CAVANNA

It was wonderful to witness the Lord healing people in our own local church in Cambridge, a six week season that began on Mothers’ Day 2010. Of the first six testimonies we received on the first Sunday, three of them were Fijians, two different families who worship with us while attached to the British military. First was Joe who had been suffering with a painful knee and leg. His knee went ‘numb’ before becoming healed. Joe’s friend Peceli was finding it difficult to move his neck due to pain. He was healed very quickly and was left quite overwhelmed by the experience. His wife, Frances, was suffering from pain in the wrist and hand. She testified to being healed in her wrist during the service and, after prayer, her fingers were also improved. Athena, was healed in her hips, while Helen was healed from another painful neck problem – she had not been able to move her neck and she too was shocked and teary eyed as the Lord set her free. Finally, Mirek Opalinski, a Polish member of the church, had pain down his left side – the back, the hip and legs. I prayed for him very briefly and he reported that he felt a sudden ‘eighty percent’ improvement in his condition, and promptly left the church to go and play football with his son! I heard later that he had an injury on the pitch, damaging his other side! It had been an exciting morning and, later that day, the Lord spoke to me and told me that the time for operating in the gift of faith had come.

The following week, a new Christian, Carol, came forward and was healed of arthritis in both hands. Aidan, who is one of our great technical crew, asked for prayer as he had a problem in his groin. He shared with me what an amazing pain-free week he later enjoyed, something that he had not experienced for a long time. In the third week, Richard was visiting us. Richard was healed in his back at the church in 2007. He asked for prayer for his leg where there was a blood clot. While it was impossible to check to see whether or not he was healed, he testified to a strong feeling of burning heat upon the affected area. Time will tell if he is cured. Perhaps the most amazing cure was granted to Michael, a visiting missionary pastor from Cyprus. He had just had open heart surgery and this had left him with an infection and significant chest pain. My hands were laid upon him, and tears rolled down his face as he was wonderfully set free of the pain and breathed deeply in and out, his wife looking on with an equal measure of tears. The following day he arrived at Addenbrokes hospital for the operation and, after being prepared for the surgery, no operation took place. The doctors sent him home without operating. The Lord had healed him!

In the fourth week, Easter Sunday, we were baptising a number of people in water. After a short Gospel message, the Lord began healing after prayer. First of all, Lee leapt high in the air to demonstrate that he was completely freed of an injury, while Peceli, whom God had healed on Mothers’ Day, was touched again, pain leaving his damaged arm. Within a couple of hours he would be flying out of the UK on work duties. Later that afternoon, his wife emailed me with some exciting news of her own: “Just want to let you know how excited we are about our healing after your prayers in church! Peceli couldn’t stop talking about how his arm just suddenly stopped hurting and now he’s already left for South Africa! I myself also have a healing testimony to share. I was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis in my teens and so I’d been having joint pains for more than ten years, until you prayed for me a few weeks’ back. This has truly been a miracle for me, to be free from years of pain! The illness was especially worse just before rainy days or stormy weather, just like the ones we’re having now. The pain would get so bad it made me cry some nights. I had always gone up for prayers every time but I believe I’m completely healed now as I’ve been pain-free for nearly one month, and these rainy days have had no effect on me at all! We thank Jesus for His healing and for using you to bring miracles in our lives!”

For the following couple of weeks, I was visiting Malta but this did not prevent Christ from healing more people in Cambridge. My leadership colleague Philip was moved by the Spirit to call out several accurate words of knowledge: the first was for a lady who had pain close to her eye. This was Florence, who had recently had a minor accident in a motor vehicle and she was healed instantly. Another word of knowledge followed and Giles received some healing in his leg. The following week, Phil came again with prophetic words – a man with IBS and someone with pain in their teeth. A visitor fell under the power of the Spirit, believing to receive healing from IBS; while Carlyne had prayer for her painful teeth. Due to poor dental work, she had suffered for sixteen months, unable to eat on one side of her mouth. A week later I had some dinner with her and she testified to being free of the problem and eating normally again! In that same meeting, another Fijian man came for prayer in his back, responding to Phil’s word of knowledge. Just by coming forward, before any hand was laid upon him, the Lord healed him too.

The Lord was doing good things in Cambridge, England. Praise God!

March/April 2010