation for years and there is a continuing process of adjustment and reorientation. Strangely perhaps, I am finding that joy wells up almost more than anything in the ordinary, everyday things. The normal things that just haven’t been normal for me – even washing up and taking out the rubbish!
It has been like coming out into a spacious place with panoramic views and fresh, fresh air after being stuck in a tiny cave – and all the while my wheelchair is gathering dust in the shed.
I am so aware all the time that the only reason I can stand, the only reason I can take a single step, is because of Jesus. Sometimes when I am out walking our lovely golden retriever Kingsley, I cannot prevent myself from shouting ‘Thank you, Jesus’ with each step or singing ‘Praise my soul, the King of Heaven!’ at the top of my voice!!
Neighbourhood Prayer Network have been working together with the National Day of Prayer team to encourage you to pray for your neighbours, living on your street – they want to see every street in the UK covered in prayer. There are now more than 1,000 streets across the UK that are currently being prayed for through the Neighbourhood Prayer Network! Prayer changes things for the better. The latest newsletter from Neighbourhood Prayer Network (below) has some amazing stories of how God has impacting people’s lives through the Father’s Love Letter, as well as prayer points and resources. Sign up to pray for your street at www.neighbourhoodprayer.net.
This week we share some testimonies from around the UK, Barlestone, Nuneaton, NW9, London and South Florida USA. These are listed below. Please send us your testimonies. There are many more testimonies we want to share over the coming weeks. All testimonies are an encouragement to us!
Great update on the Father’s Love letter, so far over 85,000 have been ordered through our Network – it’s just outstanding.
This week UNICEF published a report on child well being in developed countries. In 2007 the UK ranked 21 out of 21 (worst) in their report. This week’s report shows that we have improved in ranking to 16th out of 29 countries, with smoking, drinking and obesity levels improving. However we still have the highest number of children abusing alcohol (20%), the lowest rate of further education in the developed world (75%) and the highest number of young people not in education, employment or training. While teenage pregnancy rates have improved since 2007, they are still very high compared to other countries.
Please thank God for the improvements that have been seen, but please pray for further future improvement in our children’s lives and for a better future for all children everywhere.
Testimonies from Easter
FROM : South Florida USA, about #do1nicething
#do1nicething: This is a Love Your Street Project. Paul Blakey reports that many people used twitter to retweet the daily suggested #do1nicething. We were surprised to get this from the USA!
Just wanted to say how much I love the neighborhood prayer network I have retweeted many during Lent! Sally Kennedy
FROM : London (NW9), Living Way, Foursquare Gospel Church, about The Fathers Love Letter
Thank God for the writer of the Holy Spirit’s ‘Father’s Love Letter’. We missed out of the planned distribution for Valentine day, but God has a better plan than ours. Instead of dropping the cards into homes for Valentine, we had ample opportunity to properly address them as real letters – in envelopes addressed to ‘Dear Residents, London NW9′. At least 3 people said that they were encouraged, one lady sent a text message to say that she felt loved, one elderly lady came on Good Friday with a thank you card and a letter for the reassuring ‘Father’s Love Letter’ she received the previous day, looking for our Church. She was a Christian before she married. She felt that she had betrayed the priest, so she stopped going to Church for a very long time. In her letter, she asked if we would welcome her.
I immediately replied and hand delivered the letter at her given address. Please remember to pray for Anne to come back fully to God in fellowship of believers. Pray also for Keily, whose son is in prison and was overwhelmed with the Mother’s day hamper she received from us and the Father’s Love Letter that followed. She was at our cafechurch Easter celebration activities yesterday. Please pray also that our Church will grow in quality and quantity. Praise God.
FROM : Barlestone (CV13), Nuneaton, Elohim Church Hub, about Street Prayer Teams
After our walk of witness some of our Street Prayer Teams took out hand made red boxes full of mini eggs and with a gift tag: “Just for You….He died” along with an Easter Card and invite to Family church service on Sunday. Also gave out the Tale of the Three Trees. Each of these houses had already received The Father’s Love Letter on Valentine’s Day. We’re sowing for a Harvest…and building in Line on line, precept on precept.
Great we’re now part of the wider seeding of our nation.
“Walking with God as Father.” By Wendy Thomas, (Adopt A Street/Street Pastors) £4.99, available on Amazon.
This is an excellent book exploring a deeper relationship with God as Father. We recommend this as a resource for you as an individual or a home group.
Upcoming Event
PrayerStorm, Battle for Britain, May 3rd and 4th. A national prayer meeting with focussed intercession and worship. Worship led by Rick Pino (US) and Andy Smith (UK). A free event @ Audacious church, Trinity Way, Manchester, M3 7BB. Visit www.prayerstorm.org/events/gatherings to reserve a place. People from all over the UK will be attending.
That’s all for this week, let’s keep pressing through, God is on the move. If you have testimony about the Fathers Love letter please let me know, it would be great to know the full impact of this resource.
Every Blessing
Rebekah Brettle
P.S. Don’t forget to click on the block advert links to some of our great partners (on the left).
Today is Neighbour Friday
PRAYER
1 Samuel 2:12
Lord, thank You for the children living on my street who have Christian adults in their lives. May they grow up understanding what a relationship with You is really like, and being hungry to know You for themselves.
Please join over one million Christians Praying the Lords’s prayer at 12 noon each day. Please remember to pray for your neighbours.
CARE
Could you consider volunteering your time at a local ROC cafe or local youth centre?
SHARE
Could you consider ordering copies of the Father’s love letter from UCB (our partner), to give out to your neighbours? See pages 218-220 in “Neighbour’s, Transform Your Street” for more details. Phone 0845 6040401, to order your free copies from UCB, you will have to pay postage costs only.
Dave Scott Morgan, formerly a musician with the Electric Light Orchestra, and his wife Mandy will be giving their testimony at Newquay Christian Centre, Seymour Avenue at 6pm.
Whenever we share about testimonies of what God has done for us we
“stir into flame the strength and boldness that entered into you when we laid our hands upon your heads and blessed you. For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, to love them and enjoy being with them. If you stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord.” 2 Timothy 1:6-8
There are so many testimonies to remember and share with each other and to encourage each other. There have been many accounts of people being being healed simply by sharing testimony!
The text below from Bethel, Redding set out some guidelines for sharing testimonies, particularly those of healing.
Giving Testimony with Honour
We want to steward the testimonies of what God is doing in our midst and elsewhere. Our heart is to do so with the utmost integrity and accuracy. Everywhere people are catching the vision of the value of the testimony and working to steward their own stories.
This guide was written to ensure that, as we cultivate the habit of keeping the testimony, we do so with wisdom, honor and integrity. You can download the full pamphlet from the attachment to this email
KEEPING THE TESTIMONY
We recognize the importance of keeping the testimony: recording, repeating, declaring the great deeds of the Lord.
In the Old Testament, God’s people had various ways of keeping the testimony: the written Word of God; the Feasts of the Lord that commemorated His great deeds, such as Passover, which recalled the deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt; and other means, such as stones of remembrance (I Samuel 7).
Today, we keep the testimony through our varied means of communication: word-of-mouth, TV, video, Internet and print media.
We share the miracles and acts of God in our midst primarily to partner with and stay consistently conscious of the One who invades and transforms impossible situations. Keeping the testimony also gives Him glory and helps us to maintain a heart of thankfulness. Moreover, sharing a testimony releases the power of God to reproduce a like miracle. A testimony is like a seed that bears much fruit. When we testify, we get a harvest.
ACCURACY
Only report what happened that can be verified, such as “After receiving prayer, a woman could move her fingers freely without pain.” She can’t verify that her arthritis is completely healed but she can say she has mobility and is pain free or can do something now she couldn’t do before. Say what you know is accurate and currently verifiable.
When sharing a testimony, please include all the things that contributed to the healing. If a person is healed of cancer and also underwent chemotherapy or other treatments, please mention previous medical help in thetestimony. It does not diminish the healing power of God. We love the healing grace, compassion and excellence regularly demonstrated by the medical community.
If 700 people came forward to receive Jesus, report that. We do not know if they all were born again, rededicated their life anew or just needed prayer. We do know that they responded to an altar call, and we can say that.
SPECIFICS
Be specific with details you have without filling in “the blanks” you don’t have. Notice the difference between the following testimonies:
“Elizabeth’s back was completely healed!
OR
“Eight years ago, following a car accident, Elizabeth Smithton had three back surgeries but still had much pain and two metal rods in her back, which, of course, restricted her movement. She could not bend at the waist. Since receiving prayer, she can now bend and touch her toes without pain. When she touches her back, she can no longer feel the rods and screws as she could before. What was impossible to do, she can now do pain free.”
The second is more accurate and supplies details. It adds no assumptions (like “the metal has disappeared”). It just gives the facts:
who: Elizabeth Smithton
what: Surgeries couldn’t stop the pain, metal rods
why: Car accident
when: Eight years ago
after prayer: Can now miraculously bend, can’t feel rods and screws, has no more pain.
PERMISSION
Only mention the name of a person you ministered to when you have his/her permission to openly share the testimony. If you have permission, use their full name and you may want their contact info as well to follow up with them.
Please get written or filmed permission from those you film or photograph if you intend to post their photo or video on social networks or elsewhere online or to publish it in some other way.
Do not mention the name of a business (like Wal-Mart) where a testimony took place. Simply say “a store.” Do not mention the name, position or title of a person whose job could be adversely affected as a result of your ministry and testimony.
HONOUR
Share all testimonies in such a way that they glorify Jesus and not yourself.
Share the testimony like the person is in the room. Upon hearing his own story, he should feel respected, honored, and appreciative of how accurately you retold the testimony.
Report mission and ministry trip testimonies with honor for the place you visited without making assumptions about the place or its people. You may quote what the people there have said about themselves or their nation (like “They said, ‘Our people don’t usually do this’”) without making blanket statements about the whole country that are demeaning, such as, “It’s a very dark place.” or “They are not happy. It’s such a depressed place.” Just tell what Jesus did for them.
Do not give a public testimony about ministering to a famous person or government official. Be reluctant even in private as every phone is now a video camera and that testimony may end up on the web.
We must keep the confidences of influential people God is entrusting us to minister to by not using their name and position to promote ourselves or even the Lord! Don’t even ask permission. We do not want to undermine what God is doing in and through them by disclosing things they prefer to be kept discreet. Use wisdom and be trustworthy. Even vague testimonies can be researched if you provide details.
WISDOM
Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit about when to share a testimony and with whom. Sometimes Jesus told people to tell others what God had done for them:
“Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. — Luke 8:39
But sometimes, for His own reasons, He asked them not to broadcast, but to do something else. In Mark 1:41-44, He asks the man not to mention what happened but to go to the priest and make the required offering as proof to them. A modern application might be to show proof by obtaining medical records, or in the case of really sensational healings, waiting until medical tests confirm them before publicly announcing them.
ACCURACY & SPECIFICS
1. Only say what you know is accurate and currently verifiable.
2. Mention previous medical help in the testimony.
3. Be specific with details you have without filling in “the blanks” you don’t have.
PERMISSION
4. Only mention the name of a person you ministered to when you have his/her permission to openly share thetestimony.
5. Please get written or filmed permission from those you film or photograph if you intend to post their photo or video on social networks or elsewhere online or to publish it in some other way.
6. Do not mention the name of a business where a testimony took place.
7. Do not mention the name, position or title of a person whose job could be adversely affected as a result of your ministry and testimony.
HONOUR & WISDOM
8. Share all testimonies in such a way that they glorify Jesus and not yourself.
9. Share the testimony as if the person were in the room.
10. Report mission and ministry trip testimonies with honor for the place you visited without making assumptions about the place or its people.
11. Do not give a public testimony about ministering to a famous person or government official. Be reluctant even in private. Don’t even ask their permission to share it.
12. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit about when to share a testimony and with whom.
Reproduced with permission from Bethel Church, Redding: www.ibethel.org.
Living only to win surfing competitions, Japanese surfer Shinobu Okumura longed for the love and acceptance that she had not found from her own father. In this five minute video from Jesus.net Japan (http://jesusnetjapan.org/), she tells her inspiring testimony.
Some who follow Christ in Pakistan end up forsaking everything for the sake of the gospel. Shunned by family and friends and driven out of their homes, they can end up living an isolated existence never knowing when they could fall victim to an attack.
Release International’s new DVD, ‘Paying the Price’, features interviews with three such people who have known what it is to suffer for their faith.
‘Peter’, had to go on the run after he encountered Christ in a dream, while ‘Michael’ was beaten by his own family despite his mother being healed through the prayers of a Christian pastor and ‘Rose’, who miscarried after being attacked by an intruder, still caries the scars.
With a running time of just under 13 minutes the DVD also includes requests to help you pray for Christians in Pakistan and is ideal for use in prayer groups, house groups and in church services.
To obtain your copy please call 01689 823491 or buy it online here.
For more information and details of other other DVDs and resources from Release International please click here.
Ben Breedlove suffered from life-threatening heart problems. He cheated death three times, experiencing a foretaste of heaven. In this inspiring video posted on GodTube he tells his story and explains how he can still keep smiling and focussing on God.
Click on the image to view the video on GodTube
Ben died on Christmas Day 2012. His sister Ally delivers a powerful and moving speech at his funeral, continuing his testimony by sharing a conversation that she had with Ben a few days before he died.
I first came across the acronym ACTS as a model for prayer on an Alpha course:
Adoration – focusing on the wonder of who God is rather than our own limitations
Confession – cleanses us and removes any barriers
Thanksgiving – reminds us of all that God has done for us and of what He can do (nothing is impossible for God!)
Supplication - ask and it will be given to you
When we approach the throne in our own quiet times or when we meet together in church, another useful acronym and attitude to adopt is AWE:
Adoration – because our Father in Heaven is good and gives us good things
Worship – because He is worthy of all our praises
Expectancy – because He is always with us, even to the end of the age, and it delights Him to spend time with us
It is important to know and remind ourselves of WHO God is when we come before Him. The alternative is a heart not fully free to worship and speak with Him, preventing us from coming close to where He’s at. I have learnt the truth of the following saying:
If you focus on others you become repressed
If you focus on yourself you become depressed
If you focus on God above you become refreshed
When we focus on who our Father in Heaven is, worshipping and prayer flow more easily. We receive answers to situations that previously seemed impossible. Our joy and our peace become restored.
There have been many seasons when spending time with God seems so easy, I feel so close to Him and His favour abounds. He is wooing me. There are other seasons when it becomes difficult to do anything and He seems far away and I easily fall into discouragement. Rick Warren suggests that these times are when God is wanting to be wooed by us. He wants us to go look for Him.
It is also important to share with others about all that God has done for you. It encourages others and reinforces your own faith. Bill Johnson describes the importance of the testimony in Strengthen Yourself in the Lord:
I’m amazed at the human capacity to forget the most extraordinary, mind-boggling things, particularly the miraculous – but it doesn’t usually happen overnight. Forgetting is a downward spiral that begins with the very natural tendency to gradually talk less about the cancer that was instantly healed, for example. Other things start to occupy our minds. But then, the less we keep the testimony in our conversation and our minds, the lower goes our expectation to see the miraculous. Our lowered expectation keeps us from recognizing and stepping into opportunities to see the miraculous. And the less we experience the miraculous, the less we have to talk about. We talk less, expect less, and experience less until we end up in the place where we meet someone with cancer and we go “God! Help!” Our expectation and faith are small, even though we’ve seen God fix this problem before…..Failing to keep the testimony not only makes us forget who God is, but who we are….the only thing that distinguishes believers from the rest of the world is the reality that God is active among us.
What does it take to keep the testimony so we can stay out of the downward spiral and carry out our responsibility to represent God with power? It simply takes following the prescriptions that God gave His people in the first place. We are to establish a culture of the testimony in our personal lives, in our homes, and in our churches. We’re to talk about it when we get up, when we eat a meal, when we go to work and when we go to bed…..As a pastor, I have emphasized this principle to my staff and congregation. Our team begins every staff and board meeting with an hour or two of sharing testimonies of what God has done in the previous weeks and months. We know that we can’t afford to make plans for the direction of the church without an overwhelming awareness of the God who invades the impossible. If we lack that awareness, we will lack faith and courage, and our plans will fall short of the mission God has given us. When we have that awareness, however, we not only leave our meetings feeling incredibly encouraged by the goodness and power of God, we leave full of faith that God intends to do it all again this week….
One Sunday when I taught on the power of the testimony, we showed a video in our service of a little boy running around after his club feet had been healed. After seeing this video, some students from the School of Ministry were so excited that they went down to the mall the next day to pray for anyone they could find. They saw a woman walking with a leg brace and a cane, so they naturally assumed she was a target for a miracle. They began talking to her and shared the testimony about the boy whose feet had been healed. Moved by the story, she allowed them to pray for her knee, which had a tumor on it. The tumor disappeared, so she took off her brace. Then one of the young men who was praying for her said, “The fire of God is hitting your back right here,” and pointed to a particular spot. In surprise she felt the spot and found that another tumor, which she had kept to herself, had also disappeared! She walked out of the mall carrying her brace and cane on one arm, and her grandchild on the other, to whom the students heard her explain, “I don’t need these anymore.”
This woman experienced the prophetic power of the testimony. Declaring the testimony created a divine moment for God to do it again! And the miracles that occur when testimonies are shared continue to multiply – not only in our community but all over the world.
I suspect that image and all that it means will stay with me for ever – the Word of God, the Cross, pain giving way to healing and freedom and life in all its fullness because of Jesus and the truth that ‘by his wounds, we are healed.’ Alleluia! I guess it goes without saying that Midday Prayers exploded with joy and celebration!
