This is an amazing video for a few reasons. For one, it truly showcases the power of God in desperate situations. For another, it shows what amazing things these kinds of ministries can do for people with addictions and other problems. It also shows why it’s important not to just write off people you see on the streets because we all make gross assumptions as to why they are there, but we can never really know why. Most people look and have no pity, or don’t bother looking at all, but these are real people that are hurting and most aren’t on the streets by choice.
It also really illustrates that God does indeed mean it when He says “come as you are”. If we had to be perfect to come to God, we wouldn’t need God because we would be perfect. But since we are not perfect, it is through His boundless grace that He takes us in, regardless of what we’ve done in the past or what we’re doing now. The first step is simply to acknowledge the fact that we need God and to make that first step… to come to Him with all our problems and baggage and pain intact. He will work with us and in us after we take that first step; we don’t have to do any more than simply admit that we need Him more than anything.
Please pray for the work the Dream Centre and other similar ministries are doing. It is of vital importance to the people that go through those doors every day.
I just saw my wife already shared this, but I have to share it too because, although it hasn’t impacted me as much as it has her, it has still had a profound impact on our life and family.
Back in July, my wife was diagnosed with an auto-immune connective tissue disease. This could have been one of a half-dozen things, rheumatoid arthritis among others I can’t pronounce, much less spell. She had a painful lump on her wrist, and blood work from the doctor indicated it was most definitely a connective tissue disease and that the specialist would tell us which one, and what we needed to do. Of course, this was shocking and terrible news… health is a vital concern, and it hit all of us quite hard.
The specialist appointment was made for October 4th, so we had a long time to wait. That time could either be spent in dread of the news to come, or in proactive prayer and proclamation of the goodness of God. We chose the latter, and the first Tuesday we could after we found out, we were at the church prayer service to have her prayed over. Within two days, the painful lump on her wrist was gone. Over the next few months, she was prayed over at the ladies group, and responded to an altar call for healing at the church evening service this last Sunday. We were digging in as deep as we could!
Yesterday we went to the specialist. She was in the office for 20 minutes. When she came out, I had no idea if we were coming back for more tests or whatnot, but she came out glowing! She said the doctor looked at her like she was crazy as he poked and prodded at her finger joints and her wrist. He then told her that her wrist was perfect, that she most definitely did not have a connective tissue disease, and that he would likely never see her again.
Praise God, He did a wonderful thing for our family! I don’t know if her disease was healed after that first Tuesday prayer, if it was sometime in between, or if it was last Sunday. And it doesn’t even matter when it was, all that matters is she is healed, God is faithful, and His tender mercies have touched us.
You know, other answers to prayer can sometimes lead to doubt. If you pray for a job and then get one, is it because you prayed or because you put out a few hundred resumes and applications? Sometimes we rationalize away the great thing God has given to us. But with healing, especially for a disease, you can’t rationalize it away. It is a miracle. There is no science involved. God got involved because we asked Him to, and He was faithful to hear, and merciful to heal. Thank You Jesus, so very much, for this beautiful gift you have given to us. I pray that we never forget it, never belittle it, and use it to share Your love with others that need it and to be drawn even closer to You. We owed you EVERYTHING before this, and now You have beggared us yet again by giving us even more. Thank You!
I was diagnosed in July with Connective Tissue Disease because of a large bump on my wrist. It scared me, but I could not get into the specialist for 2 and 1/2 months. So my family was praying, my church was praying, I had everyone I could think of put me on their prayer list. When I went into see the specialist yesterday, the doctor said not only did I not have Connective Tissue Disease but that my wrist was perfect! That was the word he used! Praise God, thank you Lord that you are bigger then everything!!
My apologies for not writing anything here recently. Life has been busy, interesting, and full of nasty colds.
There is one thing that needs to be brought up. This is still in the baby stages, but we’re looking forward a year from now to an event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where we see the city surrounded by people from all Christian denominations praying over the city. There has been a real ache and a real cry in the hearts of many churches in Edmonton for the city of Edmonton. So we’re organizing an event to surround Edmonton, to cover it, and to pray over it for seven hours on May 7, 2011. More details will be coming as we iron things out and figure out how we’re going to handle it, but right now we have a small group of people on fire with a vision of dedicating seven hours next year of prayer over the city and we are expecting God to do amazing things with it.
How this will all pan out, I have no idea. It’s in God’s Hands. We are His hands and feet here on earth, and we’ve been given a vision and a mission to do this. We’ve got a web site up (with very little info on it, except for the essentials that we know right now) and it is at prayforaday.org. We really covet prayers right now for God to give us direction on how He wants this thing to be done. It’s all for His Glory and His Honor and we will be moving out trying to get this going and trusting God to lead us in how He wants it done and trusting Him for amazing results both at the event and for this next year leading up to it.
This is the testimony of how God moved in my life. I was raised in a Christian home. My family and I lived in a trailer park just outside of a big city. We were very poor, but we all loved God and attended church regularly. I was never really liked as a child. Friends were hard to come by, but I didn’t mind too much. We moved into the city into a nice house when I was 13. I attended a new school, where again no one liked me very much. My sister, who was almost 20, left for a program called the Masters Commision in British Columbia. She decided to stay and live there because she felt there was nothing for her where we lived. As I continued to go to youth groups at my church, I found friends there. We were a bit of the “black sheep” type of people, having strange clothing and funny color harido’s, but we liked each other.
When I was a bit into my 14th year, my grandfather died and then my life-long friend who was only 15 overdosed on drugs. It impacted my church friends and I greatly. We stopped hanging out, and went our seperate ways. I slowly stopped going to church and found myself friendless again. I wanted people to like me so bad. So in grade 9 I finally figured out how. I started to say yes to things, and I started to become what others wanted. I’d go to the parties and smoke some weed and drink with them. At school I’d make fun of people, and I began to smoke cigerettes. My life went down hill after this.
I entered high school ready to party. When I was in grade 11, I was introduced to cocaine and crystal meth. I had never done anything like it before. Because cocaine was so expensive and people dont like meth heads, I decided to do ecstasy instead, which is a combination of all drugs in one. Within a year and a bit I had swallowed over 500 pills and had done other numerous amounts of drugs along with it. Life was a blur, and questions were begining to present themselves. Questions like whats next? Why am I here? Is there more? I still belived in God but didn’t want to walk in His ways. At the end of grade 12, I “fell in love” with a woman 5 years older than me. She was smart, sucessful and drug free. I thought this was the answer. So We moved in together and stayed together for two years. I continued smoking pot and drinking alcohol. I realized a year in that life was still not fufilling and I was not happy. I began to drink a lot and my girlfriend and I began to fight more and more, and the fights all the while becoming more and more violent. I needed a change, so I did. I left her and broke her heart, for I had promised to marry her. The next year and a half consisted of numerous women, drugs binges and forgotten nights at the bar. More
I just felt like I needed to share how God is opening my eyes and growing me. I am most definitely an unfinished work, more coal than diamond, but the Lord is revealing things to me and impressing things upon my heart — particularly the other night. My wife and I are part of a Bible study that for three weeks does a regular Bible study, then on the fourth week go out and do what we’ve been reading about. So we’ve been in Matthew, and as a result we pooled some money and put together some small bags of items for homeless people with the idea that we would wander around downtown and hand them out, witnessing to people.
The bags were quite modest: toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, a comb, shampoo, a pair of socks, some candies and a few other assorted hygiene things, and a business card sized print out of Jeremiah 29:11-13. We chose this because people on the streets need hope (well, we all need hope, but I think they need it in particular), and we wanted to share the fact that God does have good thoughts towards us, and that He wants us to have a future, and hope.
Now, I have to be honest here. I’m not a people person. I’m about as close to an anti-social hermit as you can get while having a family and going to church three times a week. I’m not generally a fan of people — I’m not outgoing, I don’t talk a lot, and I’m quite shy. My appearance probably doesn’t help matters much because I tend to intimidate people (or so I’m told), and my “style” of dress and skin adornments probably doesn’t help either. My wife, on the other hand, is the complete opposite — she talks a lot, she’s bubbly and outgoing, very animated and excited. As you can imagine, this is where God is growing me. Witnessing to street people sounds great, until you actually do it. And, if you’re like me, you’re fervently praying for strength and courage before heading out because this is _WAY_ out of my comfort zone. More
This is a very powerful testimony that truly speaks of how God loves and longs for the broken-hearted and how, if we let Him, He can do amazing and powerful things in our life.
I was raised up in a Christian home with two loving parents and a younger sister. We lived in a large city for seven years and then moved to a small town just outside it. In the first few years I had a hard time trying to fit in. The kids that I went to school with treated me harshly. They would beat me up and make fun of me every day. Growing up, I lived in a constant fear of people. My self esteem was very low. I thought that I was different and no good. All the things my classmates said were becoming true in MY MIND. At age ten I remember being in my bedroom and crying franticly, pulling on my hair and holding a knife to my neck screaming that I wanted to die. My mother came in, and seeing me like this told me that she loved me and that all would be alright. The words and actions done to me affected me physically and emotionally and, later in life I found out, spiritually. Thankfully these kids that were so mean to me before had started to treat me with some kind of respect.
Now my life seemed to be going in a direction I liked. I had friends and I played in sports teams, all was well. I even started to have girls liking me, something that was fairly new to me. I was really enjoying these times until the unimaginable happened. My father had come home late one night and as I was trying to sleep, he came and gave me a kiss. I knew something was wrong so I pretended to sleep. When he went upstairs I heard him telling my mom that it was over and he was leaving her. I remember my mother screaming in utter terror as her whole life was being taken from her. She pleaded for my dad to not leave. But he left. I didn’t know how to take this so I built up a wall to protect myself AGAIN! My family and I now had to move back to the big city so that my mother could find work and make a life for us. My mom went first to welfare and got some help from them. Then she found a job during the day and went to school at night. As I write and remember what my mom did I can only thank God for giving my mom the strength to endure this while still trying to cope with the loss of her love. THANKS MOM!!!
As a kid I didn’t see things like this as I do now. I felt really abandoned and all alone. I thought that I was a man now because I had to fend for myself, since both parents were not able to be there for me when I wanted. As I started to look for friends, I found some not in school, but outside school. The outsiders, the hurt, and broken, just like me. This started my years of crime and drug abuse. With such a low self esteem and no real guidance, I was easily influenced into many of the things I chose to do. By fifteen years old I was already in prison. The first time in jail, I spent thirteen months in custody. Because it was such a long time when I got out I was worse than before. I didn’t know what to do except go back to ”MY BROS”. They welcomed me with opened arms. It was nice to be wanted. Positive or negative, I just wanted to be accepted and these friends did that in their own way. As my drug abuse escalated so did my issues around me. More
Before I became a Christian I had little faith in mankind and the future of this world. So much that I did not even want to bring kids into a world with such bleak prospects. I lived for weekends to relax and weekdays to make a living. I was in a rut, living without hope or real purpose. To put things in perspective, the early 1970′s were the years of “make love, not war”, hippies, drugs, parties. The world was going to hell in a hand-basket.
My conversion took place in 1974 while attending a Cal Hays crusade with a number of other people from our church. I became convinced by the Holy Spirit that Jesus could bring hope into my empty life. I went forward and received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. More
I grew up very loved in a family of six. We went to a United church a little bit when I was young, but never really knew God or Jesus. When I got into my teenage years and went off to college I really didn’t believe in anything. I played around with tarot cards; I was in college for Technical Theatre and was surrounded with people who had New Age type ideas. Nothing really took hold of my heart when it came to believing in something.
I worried a lot about stuff (I don’t know how I didn’t get an ulcer). I meet my future husband and fell deeply in love and we married soon afterwards but I still would worry about work, bills, money….. you know the regular stuff that seems to keep people awake at night.
He was from a Christian home and wanted to go to church. Church! No way, I didn’t want to get out of bed for boring old church. He would not give up though. He kept asking his mom for different places he could take me. More
I am a grateful believer who struggles with insecurity and who is recovering from low self-esteem.
My sister and I enjoyed a protected, carefree childhood surrounded by friends and family but my parents could not get along with each other. They eventually split up and dad left us when I was 13. He never came back, or visited and it seemed like he didn’t care how we were doing. I was worried that if friends found out, they would think there was something wrong with me that made me unworthy to be loved, because it felt like my father was leaving me – not mum. Mum taught me never to trust any man – especially if he said he loved you. My sister and I grew up amongst Methodists. I was baptised when I was 17, but stopped going to church, shunning Christians for 30 years because I witnessed a member of the clergy make a mistake. I determined that I didn’t want to be part of the hypocrisy. I could not see that it wasn’t God who had let me down – it was man. More
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We look forward to reading and sharing your stories. Thank you, and God bless!
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