Jon Harrison writes:

On Friday 7th March, 15 of us, representing 3 Bristol churches, got up very early to fly to Belfast, and then travel on to Coleraine (near the Giant’s Causeway) to see and take part the outreach work done by the Causeway Vineyard Church.

The group was made up of Greg Sharples, Phil Kelly (Year Team leader) and his family, the Year Team, some students and a few other hangers-on (including myself). The fact that I was able to go was miraculous in itself as due to the nature of my work I normally have to book holiday a year in advance, but that week was working on a solo project and managed to convince my manager that I could fit five days work into four days. The fact that I was going to Northern Ireland also excited me as when I was growing up in the early nineties, I could not have believed that the fighting and terrorism would ever have ended, and this helped remind me that even in the darkest areas of the world, Jesus is the Prince of Peace and is working to achieve this across the world.

After having been to see the Giant’s Causeway which was impressive, especially with the wind, rain and crashing waves (but somehow not as gigantic as I would have imagined), we went into Coleraine town centre to see the first aspect of the church’s ministry.

 

Traditionally, due to single sex schools, on a Friday afternoon, all the teenagers meet in the main town square to hang out together, and for the past couple of years people from the church have been going out there giving out free tea, coffee and sweets, and then chatting to them and building relationships. As a team we got involved with this, and we used questionnaires to find out what the young people believed about God and Christianity and how they thought they stood in relation to that. The main thing that struck me was that they had a much better knowledge of the Bible and Jesus’ teaching than I would have expected from English teenagers, which is probably cultural as their religious education seemed to be a lot more Christian based than in England. The use of these questionnaires as a starting point was really good (I had been reluctant to use them at first) and the boys that I spoke to were quite open about what they did or did not believe and were willing to enter into discussion about God generally, and how they related to Him.

 

In the evening, we met Mark Marks who has been leading a “Healing on the Streets” (HotS) ministry in Coleraine for the past three years. He sees healing as being an evangelistic tool because non-churched people can easily identify with health/sickness, but not with many other ideas and doctrine that the church teaches, and so it can act as a way in. Every Saturday for the past three years, a team from the church has set up some chairs in the main town square, and handed out leaflets to the passersby which ask if they have any sickness and would like to receive prayer for healing. If they do, then they come and sit on one of the chairs, and someone will explain what they are going to do and what their expectations are. Sometimes they see immediate healing, or some improvement followed by gradual full healing. In some cases there is no immediate improvement followed by an immediate or gradual healing in the future, or there may be nothing at all. The key to the whole process is that there is no coercion and no false expectations are set.

As the team are out every week, it means that no one can miss out; if they don’t take the opportunity one week, they can always respond the next week; also it shows a commitment from the church to the people as they are out there what ever the radio (which in Coleraine seems to be constant squally showers).

Initially Mark kept a record of all the healings that had occurred, but after a point there were so many that it became impossible to do this! But Mark is not concerned with the number of healings or how impressive some of them may be but on those that come to know God through the work. From the Bible we know that Jesus healed many, but that not all believed (for example, the ten men with leprosy in Luke 17) and this can be seen today. Indeed, we all see this to one extent or another in our own lives in that we have all seen and received some aspects of the Kingdom of God, and yet still find it hard to receive it in full and to live it out in full.

 

After dinner, we asked Mark many questions about how he got into this ministry and how it works out in practice and then we had a practical demonstration. He asked if anyone had any back problems and Simeon (a Pip n Jay student) said that he did. Mark sat him on a chair and asked him to sit square on it with his back firmly against the chair and then to extend his legs. On looking at his legs it was clear that the left was shorter than the right by about the thickness of the soles of his shoes. Mark prayed for Simeon and gradually his left leg grew. It was difficult to actually see the growth as it occurred, but by the end it was clear that it had happened as his heels were level, and there had been a clear difference before.

Mark also prayed for Sarah who also had back problems and it was found that one arm was shorter than the other. This then grew to match her other arm, and she was then able to reach her hand over her shoulder and down her back without pain, which she couldn’t do before.

We then asked more questions, and were going to wrap up when I asked for some prayer. During the week Jen, my wife, had mentioned the fact that I walked funny, with my left foot turned inwards. She had noticed it before, but just mentioned it. I had been aware of this for some time, and it was a family joke as it meant that the heels on my shoes always wore away in a distinct slope. It had never caused me any pain, but whilst we were talking I thought that it was obviously not normal and may have caused problems in the future so I asked for prayer.

I explained my situation and sat in the chair and raised my legs up. Mark held them straight and level, and I couldn’t do this without there being a pain down the inside of my left knee. It was then found that my left leg was a little bit shorter than my right. Mark then prayed for me, and unlike with Simeon where it had seemed to take a long time for his leg to grow, I soon had this strange feeling in my left calf, which I can’t describe, other than that it felt what you may expect growth to feel like, and then Mark said that my legs were now the same length.

I then walked up and down the kitchen, as unthinkingly as possible, whilst Mags, Phil’s wife and a trained physio, watched and said that they appeared to be normal. Having now bought a new pair of shoes, the proof of the pudding, so to speak, will be that my shoes wear down level.

Whilst I believed that this kind of healing was possible before the trip, seeing it and experiencing it personally, gives me a lot more confidence in being able to pray for others in the future.

Not everyone who was prayed for was healed, but they were prepared to persevere, and be prayed for on a number of occasions over the weekend, trusting that God can heal them and wants to heal them, even though this is not being manifest at present.

 

On Saturday morning we went out with the team, and assisted by handing out leaflets and talking to people, and observing the team as they prayed for people.

In the afternoon, we got involved in some “Servant Evangelism” which is showing God’s love to people in a practical way through acts of service, explaining why we were doing them. On this occasion this meant offering to clean the toilets of local businesses.

 

We tried a few businesses, the first two had cleaned their toilets that day, as trade was slow and ended up in a fishing tackle shop. We asked to clean their toilets but the owner said no. Sam, one of the year team in our team, is a keen fisherman, and so talked for a long time about the fishing in the area etc, and then the owner started talking about church and his own experiences and we ended up being able to pray for his heart condition. Our time was then up and praise God we had not had to clean a single loo.

We went to the church’s morning service, before flying home from Londonderry, all pretty tired, but very much encouraged.

You can see more photos from our trip here. Mark Marks and a team from Vineyard Church, Coleraine, will be in Bristol over the first May bank holiday weekend. You can join them for evangelism and healing on the streets of Bristol. Ask Greg Sharples for more details.